It was a normal day for the family. Magasaki was out hunting for the third time that morning, the twins were playing with baby Phil, and old father Hiroki was about to finish one of the last and hardest Su Doku puzzles.
'That's the advantage of having the monkey's traits: thumbs,' Hiroki though to himself, wiggling his thumbs around. Magasaki came in from Miruaiki; again his efforts had been in vain.
"Maybe wu shud tri closr t the sity," Phil suggested.
"Don't be crazy, Phil, you know getting too close to the city is dangerous," he scolded, walking over to the fire place to dry the rain ater from his chocolate fur.
"Be nice to Phil," Miyazaki said. "He's only two: he doesn't know how dangerous the city can be. Besides, he was just trying to help." He turned back to Phil:
"Weren't you buddy? Who's a helpful boy?"
"I em!" he giggled. The others joined them, one after another, Magasaki last of all. His fur was dry now, and he scampered over to the others

It was Hiroki's twentieth birthday tomorrow and everyone was expecting the worse except for Phil, who did not know that most monkey rats did not live past twenty. Hiroki had left one last Su Doku puzzle for himself to do on his birthday.
"My birthday gift to me," he had called it. All of the children were secretly making plans... and a birthday cake! They started with plain white cake batter. Then they mixed in a cup of melted chocolate, one table spoon of coconut shreds, and a half table spoon of anything else sweet they could find, including dates and dried pineapple. They called it 'chocolate coconut surprise.' Hiroki had a real sweat tooth, so they had made it every year.
Day turned to night as, one by one, each rat in his turn lay down to rest on his own pile of dirt, each dreaming of the next day.

The day was here at last! Magasaki and Mayazaki rushed about with last minute preparations while Perraki entertained Phil by letting him chase balloons that were being inflated. Fortunately for them, Hiroki chose today of all days to stay in bed. Frosting was added to the cake and strings were knotted to the bottom of balloons. Finally everything was ready, yet Hiroki still lay in bed, seeming to silently pleading his offspring to be patient. Seconds turned into minutes, minutes to hours, but Hiroko still lay in bed. Soon it was almost noon. Then, Magasaki voiced their thoughts and their fears:
"I think he's dead." They all hung their heads in silence, except for Phil, who had thought them a boring bunch and went to chase another balloon. After awhile, Perraki went over to the table where Hiroki's Su Doku book lay.
"Father would want us to finish the last one. Does anyone know how to do these things?"
"I do."
Slowly, Magasaki carefully told the group how: one through nine across, down, and in each block. Once they all understood, Perraki flipped tot he last page.
"Why don't you get us some cake, Magasaki? It will help us concentrate." Magasaki nodded and scampered off.
"Shudn't dada be her fur cake?" Phil asked after waddling over.
"Um, father needs his sleep," Magasaki lied, coming in and cutting the cake.
"Why er ya doon th Sdoka? That's dadas," he questioned. Magasaki slammed his fist down on the table. Everyone else jumped back.
"Will you shut up?! Dada this, dada that," he mocked. "Father is dead!" he shouted.
"Ded?" Phil whimpered, his lower lip trembling. The group nodded, except for Magasaki, who fixed his gaze back on the Su Doku puzzled. Mayazaki set two pieces of cake on a plate and walked over to Phil. They walked over to the fireplace, sat down, and ate their cake.

Everyone stood in silence. It had taken two hours, but they had finished the Su Doku puzzle. Half the cake was gone and the sun was slowly finishing its descent from the sky. The next few days came slowly. Nothing interesting or out of the ordinary happened. They ate their meals quietly and then did their own things.

Phil once again found the rest rather dull and boring. He waddled away and let go of his balloon. He jumped up for it vain, scampered over to Mayazaki, and tugged at his arm. They turned around and walked over to the window where the balloon had drifted. Mayazaki handed the balloon to his younger brother.
"Worrie wind! Worrie wind!" Miyazaki looked to see what Phil was so excited about. Outside, whirling around, was a huge tornado.
"Everyone, get as far away from an opening as you can, bend down, and cover your heads," he yelled. He scooped up his younger sibling and ran to the middle of the house with everyone else. Phil clapped his paws as he started sliding toward the wall.
"Phil!" Mayazaki yelled. He lunged forward, grabbing Phil's footpaw, and started rising into the air. Magasaki dived out along with Perraki, each grabbing the foot in front of him. Perraki pulled back but it was too late: the tornado swept them up as it brushed by.
"We're heading towards the city!" Magasaki yelled, but his voice was lost in the roaring wind. Suddenly a large rock swung up. It hit him in the gut and knocked him out.

The group opened their eyes. They were huddled up on top of each other in the middle of a dark alley. Person by person, the pile diminished. Phil waddled over to Perraki, who still lay on the ground, and shook him.
"Perraki, git up! GIt up!" he pleaded. The others just stood there, eyes searching the ground.
"It hasn't been a month and two have already gone from us," Mayazaki sighed.
"Perraki... gon; ded?" Phil whimpered, eyes filling up with tears The rest did not do anything. Finally, Mayazaki nodded.
"Oh, let him whimper," Magasaki grouched. "Death is a natural part of life." He walked over and peered around the corner.
"It looks safe," he told the others. "But keep your eyes open: anything can happen in the city.

The city was awesome, except for how dangerous it was. People left food on the pavement, if you were smart enough you could steal cheese from traps; and the most fun of all, in Phil's opinion, was scaring regular rats. It was difficult to keep Phil away from trap cheese, but it was easier than trying to get his hand out of one and getting him to stop crying. At least Phil's crying scared away any people for a while. They scavenged for food in that time, so as not to be hit with a broom for 'nusumi,' of 'stealing.' After they abducted a dark alley, not owned by gangs or thugs, they would settle down to the feast of their lives. Then, after a quick nap, they would start off on their journey once more.
They had no sense of direction in the city, and no way of knowing where to go to get back home, if their home was still there. With no telling of time, except for the sun's movement's, ten paces seemed like twenty paces, twenty paces seemed one-hundred paces, one-hundred paces an eternity.

After a few days, Phil had learned not to go near the traps. If he got tempted by the cheese he would tug on the arm of one of his brothers. To his delight and amazement, Mayazaki would run past the trap and snatch the cheese for him. Then he would slowly nibble at it as he and his brother caught up with Magasaki. Sometimes he would smack his lips loudly and make the others jealous, sometimes he would reward his helper with some cheese, other times he would simply eat it quietly. Another thing he enjoyed, besides freaking out other rats, was pretending like he was going to get stepped on, making his older brothers 'go crazy,' and then dodge, missing the foot by a whisker's width. He soon stopped though, since he always got scolded by his brothers afterwards.
'It's still fun though,' he thought. 'I guess freaking out other rats will have to do.' He smiled.

The group ran around the corner, hopefully in the right direction. They had just finished off another feast of bread crumbs, pretzels, soft and hard, and cheese. Now they were off on their journey once again. Phil was almost three, and he had been taught how to catch his own cheese.
They ran around feet, avoiding potential danger such as chili dog venders. If a chili dog fell you would surely die. If you had not have suffocated by being buried under falling chili, you would be burned to death by hot dog grease. Or, if you were lucky, you would be squashed by the bun. That was the least painful way. You could not try eating you way out. Once you got past the bun, you would burn your mouth on something else.
Phil grabbed a pretzel as he past it and gobbled it down hungrily. He smiled as he saw another vender's cart approaching. Suddenly Magasaki pulled him into an alley as he passed. Unfortunately, Mayazaki had not seen this, Phil tried to get him but it was too late: a junior baseball team chattered across the sidewalk crashing their cleats onto Mayazaki's body. Phil rushed out and pulled his brother's slumping body into the dark alley. He tried to rest it against a wall in vain.
That was the straw that broke the camel's back for Magasaki.
"Will you stop it?!" Magasaki yelled as his brother backed away from the body. "He's dead!"
"No! Uneconscience!" Phil yelled back as Magasaki chuckled.
"Oh! You think he's unconscious! Is that what I hear?" Phil nodded. "Wrong! Let me tell you something: they're all dead! Mayazaki: dead! Perraki: dead! We're the only ones left!"
"No! Uneconscience!"
"Oh yeah? Well than why haven't they woken up yet Phil? Because they're dead!"
"No! You're lying!"
"Just shut up, Phil! Shut up!" he said and slapped his brother across the face. Phil stumbled back into a women's path. In mere seconds Magasaki was the only one left, his baby brother having been trampled by high-heeled shoes. Magasaki dropped to his knees:
"What have I done?" he asked himself.

Magasaki had found the Chocolate Coconut Surprise cake in the middle of an alley. They were some minor cavities from the fall, but except for that it was pretty solid. He now lived inside of it and whenever he got hungry he would nibble on the wall. It was still good, not crusty or moldy. The city provided all the other food he needed.
Even with all these pleasures, Magasaki's life was horrible. He always thought about his dead family, and whenever he did tears filled his eyes.

Magasaki walked through the dark alley, the cold wind whistling all around him. A cat meowed in the eerie darkness and Magasaki ran faster. Still the deadly noise grew louder, closer. Magasaki turned, thinking he had probably turned to run closer to the cat. Now the sound seemed to echo all around him, piercing through his skin and into his heart. It forced him to drop down to his knees (or where his knees would be) and ask the question pounding against his head:
"Why?" As he spoke the lone word, Phi's image rose from the road in front of him.
Its tail was broken, its ear scraped off, its paws twitching spasmodically: all was as it was when Magasaki had left Phil's body.
"Why? Why do you think so, brother?" the ghost asked mockingly in perfect speech. "You brought this upon yourself." With these final words the hallucination left him. The meowing grew louder and fiercer. He turned around and ran. He could see where the alley opened up. It beckoned him, pleading him, urging him onward.
He came to the end of the alley. There in front of him was the wide open space. He urged himself onward yet he could not go. He fell to the ground and looked behind him. Gazing down at the monkey rat was a large black cat. Against the alley's darkness you could only see the shining teeth and the blood-thirsty eyes. Magasaki paused in fright. What should he do? What could he do? The cat came closer, licking its lips in anticipation. Suddenly an old woman walked into the exit of the alley. He looked to see it was the same lady from Phil's death.
"Time for you to join your brother," she said as she rose up her foot to stomp. He was trapped! He closed his eyes, not caring, not daring to know which creature got to him first. When he opened his eyes they both were gone.
Magasaki raced around the corner. Nowhere could he see the two menacing figures. Magasaki turned back into the alley, now he could make out the shape of the cake in the distance.

The vision haunted Magasaki for weeks on end.
'Yes, it had to be a vision. If the cat had been real I wouldn't be here right now: I'd be in its jaws... or its stomach'. Still, the fear, the breath from the nostrils of the black demon had felt so real.
'My family must be trying to tell me something,' he reasoned to himself. His mind kept working but he could not think of anything.
Magasaki lay awake and motionless. Whenever he fell asleep the vision would come back to haunt him.
'Somehow I have to end this,' he told himself. 'If I don't, Phil will do it for me. I can't stay awake forever. If I try, my body will automatically shut down. Then Phil will torture me and my body will not let me get up. He sure has thought of everything.' Suddenly his brother did not seem so little anymore.
The picture was still fresh in his mind: the spasmodic twitching of the paw, half of an eye missing. It was horrible. Silently he wanted to fall asleep, to get away from the crazy world he lived in; but he knew that would only bring more pain, more suffering upon him. Still, he had to end this, this...
'life I have been punished with.'

Magasaki ate a slow breakfast of pineapple, dates, and coconut shreds out of the wall. So much was going to happen today, so little the next. Should he really do this?
'Yes: what must be done will be done,' he told himself. He hung his head, getting the most of these few minutes. 'I'll take a walk around the block before I go.'

Magasaki walked in silent slowness, taking in the sights and sounds.
'Do I really have t-,' he pinched himself. 'What must be done will be.' He walked back to the alley where he first encountered Phil's ghost. Tears started to roll into his eyes.
"It shall be done," he said out loud to himself. He walked into the alley, cat's meows turning into laughs and scorns upon reaching his ears. He turned his head to see the familiar white figure slowly advancing toward him.
"Let him come: I am no longer afraid of death."

Magasaki departed from the dark alley, leaving the phantom behind him. He looked around one last time. Drawing in a deep breath, he forced himself to move. He stood next to a chili dog stand, silently wishing he had less courage.
'No: it has to be done.' He took in another breath, and then walked over to a man's foot. He extracted his claws and scraped them through the man's shoe and into his foot. The man screamed out in pain, dropped his chili dog, and ran away. The chili dog dropped on Magasaki.
'What would my family say about this?' But it was too late...