Sara bolted out of her house, visibly upset, clutching a cumbersome keychain with a dangling shamrock. She smelled the unmistakable scent of a skunk just moments before tripping over it.
Neither could avoid the other and they both went sprawling. Sara cried out, covering her face with her hands, anticipating the horrid spray she was sure would come. But it didn’t. She peeked between her fingers and saw the skunk grinning at her, the keychain clutched in its paw.
“Oh, hello, human!”, said the skunk. “You were expecting a snoot full of stink, weren’t you? That’s what my less sophisticated cousins would do now, to be sure. But I have a suggestion that could benefit both of us, if you’ll listen to it.”
The moment was interrupted when a small fox ran over and quickly sat down. “MY NAME IS MARVIN and I LOVE FRIENDS!” He said over enthusiastically. The skunk was caught off guard, paused, but decided to tell his story anyway. “Well Marv, let me tell you about my bunions” he said.
And thus began the tale of one skunk’s bunions. It was a yarn passed down for generations. And it serves to show how communities can be connected by stories, but also by love. Skunk love.