A/N: Another English peice, tenth grade this time. There are over fifty of these short peices that I have to get around to writing to make this more complete. However, for now, there are only three.

09

Black Panthers

There were two panthers that Julianne always avoided. She wouldn't go anywhere near the two sleek animals. They would roar down the lane and come to a skidding halt, or prowl down slowly, coming to lie down in front of her house. Julianne didn't like how the penguin men got out of their panther cars, didn't like the men at all as they waddled up to her house. They made her mother cry. They made Daddy break things.

Sometimes, Julianne would creep up to the panthers and run trembling fingers over the shinning hoods. Her pale fingers over the black surface throwing the world into sharp relief. The world was black and white when her fingers touched the shiny black paint job. She liked that world, were everything made sense. Black was black and white was white.

Julianne would tell herself stories about the panthers. She would be hunting them, running through the foliage of the jungle to catch them. Or they were her guardians and she would make them eat people she didn't like. Or she would run away from them, because she was going to be their next meal, playing a game of hide and seek with the panthers that never moved.

When Daddy came out of the house one day with the penguin men and got into the panther cars Julianne didn't see the black and white world any more. It was the gray world because they took her Daddy away. She retreated inside, away from the roaring panthers and watched as they ate Daddy up. She watched until they were gone when she ran away and buried herself in her father old, grey, jacket before she could cry.