The Squirrel: Science Fiction

The squirrel did a clever backflip and nearly upset my drink. All the other patrons laughed. Big Al did not laugh. He was not sure that he would ever laugh about such a serious matter as his drink. The squirrel might be cute and all, but he was convinced the darn thing had it in for him. Oh, it would caper around and do all its little tricks that endeared it to the other miners, but none of that for Big Al. Nope, what he could expect was to find its little raisin droppings on top of his shirts, to have it land feet-first in his food, and to nearly--nearly!--upset his drink. He wasn't sure what he'd done to offend the thing. Maybe it had been his argument against them keeping it. He understood how a guy could get lonely, up here.

Inspiration: Oh, somebody sent me a forwarded squirrel story.
Story Potential: Medium.
Notes: It's a squirrel robot toy with an AI in it. Big Al's the only one who doesn't think of it as "just a squirrel," so when a crisis strikes among the asteroid miners, him and the squirrel have to work together. The usual.