FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Light from the morning sun shined through the windows of his room. The birds were singing merrily, the grass was humid from the morning dew, and the mild morning car rush in the streets made their regular sounds. The fresh hot weather also contributed to classifying most of the days of that week as "nice", and everyone in the city seemed to have been enjoying it. All except for Eric, that is.

On the contrary, a bright summer day could have been a disaster like every other day for Eric. His home occupied he and his parents; Ralph and Meredith, - or Mimi, as her friends called her - who could not have been more caring and loving of him... and if only that was the truth. As a child, Eric would suffer constant physical abuse as a form of punishment, and it was only until kindergarten when his parents finally ceased, before a teacher would come to notice. The simple solution to them was to replace physical with verbal. Eric was able to suffer through most of it with no problem, but it was nonetheless harsh and painful to hear from the ears of a third party. Not that someone had ever been around to hear it in the first place.

The average morning began for Eric; the constant morning yelling, made up of curses and loud retorts, came from the fight upstairs, which woke him up quickly. Eric remained positive about it. He did not have to wake up to an irritating alarm clock like everyone else. Ignoring them as he would to furniture, he rushed over to the bathroom upstairs in his boxers with a towel, quickly shutting the door on his way in. The bathroom windows were already covered in fog, with the reason being Ralph's regular 10-minute shower prior to Eric awakening. Fortunately, the water was not cold for very long once he got into the shower, allowing him to enter in no time flat, without the minute-long wait he would normally need to endure. Once he finished, he came out, noting that no sound could be heard from the outside of the door; his parents had obviously left for work.

Ralph worked as a mechanic at the local auto repair shop. Thanks to the War, technology had advanced very slowly over the years. Some major breakthroughs late in the second decade led commercial vehicles to become one of the most effective and energy saving ways to get from one place to another. However, no alternative to motor vehicles had been found, so Ralph paid the bills by repairing them in the meantime.

Mimi worked as a restaurant manager, more specifically the Tailor's Stop. Following the War, TFRs struggled with desegregation, recalling many memories of the same problem the African-Americans faced in the 1960's. In order to calm some of the pro-segregationists down, some restaurants gradually became TFR-only, but in support of the new race. This sparked outrage with humans, blaming the governments for allowing unfair treatment toward their own kind. Fortunately, this phase did not last very long; humans began to transition more and more, until the TFR-only restaurants began to accept humans again. This ended up seeding the two races' relationship in a positive way, eventually demolishing the barriers created by segregation.

The Tailor's Stop, which was once a TFR-only restaurant in 2024 to 2027, - which the name clearly reflected - had quickly achieved high-class status in its town to become one of the most praised restaurants in the area. Opposing popular culture, Mimi made up most of the household income shared between her and her husband, which led many to question why she had never left him to take care of Eric herself.

After enjoying a quick breakfast, Eric made sure to acquire the assignment he had completed the night before. Being cautious and organized, he handed in most projects or assignments a day before the deadline. Once the clock hit 8:30, he took his turn to leave the house, ready for his walk to school. Unlike many others, Eric attempted to walk to school as often as he could instead of taking the bus, even if it was over two kilometers from his house. The calming scenery of cars rolling by and people strolling by him was quite peaceful, enough to make him question why people did not imitate his routine.

Eric made it to the John Adams High School fairly quickly, with ten minutes to spare. He felt time allowed him to make a quick stop to his science class, where his favorite teacher, Mr. Matt taught. Matt Renault was a young teacher who was about to complete his 6th year of teaching secondary-leveled science classes. His major in biology and physics allowed him to keep the classes throughout his career at the school, with a reputation of being helpful when he needed to, and humorous as well. He did not have a wife, however he repeatedly brought up his search for "the one" during school hours, which kept the class entertained and amused. After a few laughs, Matt and Eric abruptly ended their discussion to the sound of the bell ringing, forcing Eric to rush over to his first class of the day.

French was one of his best subjects with an average of 90 sustained throughout the year. Unlike his grades, however, his social life did not flow as smoothly. The teacher, Ms. Tina, was an interesting specimen, always capable to keep one's attention to the front of the classroom. She seemed to show significant interest in Eric, who, unlike most of the other class members, aced the class. One of the members belonging to that flunking group was Bob Turner, the class bully. At 190 pounds and with the size of a tree, he seemed to be very interested in Eric as well, but not in a very positive way. If there was a definition for a class bully, he would always find a way to redefine it. He and his two other friends frequently mocked Eric throughout the year, with painful verbal remarks and insults which always seemed to slip from the teacher's line of sight.

Getting prepared for the session, - and the insults which came along with it - Eric went over to the front of the classroom to hand in his report on the 500-page book he had read over those last few weeks. He rolled his eyes at the sight of yet another verbal missile sent by Bob, who did so during the whole period.

The rest of the day resembled an average one for Eric at the 45-year old school - solitary most of the time, listening to music, reading, or both. Although he did not consider himself antisocial, he was a bit of an outcast. He had a few good friends in middle school, but they seemed to have drifted away one by one due to Eric's growing independence. He did not have much of a care for it; or at least, not at the time, when he had his girlfriend, Veronica. According to Eric, she knew exactly how to comfort him, how to make him feel better. For five months, their relationship went very smoothly, getting along just fine with each other; but suddenly, a few weeks later, she decided to leave him. For unknown reasons, she simply wanted to remain friends. They talked occasionally during lunch and physics, - which they both took - but no serious relationship remained between the two. He knew if it wasn't her, he would have fallen off the "cliff of depression" and hung off of the "branch of despair" a long time ago.

The school day ended, with the walk back home in front of him. Halfway through it, however, he witnessed a head-on collision, so he stayed for a while. The paramedics and firefighters, in his opinion, were quite slow while doing their job, which was possibly due to the fact they lacked the work capacity of a TFR. In fact, in several medical studies, it was proven TFRs had, on average, one and a half times more muscle mass than humans did, no matter the race. But, unlike popular belief, they did not use it very much; even if the two species had learned to co-exist with each other, the humans did not allow their new "friends" to grab their work positions. In reality, humans continued to occupy 85% of their original job positions, even though the TFRs consisted of over 16% of the total population. With their population growing exponentially, however, there was not much time remaining before that number changed significantly.

When he finally made it home, his parents already had dinner waiting, which featured the daily side dish of yells and bellows, due to the fact he had not come home earlier; even though he was late by a mere minute and a half. It was a stupid argument, but like every single one he had with them, it was quickly filtered and thrown into his internal garbage can.

At long last, his favorite part of the day took place - bedtime. It was the only time he was able to successfully run away from the troubles of life, escaping from his parents' constant fury, his school worries, and his social roller coasters. At a few periods in his life, he sometimes wondered if he could simply find a way to keep the feeling constant - no more problems, no more nothing. He had contemplated suicide several times before, but he knew it would have been a cowardly way out of his problems. Furthermore, the rough period of his life was nearing its end; thirteen months from that point was his high school graduation, and university would soon follow, along with medical school, and finally, his dream profession - a doctor, or surgeon to be precise. His passion had always been to be able to help other people, and to give them what they seemed to have never given back to him; tender love and care.

His ninth school year marked the day he became impatient to leave his school, but time seemed to slow down dramatically with every day passing by. "Oh well", he thought. "Might as well wait, and not try anything stupid." And as he fell asleep, he pondered what the following day would have in store for him, even though he already knew. Just the same old, average day in his filth he called life.