
While he walked back home, Ralph examined the
drum. It was a beautiful thing, painted with mysterious Native designs
depicting stylized ravens. He had the beater in his right hand, and the drum in
the circle of his left arm. It only seemed natural to start to play a little pattern
on the red, black and white birds painted on its top. He had never handled such a thing before.
“This thing has potential, Maeve,”
said Ralph. “It makes my feet feel different. They want to do fancy steps!"
“It’s making my feathers fluff up a
little bit,” said Maeve. But she was giggling.
When he got near Ramona's fire, he called
to her. “Hey, look Mona, I have the very drum you were hearing all day!”
“How did that happen,” said Ramona.
“After I convinced her that she didn’t
need to drum herself numb, the girl gave it to me!” said Ralph. “She had a funny
name. Never heard that one before.”
“How?” said Ramona.
“I made her open her eyes! That’s
about it! And I shook her hand,” said Ralph. “She thought that if I had kids,
the kids might like to have a drum.”
“It is a pretty thing. I’ve never
seen anything like it,” said Ramona, running her hand over the painted surface
of the drum. She rapped her fingertips on it softly, listening for the sound it made.
“Maybe Twigg would like it,” suggested
his mother.
“Maybe so,” said his father. And
Twigg did like it. For a couple of days he beat out little rhythms on it,
singing some songs of his own devising at the same time. Then, on the third day
he didn’t pick it up again. He had gone to visit the bees in his little sapling
house, just to see how they were getting on, and maybe be offered a piece of
honeycomb.
Cherry found it abandoned in the
cave near Twigg’s new bed. She loved how it looked but didn’t show much
interest in playing it. She did play with it though. She turned it upside down,
placed it beside her little bed, and put her little bits of this and that
inside it. And there it stayed until Ralph noticed. It made his a little sad to
think of Ophelia’s drum being used in such a careless manner. It was a pretty
thing after all!
So, Ralph spoke to Ramona about the
drum. He said, “Hey, Mona, why don’t we give the drum to Uncle Bob. I bet he
would like it. It might help him think! Maybe he could do some drumming with
his songs! What do you think?”
“I think he might,” said Ramona. She
didn’t sound all that happy about the idea, but she could see the sense of it. “Why
don’t you take it up to him. Say ‘hi’ to Suzy for me too!”
So, Ralph took all of Cherry’s little
keepsakes out of the inside of the drum, and he knocked the dust off of it. He
had to look around the cave for the beater, but finally he located it on the
puma bros sleeping ledge. It looked a bit chewed, like maybe Berry and Bob had
been playing with it.
Having gotten both pieces together,
he walked up past his log and out into the open looking for Uncle Bob at his Stump
House. It was a misty day. The horizon sort of blended into the sky, all a soft
dovish grey. It looked like it could rain after a while.
Bob and Suzy were both sitting by
their little fire, letting the flames dissipate the mist in the air. But they
had a fine veil of dew covering their backs, not that it bothered them.
As he walked up carrying the drum,
Bob saw him and he said, “Whatcha got there, Ralphie?”
“Well, Bob, old buddy, it’s a drum.
A girl who opened her eyes gave it to me, because she didn’t need it anymore!”
said Ralph. “It was funny, she thought she was seeing somebody with her eyes
closed. I had to shake hands with her to prove that I was real!”
“I know the type,” said Suzy. “One
sees them attempting to commune with the Universe here and there..” She laughed
and shook her head. “Poor kids, really do have their eyes closed.”
Ralph plopped down on the other side
of the fire and placed the drum on the ground in front of his legs. He showed
them how the beater made it sound, by beating out a plain little rhythm. “See,
the design is a raven, done in Native Human style!”
“It’s so pretty, Ralphie. I’m almost
afraid of it. What if I break it?” Bob looked worried.
“It’s not too pretty, Bob. You could
sing your songs and drum with them!”
“OK, Ralphie. I’ll see how it works
next time I go up on the stump to think up a song,” said Bob.
Two days went by. Down in the Home
Clearing a little bit of soft drumming was heard from time to time. Nothing too
definite, one way or the other. Two morning passed and two nights.
Early, early, early on the third
morning, everybody was asleep except Ramona. As she worked to get her fire up
and awake, she looked up in the direction of the Stump House because someone
was coming down the path. It was Uncle Bob. He carried Ophelia’s drum in his left
arm.
When he got close, Ramona said, “Is
everything alright? Is Suzy well? You’re very early Bob! This is a first, as
far as I know!”
“Hi, Ramona. Yeah, I know. I never
wake up this early. But I had to do something,” said Bob. He looked pretty
serious, for such a sleepy type of guy.
“Do you want me to wake Ralph up?” Ramona
stood up to go do that.
“No. No, Ramona. What I have to do
is for you. You see, I knew this drum wasn’t for me. Suzy agrees. It’s not good
for inventing songs. I think it goes with very old songs, that are so well
known that they are like a heartbeat. Do you understand what I’m saying?” said
Bob.
“Not for sure, Bob,” she said,
smiling a little, making him say it.
“Ramona, the drum is for you! I know
it. Suzy knows it. The forest knows it! It’s for you, Ramona,” said Bob. He
grinned confidently at her.
“It is very beautiful, dear friend.
Yes. I will take it!” said Ramona.
“Good, I think I’ll go up and go
back to bed. I feel much better,” said Uncle Bob. Then he walked back up the
way he had come.
When Ralph woke and came out of the
cave a while later, he found his Ramona sitting on one of those convenient
sections of log with her eyes closed. But she wasn’t talking to imaginary
people, she was singing one of her old Firekeeper songs, taught to her by her
mother. Firekeepers had been singing these songs for unknown generations. It
was a morning song, to greet the dawn of another good day. And she was beating
out a little series of drum beats almost like a beating heart, on Ophelia’s
beautiful raven drum.
🌸