A Letter From Out of The Blue

 

            Ooog and Thaga live on a dirt road, with an address and an actual mailbox. So, they get mail sometimes. Not very often.
            However, Ralph and Ramona do not have an address or a mailbox. So, if someone wanted to send a letter to Ralph, it would have to be by a circuitous route of some sort. Then, there is the problem, that though Ralph and Ramona both speak excellent English, neither can read a lick!
            But apparently, there was a will because there was a way.
            One day Ooog, on his way out to do some digging, or whatnot, thought maybe he would check the mailbox. You never know, right? There could be a total surprise waiting there. He didn’t check it every day.
            There was one large cream colored envelope lying there. Ooog really didn’t know if it  had just arrived or had been there for several days. It was written on in an awkward hand. The return address said:
            M. O. H.

            365 Shady Lane
            Branson, MO 65616  
 
It was addressed to:
                                    Ralph C/O Ooog and Thaga
                                    3 Rural Route
                                    Arlington, WA 98223
 
            Ooog only knew three people in Branson. It had to be from Maurice, the Ozark Howler (reformed.) The mystery of why Maurice had written a letter was killing him, so he took it right into Thaga, at a trot.
            Thaga dried her hands on her blue and white striped apron and said, “We must take it to them. We’ll have to read it to them too. Neither one of them reads. Well, maybe their names, but that’s about all!”
            “I wonder what in the world would make him write a letter?” said Ooog, pulling thoughtfully on his chin whiskers. His wise little blue eyes twinkled and he grinned cannily.
“Let’s get on down to the Home Clearing, Woman!”
            Thaga re-pinned her hair and hung her apron on the hook in the back of the kitchen. Ooog got Harold the cat into the house, and taking the letter they slipped out, closing Harold inside where he wouldn’t get into trouble.
            Fortunately, when Ooog followed by Thaga hustled into the Home Clearing, everybody was home, even Bob and Berry. Ralph and Ramona were listening to Cherry sing one of the old Firekeeper songs that Ramona had taught her. Blue howled along here and there. The song was actually a recipe in the form of a song. It was about how to make something edible out of the inner bark of a pine tree. Nobody had tried it on a Douglas Fir yet, but it was certainly a possibility.
            The family looked up as one, surprised to see Ooog and Thaga rushing up. Cherry stopped singing and Blue went silent.
            “Hi!” said Ralph.
            “Come and sit with us,” said Ramona.
            Puffing a bit, Ooog said, “You have a letter! It’s from Maurice! I found it in the mailbox out on the road. I don’t know when it came. I don’t check every day!”
            “Well, open it up, Man,” said Ralph.
            “Shall I read it to you?” asked Ooog.
            “Yes! I’m dying to know what he said,” said Ramona.
            Ooog fished his folding knife out of the front right pocket of his green leather trousers and slit the letter open. He put his knife away and removed the letter from the envelope.
            Everyone waited as he unfolded it and began to read.
 
“Hello to Thaga or Ooog! I know one of you is reading this to Ralph and Ramona! Thanks, Maurice.
 
Dear Ralph and Lady Firekeeper Ramona!
            It’s been so long since I talked to you that I don’t know where to start. Are you surprised that I am still alive? Well, I am, and so are Sneaky and Joe.
            Let’s see, as you know, the Howler Ice Cream Shop has done very well. I’m almost never there anymore. Sneaky and her son, surprise!, are usually back in the office, letting the kids sell ice cream up front.
            I got another job. You won’t believe this one! I teach American Folklore at night at the community college. The housewives and day workers love it. They think I look like a werewolf! I keep my tail well out of sight. Looking a little like a werewolf is one thing, but having an actual tail might be more than the traffic could bear.
            Sneaky’s son is called Joseph. She says it’s because his coat is of many colors. I don’t know why. She says some weird stuff sometimes. He is twice as big as she is, and he loves ice cream. But, show me the cat who doesn’t like ice cream, Ralph, right?
            Joe made so much money selling songs that he has his own label company now. He’s so busy that we might know where  he is, but we don’t see him. It’s called Train Trip Records. It sounds old timey, but you know what? Customers like that!
            Last year, he bought a regular house for me and Sneaky and Joseph out on a residential street. It’s white, has a fence, and flowers. I learned how to mow grass and take care of flowers. We have an attic and a basement.
            In the morning Sneaky and Joseph walk to the shop and that kid lets them in. I work around the house until time to go to the college. I read books about folk stories and tell the class about them. That’s all, and they pay me! Imagine a True Ozark Howler getting paid to talk folklore!
            Joe still lives in his fancy apartment, but he hired a housekeeper to come in and do what I used to do. Joe says he thought it would be nice for us to have a house and garden instead of just an apartment up in a tall building with nowhere to go outside. I think he might marry her. That’s just what I think.
            Sneaky says it would be OK, if I came out to see you in the Great Forest someday soon. It’s only about a four block walk to the shop from the house and she says she will be fine, that Joseph will help  her until I get back. She has a tricky cat-sized way of getting in and out of our house.
            So, be on the lookout for incoming Ralph! I could appear out there on Highway 2 when you least expect it! Of course, Maeve would probably tell on me the minute I got there, huh?
 
Your old friend,
Maurice, a True Ozark Howler
 
            “Oh! What a surprise,” said Ralph, with a grin. “I can’t wait!”
            “Thank you, Ooog!” said Ramona. “I wonder when he will come?”
            “He sure didn’t say, did he?” said Thaga.
            “I think he loves being mysterious,” said Ralph. “I mean, after all, he’s a True Ozark Howler, one of the most mysterious creatures in the world!”
             Thaga said they had better go home because she had bread dough rising and that Ooog had gardening and chickens to attend to.
            Ralph put the letter carefully up on the shelf in the cave, thinking about his old friend Maurice and all that they had been through together.

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Shabbat Shalom, Open Thread! Have Some Challah!

 Tis a fine thing to cruise the ocean beaches.

There are no lanes out there.

Just firm sand, or loose sand. Go, or no go.

Not my car. BW's Kia.

Of course, I've been out there in the old Element too.

Have a wonderful and happy Catfurday.

I'm always thinking of you guys!

p

🌸🤍🌸

A Midsummer's Night's Foolishness

 

            OK, this is the setup: Uncle Bob wanted to talk to Ralph in the worst way. It was urgent. He stumped down out of the meadow and into the Home Clearing. There was Ramona! Ah!
            “Mona! I mean, Firekeeper Ramona, I need to talk to Ralph. Is he around here somewhere?” said Uncle Bob, who was a little embarrassed, and short sighted too.
            “Oh, hi, Bob. You can call me Mona if you want,” said Ramona, amused. “I’m not sure where Ralph has gotten to. Not for sure, you know how it is. Last I heard he was going to go see Ranger Rick.”
            “I don’t really know Ranger Rick, Ramona. I need to tell Ralph that there are some elk up in the far side of the meadow nearest the town and we should go hunting right away before they leave!” said Uncle Bob. “Do you think it would be OK to go look for him there. I guess if Rick knows Ralph and Twigg he wont faint if I show up, right?”
            “No, Bob, I think Rick can handle another guy from the woods. Why don’t you just go on over there and maybe you can catch Ralph before the elk take off,” urged Ramona. She was already thinking about how many days an elk would feed them, and maybe passing some along to Thaga.
            So, Uncle Bob set off to the ranger station and campground area on a mission to find Ralph and get up a hunting expedition while the hunting was good. It was getting towards evening, and the last light of day was fading, not that dark nights bother the Forest People.
            As he was approaching the campground, but it was really still out in the forest, he came upon an odd sight. It was odd to Bob anyhow. He stopped and stared, forgetting for the moment what he was doing there.
            It was a structure made of some kind of human cloth. It was yellow and orange. It wasn’t really big enough for Bob to get inside of, but he thought it might be something that humans use, like a little house or something. It was lit up from the inside, so that the whole thing glowed in the dark shadows of the trees like some strangely shaped lantern sitting on the ground. It smelled interesting to Uncle Bob, who like all Forest People had a sense of smell even better than a bloodhound’s.
            Uncle Bob approached as silently as he could manage. Well, not that silently. He walked around the strange structure a couple of times. It smelled of food, not honest meat, but cookies and all sorts of decadent stuff. He sniffed loudly in appreciation. He wondered if the thing was warm to the touch, so he placed one of his big hands on it and pressed. Yes! It was warm. Uncle Bob could hear someone moving around in there too. He heard a sharp intake of breath and then silence. Interesting. Indeed, there must be a person in there.
            There was a small metal tab at the top of a sort of seam. This interested him, so he touched it. Then he pulled on it, and the seam began to open. Just a few inches of the interior began to show.
            A terrified young man’s face stared back at Uncle Bob. Bob jumped back a few feet!
            This guy jerked the zipper pull all the way to the ground and opened a flap. He stared out into the darkness searching for any sign of Uncle Bob who was pretty far back. Then all of sudden, fast as a jack rabbit, he popped out of the tent in just his tropical print boxers and a jacket, wearing his unlaced boots too, and ran off into the direction of the ranger station as fast as he could run, boot laces whipping around his feet as he ran. Bob watched him go with his mouth hanging open.
            “Chill, man,” said Uncle Bob, to himself apparently because this bird had flown.
            Bob left the abandoned tent hanging open and headed on down to the ranger station.
            Meanwhile, the guy in boxers made it down to the station, but Rick wasn’t there because he goes home at night. The poor freaked guy just ran up to the campground parking lot, got into his Kia, and drove home convinced that he had barely escaped a gruesome death.
            When Bob got to the ranger station, still searching for Ralph, he found Ralph just about to vanish behind the dumpster.
            “Ralphie!” Bob called.
            “Oh, hi, Bob. What are you doing here?” asked Ralph.
            “Looking for you!” said Bob, huffing and puffing a bit.
            “You found me! Cool! What’s up, man?” Ralph asked his boyhood friend.
            “I was just coming down to find you and the weirdest thing happened on the way! There was this yellow thing all lit up on the inside with a guy inside of it. This guy was really sketchy, Ralphie!
            “He totally freaked at me! He took off running down here to the station, but I don’t see him anywhere!” said Bob in wonder.
            “Oh, I bet he wanted to see Rick! But Rick had just left before you got here. Some guy went running up to the parking lot and blasted out of here like Maurice was after him!” giggled Ralph.
            “Maurice wouldn’t hurt him would he?” said Uncle Bob.
            “No, but I bet he would think so! Well, you’ve scared the guy. He’ll probably come back tomorrow and file a report and try to work up the nerve to go get his stuff and Rick will have to play dumb. He’ll have to blame it on a bear,” said Ralph.
            “Wait a minute, you came down here to tell me something, not to go scaring campers. What’s the dealio Bobbo?” said Ralph.
            “Oh! Oh! I saw a herd of elk up in the meadow and I thought we should go hunting before they disappear, Ralphie!” said Uncle Bob.
            “Well, goodness, man, why didn’t you say so? Let’s do it!” said Ralph.
            And so Ralph and Uncle Bob did go hunting up in the meadow nearest to the town, and didn’t miss the elk! In fact, they caught quite a large one and had to carry it all the way back down to Ramona. There was plenty for all, including Twigg and Leely, with a nice roast for Thaga too.

😹🤍😻

You'd Swear It Was Summer

 

            Going outside yesterday, I felt as if the last time I had looked it  had been spring, still chill and damp and gray.
            The sunlight was that blinding light we get in the northwest. I think it has something to do with humidity. I don’t know. Maybe it’s just in comparison to the former gray days. The sky was that profound arc of heavenly blue.
            So, April is just about over.
            This is the beginning of the summer of 2026. Everything was fully leafed out. The blossoms have fallen from my pear tree. I was looking to see if there was some Lamb’s Quarter growing out there along the driveway, but only found clover and dandelions and some other things that I don’t recognize by name.
            And it was warm! Warm enough to use a little AC in the car!
            I got caught in the Boeing traffic going home. But, it kept moving, so that’s the main thing. Most drivers were behaving themselves pretty well. I think people up here feel celebratory when the weather gets like it was today.
            I bet things are looking summery up in the Great Forest too. I wonder if Ramona does anything with dandelion flowers? I shall have to check in with them today!
            I know that the river is very full with spring runoff and that Maeve is above it all keeping a sharp lookout.

Good Morning! Don't Forget! Butter Your Cat Day is Here!

 Aw, they've grown so much since then.

They, and I, wish you the very best April 29th ever.

They have a rather diffident interest in butter, but will lap some.

Suzy abstains.

Mr. Baby has not indulged.

I know Toots doesn't approve, but Sammie digs it!

Meow!

🤍

Some Family Business

 

            It was the third full day after homecoming. Life was normalizing. Leely was figuring out how to keep house in the Alder Tree House, with a wood burning stove, and using river water in a bucket just like Ramona did. She didn’t miss the servants in Mak’s palace. The privacy and agency here were precious to her.
            She thought she was going to need a few more things, like a broom, and a second bucket for more water.
            Koba was a happy baby. He didn’t cry. Well, hardly at all. He was starting to hold his head up and look around himself, seeming to take joy in all he saw.
            Twigg and Ralph had gone out early to hunt. If they didn’t have any luck, they would go fishing. As usual, they would need to pick up firewood too. Ralph wore his big leather backpack for the wood.
            As they walked out into the morning, Ralph said, “Well, how did the visit with Enid and Arthur go?”
            “It was good, but confusing too,” said Twigg. A few B’s had found him and were tagging along before their day’s work began.
            “They didn’t know when we were coming, but they were very happy to see us. Enid handled it better than Arthur did. I’d never met him before, you see?” said Twigg. “He pretty much just stared and didn’t say much. He wasn’t there when we got married, remember?”
            “Nope, Arthur was asleep I think,” said Ralph. “Were they surprised at Koba?”
            “No… That was very strange. They weren’t shocked at all. It seemed to me that they weren’t seeing the same thing I see when I look at my son. To me, he is all Forest child. He’s hairy, like normal.
            “But Enid kept saying how beautiful he was, how he had such nice smooth skin. To her, he looked like a human child I guess, which he is, but she didn’t see that he was like me. She said Koba favored Leely, who favored her dad.  That’s interesting because Leely’s father is rumored to be a half breed. Enid just never would admit it, Leely said.
            “Arthur just sat there, looking from me to Koba and back. Maybe he saw the truth better than Leely’s mom did. He didn’t argue with her. When Enid brought Koba to Arthur to hold, he warmed up. He seemed to get it through his head that a grandson is a grandson. So be it!”
            “Good. Sensible man,” said Ralph. He was scanning the area, as hunters do, but he knew that if they kept up the chat they were going to end up fishing.
            “We had lunch with them. It was a cheesy sticky thing. Macaroni and cheese, it was good. Never had that before. And salad. It was very good and plain after all the stuff Mak’s cooks made up there. You can’t even imagine, Dad!
            “Koba started to get a little tired, so I said we better take him home and put him to bed in his basket. Enid gathered up a couple of bags of kitchen supplies. Canned stuff, butter, cheese, salt and pepper, and on and on.  She said to please come back if we need anything because her grandson will have everything he needs, if she can help it! She held him for a little while and kissed him, kissed Leely and then she hugged me! Arthur shook my hand; the first time I ever did that! Then we took the bags and the boy and walked home and put him to bed. Leely stashed all the things her mother gave her in that cupboard Ooog made.
            “So, it was a good visit, but a mystery too,” said Twigg.
            “Yes. I think Koba may be a mystery in himself,” said Ralph. They walked on silently for a bit.
            The B’s left them, now that the dew was off of everything and they could work the flowers. As the B’s buzzed off to go to work, Maeve found Ralph and Twigg and made herself at home on Ralph’s shoulder.
            “Guess what I saw from up in the sky, Boss?” said she.
            “I can’t guess, Birdy! You see much too far from up there,” laughed Ralph.
            “I saw a tender young buck deer just up the way ahead of you,” Maeve announced. “By the way, it’s good to see you again Twigg! I’m glad you’re home with Leely and Koba. This is a good thing!” And she made a few raven chuckles of approval.
            Twigg grinned at her and Ralph said, “We had best go meet this tender fellow, hadn’t we? Lead the way, Birdy.”
            Maeve flew off to the point the way, and Ralph and Twigg followed. Father and son wouldn’t need to go fishing after all, in spite of the conversation.

🍃🦌🌿

Writing About Writing

 

           

            That sounds pretty boring. Ew!
            But, a funny thing happened on the way to April of 2026. Somehow, I started acting as if I felt something that might described as feeling like I might be some kind of a writer.
            This was a gradual process, and I never set out to make this happen. Maybe my childish approach to story writing allowed it to progress without too much observation from me. IOW, being a centipede, I wasn’t watching all my feet, I was just stumping along unaware.
            What I have been doing these last few months is picking a type of story, say, a folktale, like the one yesterday. I tried to bring in several cultural known characters, such as the trickster and set him in opposition to a virtuous innocent. Just for fun, I made this trickster character our old friend Jumpstart. Spring Peeper is every little girl who triumphs because of her inherent nature in every story of the type. Doesn’t have to be a little girl, of course. Could be a boy or a talking cat or whatever.
            With the story about the guy camping on Hat Island I was trying to write a ripping yarn of the pot boiler type, like we had been listening to at night, but make it more believable.
            I don’t know what to say about Ralph and the Great Forest. That just kind of happened, and now it’s as real to me as some place I have actually been. Ralph is a love story, not in the usual sense, though he and Ramona certainly portray love. It must be about a great number of things I find lovely.
            I still want to visit Luminous, Texas, darnit! I want to sit in that café and interview the customers!
            What is important to me:

•   Word choice is like what color to use, which unconscious connections I wish to hint at.
•   Turn of phrase. Something fresh, but not too far of a stretch for the reader to endure.
•   Portrayal of the characters, without just blurting out how they are. Show, not tell.
•   A storyline which is psychologically feasible and satisfying.

            That’s probably about enough of that. I just felt like explaining myself a little bit.
            Your commentary and kind words have been my light along the way. Please, always say more, not less. Since this is a process of communication, I greatly wish to know how it’s going.
            Thank you, from my heart.

🌸🤍🌸