A Drowsy Picnic Somewhere In A Meadow

 

          It was the appointed day, so Thaga set to work while it was still dark. She was yawning, but she could hear morning birds starting to practice their morning calls and statements already, so she knew it was time to get going.
          She took hard red wheat from the big bucket, five cups of it. Then she ground it into coarse flour with her hand grinder clamped to the big wooden table Oog had made years before.  It was hard work, but Thaga had the arms to do that work. When it was ground she got out her sour dough starter and poured a good dollop into the flour, added some salt and some water and a little butter and she worked up a nice dough.  Then she made two loaves and set them to rise.
          She got out a pound of good Virginia peanuts and roasted them in a dry skillet on the woodstove in her kitchen.  For a Neanderthal chick, Thaga has a pretty extensive kitchen. After they were roasted she ground them also.  She did it twice to make sure the peanut butter was smooth.
          Oog was still snoring, but she started making breakfast anyhow.  He would smell it and come looking for the good smells. She fried up some nice thick bacon, her sources are her own, and then she fried three eggs.  Two for him and one for her.  She made a big brown pot of strong black tea and got out the sugar bowl. There was a small jug of cream too.
          Then she sat down and rested while having a morning smoke, and a cup of the tea with sugar and cream. Soon Oog came to the table, and they had breakfast.
        Then after a little nap, Thaga liked a little nap, she put the bread to bake in her woodstove’s oven. It smelled so good that Oog came looking to see what was happening in the kitchen. Oog is pretty fond of a good thick slice of new bread and a truly self-indulgent layer of butter.
          After the bread had cooled a bit, she sliced a generous number of slices. She spread them with peanut butter on one side. Then she put butter on one side of matching slices and added her jam made of black berries that she and Ramona had picked late the last summer out in the clearcut near the forest. She wrapped each sandwich in brown paper and put them in a basket. She included a jar of sweet tea.

          She reminded Oog that she was going to visit Ramona and Twigg today and that he must fend for himself for a while. He made one of those noises that husbands make and went out to do something he had been thinking of doing but hadn’t gotten around to.

          It was late morning by then. Thaga went out of her nice solid green door, heading for the deep forest and Ramona’s cave where she lived with Ralph and baby Twigg who actually wasn’t such a baby anymore. There was a well worn path. It threaded between tall ferns, all sorts of underbrush and stands of fireweed. Soon she was under the great solemn fir trees, in the deep cool forest.  She could smell the slight fungus scent of the forest floor and she could hear insects buzzing around and the birds still at it, as they are on a peaceful day. Their echoing trills filled her with an emotion she didn’t have a definition for.

         The path led right up to the cave with its firepit in the clearing before the cave which now had a clever door made to fit its irregularly shaped opening.
          Twigg, who was old enough to speak reasonably, saw her coming with the picnic basket. Twigg was an unusual young Squatch in that he had been raised speaking English unlike his parents who had to learn in adulthood.
          “She’s here,” he yelled, “Thaga’s here!” He ran first in to alert Ramona and then back out to engage Thaga. He danced around her like a wild thing and said, “what’s in the basket?”
          “Well, it’s a picnic,” said Thaga. “You will see soon.”
          Ramona came out with a small bag of apples, and they all set out walking to a certain meadow where lupines and fireweed grew, and the sun would be warm.
          “What’s Ralph up to today,” asked Thaga.
          “Oh, that lady puma and some bear have been squabbling over territory again, and he went to try to talk them out of total war, convince them that there are enough deer and bunnies for both of them.  I don’t expect him home before dark,” said Ramona.
          “Those two again,” said Thaga with a laugh.
          Twigg’s style of following the ladies was pretty much like any young guy.  He’d run way ahead and then zip back.  Then he would fall behind looking at some bug or something and Ramona would have to call him to hurry up.

          In the meadow, they found a nice grassy spot in the drowsy sunshine. Thaga opened her basket and gave Twigg one of her really good peanut butter and jam sandwiches. He loved it.  He sat right there and ate every bit, getting brown bread crumbs on his furry belly and jam and peanut butter on his clever little face. Ramona really liked hers too.  She didn’t get a lot of sandwiches in the cave and hadn’t advanced to baking yet herself.
          Soon they were sleepy. Twigg snuggled up to his mother and they dropped off for a quick little nap.  So did Thaga. What a peaceful scene they made; I think.
          While they were asleep two hikers, a man, and a woman, came upon them suddenly. Just as suddenly and silently they reversed course and left the sleepers sleeping. They felt that they had had a narrow escape, but really they were perfectly safe, as we know.
          As the sun moved around the sky and shadows began to form, Maeve, she who sees all, landed with a rather solid thump on the grass near the basket and was just peeking inside when everyone woke up.
          “If I can have a sandwich,” said Maeve, “I’ll tell you a secret!”
          “Oh phooey,” said Thaga. “Help yourself. What’s your big secret?”
          “Well,” said Maeve, neatly picking a sandwich to bits with her big black beak, “you have been spotted.  A man and a woman came upon you while you were all snoring out here in the open, and now they Know About You!”

          “No one will believe them,” said Ramona, laughing.
          “Yeah, probably not,” said Maeve with a beak-ful of sandwich. “It was the only secret I could think of right then.” She seemed quite pleased with herself in spite of the not very exciting secret.
           Then they all had one of Ramona’s apples and a couple of guzzles of the tea that Thaga had in a jar in her basket and the picnic was over.

           Maeve flew off to check for more secrets.
          They walked back into the forest and made their way to the cave where Thaga asked Twigg, “well, how did you like your picnic?”
          “I liked it Thaga.  Thank you,” he said, nodding earnestly. “Can we do it again tomorrow?”
          “Well, maybe not tomorrow, but there are many days in a summer, and we can use some of them for picnics Sweety,” she said.
          Then she walked back to her house somewhere rather obscure in the foothills of the Cascade Range, to see how Oog was getting on with his project and make him a little dinner.