Five Minutes Later

 

🤍"Wha!"🤍

            Dandle is a fine old word. To dandle a child is how it is usually used. Fathers do this with their infants.

dandle (v.)

"to shake or move up and down in the arms or on the knee," 1520s, of unknown origin. Perhaps somehow felt to be imitative. Compare Italian dondolare "to dandle, swing," and French dandiner, from Old French dandin "small bell," imitative of its sound. Related: Dandled; dandling.

            Ralph was amusing Cherry to best of his ability while Ramona made lunch. He talked in funny voices to her.  He bounced her on his knee. He held her in the crook of his left arm when he thought she was getting tired of holding her head up. She was still quite young.

            He demonstrated his ability to make little yellow lights as small as fire flies fly around her. He kept them small, like butterflies, in fact, flying near and then retreating. She laughed as she reached for them. Sometimes one would just kiss her fingers.

            They were engaged in this charming occupation when one large drop of rain suddenly fell on her little pale blond head with a juicy splat! Then there were others, just like it. All at once there were many large drops of rain. The sky lowered and darkened. Ralph began to look around for Twigg and the pumas, who were always together. He didn’t see them.

            A strong wind began to blow. A summer’s worth of cones and dead twigs began raining down with the water drops. The tips of those ancient towering firs began to bend. Branches tossed about. Ralph was alarmed. It occurred to him that now was the time to do something.

            “Ramona,” he called as he carried Cherry into the cave where she was making lunch. “A storm just blew in. It’s raining and blowing like crazy out there and I don’t know where Twigg is.

            “Never mind lunch, just stay in here with Cherry. I’ll be back with the boy and the cats.”

            Ramona took Cherry in her arms and went to the doorway to look out. She turned to Ralph and said, “yes.” Her eyes were dark and thoughtful. “Yes, this is too much storm for a young one, no matter how tough he is.”

            While the door was open a gust of wind blew Maeve right through the doorway. She hit the floor and tumbled to a stop. Before she could speak, Ralph said, “stay here!” The next gust blew Ramona’s kitchen candles out, all four of them. “I have the lighter, Ralph, go!”

            He did go. The wind blew bits of windfall into his face.  He was immediately soaked. He barely noticed. What he did notice was that the forest floor was beginning to run with water. Rain was pelting into the cliff face and running down to the ground.

            He scanned the area of the clearing.  He saw no one.  He yelled "Twigg", but the wind was almost louder than his voice, though Ralph is very loud indeed.

            He searched the area of his great cedar trunk. No one was there. And it was getting darker. But darkness doesn’t worry Ralph much. He has other ways of seeing and hearing.

            He began to hear a strange little call blowing on the wind. He followed it. The yelping and then calling led him to a hollow in the soil where a fallen tree's root ball had torn out the earth, creating a bit of a cave. In this hollow Ralph found a yearling black bear, which had been making all the noise. Twigg was in there too with Berry and Bob. They were all four wet.

            “Why didn’t you just come home Twigg,” asked his father in wonderment. “You know the way!” Twigg, and the three animals all came out into the wind and rain.

            “Daddy, the bear was scared. He doesn’t know where his mother is!” said Twigg, as if that answered all questions.  “We stayed with him, so he wouldn’t be scared!”

            “Oh, bring your bear and let’s go home. Everyone else is waiting for us to come home, so they don’t worry any longer,” said Ralph. “We can find his mother tomorrow.”

            And like in any proper fable, that’s exactly what they did. The giant, Ralph, his son and the two puma bros and a yearling bear all walked home to the cave knowing that no matter how bad the weather, no matter how hard the wind blew that Ramona would take care of them all when they got there, and that they were all fine.

            The next day the mother bear found her son safe and was appropriately grateful.

            When the sun came up in the morning, Maeve flew off to wherever Ravens go, slightly bruised from her tumble.