It Was Meant To Be A Play Date

 

Suiattle River, Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.

            Just as they had promised, Linnet’s parents brought her back one crispy fall day, to have a chance to play with her new friend, Twigg.

            Just like every other day, Ralph had collected a lot of fallen branches in the course of his usual travels through the forest and brought them home to Ramona for firewood. He never ran out of deadfall because trees just keep shedding tired branches. And he always broke them up into nice lengths,  handy for the fire.
            So when Linnet’s family arrived sometime before lunch, Ramona had a big bright fire going, because it was a rather gloomy day in the BSNF.  It hadn’t rained yet, but it was going to. She was cooking a big pot of a heavy soup of potatoes and onions, gotten from Thaga, with some wild pig bits and a lot of herbs. She was pleased to have made quite a lot seeing that they had company for lunch. All six had a nice bowl of Ramona’s soup. The puma bros tried some, but didn’t love it.
            While Linnet’s parents, Moss and Lisa, settled in by the fire to have a long chat with Ralph and Ramona, Twigg and Linnet, accompanied by Berry and Bob, decided to go take a look at Twigg’s usual haunts. He had his own trails, suitable for a short guy. He went under things Ralph would have gone over. So he usually operated rather like a rabbit, running under the brush. Of course Linnet loved it. Her home was more of a meadow area without the brush tunnels to play in.
            When they wandered down near the river, they started hearing an odd sound like some sort of animal crying. It wasn’t a scary sound. It was a little lost sound. It came from closer to the river. Twigg and Linnet hurried to find the creature that sounded so sad.
            Now, neither of them had ever seen a human person, except Thaga and Ooog, who were Neanderthals actually. So, imagine their total astonishment to find a human toddler sitting in the gravel not far from the swiftly moving water. This child, a girl, was soaking wet and very cold, almost blue looking. Her clothes, a little set of pants and a shirt dripped cold river water, as if she had been in the water and somehow had made it to the riverbank.
            “I don’t know what to do,” said Twigg, whispering to Linnet.
            “We can’t leave her here,” said Linnet. “She will die, in the water or just sitting there freezing.” (Forest People don’t get cold in the same way, thanks to their heavy coats of hair.)
            “That’s true,” said Twigg thoughtfully. “Maybe, if she can walk and will come with us, we should take her back to the grownups?”
            “We have to, Twigg,” said Linnet, truly frightened for the child.
            So, slowly, not to frighten the girl, the two children walked over the river stones to her. She stopped crying and struggled to her feet. She had no shoes on, and she was shivering violently.  She walked to Linnet and took her hand, looking into her eyes with no fear at all.
            “Can you walk?” asked Twigg. But his language was unfamiliar to her.
            “Cold,” said the lost child.
            Berry and Bob came near also, sniffing the wet child. She reached for Bob with her free hand and smiled for the first time since they had found her.
            “Twigg, you take her other hand and lets just walk her back to your place while she can walk,” said Linnet. He did as she asked, and the two older children began to slowly walk the baby off of the river stones and into the forest where it was easier going. It took a long time, and the walking was good for her. It warmed her up a bit. She looked pinker as they traveled. Berry and Bob stayed close, as if their own body heat could help her somehow.
            When they all got back to the four parents, their find created quite a sensation. The two mothers took charge of the little girl immediately. Before worrying about where she belonged they knew she needed lifesaving care.  They stripped her sodden clothing off and put it to dry near the fire. Ramona got one of Twigg’s blankets from the cave and wrapped her up in it and sat by the fire holding her. Lisa spooned some soup into the little one’s mouth. In the course of all of this, the child finally said her name was Tilly. The mothers considered this a good sign.
            “You did the right thing,” said Ralph. “Now we have to figure out how to return her. I was wondering while I was getting firewood, why all those people were walking around looking for something upstream and calling a word over and over.  Now we know, don’t we?”
            Twigg and Linnet were a little tired now, and just wanted to sit by the fire and be warm with the cats, and wait for dinner to appear.
            “Yes, we know,” said Ramona. “But how to return her without a big fuss?”
            “There may have to be a bit of a fuss, Ramona.  When she’s dry, I will carry her to where I heard the all the people searching, now that we know it was Tilly they were looking for,” said Ralph.
            Thinking of Tilly’s mother and father, Ramona and Lisa dressed her in her dry clothes in a hurry, combed her hair a bit, kissed her and hugged her and gave her to Ralph all wrapped in Twigg’s blanket.
            Tilly didn’t cry, she seemed to enjoy the altitude from Ralph’s arms, looking all around at everyone and everything in the clearing in the forest.
            Moving swiftly through the trails and paths, going further upstream than  he usually did, at last Ralph with Tilly in his arms came upon a sad campsite. A woman and a man, who had been told to stay there in case their lost child came back, sat in horrible sorrow on a couple of aluminum camp chairs.
            Ralph’s heart broke for them.
            He tried to make it easy for them. But it wasn’t easy for them. It was shocking, and potentially terrifying. There was their child, but in the arms of this unbelievable being. It was almost more than their minds could bear and process, but there was Tilly, alive and cheerful!
            The father stood and came to Ralph, holding out his arms for Tilly, who wriggled down to him, laughing. He took her to her mother, who was crying in awestricken relief.
            The father took Ralph’s hand, and just shook his head, saying, “I don’t understand any of how this happened, but thank God. Thank God.”
            The mother, carrying Tilly on her right arm, brought Twigg’s little blanket back to Ralph, who took it. She placed her hand on his arm for a second, looking into his eyes. “Thank you,” she whispered.
            Seeing that all seemed well, Ralph turned to walk home. As he left Tilly called out, “Bye!” He wondered if she would remember any of this when she was older.  He knew her parents would, but they were going to have a tough time explaining to their friends and the searchers.
            Ralph had to laugh a little, thinking of that scene.