Wisdom Wins Out In The End

 

          “I knew you were going to do that,” said Maeve! “You just had to be your benevolent hairy self!”

            “Hey, she left her iPhone in the car,” grinned Ralph. “I wasn’t worried about her.  I’ve seen her before anyhow. Apparently she was a state runner-up in the Queen of the Forest Access Roads contest!”
            “I don’t know how you know whether she had her camera thing,” argued Maeve.
            “Dear old blackling!  All those little magicks send out wavy signals.  Those signals make me itch!  I can almost smell em,” said Ralph as he was strolling back home, to check on lunch on so on.
            “So, Ralph, are you going to visit the TV crew too?  Give em something to lie about?” said Maeve. Her attitude could be a little jaundiced.
            “Maybe after dark, oh muse of mine, after dark.”  He kept moving on. Morning was long gone, and he was hungry.
            Maeve took off, like she aways does just as Ralph emerged center stage at the clearing. Even for Ramona, his entrances were rather impressive. First he wasn’t there, and then he just was!
            “Have a nice time, sweetie?” asked Ramona.
            “Yeah.  You won’t believe what I saw!  Two ladies decorating a little tree with candy and toothbrushes down at the parking lot! I was so tickled I decided to talk to one of em.”
            “I wonder why they did that,” she said, moving some stew ingredients around in a pot over the fire. She tasted the mixture, frowning a little, and threw in some salt. She kept moving. She got some bowls out of the cave, mostly thinking about lunch, not some ladies at the parking lot. As she worked Cherry floated just above and behind her, like a little blond sleeping cloud.
            Taking a seat expectantly, he said, “the belief among some curious types is that if they leave little gifts out in the woods for us, we might decide to hang out with them.  This attempt was so childish that I decided to reward it by appearing just for a minute.”
            Ramona stopped and looked at him, “was she afraid?” She swooped a lock of her long dark blond hair back out of her eyes, as she talked.
            “Yes, but she wasn’t ruled by her fear,” said Ralph. “I was actually sort of surprised that a human person was capable of that. I did sit down by her, so I didn’t loom.  Looming scares ‘em seems to me. I wonder why they are so small? Never understood that Ramona.”
            “They probably ask why we have to be so big,” laughed Ramona. “That is, if they think we exist at all.”
            “Ah, that little crack in credibility is where we live, and we like it that way,” said Ralph. “Is that done, or shall I go eat raw fish out of the river?” He hadn’t done that in a while!
            “Why don’t you get Twigg and those cats?  It’s done.” He did as he was bidden, and lunch was served. Duck stew in wooden bowls carved by the most agreeable Ooog, that expert carver of all things wooden or stone.

            He decided to ignore the TV crew after all. They actually didn’t need any help from him at all! He really wondered about the nature of their inquiry. Did they expect to find him by making that big noisy fuss in the forest? Or did they really not expect to find anything because they were sure it was just stories told by cynical Indians, old coots, or gullible hikers?
            In any case, their world and his did not intersect at all. Ralph felt like his people were being used as fictional cartoon characters, or maybe horror villains. None of this had anything to do with him. Let them stew in their own foolishness and greed, he thought.
            But then he was tempted, but decided, “nah,” I’m too old for messing with the hairless investigators, even though they richly deserved it. He sighed. Then he got a really good idea!
            “Hey, Twigg!” said Ralph happily, “I have a really good idea!”
            Twigg knew this was going to be good. “Sure, dad!”
            “Hey, I’ll teach you a new trick.  It’s a good one!” said his dad….