The Day After Ralph's Interview

 

           It was the day after Ralph’s interview with Millicent.

            She dropped him off at that wide spot on the highway nearest the home clearing. He walked the rest of the way from there.
            There was motion everywhere. The wind was lifting things and peeking under them. Restless. Pushy. Warning. “He who comes after me is greater than I!”           
            Grass and weeds lay down low. Small living things know a thing or two and they know when to go to ground very well. Even the casual birds of the forest were absent. Maeve was nowhere in sight.
            None of this was unobserved by Ralph. The wind lifted his long dark hair, then dropped it again. He read the weather like the famous writing on the wall. He hurried home to Ramona, the kids and the cats.
            They had dinner outside, around the fire as usual. Forest People love fish and Ralph’s family were no different. It was a fish dinner, eaten with the wind playing around their ears. As they finished up, the flames flickered and leaned to leeward. Sparkes flew and danced in the wind.
            Ramona threw the fish bones into the fire and gathered Ooog’s wooden bowls. She stacked them in the cave for later washing, as it didn’t seem like a good time to be washing dishes down at the river with the wind picking up the way it was.
            Twigg became enthralled with the wind’s frolicking and began to dance about with it. Berry and Bob watched and smiled their secret cat smiles.
            Then the rain began to pelt down. Drops like pebbles, cold and sudden. Even Twigg stopped prancing and looked to the sky with his eyes squeezed nearly shut against the raindrops. The cats moved to the door of the cave waiting to be admitted.
            “Mommy,” said Twigg, “are we alright? Is this a storm?”
            “Yes, of course, we’re alright.” said Ramona. “Let’s go inside. It’s getting a little bit too wet out here.” But she knew also, the same as Ralph, that a great storm was coming to the home clearing. She gazed upward, appraisingly.
            She gathered up Cherry, who had begun walking more than floating, and she opened the green door, so cleverly made to fit the opening in the cliff face. She shooed Twigg and the cats indoors. Ralph came behind, turning and giving a last look to all the was familiar and good in the great forest. Then he closed the door.
            Ramona lit one of her homemade candles. Thaga made them of course. One was enough to make the family feel comfortable. They all settled down to sleep with the wind plucking at the door.
            All night the wind tore at the forest. Branches whipped and thrashed. Rain battered the land. Ralph tossed in his sleep and woke from time to time. He listened carefully, wondering what scene would greet them when the daylight came up. He felt, if the truth we known, somewhat buffeted by the outside world. He searched his mind for meaning, but finally let it go. His thoughts were with all the creatures of the forest. He hoped they had found shelter, each in their own way.
            Just before daybreak, he heard a great tearing and falling sound outside. It was still raining hard, so he waited. He closed his eyes and slept a bit longer.
            When he finally woke for the last time that morning, there was an insistent tapping at the door. He got out of the big bed, leaving Ramona and Cherry asleep. He padded to the door, finding that a puddle of water had blown in under the door. When he opened it, there was Maeve standing in the other end of the puddle. She was wet and her feathers were somewhat in disarray.
            “Maeve!” said Ralph, “come in. I’m surprised to see you so early. What’s up?”
            She flew up to his left shoulder and huddled there.
            Finally she said, “that wind blew rain into my nest, then tore some of it down! I came to see if you survived the storm.”
            “Of course we did!  We’re inside the rock. No storm could touch us in here!”
            “Well, it touched the home clearing, Ralph!” she told him. “You ought to go out there and just take a look!”
            So, they went outside to look.
            The scene that greeted them was this:
            The risen sun, just a few degrees over the horizon, lit up a thick bank of fog lying near the ground. It glowed like an airy fire. This vaporous fire crept between the mighty tree trunks and vanished into darkness.
            Then there was water. It dripped heavily and persistently off of every single thing in sight as if the storm had just quit this very minute. It was like the forest took a breath and relaxed.
            The remains of Ramona’s last fire were soaked and black. No spark remained. In fact, the bits of unburnt wood were scattered around between the stone circle and the cave door. The stones remained in position, of course.
            Twigg appeared suddenly beside Ralph and grabbed his hand silently. The puma bros. crept cautiously out, sniffing and staring all around.
            The sun moved higher in the sky.
            It revealed a small rivulet running down toward Ralph’s cedar log.
            One of the smaller firs had been torn loose and was lying across the clearing with the little stream running under it.
            “It doesn’t look too bad, old girl,” Ralph told Maeve. “It’s just water. The forest is still here. You can fix up your nest again or stay here with us!”
            “Wow,” said Ramona, coming up behind everyone else, with Cherry on her hip. “Look at my fire! I’ll have to start the whole thing over again.” She handed Cherry to Ralph and went inside to get her Bic. Soon she was breaking up small sticks and putting little bits of wet bark and needles with the sticks. It was a damp smoky start, but soon a nice bright little fire was burning.
            Things were looking up. Twigg and the cats went to play in the temporary stream, stomping water and yelling. Twigg walked the length of the downed tree, followed by Berry and then Bob, up and down. They would be occupied for some time.
            Still carrying his daughter in his arms, and seeing that everyone was fine at the fire, Ralph decided to go check out his old log, just to make sure everything was okay out there. Maeve rode along. It was a drippy wet walk down the familiar path.
            It was a sodden scene that greeted him.  But everything looked fine. It had been wet out there before, times without number. His stash of beer was just fine. The box of cigars was damp but the cigars inside looked intact.
            Ralph took his accustomed seat and lit one of those cigars with his own Bic. He sat Cherry down beside him on the log, her first time up there, keeping his left arm around her so she couldn’t roll off.
            “Well, Maeve,” he said, “we weathered the storm just great!”
            “Yes, we did,” she agreed.
            “I’ll have to ask Ranger Rick to bring his chainsaw over one of these days and cut up that log. But I’ll let Twigg, and the cats have it for a while.  It will make lots of firewood for Ramona!”
            He was so happy that he sang a cheerful little song, and Cherry joined in with giggles and a word or two.
            It sounded like happy thunder with giggles and some Raven knocks.