Photo by Bernard Marschner.
Fairbanks, AK, 2024.
Even for a Forest Kid, Cherry was on
odd one. For one thing, her appearance. She was platinum blond all over and had
pale blue eyes. Maybe she represented a further stage in evolution, if you hold
with that theory. When the direct sunlight hit her she glowed and was a little
hard to look upon. Flashy kid!
It was the middle of summer. Even up
in the woods it was hot! Down in town at sea level, it would have been even hotter. The wind hadn’t
visited the Home Clearing all day. Colors were rich, and drowsy, with that
surreal look, like a Maxfield Parrish painting.
Everyone but Cherry was just about
asleep, even Bob and Berry, which is actually not surprising. Cats are cats,
after all. Heat seekers.
Ramona kept thinking that they all
needed a good dip in the river, but she was so sleepy that she never quite got
it out of her mouth. She was lying down in the cave with the green door open.
Ralph has taken to his log, and was thinking about everything at once, which is
sure to put anyone to sleep. Cherry was beside her mother, but not asleep.
Twigg and the cats were snoozing
under some ferns in the general area somewhere. Though Twigg was getting to be
a quite big boy, he still liked to find a nice place to hang out with the Puma
Bros, in seclusion.
No one with a heart could blame
Cherry for being bored.
She remembered that she had promised
Ralph and Ramona that she would keep her feet on the ground, mostly, especially
if no one had eyes on her. She really did try to obey them.
Besides being airborne sometimes,
Cherry had a few other attributes. One of these was the ability to call animals
to play and chat with her. She did this by singing, like her father did.
Cherry was about the same as a human
six year old, so she knew her way around her neighborhood pretty well. She
usually enjoyed playing with rabbits. Rabbits liked her. They just stayed clear
of Bob and Berry.
She wandered off to rabbit town. Rabbit
town was just a berm of earth really, full of burrows and bunnies. It was just
before you get to the river. Kind of over there. She sang her rabbit calling
song. One sleepy looking mother Cotton Tail came out and looked at her, shook her
head, and went back down into the burrow. “Not today, Sweetie,” she said, as
she disappeared.
Cherry tried the Chickadees. Maybe
they couldn’t hear her. None of them showed up when she sang her bird song to
them.
Well, bees like sunshine. Also, bees
are flying things!
It just happened. She called the
bees, and several of those B.s we met before buzzed right over to Cherry.
Bernice and the girls were tickled to see her. They danced around her head
until she was quite dazzled. The flew up, they flew down. They said they were
looking for flowers, fireweed especially. Would she like to help them find
some, as if they didn’t already know every flower in the Great Forest and surrounding
meadows and fields.
Up went Cherry, surrounded by a
nimbus of yellow and black, furry bees. She accompanied them to a patch of
fireweed out by the Gifting Stump in the meadow. Then they invited her back to
the hive in the little house that Twigg had given them after he had rescued
them from that pickup they were living in before.
She met the queen of all the bees,
Bernadette, who was very pleased to meet Twigg’s little sister. Bernadette
mentioned that Twigg, was, “Friend of all Bees.”
Several of the B.s cut off a nice piece of honeycomb and gave it to her for an afternoon
snack. Cherry got rather sticky as a result.
Cherry didn’t mind being sticky. She
and Bernice and the girls went back to frolicking around the meadow, visiting
more fireweed. It was late afternoon by now.
As it happened, Maeve was coasting
the air currents way up above the same meadow. She couldn’t believe what she
saw down below herself. It looked like Cherry, the little blond urchin, wafting
around down there with a bunch of bees.
She dropped down to investigate this
anomaly.
It was just what it looked like.
Cherry was way far from her mother, flying with bees!
“Cherry, Sweetie,” said Maeve
hovering near. “Where is your mama?”
“She’s sleeping in the cave,” said
Cherry, happily, and stickily.
“Cherry, what if she wakes up and
can’t find you?” said Maeve.
“Oh, no!” said the child, pretty
soberly.
“Let’s take you home now,” said
Maeve. Being an old mother herself, she knew what was what and where the rubber
met the road, if you will allow it, in their case.
Cherry said goodbye to the B.s, who
flew off together promising to visit again. Then Maeve and Cherry cruised along
together. Maeve went slowly to accommodate Cherry who was not fast, just floaty.
When they flew into the Home
Clearing Ramona was still drowsing on the bed, Ralph was still thinking on his
log, Twigg and the Bros were still snoozing under some ferns or something.
“Evermore!” sang Maeve, as loudly as
she could. Ramona woke right up and came out to see what in the world Maeve was
on about.
And there was Cherry, sitting on a
log, as quiet as a mouse, as they say. Maeve looked from Ramona to Cherry, and
back again a couple of times.
Ramona saw that her child was all
covered in honey and bits of stuff which had stuck to her during her day with
the B.s.
“Cherry, what in the world…?” said
the Mother.
“You better tell her,” said Maeve.
So, Cherry confessed and was
forgiven, but made to promise to keep her previous promise about airborne play
when alone.
“I’ve been thinking all day that we
should all go cool down in the river,” said Ramona. “Why don’t you go out and get
Ralph, Maeve, and I will whistle for Twigg, and the cats will come with him,
and we’ll all go swimming!”
Maeve, woke Ralph, saying Ramona
wanted him. So he came right down the path to her.
Ramona whistled, which woke Twigg
and Bob and Berry.
“Let’s all go get in the river, and
wake up,” said Ramona. “Then, we’ll have to see about some dinner. Maybe it
will be fish, right Ralph?”
“Sure, Mona,” said Ralph, grabbing a
bag out of the cave to put the trout in when he talked them into coming to him.
Cherry got a bath, and they all got
cooled off. Ralph and Twigg caught a good lot of large speckled trout. Then
they all trooped home to have a nice fish dinner.
Before bed, Ralph had a little talk
with Cherry.
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