After The Students Took Off

 

            Ralph felt like he had had enough excitement for one day, so he told Ooog, while Thaga was out arranging all those pink and red and white roses in her biggest jug, that he thought he would wander on home. He thought that it might just be getting close to dinner time at the fire circle.
            When Thaga came back, Ralph was gone. “Well! Gone so soon!” she observed.
            “He started thinking about dinner. You could see it on his face,” said Ooog.
            “Ralph loves his dinner almost as much as he loves his Firekeeper,” said Thaga.
 
            Maeve located Ralph on the path to the Home Clearing.
            “What’s going on, Boss,” said she.
            “I decided to visit Ooog and Thaga and I met some students from the big city. I might have clarified some points in their minds, Maevie,” said Ralph, strolling along.
            “Oh! They didn’t know, did they?” said Maeve.
            “Nope, and now they do!” said Ralph.
            “Are they alright?” she asked.
            “Yeah. We ended up buddies!” said Ralph. “It’s all great, Maeve. Every bit of it!”
            She just had to say it. “Evermore!” And she gronked a couple of times for good measure.
 
            When Ralph, with Maeve riding along on his shoulder arrived home, he smelled a rich and tantalizing scent. Roasting pheasants! With lots of garlic, another gift from the Neanderthal’s kitchen garden. Life without garlic just didn’t seem possible now that he thought about it.
            “Mona!” he called, as he approached. “Your pheasants called me home!”
            “Hi, Baby,” said Ramona. “I thought you would turn up pretty soon. So, what’s going on at Thaga’s place? Anything good?”
            Her attention returned to her grid and her pheasants, which just needed one more turn to be perfect.
            Maeve lifted off to go find Twigg and Cherry. She like to help keep an eye on them and nothing works like an eye in the sky for that task.
            “I wanted to see how Ooog was doing in the garden. I thought maybe I could help him or something. I wonder if we could make a little garden somewhere, Mona. I’m not sure where, but maybe along the river somewhere, you know, where there is sunlight. Not under the trees here,” said Ralph.
            She sat down on a log section, still holding her long fork. She looked a little shocked really.
            “I’m not sure that’s a good idea. We are Forest Keepers, Ralph. Not farmers. I think I heard a story a long time ago about human people having to leave a perfect garden and begin working hard to make their own gardens. It felt like a warning,” she said. “Maybe it would be best to live the life we have been given?
            “Even before Ooog and Thaga started sharing their nice things with us, we were living a good life here in the forest,” she said.
            “That’s true,” said Ralph. “We didn’t have garlic and salt and pans, but we did alright. I suppose there is a place to stop changing. It’s just a matter of finding where that place is!”
            “I think gardening might be a step too far,” said Ramona. “Learning to speak with humans was a huge step, but we seem to have weathered it alright!”
            “Yeah, I think it has been nothing but helpful, to be able to communicate with our human friends. Oh, of course you’re right, Mona.
            “It’s almost like that photo thing, gardening like mankind might affect our definition too much. I don’t want to be some kind of monster hybrid thing,” said Ralph. “I want to stay here forever with you.”
            “Me too, Ralph. That’s what I want,” said Ramona.
            “By the way, what did happen at Thaga’s place?” she added, remembering to ask, finally.
            “I met some students. Well, I surprised some students by opening the door and letting myself in. I didn’t know they had those two there. They had come to interview Ooog and Thaga about something to do with who they were and all that. So, anyhow I popped into the living room, the girl took one look at me and fainted. Then the boy started trying to get his camera to work!” giggled Ralph.
            “That never works!” said Ramona. “Was the girl okay?”
            “She woke up. It took her a minute or two. But, she discovered that I wasn’t the bogeyman after all, and we all parted friends!
            “So next week, same time, I’m to stay away so Harold’s cameras and stuff will work!”
            Ramona laughed. “Good idea!”
            Twigg and Cherry, running with Bob and Berry, arrived with Maeve flying circles over their heads just for fun. Then it was dinner time.
            Ramona laid the pheasants out on her little stump table and sliced them up into nice serving pieces. She served the children while Ralph watched affectionately. Then she served himself. Then she gave the cats two nice servings on ground level on some clean leaves. She put a nice piece in a bowl on one of the logs for Maeve.
Finally, she fixed a serving for herself, and sat down, well pleased with her work.
            The sun began to go down, and all creatures began to feel a bit sleepy.
            The morning, and the midday, and the evening had made a very fine day in the great forests of the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, and Ralph's kingdom.