Now, Just A Minute, Ralph?

 

 

            Milly was still sitting there toasting her toes by the fire. She was in no hurry to get up and leave, and she was thinking, trying to find a flaw in Ralph’s logic, if the truth were known. Not to get the better of him, but to make sure she had it right.
            “But, Ralph, yes, that sounds great and it makes a whole bunch of sense to me,” said Milly.
            “If their overarching rule is a territorial rule, then it makes sense that even very angry, but sane, Hairy Men would be stymied by the ollie ollie oxen free aspect of a person running home to even a flimsy shack and slamming the door.
            “It also makes sense that they would feel free to scare invasive humans out of their home areas, mostly forests I think,” she went on.
            “But there’s a problem with that whole picture of clear dividing lines, who goes where and who is out of line. You know what it is?” asked Milly.
            “I know. But I’m keeping my beak out of it,” said Maeve from her boss’ shoulder, obviously not keeping  her beak out of it. She peered sharply at the side of Ralph’s head, waiting for an answer.
            Ralph put his elbows on his knees and started twiddling his thumbs, probably a sign of thought, Milly reckoned.
            “I bet I can guess,” he said. “You’re talking about something that would blur the lines, aren’t you?”
            “Maybe the lines look blurrier from this side, but yeah. That’s it. One of the constant complaints I hear people making about Sasquatch, et al, is that they steal anything edible that’s available, if they want it.
            “Cattle, sheep, chickens, goats, fruit, vegetables, even animal feed is taken. Ralph, how does this square with the innate territorial mindset of the Hairy Men?” said Milly, falling silent, with her arm around Cherry and gazing into the flames.
            “It seems to me,” said Ramona, “that one of the things we have to remember is that, like Ralph just said, we, the group of Forest Keepers in general, are not all the same thing. Some are quite feral, some get to know human people and are quite comfortable with you, more or less, depending!
            “None of us here in the Home Clearing would go to Ooog’s house and steal a chicken. We know that stealing is animalistic actually. It takes culture to see that it's destructive. We understand that things can still be in a person’s territory even outside the walls. That’s hard for some hunters to realize.”
            “OK, that makes some kind of sense to me,” said Milly.
            “Yeah,” said Ralph. “Remember those four outback type young male Forest Guys who came to Constance’s wedding? Remember how they messed Ferdy up before the wedding, like some kind of primitives? Well, those guys almost would bust in the door of a house, I’m afraid, and to them a chicken in a yard is the same as a wild turkey in the woods. If you look at it from their point of view, it makes sense. Also, they don’t care what humans think about it.”
            “OK. That explains it. I suspect it’s a misunderstanding that is going to continue, isn’t it?” said Milly. “Outdoors is fair game because they don’t understand ownership, only territory.”
            “Hmph,” said Maeve. “I think some of them do understand ownership. It’s just that they think it’s transferable by thievery! I wonder what would happen to a man who went out to the forest and took his goose or whatever back?”
            “He might get clobbered, Birdie, because the guy who stole the goose would figure it was his goose now!” said Ralph, but he was giggling, which is always a little disconcerting to watch, considering the size and awesomeness of himself. “That’s kind of a shifty concept of ownership, by the way.”
            “Well,” said Milly, “apparently there is human nature, such as it is. Think bad monkeys unless they know better! But, also, there is Hairy Man nature, which is just as all over the place!”
            “Pretty much,” said Ralph.
            “Oh, I guess I’d better go on home. Colin will be waiting,” said Milly. “Thanks for the interview, Ralph. I’m not sure if it will translate into a newspaper column, but it might, though I have never heard anybody else ask the question I had for you.”
            “Nope. Nobody ever asked me that one before, Ms. Price!” said Ralph.
            Twigg wasn’t home yet. He was doing something with the bees, probably. So Cherry and Blue were allowed to walk Milly out to the highway. Cherry did some of her famous floating on the way.
            “Thanks for the candy and chips, Milly,” said Cherry before she went back into the woods.
            “You’re welcome, Sweetheart,” said Milly. She watched until Cherry and Blue were safely on their way back to the fire circle.
            Then she climbed into that big old Cadillac SUV, turned it around, and headed back into Milltown. She liked to get home before dark, and dark came so early in November.

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