What A Morning Cherry Had!

 

            It was very quiet in the cave when awareness returned to her. Her eyes were still closed, but she knew her mother and her father were not breathing in the big bed between her little nest and the door.
            Lazily, breathing softly, she listened for sounds. There was some muffled speech beyond the door. Mother and Father talking. A low rumble and a higher answer. Sounds of wind, plucking at the door.
            The wolf, Blue, slept at her feet, curled into a white furry circle on top of the quilt. If she didn’t move, Blue would sleep on. The Puma Bros. must have gone out with Ralph or Ramona. Their ledge was empty.
            Twigg crossed her mind. He and Leely were on their great adventure far away. She knew he thought of her too.
            “Blue!” Cherry whispered, “Let’s go outside!”
            Blue leapt up and ran to the door, waiting for Cherry to catch up.
            Cherry threw off her quilt, made of many colorful fabrics by her dearly loved Thaga, and she stretched. She was getting to be a bigger girl these days. She had long legs for a young child. She threw her legs over the side of the bed and stood up, then she and Blue went outside.
            Outside, it was still just before spring. A slight breeze lifted her platinum curls a little. A shiver passed through her body, and she hurried to the fire.
            “Oh, hi, Honey,” said Ramona. “Are you hungry?”
            Cherry nodded, and Ramona gave her a bowl with two boiled and shelled eggs in it. She also gave Blue a bowl with three eggs in it, set on the forest floor, because that was most convenient for Blue.
            Thaga kept chickens and she shared eggs with Ramona frequently.
            “Mona, I’m still thinking about that floor. One idea I had was to put a layer of sand down and then set nice smooth flat rocks in the sand. What do you think of that?” said Ralph. He was nibbling on some boiled eggs too, and drinking coffee.
            “It sounds pretty,” said Ramona. “Also, it would be easy to take up and change around.”
            “Are you ready for some mint tea, Cherry?” Ramona asked her child. Cherry nodded again.         
            “Another idea is to split nice straight tree trunks and lay them in there flat side up, with some kind of support underneath to keep them up off the ground. I was thinking that a circle of rocks could do that. Ooog would have to figure out how to get them not to shift around.
            “What would you rather walk on?” said Ralph. This wasn’t their first floor discussion. It had been going on, off and on, for a few days.
            “Well, Baby. I walk on stone in the cave and that seems fine to me!” said Ramona.
            “I wonder how Leely would like a smooth stone floor?” said Ralph.
            Cherry’s attention wandered from her parent’s conversation. She looked around the familiar landscape of her home, looking at it with a rather more mature vision than before. She was growing up a bit. It seemed perfect to her. The ancient firs stood guard all around the clearing where they all lived. Spring was definitely on its way. She could see it in the slightly swelling buds on the tips of the branches of undergrowth. There was even a little bit of new grass, shyly pushing up.
            A shadow passed over Cherry. It was Maeve coming in for a landing on Ralph’s shoulder.
            “Spring is coming,” she said.
            Both adults nodded, silently.
            “Let’s go for a walk, Blue,” said Cherry. Blue was agreeable, so together they walked toward the rabbit town. She wondered if any of the cottontail tribe would be out and around this morning. It was that time of year when the new bunnies are born, so the mothers were probably all tucked into their burrows caring for new members of the families.
            The cottontails weren’t afraid of Blue anymore. She had promised not to chase them, and she didn’t! They raised their children to trust her.
            In fact, the mothers made up stories about the wolf-who-protects.
            Now, Cherry knew all of these forest rabbits by name. Up the path she saw Leaper, a father of many children, but something was wrong with him. He lay still on the path. His fur was wet from nighttime rain.
            “Leaper!” she said. “You’re all wet! Time to get up and go inside!”
            Cherry sat on the path beside Leaper. Blue crouched near too.
            She thought about Leaper and made him a song, for him only. It was a new song. She called it Time To Wake Up Now. She sang it once. Nothing changed, he still lay there.
            She sang it again, with her hand on Leaper’s head. Her eyes were closed. She sang again.
            When she opened her eyes, he was moving, and his eyes opened. She sang again.
            “You’re right, Cherry!” he said, and sat right up on his haunches, looking all around, as if a bit confused. “I must go home! There are new children!” he said.
            “Goodbye, Cherry,” said Leaper. “It was nice to see you!”
            “Goodbye, Leaper,” she said to him as he shook off some of the rainwater because he didn’t want to get the inside of his burrow wet. Then he was gone.
            Cherry and Blue watched quietly for a minute.
            “Let’s go back to the fire, Blue,” she said. “I think I would like another egg. Would you like some more too?”
            So, they went back to sit with Ramona, Ralph and Maeve and have a little more breakfast. After a while she told them about Leaper and how he was wet and sleeping in the path, but then he woke up and went home when she sang for him.

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