A Fish Dinner in the Great Forest

 

            And it came to pass in the lovely ripe fall of that selfsame year, that a newly courageous Dexter, and winsome blond Hannah were called to have dinner with Ralph and Ramona at the Home Clearing one early evening.
            Maeve, the great Raven, came to them as they sat conversing near the campground on a handsome wooden bench which had been provided for the rest of those who walked the nearby paths.
            “Children,” she said, when she had come to rest between them on the back of the bench, “Ralph wishes me to invite you to come and have a dinner with he and Ramona and Cherry and of course Blue, and Bob, and Berry, this very night.”
            “We are pleased and honored, Ma’am, to accept his invitation,” said Dexter.
            “Of course we will come,” added Hannah.
            “This is good, very good,” said Maeve, black and sleek and bright of eye.
            “Are you ready?” inquired Maeve.
            “I believe we are ready. Shall we come now?” said Dexter.
            “They are waiting for you! Yes, now. Follow me in please,” answered Maeve.
            So, feeling a kind of grandeur in the moment, Dexter and Hannah followed Maeve who flew above them as slowly as she could manage. In a kind of procession they walked down through the campground, greeting some of the campers, who had gotten to know them and be friendly with them.
            “Is that big raven with you guys?” said a woman, amazed.
            “We are with her,” said Hannah.
            “May I take a photo?” said a young man.
            “Of course you may,” said Dexter. So, he and Hannah stood there in the last of the setting sunlight, holding hands, and Maeve stood between them, so everyone could be in the same frame.
            “I will get it printed and give you a copy,” said the guy, turning back to his tent.
            “Thanks!” said Hannah.
            Rick’s truck was still parked in its usual spot. It was late but he was still there. When he saw them walking he popped out of the office, sensing something.
            “What’s the occasion?” he called to them.
            “Dinner, with Ralph and Ramona and the family,” said Dexter.
            “Oh! Nice! Tell everyone hello from me!” said Rick.
            “We will!” said Dexter.
            They entered the Forest by the usual path which is hidden behind the station dumpster. The Forest enfolded them gently. The path was straight and wide. An owl commented quietly. The wind tossed a few yellow maple leaves down before them as they walked.
            Berry and Bob met them on the trail, turning and walking before them, as they liked to do with special guests. They both looked very wise, but didn’t speak.          
            Before long, they entered the Home Clearing. There was a fire burning, and Dexter and Hannah waved and hurried to greet Ralph and Ramona where they sat. The air was filled with the delicious scent of some fishy dish of Ramona’s.
            Cherry met them halfway to the fire, taking Hannah’s hand, and Blue walked beside them both.
            “Dexter! Hannah! Thanks for coming!” called Ralph, and it seemed as if the trees shook a little, such as from a very small earthquake.
            “Welcome,” said Ramona. “What a fine night it is,” she continued with a smile.
            Ramona sat them together on one of those logs by the fire.
            “I am Ramona, and this is Cherry,” she said, since Dexter had never met her or Cherry or been within the Great Forest himself.
            It was a fish night, and there were roasted potatoes, thanks to Ooog. There was mint tea, in mugs, and afterwards a bowl of toasted hazelnuts. There were figs from Ooog’s orchard. Everything was perfectly lovely. At the end, Ramona made a pot of coffee.
            Hannah helped Cherry gather up all the cups and bowls to wash at the river in the morning. Just as she was sitting back down beside Dexter, many small colored lights began to gather in the tops of the firs. At first they seemed like a kind of stars.
            They grew larger and began to drift down nearer the forest floor, filling the Home Clearing with soft colorful light. No one seemed surprised except Hannah and Dexter.
            “Aren’t they pretty?” said Ramona. “They come around at special times.”
            “It’s like a dream,” said Hannah.
            “How can it be?” said Dexter, as if to himself, softly.
            Ralph smiled.
            “Do you know why I called you tonight?" said Ralph.
            “I was wondering,” answered Dexter, but he looked as if something was being revealed to him.
            “I think I know, Sir,” said Hannah suddenly. Her eyes sparkled and her cheeks were a little pink.
            “Yes. I think it’s time, don’t you two?” said Ralph very kindly. “Right now before all these small heavenly messengers and the Maker Himself. and Ramona and me? And also Maeve, who observes all?”
            “I do think it’s time,” said Dexter. Hannah nodded.
            So, Ralph had them stand together holding hands while the small sweet lights drifted overhead, and like many times before with other young or not so young lovers, he led them in promises of love and faithfulness.
            He helped them speak their own vows, and then he blessed them in a mighty prayer.
            There are always some tears at a wedding, and this one was no exception. Ramona and Hannah both wept some happy tears.
            They all talked and laughed until it was nearly morning. Maeve helped Dexter and Hannah negotiate the path out of the Great Forest.
            As the sun was just rising, Dexter and Hannah went home to the little mobile up in the campground parking lot.
            The green crown was still in her fridge and it was still green.

🍁💚🍁

Let Us Be Friends Forever and Ever

 

            Rick was smiling when Hannah and Dexter came into his office, because he had been wondering what in the world it would take to get them together. And now he knew. It took a skinned knee.
            “Hannah, come and sit down. What happened to you?” said Rick, heading to the kitchen nook, where he kept the first aid kit. When he came back into the room he handed the first aid box to Dexter.
            “I was walking up into the campground, and I tripped. I don’t know what I tripped on. I don’t remember anything except landing on the ground with a skinned knee and torn pants,” said Hannah.
            “Why don’t you sit on my desk? It’ll give Dexter better access to your knee,” said Rick.
            “Can you pull your jeans up above your knee,” said Dexter, who found himself in charge without noticing it happening.
            So, Hannah hopped up on Rick’s desk and pulled her jeans leg up above her knee. Both men examined the wound and decided it wasn’t very serious. Dexter swabbed it off with some kind of antibiotic wipe. Then he very gingerly smoothed a drop of Neosporin over the scuffed area, and put a large Band-Aid over it.
            “Thanks, Dexter,” said Hannah, who climbed down off the desk and pulled her pant leg back into place. “Didn’t hurt a bit hardly,” she said.
            All three stood quietly for a moment. Then Rick said, “Why don’t you walk her up to her place? If you see any campers looking lost and bewildered, you can help them out.”
            By the time they left the ranger station office, evening was coming down. The sky was deep purplish blue, and the great trees stood in dark relief. A little sigh of cool wind blew past them, reminding them that fall was coming some day soon. It was a summer night, the sweetest of times.
            Hannah tried not to limp, and Dexter tried not to walk too fast for her.
            There were a couple of RVs pulled into the longer parking spots. Lights shone from their windows, and it smelled of cooking in the campground. One yellow tent was lit from inside, causing it to appear rather unworldly sitting there glowing in the dimming light.
            Hannah’s small mobile sat in darkness. She fished her key out of her pocket and unlocked the door.
            “Would you like to come in,” said the girl.
            “Yes,” said the boy.
            She turned on the kitchen light and opened a couple of windows to let out the stale air.
            “I could make coffee,” she suggested.
            “I wouldn’t mind coffee,” said Dexter.
            “Why don’t you sit, and I’ll do that,” she said.
            So, he sat and watched her boil water and set up her French press.
            “Hannah,” he said, “you are beautiful and wise. I like you very much.”
            “I like you very much too. But I didn’t know how much until today. We could be friends forever and ever and it wouldn’t be too long.”
            “Maybe someday we could marry, and always be best friends,” said Dexter.
            “I think maybe we could do that. I feel like I’m pretending, but I’m not,” said Hannah.
            She laughed a little, then went to her fridge and brought out the green crown that Cherry had made. She put it on her head to demonstrate how neat it looked. It had been in the fridge to keep it fresh. She struck a couple of poses, and he took out his phone and took a couple of photos of her in the crown.
            “Would you like to try it on?” said Hannah, more seriously.
            “OK,” said Dexter.
            Hannah put the green crown on Dexter’s head, and suddenly he looked different. His red hair and pale skin and blue eyes contrasted with the green of the leaves.
            “You look like some kind of mythic king, Dexter,” said Hannah.
            She made several photos of him as he posed it up a little. There was a fair amount of giggling.
            They both took their coffee with cream and sugar in large brown mugs.
            “I better go home. I will have to be back here in the morning at 8AM.”
            “I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said.
            “Lock your door, Hannah. I don’t want anything to  happen to you, now that we are friends forever.”
            “Don’t worry. Ralph and Maeve are nearby and they keep watch, Dexter. No fear,” said Hannah.
            She hugged him around his slender middle, and he kissed the top of her head as if she were a beloved child. She laughed and gave him a little smooch on his lips.
            Then Dexter went home, and Hannah went to bed. Both had work in the morning.
            Her knee didn’t bother her too much, but she had to get out another pair of jeans for the next day.

💚

It Was One Of Those Days, An Open Thread

Shiro Kasamatsu

"Summer Night," woodblock print, 1957

Since I do so enjoy dabbling in cans of worms,

I thought I would mention,

That I think Earth's old creation myths and such,

Were attempts to understand,

The World Without End.

The nature of Eternity,

The structure of the Universe,

And all like that.

They weren't just stupid primitives

Thinking up nonsense for drill.

I mean-

A stack of turtles going down forever?

What else could that be about?

Selah?

Ralph would say, "where you are now, is where you will be."

"Take care of now."

Love, Ralph

Love

Period

Suzy and Toots would advise Purring™!

💮🖤💮

I Went For A Ride With Bubble Woman

 

Coming into Everett on the trestle.

Her Kia is very interesting on the inside.

It was warm and sunny out there today!

Worth*Every*Cent

Then she made some bubbles in the alley, though they are hard to see!

That was our field trip today.

She also shot bubbles out of the car window all along the way!

It was a pretty good field trip.

PS, fall is coming!

🍁🖤🍁

A New Entry from Maurice

 

Dear Book:
            I know it’s been a long time since I wrote on your pages. I lost my pen. It must have been the last time I wrote, but I looked and looked and it was gone.
            I couldn’t borrow one, because, well, nobody in the Great Forest has a pen. Not even Ramona!
            So, I was in the kitchen in this old house. There is no food here. I already looked. I was looking out of the kitchen window. There used to be a garden behind the house, but it’s all baby trees out there now.
            I decided to look in drawers and cupboards for a pencil or something I didn’t notice before because I was looking for something I could eat. Well, guess what Book? There was a pencil in the drawer by the sink. It’s yellow, and cracked, and the eraser is gone. I guess I better not make mistakes!
            So then I decided to sit down and think about writing something. I practiced a little with the pencil, but I needed to chew some of the wood off the end so it would make a line. That’s what I was doing when I heard somebody walking outside.
            I’m a howler. A howler is not a dog. I was smelling a lot of dog. Too much dog. It was like super doggy. Man, Book, it was rank!
            Rank and stank rhyme, funny!
            I had one of those turkeys Ramona cooks. It was leftover from dinner, so she gave it to me last night. I couldn’t eat with that stank going on. Then there was a big loud crash right across the room from my bed on the floor. Something broke the door open. I was never able to get it open. Well, Book, it was open now.
            A thing that looked like a dog, but too big, like nearly as tall as Ralph big, stood sniffing at the doorway and then came in here! He was walking on two legs like me or a man, or a Forest Man, or a chicken. I didn’t know whether to run, or fight!
            I don’t think he knew I was here.
            “Hey,” I said. He kind of jumped and stared at me.
            “Who are you?” said this doggy giant thing, baring his big teeth at me.
            “Maurice, a true Howler,” said I.
            “I want that bird,” said the dog.
            “So do I,” I said. “Who are you?”
            “Gnrr,” he said. I didn’t know if that was a name or a threat of some kind.
            “Just hold on.” I said. “Didn’t Ralph send you away once?”
            “Gnrr don’t owe anything to that big monkey,” he said. So it was a name after all.
            He was black as the bottom of a bucket of used oil. All I could see was teeth and red eyeballs.
            “You want to go talk to Ralph about that?” said I to the big dope.
            “Ah, crap, no. Don’t tell Ralph!” and he snuffled a little bit. What a pup!
            “Sit down, why don’t you? We can both eat this turkey. I won’t tell if you shove off. Ralph won’t want you hanging around,” I said as kindly as I could, considering who I was inviting to dinner.
            I kid you not, Book, me and the dog thing ate turkey together. He finished off the bones too. There wasn’t a grease spot left when we were done. He licked the floor!
            “Don’t tell Ralph,” said Gnrr.
            “Oh, he probably already knows,” said I, by way of encouragement. Book, you should have seen him!
            “I’m out. Think I’ll walk down to town,” he said. Then all 8 or 9 foot of the dog stood up and took off, leaving nothing but a whiff of super canine behind.
            I went and pushed the door back into place. That’s all. The visit was over.
            I’m going to be careful not to lose this pencil. I don’t think there is another one in the whole Great Forest, unless you count the campground, which isn’t really in the Great Forest, just close to it.
 
Maurice, a true Howler

🐺

A Holiday Is Born

 

            “This is war!” said Suzy.
            “That’s right, Suzy,!” said Toots, firmly.
            “Shall we tell them who our sworn enemy is?” said Suzy.
            “There is no question. It’s fleas,” said Toots. “Besides fleas, any other foe pales to insignificance!”
            “They are more insidious, and more opportunistic, than even raccoons or, in fact, mice,” said Suzy.
            “Therefore any weapon used against them is justified,” said Toots.
            “We propose, in that regard, a holiday to raise awareness,” said Suzy.
 

🌎DIATOMACEOUS EARTH DAY🌎

 
            “How’s that you say? How on earth, ahem, could a bunch of crushed diatoms help in the eternal battle against fleas?” said Toots. “Well let us explain, and you’ll see it right away!”
            “How it works is this. Diatoms lived in ancient lakes, and they are made of like, glass. Over a really long time they get deposited on the bottom of these lakes, then the lakes dry up and they get fossilized.
            “People dig the fossilized diatoms up and grind them into diatomaceous earth!” said Toots.
            “The cool thing about ground up diatoms is that it’s like a whole bunch of tiny broken glass pieces and they pierce all bugs, including fleas!” said Toots. “That’s it! They dry up!”
            “Dust it all over your carpets and floors, be careful, because it’s slippery on wood or linoleum floors. Then you vacuum it up in a few days!” said Suzy.
            “It’s not toxic to cats, or anybody else,” said Toots. “Except BUGS!”
            “Don’t breathe it in,” said Suzy.
            “You’re welcome,” said Toots!
            “July 26! Diatomaceous Earth Day!  Dig it!” said Suzy.
            Both girls dissolve into giggles……

🐈🖤🐈

Remembering A Summer

 

That's the Seattle Art Museum at Volunteer Park in the background there.

            Listening to these fans blowing yesterday, drowsing by my desk, brought a memory to mind of the only time in my life I lived alone.
            I was done with the community college here in Everett, and had moved to Seattle for the summer. I lived in a brick three story building by Volunteer Park, on Capitol Hill. I was working in a factory south of town sewing mostly what we call puffer jackets now. I worked in several of these places when I was a big kid. I still dream about the machines and the big noisy rooms and working just as fast as I could manage to.
            I have no idea what I ate, or cooked. I know I didn’t have much money.
            I took the Metro bus to work every day and then back home. I saw mostly the same characters on the bus every day. We never spoke.
            Just being there in the city fascinated me. I knew Seattle of course, but the last time I had lived there I was 6 years old. Then we moved out to the woods, but I’ve told that whole story before.
            It was a hot summer. I remember evenings with my window open, elbows on the ledge, just watching the light go down, and the city street, with strangers walking by. There were big old trees along the street. There was a scent to it, and a sound, so foreign to home. Distant traffic makes a kind of song.
            I was mostly listening to jazz at that point. It must have been on the radio. I didn’t have a record player, though I did possess a couple of albums. Bill Evans, Wes Montgomery, Miles Davis, and others.
            There was a crosswalk on my corner. To help blind people cross I guess, it had a beep. I heard that beep until it got into my jazzy head. I remember a scrap of verse from those nights alone in the dark watching the city.
            Why, when fan sings, do birds buy night’s phony beep-cheep?”
            That’s it. All I remember. Apparently some birds responded to the sound, or I thought they did. I’m afraid I wrote an awful lot of verse.
            It has to have been the summer of 1968, quite a year, in all.
            Then I moved back home, went to the UW for a few quarters, and the rest of my life happened.  
            But for one breathless hot summer, man, I was cool!

🏙️

The Man Who Fell Into His Tree

 

            Something woke Max in the middle of the night. It wasn’t noise. Not at first anyhow.
            It was light.
            You know how a person becomes accustomed to the ambient sounds around home, and the usual smells, and the normal level of light. It all depends on where a person lives. If there is traffic nearby, there will be headlights through open curtains. If a person lives in the woods or on a farm there are only the sun, moon, and stars, and whatever yard lights and such.
            Max and Judy lived on a one acre hobby farm in the suburbs of a small city in western Washington state. Max was retired so  he was there most of the time, tending his trees, raised garden boxes, and a flock of busy hens. It was a nice life.
            Outside Max’s bedroom window, on the far side of the lawn, next to the woods, was a an old maple. It has been there before the house was built and the garden made. It was late summer, and the bedroom window was open. Max and Judy believed in fresh air at night.
            Something changed enough to make Max open his eyes. Judy slept on. Something was different outside. He sat up to take a look around. The room was fine. Totally normal.
            So, he went to the window to take a look out there.
            There was a globe of yellow light, a normal color, about the size of a cantaloupe melon moving around among the leaves of the ancient maple. Max’s first thought was that someone with a large flashlight had climbed his tree and was up there moving around for some unaccountable reason.
            “Judy, wake up. I’m going outside. Some nut is up in the maple with a light,” said Max.
            “What? Don’t go out there! Just call the police,” said sleepy Judy, up on one elbow.
            He put on his terry robe, and said, “It won’t take long. I’ll  just tell them to get out of the tree and go home. I bet it’s some nut who thinks it’s a magical tree or something.”
            “If I don’t come back, then you can call the cops,” said Max, barefoot, stomping out of the bedroom and to the backdoor of their house.
            The night was like night often is. Cool, a bit of dampness to the air, quiet in a sort of impending way. There was traffic noise from the freeway a few miles away, and he could see lights here and there in neighbor’s houses. The grass was in need of a mow and covered in dew.
            When Max got to his tree, the light was still up there, moving slowly around as if it was taking inventory of the leaves.
            “Get out of the tree!” Max ordered. Nothing changed. Not at all.
            There was a bench under this old tree, made of wrought iron, painted green.
            “If you don’t come down, I will come up there and make you get down,” called Max.
            It was kind of a rash threat to be made by a man pushing seventy years, barefoot, and in a bathrobe. But, Max climbed up on the iron bench and threw a leg over the lowest branch. Then he grabbed a higher branch with his right hand.
            The yellow light moved up higher into the tree.
            He couldn’t see any person associated with the big yellow light, but he was so sure that he hefted himself up onto the second branch. Sitting there, on a branch in his maple tree, in the middle of the night, Max noticed a sort of ringing sound, very high register, like you might imagine, if you were so inclined, that fairies might make by ringing fairy bells. It made him
 feel something or remember something, but he couldn’t quite place it. It felt like a memory but had no attached data. He frowned, working on it, trying to remember.
            Then there was an odor. Not unpleasant, but strong. The smell of sap, and crushed leaves. And while he was listening to the fairy bells, and smelling the green sappy scent, the night changed all around Max. It was as if he were in another place. He fell.
            He landed plop, right on his bottom on a stoney slope. He was in twilight, and surrounded by millions of wee lights, starlike, but not stars. Perhaps they were more like fireflies, though he had never seen fireflies at home.
            While Max was sitting on the stone surface, some small figures ran by  him laughing. He couldn’t really see them well at all. “Gotcha!” one yelled as they ran past.
 
            It was then that Judy woke for real. “Oh!” she said, remembering what Max had told her before he went out. It felt like it must have been some time too.
            “Oh!,” she said, and threw her feet onto the floor. “Oh, no!”
            Wearing only a granny nightie, Judy padded rapidly into the kitchen, and reached down into a lower cabinet. What she pulled out of there was a five pound bucket of honey of known provenance, real honey, the real stuff.
            Then white cotton billowing behind her, Judy ran out the same way Max had. There was no light in the maple tree, and the bench was knocked over.
            “Oh, no, they di’n’t!” she muttered in her Appalachian accent, picking up the bench.
            Judy put the bucket of real honey on the grass under the branches of the ancient maple  The she stood back.
            “Take this honey, and give me back mine!” said Judy, like she meant it.
            “Give him back!,” she called, saying a few words in some old language nobody speaks anymore.
            It was quiet for a while, a standoff. Negotiations, bargains, who knows?
            A small figure the size of a cottontail rabbit ran out of the darkness and grabbed the bucket and disappeared again.
            It was quiet again for several minutes. Judy waited, and did not lessen her pressure.
 
            Max fell off of the branch he had been sitting on. Plop, he landed right on the iron bench, looking startled to find himself there.
            “Why have you been out here so long?” said Judy. “I was worried about you!”
            “I saw a light in the tree, I think,” said Max. “I came to see who was in the tree.”
            “You must have sat down and gone to sleep,” said Judy.
            “I think I did, Judy! I think I came out here and sat down and went to sleep,” said Max.
            “I  had a funny dream though, but it’s fading.”
            “We may as well stay up now,” Judy said. “Morning is nearly here. I’ll start breakfast and why don’t you have a shower and warm up?”
            Max agreed that a shower sounded nice about then, and then breakfast after.
            Before they went back into the house, Judy turned and gave the tree a long deep blue-eyed look.

💙

           

Any Little Road Anywhere, Open Thread

 

The best thing ever, I think.

No particular destination,

A mystery to be followed to its end.

Timeless.

Don't you think so?

🍁🖤🍁

A Trip To A Lumpy Little Mewn

 

            It was a heck of a hot day. Suzy was sitting on the black chair grooming her side in a sleepy, desultory manner. Something kept disturbing her little noodle.
            Maybe someone wanted to talk to her. Since she only ever talked to Toots by KittyComm™, she figured it must be Toots!
            It was Toots!
            “Suzy? Are you there?” said Toots. (telepathically, of course)
            “Mrrrp?” said Suzy, sleepily.
            “You want to get out of  here?” said Toots.
            “Wha? I’m not there. I’m here!” said Suzy.
            “Don’t mess with me, Suzy. It’s too hot for that nonsense. You were joking, right?” said Toots.
            “The weather is stupid here too. Where do you want to go?” said Suzy, squinting at a spot on her paw, wondering if it had always been there.
            "Boss was listening to a video. Two guys, Jesse and Max. There were talking about a mewn. Not this mewn. Another one. Around Mrrrz. Remember Mrrrz? Yeah, well, it’s got this lumpy little mewn and on this mewn there is a mondolith,” said Toots.
            “What’s a mondolith?”
            “Maybe they said megalith. People want to know what’s in this megalith,” said Toots.
            “Back up a minute,” said Suzy. “Is it a building? What, they think it’s full of aliens?”
            “They don’t know! We could be the first to check it out, Suzy! Think about it. If we could just communicate it, we could be famous. First cats in a megalith, on Phobos, I think that’s the mewn’s name.”
            “It sounds like ‘big rock thing.’ What if it’s just a big rock thing and nobody was ever there?”
            “You know, it’s cold in space?” said Toots. “Not that it makes a heck of a lot of difference to cats on an Exoprowl. Still….”
            “I’m sold. Let’s do it,” said Suzy.

***

            And before you could say Holly Golly Buttered Biscuit, the girls were off.
            First they hovered about our own blue planet, noting with approval how beautiful it was.
            “Let’s press on to Mrrrz,” said Toots. And in a cosmic blink they floated in orbit over Mrrrz, looking for the lumpy little mewn.
            They had to orbit Mrrrz a couple times before they spotted it. But at last….
            “It’s awfully small, and it’s not round!” said Suzy. “Where is its megalith?”
            “We better go down there and check. Maybe it’s all human malarkey! We must search,” said Toots resolutely.
            So, round and round the little mewn they orbited, altering their orbit each time to see more of the surface. Finally, they saw something that looked way too big to have just happened like stuff usually does. It didn’t look like a hill, a crater, a desert, or anything natural, and it was way too tall.
            “That must be it,” said Toots.
            “It looks like a messed up skyscraper,” said Suzy.
            “It’s probably old,” said Toots.
            “How old could it be?” said Suzy, dubiously. (Cats don’t grok time much.)
            It was very tall and thin for a building. It was dark in material, and dark inside. No lights brightened its windows. There were many stories. If there had ever been glass in those windows, it was eons gone.
            “I’m afraid,” said Suzy. “It looks scary!”
            “Remember we are intelligently curious as well as Cautious™, Dear,” said Toots.
            “Very well,” said Suzy. “I must remember we aren’t really here; we’re just looking!”
            “That’s right, let’s try this window here,” said Toots.
            Inside, there was a room with a regular flat floor. In the smaller room off that one there was a table. On the table were four plates and some odd looking implements. On the plates were some ancient ghosts of scraps of food.
            Around the table were four things much like stools, two were knocked over, and two just sat back from the table.
            It looked like whoever had been there had left in a hurry.
            “I wonder what they looked like,” said Suzy.
            “Now, that could be scary. Maybe you don’t really want to know that,” said Toots.
            There were 15 floors, and each one showed signs of rapid departure. They found drawers hanging open. Tools scattered. Broken machinery.
            There were closets open with contents spilling out. The remaining clothing appeared to be some sort of uniform, roughly hominid in configuration. These garments appeared to have been dark green with some kind of shining insignia.
            The girls began to wonder  if the inhabitants had left voluntarily or if something else had happened to them.
            Floor by floor it was the same, all the way down to the bottom.
            The very bottom floor was a single large room. Doors opened out onto the rough surface as it they had stood open forever. The floor was covered in fine grey dust in drifts. Whoever had lived and worked here was long long gone.
            “Toots, look at that,” said Suzy. She was staring at an image engraved into the black stone wall.
            “It’s a cat! An impossibly regal and mighty cat! An ancient ancestor of all cats, surely, Suzy,” whispered Toots, in awe.
            And so it was. Carved into the stone was a great tabby, stripes and all, wearing one of the green uniforms they had seen upstairs. The image was huge, far over the size of an Earth lion.
            “We’ll never know why they left, or how, but we know one thing,” said Toots.
            “Yes!” said Suzy. “Cats were here first!”
            “Not those bossy talking monkeys!” said Toots.
            “How will we ever tell them?” laughed Suzy.
            “I don’t know! Maybe someday they will figure it out themselves,” said Toots, “Oh, let’s go home.”
            It was nearly night, and starting to cool down when the girls got back home, each to her own little world on Earth. Each held in her heart the knowledge that cats had been to the mewn of Mrrrz first, and that was enough.
            The megalith continued its vigil. 
 

🌖

A KittyComm™ Transmission:

 

 
            “Good morning, Earthlings! We hope you are seated comfortably and are fortified with fresh mugs of coffee, whatever that is!” said Suzy from her location somewhere in the house.
            “Yes! This won’t take long, but a question has come up, and we want to address it,” said Toots, also located somewhere, undisclosed.
            “Some have impugned our courage!” said Suzy.
            “That’s right! Some, I won’t say who, ahem, have equated a rational state of caution with raw fear! Nonsense!” said Toots. “Any ninny should be able to see the difference.”
            “There is a huge difference. How would you describe it, Dear,” said Suzy.
            “Caution™ is required in a state of intelligent Courage. It’s a weighing of the options available in a certain situation, and choosing the best course of action. Courage is not a reckless, thoughtless exposure to danger! Far from it!” Toots said, fervently.
            “It takes thought!” added Suzy. “How about an example? Take that vicious sounding crow out there. Do you hear him yelling ‘come out!’?”
            “Yes, I do!” said Toots, “Even though he’s in Milltown, a safe distance from my location, one would think.”
            “And what would be the truly intelligent, Courageously Cautious™ reaction to such a provocation, Toots?” queried Suzy.
            “My advice would be to sit tight, under cover. Don’t go out there! No good could come of exposing the tender back of the neck to that beak,” said Toots firmly. “How about if there is a knock on the door, Suzy? What say you?”
            “What say I? Can you guess? I say remain in a position of cover, but able to see what is knocking if one of the gullible pinkies happens to  open the door!” said Suzy.
            “Brrrrrr! Anything could be out there! The mind boggles!
            “To reiterate, Caution™ is not fear! Fear is irrational. It’s based on nothing but emotion. It might even be free-floating physical anxiety!” said Toots.
            “We are not Scaredy-Cats, nay! We are Thinking-Cats!” said Suzy, “And those are the very best kind of cats to be!
            “On the subject of thoughtless braggadocio, I could mention these Scouts..” said Suzy.
            “No doubt,” said Toots. “Young Toms, whatcha gonna do?”
            “Stay clear?” said Suzy.
            “It’s the only way!,” said Toots. “Now, I believe we have covered this topic sufficiently. I’m getting sleepy, and I’m sure you are too…..!”
 
            The signal dropped at this point.

📻

           

I Pondered The Imponderable

 

             I am relatively sure that I was among a throng of impressionable bookish young wights, when I was in my early teen years, who used to bust their noggins on the question of existence.
          Back then I didn’t quite say it like that in my middle of the night thought experiments. How I cast the question was; what if nothing at all, neither God Himself, or the Universe had ever existed. I seriously tried to imagine such a state. (Of course, there could have been no state of any kind if what I was trying to imagine….. You see how it is.)

           It was a whole lot easier to ponder my own lack of existence, if I had never been born. I learned to be grateful for existence. Surely the greatest gift of all, to exist.
            I knew nothing of theology, or philosophy, or any of the famous thinkers in history. I had only my own reason, and the Old Book to go by. Talk about a noob!
            After banging away for several decades, at the nuts and bolts of my own mundane daily existence, it occurred to me that existence isn’t just a big deal, it’s the only deal.
            “World without end.”
            At the bottom of the physicist’s glass, once he had drunk all the world’s wisdom as far as he could understand it, he found that he faced GOD.
            Somewhere in the Jewish liturgy, I remember the phrase, “There is no One else.” And, indeed, it is so. There can be no One else, and He is existence.

*❤*

            Additions, debate, commentary of all kinds welcomed and desired.  Tell me what you think. I'd love to know.

           

💮🖤💮

Upon Leaving Eden

 

            The fish was lovely, as were the mushrooms. The cowboy coffee was good. The company was charming and kind. The forest was glamorous like a Bierstadt painting. But evening was coming and it was time to leave the world of the Great Forest.
            Ramona hugged Hannah goodbye, saying, "Come back again!"

           "Thank you, I will!" said Hannah.

            “We’ll see each other again,” said Ralph.

            "Oh, I  hope so!" said Hannah.
            “I want to help,” said Cherry. She wanted to go with Maeve and Hannah, so of course she was allowed to drift along.
            “Stay right with me, it's so easy to get lost," said Maeve. “I will fly a short distance, then wait for you to catch up. You’ll see me if you watch carefully. Then we’ll do that again and again.”
            “I will,” said Hannah, and they started out of the Forest by a new path. Leaving looked different from arriving. The sun slanted low, picking out some things to highlight with golden evening beams. A startlingly red rose burnt there like a beacon. Surely, she hadn’t just missed that on the way in.
            This path was much shorter and straighter. Cherry stayed right with Hannah, nearby in the air. Maeve would fly a short distance and then be found waiting on some branch or bush. It was quite a nice walk they had together.
            At last, Hannah could see the ranger station through the trees, and knew that it was time to say goodbye.
            “Goodbye, Little Cherry, I love you,” said Hannah.
            “I love you too,” said Cherry, then she darted back toward home.
            “You’ll see me around from time to time, Hannah. I keep an eye on things around here,” said Maeve.
            “Yes, Ma’am,” said Hannah. “Goodbye!” Maeve called a goodbye, as she flew back into the trees. Hannah was on her own.
            She stepped out from behind the station dumpster intending to go up into the campground and to her little mobile. Rick’s truck was in its usual spot, though it was a little late for him to be at the station. It seemed like it must be time for him to go home. Dexter’s little junker was on the other side of the service vehicle.
            Maybe Hannah’s eyes were full of memories, or maybe there were still some tears, and maybe someone had left a stone on the parking lot, but in any case she stumbled and fell. She had been walking swiftly, and it was a sudden and shocking fall.
            She sat there stunned for a few moments.
            Then she cried out a little because she noticed that one knee of her jeans was torn and that she had a skinned knee just like kid, and it was bleeding through her jeans as she sat there.
            Inside Rick’s office, where Dexter had been talking park business with Rick, Dexter heard that little cry. He jumped up and ran to the window. Then he ran to door and pulled it open, running out to Hannah.
            “What happened?” said Dexter.
            “I think I tripped on a rock, but I don’t see it now,” said Hannah, a little damply.
            Dexter scanned the lot quickly. “I don’t see a rock either,” he said.
            He turned to help her to her feet, and it was awkward, because he didn’t know exactly how to go about it without actually touching Hannah, which he had never done before.
            “Just pull on my hands, and I will stand up,” she said.
            But, somehow, she ended up in his arms. That was awkward too, but they just stood there in the middle of the station parking lot, with the late sun light gilding everything around them, with their arms wrapped around each other as if they had forgotten how to let go.
            After some period of time, Dexter said, “We have a first-aid kit in the office. Why don’t we go patch up your knee?”
            “OK,” said Hannah. But neither of them moved off the spot.
            Well, eventually they figured out how to let go, and Dexter helped Hannah, who was limping a little bit, into the office.
            Rick looked up when they came through the door, then he smiled.

💚

Look Deeply Into Her Green Eyes!

 

This is what it looks like when she has a tale to tell.

(It's almost beyond me not to spell that 'tail'.)

Suzy wishes you all a fine Catfurday.

You can see that there is a lot going on there behind those green eyes.

Toots knows!

🐈‍⬛🖤🐈🐈🖤🐈‍⬛🐈🖤🐈

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

 

            “Evermore,” Maeve whispered from her perch on a fir branch. 
            “Hi, Birdy,” said Ralph. “We have company!”
            “I see! The camp host, I believe. I don’t know her name,” said Maeve. After everything else, Hannah was not surprised to hear Maeve speaking.
            “This lady is Hannah, who put 2 and 2 together and came up with a question. To test her theory, she left gifts, which you saw, by the highway,” Ralph told Maeve.
            “Hello, Hannah. Few human people find their way into the Great Forest,” said Maeve.
            “I know! I tried it. The Forest turned me around! That’s when I really knew something unusual was going on here,” said Hannah.
            “Yes, there must be a guide,” agreed Maeve.
            Maeve floated down onto Ralph’s shoulder, to stay close so they could talk if they wanted to. The path was narrow, so Ralph went ahead and Hannah followed behind. She was glad of the opportunity to look around without being observed.
            When they first entered the forest, near the parking lot, it looked like any other section of forest, familiar in every way. Just a path in between the great firs. Beams of sunlight peeked in from the sky here and there. The sounds of the forest were as usual, birds, bugs, far away noises that were more obscure, but totally normal.
            When things changed, Hannah tried to put her finger on what had happened, but it was hard to say later, when she tried to describe it.
            It wasn’t a jarring change. It was pleasant, like going to some place greatly desired, such as when a child gets to experience their heart’s desire in some way. It felt a little bit like that ghost of almost a memory that comes upon us once in a while, and is gone before we can define it, leaving only a sense of sweetness behind.
            The Great Forest was like that.
            First, she noticed a shift in sound. What was bright and sharp became soft and dreamy. The wind sighed. She thought she must able to  hear a river whispering too. Then there was scent. Something sweet and resinous and persistent was on the breeze. She’s never noticed that particular scent before. She wondered about exotic flowers.
            Then Hannah noticed the forest floor as she walked on it. The path was now covered in soft moss, full of tiny white flowers like stars in an inverted green sky. Mist rose up from the ground, and literally curled around the largest fir trunks Hannah had ever seen. She was so amazed that she had to tell herself to keep moving.
            “Doing OK back there, Hannah?” said Ralph, turning around to see how she was.
            “Yes, it’s like a dream,” she murmured. “But now, everything before seems like the dream.”
            “The Forest often has that effect on visitors,” said Ralph.
            “Do we have far to go?” said Hannah.
            “No, we’ll get there whenever we want to. Would you like to walk a bit more?” said Ralph.
            “Yes, please. It is so pretty to be here,” she said. And as she spoke, she realized that she was changed too. She didn’t feel so much like little short blond Hannah, she felt taller and wilder, like some figure from a story so old that no one believes it anymore.
            “Would you like to meet Ramona now,” called Ralph from up the trail a little. It seemed like maybe they had been walking a spiral, but maybe not.
            “I would,” said Hannah. “And Cherry! And the animals!”
            Just then the path opened up into a large clearing among the trees. At a slight distance Hannah could see a kind of round stone fireplace, surrounded by seating made of sections of a large tree’s trunk. A fire was burning, but making almost no visible smoke.
            There seemed to be a cliff face behind the fireplace with a green door set into it.
            Seated by the fire was a figure of such exotic beauty and serenity that Hannah knew she was looking at Ramona.
            While Ralph looked as solid as the mountains, Ramona was obscure, and hard to describe. Later, Hannah couldn’t quite bring her face to mind.
            Maeve jumped off of Ralph’s shoulder and flew to Ramona, settling down beside her.
            As they were nearing the fire, Ralph called to Ramona, “Look! I’ve brought a Daughter of Eve to visit!” His eyes twinkled when Hannah looked at him in astonishment, and his laugh rumbled off into the trees.
            Ramona called out, “Please, Daughter of Eve, you are welcome.”
            Hannah started crying, but good tears, not bad, and Ramona came to  her and held her until she could stop crying.
            “I think you must have a name,” said Ramona.
            “My mother called me Hannah,” said she.
            “Welcome, Hannah. I sense that there is a story coming,” said Ramona. “Please, sit.”
            So, Ralph and Hannah told Ramona the story of how Hannah had surmised their presence, and that she was the one who left the gifts, and that she was the one who wore Cherry’s green crown.
            Then, as if on cue, Cherry appeared in the air, drifting softly down from somewhere near but above.
            “Oh!” said Hanna, “You’re Cherry! Oh, beautiful child!”
            Blue came along on foot, and laid her head in Hannah’s lap, where she sat with Ramona.
            Hannah put her hand on Blue’s head, as if they had been friends forever.
            Ralph whistled. There was silence for a few minutes, then two fully grown pumas appeared at the fire, smiling their secret cat smile.
            “This one is Bob,” said Ralph, indicating Bob, “And this one is Berry,”
            The great cats sat together by the fire, with green eyes shining. Neither spoke.
            “Are all your questions answered now?” said Ralph.
            “I had no idea,” said Hannah. “No idea at all! But, yes, yes.”
            “Can you stay until dinner?” said Ramona. “It will be fish today.”
            “I’d rather be here, having fish dinner with you all, than any other place on  earth,” said Hannah. “Yes, thank you, I’d love to stay.”
            “When it’s time to go back, Maeve will show you the way,” said Ralph.
            Hannah just nodded, because she had tears in her eyes again.

💚💮💚