Then Kalite screamed.
“Okay, you panicked just as I thought. Come on, we have to go!”
“Are you two okay?” Gilma said when Whisk-pey reached the top of the tree and saddled herself on her back.
“Before you just go blasting off into the skies, Gilma, I want you to know something and I want you to listen good!” Ento yelled.
“Okay, Gilma is listening good.”
“Okay, if you can’t guarantee my safety or Whisk-pey’s safety, you just put us back on the ground right this second, because that stunt you pulled where we were on a tree flying across the skies and we wound up in the Dark Forest, that wasn’t cool at all. Not to mention meeting with that strange-looking Devour back there that had us trapped in a sack.”
Gilma looked at the frog, obviously nonplussed.
“Yeah, it’s true,” Whisk-pey said. “You know much about the Devours, Gilma?” Whisk-pey’s face showed the residue of one who’s beyond fed up.
“I don’t know much about the Devours outside of what your father has said about them many years ago. Why? What went on down there in the forest, Whisk-pey?” Gilma asked.
“Something that I don’t quite understand. That Devour knew my name, Gilma, that is the part that is strange to me. Not only did he know my name, he knows my parents’ names too,” Whisk-pey replied.
“And to add cream of gravy to the rice Gilma he also knew what Kalite cooked!” Ento added.
“Yeah, that is really strange, kind of spooky like. I don’t get it, Whisk-pey, but I wouldn’t say anything to your dad about this yet. Wait until the new tree houses are up, then you may want to say something to him. With the building and this storm and with this it would be an added burden to him that he really doesn’t need at this time,” Gilma suggested. “I think you stay as far away from the Dark Forest as you can, Whisk-pey, this will all blow over soon. Your father doesn’t have to know about this, the Devours will never be able to come to the city. They would be detected 500 yards away before ever stepping foot on the Land of Make Believe. So there is no need to worry about anything if you thought they could possibly come here for whatever reason.” Gilma’s voice was re-assuring somehow.
“I think you are right, and I feel a lot better about this situation, Gilma.”
“But I don’t feel so right about my situation,” Ento yelled from Whisk-pey’s satchel.
“And what situation is that, Ento the scary frog?”
“Riding on your back and you insuring me my safety!”
Chapter 3
It took Amose a very short time to find a soft spot in the bark of the tree that would in turn give him access to a fairly easy cut in the trunk. He made good use of his long, black claws as he had done all of his life. Whether he was fending off wild animals or, as in this case, making cuts, he wouldn’t let his claws go to waste no matter how much Kalite griped about them.
You should cut your nails, dear. Even though they are hiding in your paws, they still look bad. For heaven’s sake, Amose, would you at least trim those long nails of yours, please? There was more in Amose’s head than those recorded incidents of Kalite and her nagging, declaring that if Amose didn’t cut his claws in a timely manner, she would cut them herself. Of course she didn’t. And for now she was looking out for that flying debris Amose promised would come if they were taking off guard.
I think we will be okay, Amose won’t let anything happen to me. He has been protecting me this long; he will continue to be my protector, Kalite thought. She was sure of it until a flying debris hurled through the air and found its way directly in front of her, making a huge dent in the ground. Kalite screamed.
When she jumped and pulled on Amose’s dungarees and drew him into a hug, it felt as if she had an outer body experience. “I’m scared, dear, a…. a …”
“We are in one of our most celebrated events, honey,” Amose said, interrupting Kalite. “Just give me a few seconds and we will be safe!”
As if she didn’t hear him, she held his strong, sturdy back side like it was one of their oak trees. Amose didn’t stop working. He was used to Kalite and her sometimes rebellious ways, but he didn’t take it to heart. She didn’t mean any harm. Besides, with her weighing just over one hundred pounds, he could barely feel her on his back.
“Okay, I made the cut now, all I have to do is clean out the inside of the tree and we’ll be all set, Kalite. How does that sound?”
“It sounds good, Amose!” Her voice was filled with fear as her words came out in a stutter. She kissed him on the hair of his neck and finally let go of her bear hug. Amose cleaned out the fiber, roots, and bark out of the opening of the tree. Once that was done, he cleared out enough space for the two of them and two more.
Kalite went in first then he got in. She grabbed his hand. Amose felt her warm, minty breath from the mint cake that she made for their dinner. He turned to her. His white teeth shone in the soon-to-pass evening sun.
“I should have never suggested taking a walk. We should have waited till morning since our storms always happen in late evening,” Amose said. Then the smile began to depart from his brown, hairy face. Knowing Kalite, he expected her not only to disagree with him but add something negative to it.
“It’s not your fault, it’s nature. It’s what goes on here at least twice a month. I think if you never suggested the walk after I made dinner since we haven’t gone on one in ages, I would have been a bit uptight with you, Mr. Amose!” Kalite replied.
Then her focus changed. She turned to him; he embraced her as if he knew what was going to take place. Her lips puckered and her eyes closed, at the same time they both drew into a kiss just as the wind rocked the tree in which they had taken shelter. A large piece of timber then came tumbling down and landed in front of the entrance into their hideout.
Kalite whimpered in horror when she realized the piece of timber – a large, leafy branch actually – was blocking the opening. If the thought of the coming darkness kept Kalite afraid, then the partial darkness that the fallen tree branch brought to their hiding place, she didn’t have to wait: the frightful darkness was already there.
Gilma was determined. This time she wasn’t going to let anything happen to Whisk-pey and Ento, such as it did in that horrible storm when they fell off and she practically wasn’t able to find them. “Sorry about what happened, I wasn’t paying attention to the skies. But this time I will, and I will make sure I get you two back to the Land of Make Believe. I got held up by the storm but we are okay now,” Gilma said on their way to the city. Of course Ento had words for her surety. “Yeah you better because right now our life is in your hands so make sure you keep your promise unless you want to deal with me!” Gilma laughed. Her laughter was good, especially after looking at a now gloomy Whisk-pey, who never in all the days she seen this canine creature, showed a face full of sadness and misunderstanding.
“What are we going to do now, Amose?”
He wanted to panic, he wanted to say he didn’t know and that he was just as dumbfounded as she was but he didn’t. He knew better. He placed his chubby hand under his wide double chin and gave a look of ponder as if he was assessing the situation. With a raging storm, and a tree that was blocking over half of the entrance, a look of assessment wasn’t going to get the job done; Kalite wanted more than that. She wanted answers.
“Soon that hole is going to be closed and then…, and then…. Oh we are going to be trapped, Amose!” He stuck his hand in his pockets as if he was looking for something. “Amose what are we going to do? If the hole closes up then we are trapped, right?” As if Amose had to think of the right answer he pondered it for a second, and then answered – wrongly.
“No, no, not at all, Kalite, there is another way out of here, of course, but we aren’t concern about that exit, we are concerned about the front.” Kalite didn’t understand what Amose was talking about and he didn’t give her time to figure it out. When they heard the sound of something crashing to the ground, Amose’s
pondering stopped.
“We have to get out of here, Kalite. I have a feeling that if we stay in here, both entrance will be blocked, we can make it home, Kalite, I believe, if we leave now!”
“I thought you said this would be a safe place. I thought this would be where we stay until the storm passed?”
The mistake in moving to the inside of the tree for shelter was whacked off by a prideful reply.
“The storm is passing, Kalite. I think the worst of it is gone. We are Canine people, remember? We can run the rest of the way from here. Come on, we don’t have time to waste!”
The small opening the tree gave was narrow. Kalite slid through it with ease. Amose, on the other hand, had to push and fight his wide and husky frame through the gap in the tree. Kalite peered in the air beholding the storm devouring and wreaking havoc all over their city.
“Come on, we have to go, Kalite!” Amose yelled. “Get on my back; it will be quicker!”
“On your back?” Kalite objected, “But…, I don’t want to…”
“Just do it now, Kalite. No time to question anything. On my back you go!”
It felt more like a demand than a request. But whichever, Kalite got on Amose’s back. In their run to their home everything seemed to be in disarray. But thanks to the steel reinforcement inside the trees and the tree houses, none of them had blown off their foundations.
“We’re almost there. Just hold on a little while longer,” Amose yelled through the thick of the storm while encouraging Kalite not to give in to fear and distrust by letting go.
“I’m doing my best to hold on but you are moving so fast,” Kalite yelled back. Her long slender arms were gripping Amose bushy neck as best she could.
They were in the eye of the storm; fog, air, debris and now rain were flying into their faces. Kalite gripped tighter, she buried her small, narrow hound face into Amose’s back as he now galloped at a faster pace. He leaped over down trees, while dodging rocks, which, if he had not seen due to his better normal vision, he would have tripped over them.
Not much longer now. I know the storm has to be moving out of here. I can feel a turn in its power. It’s lessoning now. Amose’s sudden inspiration drove him not only to get out of the storm but to get Kalite home. “I see the house now. We’re almost there, Kalite. The house is near!” Amose said excitedly, turning his head to get some kind of reaction from Kalite. But when he only felt her head buried in the upper part of his back, he turned around.
It would only take a turn to the right of his galloping body and a turn back to what was in front of him for Amose Canine to miss the down tree. Like a domino effect Amose hit the tree, which resulted in Kalite flying off his back in one direction and Amose stumbling in the other. Amose laid flat on his back grabbing for his left leg. “Oh no, I think it’s broken!”
“Amose, Amose where are you?” he heard Kalite from a distance but he couldn’t see her. She was on the other side of the fog. He had been in an accident before but never to the point of hurting so bad that it was almost impossible for him to slide over. He tried to get to his feet but knew it wasn’t going to be possible. With the pain he suffered, laying there in the grass felt much better than trying to get to his feet.
“I can’t lay here. I have to do something. Kalite wouldn’t go for me lying here. I have work to do. I have the water well to fix, new tree houses to build. I have things to do.” He told himself in a voice that didn’t want to sound weak but was definitely going down to a mere murmur.
Kalite searched for a smell and when she found it, she hurried to where the blackberry smell was.
“If you’re going to take me out, well, come on and do it, you stupid, felonious storm! I’m not going anywhere. So, whenever you are good and ready, come on and get me,” Amose yelled while a black, thick paste was slowly seeping from under him and staining the grass under the seat of his trousers.
“Oh, my little honey dew!” Kalite shouted, running to where Amose was lying, incapable of getting to his feet.
The first thing that came to her mind, outside of helping Amose to his feet and them getting back to their home, was the black paste substance that was under the seat of his pants. Amose, do you know what happened to the blackberries I canned yesterday? She heard this so loudly in her head that if she didn’t know any better, Kalite would have thought that the voice she heard in her head was another person right beside her talking to her with the same voice as hers.
I don’t know, it wasn’t my turn to keep a watch out on the blackberries, Kalite. You might want to ask Whisk-pey. She loves blackberries.
No, she loves strawberries, Amose! Oh what the heck, one berry from another berry, they are all berries, no difference. No they’re not, there is a difference, but I will ask Whisk-pey and maybe I can figure out the mysterious disappearance of my blackberries, Amose. She remembered that exchange and giving Amose a hateful look when she walked out of the kitchen.
An onlooker would have thought that she despised every inch of grass that covered the space in which Amose laid hurt, but she loved him dearly and it showed in the way she scurried out of the fog cover to the place where Amose was lying with blackberry juice staining the grass.
“It’s my leg, Kalite. I can’t move it!”
“Well, I’m going to help you up. Or do you expect to lay here and me running off while the storm takes you away?”
Amose peered into Kalite’s bright green eyes. He didn’t say anything, only reached for Kalite’s hand.
She grabbed it, squeezed it and pulled on it. “No, Kalite. I see the house from here. Get there. There’s plenty of food for the….”
“No, no. Don’t you talk like that, Amose. I don’t want to hear it. I don’t know what type of foolish thing you are trying to tell me right now but I’m not listening. We have come this far together and we will get even farther together. Now, come on!”
She was already thinking about Whisk-pey and the possibilities of her not surviving, her not making it home, being hurt just like her father except worse; Whisk-pey trapped and suffering and soon passing away slowly from her wounds. She looked away to keep from crying, to keep from seeing Amose in agonizing pain.
“We have to go. You can’t stay here. There is so much for us to do. If you stay here with all of the foolishness you’re talking, then everyone in the city who looks up to you, will not be able to…, Now come on!” At the screams of ‘come on’ the clouds rumbled and then exploded into a deafening ‘boom’ that took center stage.
“Our home is near, Kalite. Please, if you’re waiting on some assurance here I will give you some assurance. okay, Kalite!” Amose grit his teeth as the pain in his leg became more intense. “I will be right behind you, alright?” he said. “Leave me here to get up my strength. Once I get up my strength I will be right behind you.”
Kalite was scared of Amose’s words. An image of how she would look, explaining to the town’s people how her husband’s generosity and services caused him his death. Then there was a second image; this one was the one where she would sit Indian style on her crushed velvet couch crying her eyes out because she not only would have lost Amose but Whisk-pey as well.
Deciding wholeheartedly that she would spare herself the everlasting grief that was going to come with the death of Amose and possibly Whisk-pey, who Kalite believed was trapped somewhere in the city, dying, if not already dead, she laid there in the blackberry stained grass beside Amose.
“Wait, what is this? Go home now, Kalite, and I mean that!” Amose yelled.
“No, you can’t make me! If you are going to let this mean, old storm take you then it is going to take me too. I’m not leaving this blackberry grass without you!”
Kalite grabbed on to Amose tightly as the gust of wind passed over them and took out one of the trees that was going to be prepped and laid out for a tree house bakery, but now fifteen feet in the air and climbing, that tree was going to be fit for anything but the tree trash pile once the storm was done with it
.
“What in the world do you think you are doing, Kalite, when the house is just a little ways from here?”
“You heard me and you heard me loud and clear, I’m not going anywhere without you!”
“Gosh almighty if you can’t win you might as well join them!” Kalite said.
“I’m not going to let the storm take you because of my downfall and my moment of reaping. Now, come on!”
There was a brief wondering in Kalite’s mind about her husband’s meaning behind his ‘reaping’. But she didn’t have a chance to put too much thought into it, because when Amose made an effort to get himself off the ground, she was up to help.
“Because of you, I’m going to try and make it home but if by any chance you see that I can’t, I want you to run to the house and forget about me!”
“I will not do such a thing, Amose! You are stuck with me, we are going to make it home, the two of us.” Kalite wasn’t sure of her optimistic words, but one thing she was sure of; she wasn’t going to leave Amose.
Before they took off, Kalite found two pieces of a stone rod with rubber fissures on each end of them lying on the ground. Amose used the both of them as a type of crutches to help him get to the house without having to put pressure on his injured leg.
“Why didn’t you leave me there? I don’t understand, Kalite!”
“If you keep talking like that, I may run off and leave you right here!”
Amose looked at her. Kalite smiled. He smiled back.
“I love you, Amose. Why? I don’t know. I asked myself that question almost every day and I’m asking myself that right now, since I know now what happened to my blackberries!”
Amose had a face that was mixed with a smile and somewhat of a ‘sorry-you -caught-me’ look. “I guess the wet spot on the back of my dungarees gave it away?” He waited for an answer. “It could be water on my pants, dark water?”
The Land of Make Believe Page 3