~~~
Saturday went well and passed quickly enough. They meet up with Daniel again on their street and a couple other kids and rode bikes. Although, not Kile. Kile tried to peddle around on an old trike that was at the back of the Johansson’s garage. There wasn’t too much ribbing about the trike, even though Little Ricky was known as a two-wheeling stunt-man on their street. But Robert did have to explain to Dan that Little Ricky had sprained an ankle and couldn’t ride on his normal bike for the time being.
Lunch consisted of Kile’s favorite PBJ yet again, despite Mom wondering out loud whether or not it was physiologically safe to keep eating the same exact sandwich for almost every meal for a week straight. Robert decided to spice it up for him a bit by substituting the peanut butter with his personal favorite cocoa hazelnut spread. It was a good thing the jar had been nearly empty because the two sandwiches Kile ate with the spread had given him a bit of a buzz. Rob began wondering if there was something about the cocoa itself, not the sugar in chocolate that had some sort of weird effect on trolls. If he’d had time enough to conduct experiments on Kile during the summer, he would have found out he was correct.
But by late afternoon, Kile had followed up with Robert on the troll zoo idea, although Rob initially had to be reminded that they’d spoken of it the night before. Together they came up with a plan that was both genius in its cleverness, and simple in its design. They would tell Mom that they wanted to sleep out in a tent in the back yard. Then, once she had turned out the lights in the house that night, Kile would lead Robert into the forest, up the mountain to where they would meet some animals.
“So…are we going to be safe though, Kile?” Robert asked as they were gathering their things for the evening.
“Oh yes! Very, very safe!” the troll replied almost a little too positively.
“Well, I just don’t want to be attacked by wolves while you sit there and try to talk to them.”
“No, no. They will not attack,” Kile retorted with a head bob to boot. “I will talk to them.”
“Kile, am I going to be able to talk to them?” Robert asked with great interest. He stopped loading up his backpack to hear the answer.
“Mmm…” the little creature was back to pondering with the aide of his finger again. “I don’t think so. I guess we would have to teach you some magic. I am thinking that’s why humans don’t talk to animals. You don’t know magic anymore.”
Robert went back to packing, only marginally satisfied with the answer. “Uh-huh. Like I’m going to learn how to use magic to talk to bears and wolves and stuff.”
“Oh no!” it was now Kile’s turn to stop what he was doing. He flapped his hands at Robert quickly. “Never talk to bears! They will eat you!”
Rob stood up straight again. “Okaaaayyyy… Kile, are you going to tell me the rules before we go, or are you just going to tell me when we can talk and when we can’t based on what’s chasing us?”
“Ha, hah!” Kile laughed. “Robbie is funny. I will keep you safe.”
Then the little troll’s tone changed again.
“Just not talk to bears. Never talk to bears.”
“Why not?” Rob pressed.
Kile turned and waggled a finger in front of Robert very slowly. “Some animals are no good to talk to. They won’t listen. Bears only know two things: Eat! And…I forget what the second thing is…”
“Hmmmm,” giggled Robert. “Sounds like the trolls I’ve met.”
“Oh yes! Eat and take care of cubs. And they don’t like humans aaaaannnnyyyywhere near their cubs. So...” he shrugged, stuffing the last items in his own pack, “they eat you.”
“Alright then,” Robert said, shouldering his pack, throwing on his red cap and making for the door. “We’ll just stay away from bears.”
“Yep!” Kile followed Robert’s lead. “Never talk to bears…or bobcats…oh and goblins. We don’t even want the goblins to see us.”
“Goblins? What?!”
Troll Brother Page 25