Story Hour
Return to Lake Edie
Written by Gene B. Williams
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And January means, it’s Edie’s birthday!
Nicker looked in through the big glass door. There was Danny, and there was Edie. They were smiling. On the table was a big vase of lilies that looked like a double batch of candy canes. Nicker decided he was hungry. He also decided he wanted to go see Lake Edie. There would be no picnic this time, but there would also be no goose to chase him.
“It’s COLD,” Nicker said to himself. There weren’t many others around to say it to. Most of the birds had flown away to warmer places. (“At least there aren’t any geese,” Nicker thought.) The squirrels and rabbits were mostly hiding in their trees and burrows. They were hiding there with nuts and other good things (for squirrels and rabbits, anyway) to munch for lunch when the snow is a bunch.
When Nicker said – to himself – “It’s COLD,” what he really meant was that his sniffer – his nose – wasn’t working quite the same way. You know what I mean. When it gets cold, your own sniffer doesn’t want to sniff.
Nicker sniffed the air. Maybe he could find some hidden peanuts?
“It’s COLD,” he said to himself.
He meant, “I don’t smell any peanuts.”
Nicker lifted his nose and sniffed again.
But no peanuts.
Sniff, sniff, sniff – he smelled … something.
Sniff, sniff, sniff – he smelled … no, it wasn’t peanuts. Oh, MY, Nicker was so hungry for peanuts!
Sniff, sniff, sniff – he smelled …
Something.
Sniff, sniff, sniff.
There was a hole in the tall oak tree. Nicker put his nose in.
Sniff, sniff, sniff.
He was just about to shout, “PEANUTS!” but never got past the “pea” part, because he already had a mouthful of … acorns! Worse, they were SQUIRREL acorns.
I don’t know if you’ve ever tasted an acorn, and let me tell you, DON’T. They are awful things. (Some people have told me that they are poisonous for people.)
Well, let me tell you, Nicker didn’t like them one little bit, either. Awful, terrible things. Maybe that’s why you find peanuts sprinkled on your ice cream, or sometimes walnuts, or cashews, or pecans, or … but who ever heard of acorn sundae?
Except maybe a squirrel.
An acorn sundae? YUCK!
Anyway, Nicker did the smart thing. Maybe not the polite thing – but his head was in the hole of an oak tree, and no one was looking. He spit them out. YUCK!
But … uh oh … his sea dragon sniffer had been so hungry for peanuts, he’d tried just a little too hard. And, Nicker was stuck. His NOSE was stuck.
If you can imagine having your nose stuck in a hole in an oak tree, imagine this. Have you ever blown on your fingers to make them warm? Well, there was poor Nicker, his nose stuck in the hole of an oak tree. He was struggling to get loose. He was breathing heavily. That tight hole in the oak tree got filled with hot sea dragon breath. Then it got filled with the smell of hot squirrel acorns. There was even hot squirrel fur that had been sticking to the acorns … but now the hot squirrel fur was sticking to Nicker’s nose.
And, as it became warmer … Nicker’s sensitive sniffer became more sensitive. EWWW! Can you just imagine that? That sea dragon sniffer that could sniff cotton candy a thousand miles away … STUCK in hole in an oak tree that was filling more and more with … SQUIRREL SMELL! And used squirrel fur that stuck to his nose.
“I will never snoop again,” Nicker promised. “Get my nose OUT of this and I promise!”
CLONK!
Something hit him on the head outside the hole.
CLONK!
Nicker wiggled and pulled and puffed and panted. That just made the squirrel smell worse. And the used squirrel fur was sticking to his nose. Tickling.
CLONK!
CLONK!
Nicker had his nose stuck in the hole in the oak tree, stuck with … SQUIRREL SMELLS, and old, used squirrel fur … and something outside was clonking him on his head. Oh, my, did he ever struggle to get loose, which made things hotter, the smell stronger, and all the while ….
CLONK! CLONK! CLONK!
And then … aaa-CHOOOO! Nicker sneezed. (Used squirrel fur tickling your nose can make that happen, you know.)
With a loud sea dragon sneezing pop, his nose finally came loose. Nicker fell back into the snow, and rolled like a green and yellow bowling ball (although I’ve never heard of a green and yellow bowling ball with sea dragon scales, and a big nose – have you?). He took a deep breath of the cold, squirrel-free, acorn-free air. You can just guess at how happy he was! But then ….
CLONK!
Nicker slid through the snow, still wiping that used squirrel fur from his nose, and looked up. WAY up in the oak tree was a squirrel holding a pine cone in his paws ready to throw. But he was looking up into the sky. Innocent? “Not ME!” the squirrel seemed to say, “but those ARE my acorns.” (Do you remember *Sigmund?*)
Oh well, Nicker didn’t care. With his nose warm again, he happily sneezed and snorted, and an acorn stuck in his nostril popped out, then Nicker rubbed off the squirrel fur in the snow. And he sniffed.
And he sniffed … can you believe his luck? … he sniffed a peanut pie!
Okay, I know. I’ve never heard of a peanut pie, either. But that’s what Nicker smelled. And there it was, so what can you say? It WAS a peanut pie!
It was sitting on a chair … to cool, maybe? There was snow on the chair, and handprints in the snow, and peanut pie in the handprints. Next to all this was a sign, “Do Not Feed the Birds!” Well, Nicker knew that he wasn’t a bird, so – obviously – so it only made sense that the peanut pie was put there on purpose for sea dragons. And the sign was to tell the birds to stay away. (It didn’t occur to Nicker that birds can’t read very well. He was too hungry.)
The peanut pie was delicious! He took one bite, then another and another. Before he knew it, the whole pie was in his tummy. He was smiling as his sea dragon tongue got the very last bits of the peanut pie.
Then he stopped smiling because Edie was coming to the glass door. And she was smiling. And Nicker was hiding. And the glass door slid open. And Edie saw the empty pie plate. And Nicker really stopped smiling, because Edie stopped smiling. And ….
And Edie said, “Those darned birds!” She picked up the empty pie plate to go back inside. “Imagine them eating the entire pie so quickly! The plate even looks like it was licked clean.” She shook her head sadly and said, “What WILL I serve for my birthday dessert now? The peanut pie is all gone.”
She asked Danny, “Did you eat all the peanut pie?”
Danny looked out through the big glass door. He saw Nicker trying to grin. He saw that Nicker’s tummy looked pretty full. He looked at the empty pie plate, licked clean. “Uh … well, Nana … uh … you see … it was this way.”
“You and the birds,” she said. “Now I will have to find something else for my birthday dinner.”
Nicker felt very bad and sad. (Wouldn’t you?) “Oh, what have I done?”
So, he did the only thing he could think of. He left a great big sea dragon SMOOCH right on the glass door to say thank you. To say I’m sorry. He hoped that she would understand. He hoped that … he hoped that Danny could explain.
That makes me wonder. Have you ever found strange marks on a glass door or window? I wonder … did you do something nice (like make a peanut pie?) and maybe … just maybe … someone was giving you a thank-you smooch?
It makes me wonder something else.
Danny’s Nana would come back. She would see that smoochy smear on the glass. She would ask, “Danny, did you ….?” (It certainly couldn’t be birds THIS time.)
What do you think Danny would say?
What would you say about a smeary sea dragon smooch on the glass?
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