Hello Everyone. I am busy working on the return of my manuscript from the editor. There is a lot to get done so will not be able to blog for a short while. In the meantime this is the update.
I am going to move the publish date for Haven House to June 15th as it will take a lot of work to get it in great shape for my readers.
I am still working on the edits and going back and forth between all three books so much to do. Below is a short story to keep you content while you wait.
The meeting began under a tall umbrella
of rust-colored leaves high up in the middle of Peachview State Park.
“First to Mrs. Blackbear,” Delia said
to the group gathered. “Can you update us on the humans causing trouble around
your winter cave?”
Shaking her head to flick off a bee,
Mrs. Blackbear addressed the large group.
“It was terrible, so, so terrible.
They woke up the children, and Marvin and I had to try and find food for
them from the slim pickings this time of year.”
With Mrs. Blackbear not able to go on,
Delia turned to the rabbit family and inquired about the damage to their
holes. It seemed the humans entering the
forest illegally brought shovels and filled in the top of the rabbit’s homes.
They had to dig for a long time to get
them cleared again. The elders reported
they were glad to have found all their family and friends.
“Miss Delia, why is it that you can
hear what we say to you?”
Looking at the young fox, she told him
it was a special gift she was born with, just like the one he is born with to
search for food.
Delia looked out over the series of
woodland creatures before her. They had stopped running away from her once they
realized she could hear them as they spoke.
Over the past year, she visits every morning as the sun is coming
up. She has conversations with the birds
flying by on their way to find food for their young.
When she was very young, her mother
would take her for long walks in the woods that were on the edge of their farm. They would sit in the very spot where the
meeting is being held today and just remained still when the animals went
by. At first, she was afraid, and then
it became a game to see if any of them would sit next to them.
“Okay, everyone. Back to the problems at hand so I can get
them taken care of. Who is next?”
“Me,” said the beautiful doe with her
twins at her side. “I want to tell you
about how those bad humans tried to steal one of the twins. If it wasn’t for my husband showing up in
time, Pascal would be gone, and who knows what they would have done to him.”
“Oh, that is not a good thing. I’m so sorry that happened to you. I’m sure all of you were very
frightened. I’m going to have another
meeting this afternoon with the park ranger to see if we can find out who these
bad people are and make it stop.”
“Miss Delia, Miss Delia, I have a
question,” a red-headed woodpecker called out.
“What is your question?”
“How do I stop those bad ones from
raiding my nest? Every time I lay new
eggs the next day when I get back from finding food, they’re gone.”
“Have you ever seen anyone around when
you fly off? It could be one of the bad
woodland creatures, like some squirrels, we know about who also steal eggs from
nests to eat.”
The woodpecker didn’t know and has
never seen anyone around as she flew up into the sky. Delia knew about a few creatures who would
steal eggs to eat or just to break open.
She did speak with them, but it is difficult to change old habits.
“I hope there is no one here guilty of
doing that to Mrs. Woodpecker. I will
have the ranger put a protection cage around your nest until you are ready to
sit on the eggs.”
Delia assured her that the hole to get
in and out of the cage is too small for even a small squirrel to get into, and
besides, the eggs would be too big to pull them out.
Having written down all the complaints,
Delia said goodbye to all her woodland friends and went to her meeting with the
ranger. He indicated putting the cage
over the woodpecker’s hole in the tree would be done before dark. As for the humans causing chaos to the animal
world, he had no news yet.
The following day on her way to go sit
in the woods, Delia heard something happening a few yards in front of her. She slowed down her pace and approached as
quietly as possible.
In the clearing, she saw two teenagers
carrying backpacks that had small folding shovels attached. Hiding behind a tree, she listened as they
carried on a conversation while sitting on a log.
“Mistie, we sure got those foxes this
time. I bet they will never get back out
of their tunnels for hours.”
“Henry, that was so much fun, but it is
getting later than usual, and we don’t want anyone to see us here, so we best
head for home and not miss breakfast.”
Delia watched as the two got up and walked
down the path that went back to the village. She followed them from a
distance. She had never seen the two
before, having lived here all her life.
When they got to the visitors’ parking
lot, the two climbed into a dark green jeep and drove away. Delia memorized the license plate and headed
for the ranger station to write it down and have him find out who the jeep
belonged to.
When Delia got to the ranger station, no one was
there. On the door, there was a note,
‘Will be back at 3 p.m.’ There was a
notepad nearby for people to leave messages.
She quickly wrote down MITE-394 and tore off the page putting it into
her jean pocket.
She was desperate to find out who the jeep belonged to
but how. Maybe she could ask around town
at the coffee shop and see if anyone has seen the teenagers named Mistie and
Henry or might have seen the dark green jeep.
First, though, Delia went back to her house, got a
shovel, and headed for the closest fox den to see if she could dig them out
before the babies died without enough air.
Once she got one cleared, she could ask where all the other dens were
located.
As the mother fox came out of the den, she just sat
for a minute, appearing exhausted. “How
are your babies doing, Daisy?”
“They will be better now that they can get some
air. Thank you.”
“Do you know where all the other dens are
located? I heard the teens say they
cover several of them with dirt and branches.”
After checking the babies first, Daisy took her to the
other three locations, and she freed them.
Putting down her shovel she Delia sat on the ground next to it to regain
her strength and then headed back to the ranger station.
She walked and pulled out the paper she wrote the
license number on and placed it on the counter in front of the ranger.
“Can you check this plate number out and see who it
belongs to. I saw the teenagers very
early this morning and listened to a conversation between the two of them. Afterward, I followed them to a Dark Green
Jeep in the parking lot, and this is the plate number from it.”
He looked at her intently when she mentioned the two
teenagers’ names and then glanced down at what she had written on the paper.
“It will take me a little while for them to do a
search on this, so I will let you know later today by phone once I have a
result.”
Delia thanked him and went back to check that all the
animals were okay.
After Delia left, the ranger took a deep breath,
knowing who this Mistie and Henry were and who the jeep belonged to. He needed to go home for a bit and speak with
his sister about what her children have been up to and the damage they may have
done to the animals.
His sister was visiting him and his wife and had
brought along her son and daughter so they could take classes on conservation
in the forest. Well, he guessed they
have decided to do more before attending those such classes at the high school.
“Martha, are you home?
I need to speak with you about Mistie and Henry.”
“What’s up, Mark?
You sound so official.”
“The kids have been wreaking havoc on the animals in
the woodland areas. Before breakfast,
they went out there and buried the fox entrances with dirt so they couldn’t get
out. Luckily, a special friend of the
animals heard them talking and undid the damage.”
“What? How do
you know it was my children?”
The ranger handed his sister the paper with the
license plate number on it. “Does this
look familiar?”
“My jeep has this plate number. So you’re saying that my two have also been
driving the jeep without a driver’s license?”
He told her it looked that way and wanted to know
where they were right now. He did see
the jeep parked in the driveway when he pulled up.
“Mark, I promise you this will be handled by me as
soon as they get home from class.”
Satisfied, he went back to the ranger station. He now needed to decide how to explain to
Delia who those teenagers are and what was being done to keep them from never
terrorized the animals again.
I will try to be back at the end of the month. Hope you enjoyed my short story.
