Furwaggle Chapter 36

Chapter 36

The Thing

Humans are a curious lot in the real world. In fact a whole business has come about to help fulfill this curiosity, it’s call News. There is the newspaper, the TV news, the radio news, and there is even news on the Internet. This inquisitive nature can even be found in the fictitious dreamland called Furwaggle, where animals talk to each other. The only difference is animals more likely will consider it to be nosy.
Wiggles has just exited the barn where his nest is located. It’s early in the morning; in fact it’s so early that it is still full dark. The darkness doesn’t effect Wiggles much because he can’t see very much anyway due to his poor eyesight. Today he is up early because his stomach is upset from eating sour corn for dinner, the day before. He thinks maybe the chuck house will have something to settle things down. They stay open all the time for just such things as stomach problems, because these kind of things happen often with their type of cooking. Before he has gone far, he stubs his toe on something, and begins to jump around on one foot. From out of the darkness comes a little voice saying, “That’s a fancy dance you’re doing there Wiggles”. Wiggles stops his hopping and looks into the darkness but sees nothing, so he asked. “Who is it that’s spying on me and my hopping”? A response comes back, “Its me Little Lighting Bug, and watch where you hop, I don’t want to get squashed”. “Well, if you would turn your light on then I can see you and most likely won’t hop on your head”. “All right, I was just trying to save some energy to help fight global warming”, said Little Lighting. With a snap there was a bright light from Little Lighting. He then asked, “Wiggles, is this what you were dancing for”, as he pointed to something on the ground. With a distain look Wiggles said, “I wasn’t dancing, I stubbed my toe on something. What is it anyway”? Little Lighting snapped back, “Don’t ask me you’re the one doing the stubbing”. With some guiding help from Little Lighting, Wiggles was able to reached down and picked up the thing. He brings it up close to his glasses and gives it the once over. In wonderment Wiggles said, “I can’t tell what it is. How about you Little Lighting”? Little Lighting replied, “Beats me, its just a thing that’s round and has bright spots all over. Will I have to go do some Lighting”. With that Little Lighting fluttered his wings and slipped away.
With a shrug Wiggles resumed his walking toward the chuck house carrying the round spotted thing. By the time Wiggles got to the chuck house, the sun had started to rise. The reason it took him so long, was he had walked very slowly and carefully so as not to stub his toe on another thing. He and Fluffy arrived at the chuck house at about the same time. Fluffy always liked to be first in line for breakfast and was somewhat surprised to see Wiggles there that early in the morning. Fluffy snarled at Wiggles, “What you trying to do, beat me out of being first for breakfast”? Wiggles snapped right back, “No, I would never try to get between you and breakfast. I had an upset stomach but the problem seems to be gone now. But on my way over here I stubbed my toe on this thing and…” Fluffy interrupted Wiggles with, “Ok, ok, I get it. But what is that you are carrying”? Wiggles answered back, “That’s what I have been trying to tell you. It’s the thing that I stubbed my toe on this morning”. With a look of uncertainty on his face, Fluffy asked, “Just what kind of a thing is it”? “I don’t know”, responds Wiggles. As Fluffy reaches his paws out he said, “Here let me see it”. Wiggles hands over the thing to Fluffy, who immediately throws it down on to the chuck house porch. The thing lands with a thud and just lies there. Wiggles cries out, “What are you doing Fluffy”? With a smirk Fluffy said, “I was just testing if it would bounce or not. I guess it don’t”. Wiggles replies, “You’re not much help”. At that point the breakfast bell rings and Fluffy said, as he dashes through the chuck house door, “Got to go now, got no time for this thing kind of a game”.
Wiggles decides maybe instead of fooling with the thing, he could set it on the rocking chair, on the chuck house porch and take a little nap. But before he closes his eyes Zorba comes walking by. “Hi there Wiggles . What you up to”, he calls out. “Just resting my eyes a little”, Wiggles replies. Wiggles then asked, “Are you on your way to breakfast”? Zorba then said, “Nope, I ate already. Had some fresh bananas right off the tree”. Wiggles wrinkled up his nose and asked, “Aren’t they kind of green coming straight from the tree like that”? With a big grin Zorba said, “No, they are pretty good if you add a little hot sauce”. He then asked Wiggles, “What is that you have there”? With a little sigh he starts to tell his morning story, “I got up early this morning because I had an upset stomach and on my way here I stubbed my toe on this thing”. Zorba asked back, “How is it now”? With some confusion Wiggle asked, “My upset stomach, or my Toe”? With a little chuckle Zorba said, “Neither, I was asking about the thing you have there. What is it anyway”? Wiggles answered, “I don’t know. It’s just a thing that’s round with bright spots. It’s hard and it don’t bounce”. Zorba rubs his chin and then said, “Why don’t you open it up and see what is inside”. “Ok but how”, asked Wiggles. “I know just the thing. There is an ax over at the woodpile”, said Zorba. With that, the two started off across the barnyard to the woodpile.
It only took a few minutes for them to reach the woodpile, even with Wiggles slight limp. “Ok Wiggles, put that thing down on that old tree stump and I will give it a whack with this ax, “commanded Zorba. Wiggles did as he was told and started to back up saying, “Wait let me get out of the way”. Zorba took a couple of practice swings and then swung the ax at the thing as hard as could. There was a very loud thud but the thing just lay there. The same can’t be said for Zorba, he and the ax went into a violent vibration. In fact the shaking was so great that Zorba’s teeth was rattling. After a few moments Zorba’s quivering settled down to a slight tremor. Wiggles was in awe but he finally was able to say, “I never seen any thing like that”. Still a little shook up Zorba stammered, “You should have seen it from my point of view”. Wiggles looked down at the thing and reported, “I don’t know about you Zorba but the thing doesn’t have a mark on it”.
Just then Fluffy came running up and asked, “What was that? It was loud enough to he heard all over the land”. Wiggles explains, “That was Zorba trying to open up the thing with an ax”. Fluffy reaches down and picks up the thing and looks it over. I don’t see even a scratch from hitting it with the ax, but I do hear it doing some buzzzzzing”, remarks Fluffy. Wiggles looks up and tells Fluffy and Zorba, “That’s not the thing humming, that’s just Busy Bee flying around us”. Sure enough, Busy makes a couple of circles around the trio and then lands on the tip of Fluffy’s tail. Fluffy goes into a fit yelling, “Get him off, Get him off. He will sting me”. Zorba has come to normal but he can’t take this yelling, so he yells right back at Fluffy, “Cut it out. Busy can’t sting anyone; he broke his stinger last month. Now stop all this yelling”. Then with a buzz, Busy asked, “What are you three up to with all this noise”. Wiggles turns to Busy and again begins to explain, “We have this thing and we were trying to open it up with an ax but didn’t have much luck. All we know is that it is round, and covered with spots”. Fluffy chimes in with, “and it don’t bounce”. Zorba adds. “and it’s very hard”. Wiggles finishes with, “Do you have any idea what this thing is, Busy”? Busy fly’s down and lands on the thing in Fluffy paws. He walks around the thing a few time, sniffs and then said, “Beats me. I can tell you for sure it’s not a flower”. With that Busy flaps his wings and said, “Well guys, I got to go. There is some new flowers blooming out in the north forty and I got my work cut out for me”. In a flash Busy was gone.
Zorba asked, “Ok, does anyone have any bright ideas about what to do with this thing next”. After a few moments of quiet thinking suddenly Fluffy spurts out, “I know, lets see if it floats”. With a puzzled look Wiggles asked, “What do you mean, floats”. Without hesitation Fluffy replies, “I mean lets see if it floats in water. You know like a boat does”. “Sure”, said Zorba. “We can put it into a bucket of water from the well”. With high spirits they go off toward the well in the middle of the barnyard. Zorba gets to the well first followed by Fluffy and then limping Wiggles is last carrying the thing. Right away Zorba draws a big bucket of water from the well and places it on the well railing. He then tells Wiggles, “Drop the thing into water and lets see if it is a boat or a submarine”. Wiggles limps up to the bucket and throws the thing in with a splash. “Well, what happened”, asked Zorba. With disappointment Wiggles reports, “The thing went right to the bottom and there isn’t even bubbles”. Fluffy said, “Here, let me see”, as he sticks his head into the bucket. In his excitement Fluffy puts his head deep into the bucket, so far that his nose is under the water. There is one thing Fluffy can’t stand, and that is water. Particularly when it’s in his nose. He gives a snort and jerks his head out of the bucket hitting its side and tipping it over. Out pours the water and the thing from the bucket. “Look out”, yells Zorba, but its too late, the thing is gone into the well. There is a moment of stunned silence. They are unable to speak as the three just look at each other. Finally Wiggles said, “Will I guess that’s the end of the thing”. Zorba adds, “There’s no way of getting the thing out of the well”. Fluffy just snorted. With that the three just walked away.
My tiny mind now knows why curiosity is bad for cats.
Continued… (Maybe).
-------------------------------------------------------------

Here is a simple little teaser for you
Mighty Mite Maze