Woodsy

Ma and Pa had just up left us out there. Out under all them trees. The woods was our house after they left us and we kept up real clean. We made up a tree fort and that was for when the storms come and make the woods all watery. We eat what we stumbles upon. There’s taters deep, and rocket gets real tart greeny leaves you can eat up. Mushrooms can be real good but you gotta stay far ‘way from the ones that makes you turn green and throw up your tummy places. We gots crabapples and brambles too. Ma told me the whole world was a garden and showed me and Fern and Roger all the greens from when was smallest. We know what makes our tummy hurt and what makes you go sleep forever and ever. Ma told me not to have the water that’s smelly or green and not clean too. We try real hard to be safe and smart.

We stay together. Me and the younger ones. The one who got the same parts as me that’s Fern and then the one who don’t got the name Roger. He don’t have to squat down to pee. Roger jumps from up places and throw rocks at the water. Fern talks real small and low and she gets real shy. Ma call her mouse but she don’t squeak. We seen bears that stay together too. Mama bears and cubs that eat the snacks the woods gots too. We seen a bear catch a bunny one day. They never ate us up though cuz we stayed real small and dont move at all when they come ‘round. We made not a peep or a squeak not even Fern the mouse. So we always stay together even when we gotta do a smelly poo cuz you could get eated up.

There’s treasure all around them woods. You just gotta look real good, eyes opened way up. Cups and keys and bones and shoes. They got stuff to say too. Some shoes been walked many. We use the shoelaces to do rope stuff. Cups touch lotsa mouths but can keep water. Keys open all the doors. We hang up them keys so they make sound when they dance together. We had lotsa bottles you can blow on and make jug toots. We make lotsa songs and Fern laughs and laughs. Roger does a dance that’s a monkey dance and one where he pretends to be a cow. Roger has an extra funny bone, that’s what Pa says.

One day we was on a walk all together and Ma and Pa says we was ducks and we had to follow along. We followed and we quacked just as ducks do. We walked a long walk and got all turned around. Pa got fluster-ated. He could go and yell and get help cuz he got the long legs and loud tall man mouth to scream real strong. Pa went and stayed gone when the sun had to go to sleep and so Ma went to walk and yell for Pa and helpers. They been gone real long. My curls come down my butt now. Ma loved to make my curls pretty. She would say my curls are an eagle’s nest some places now. We take baths cuz we ‘sposed to but gots no soap and bubbles no more. We gotta sleep and not move when the moon comes out. There’s lots of monsters that stay under the trees too. More than bears. Creatures that make scary sounds and crunch all the branches when the dark comes out. The longer we stayed out there under the trees the more creatures there seemed to be. The woods got even more scary. So we started to wander some when the sun was out and try real hard to follow a path back to the tree fort.

Copperman found us. People seen us and got scared cuz they saw ghosts they thought. Copperman had Coca-Cola and cheeseburgers from McDonalds. Copperman was real happy we wasn’t no ghosts and wasn’t no dead. We seen dead stuff out the woods lots. Copperman wanna know we seen Ma and Pa go lay down or rest and not wake up. We says Ma and Pa walked real far away and never came back for us. Copperman taked us to a real happy lady who laughed a lot and he told us we was gonna stay there for many days. She tells us to call her Mama Martha and she told me and Fern and Roger that Ma and Pa went to sleep forever and went up to heaven. We wouldn’t see them no more not unless we was asleep forever too. That was dead. They was dead. The woods ate them up and threw them back up. No one could tells us why. Someday, they say. Someday we get the answers but why we gotta hang on for someday? Can’t we know now? We wanna hug them just a couple more somehow.

Mama Martha gots a flowery smell and cooks some tasty good foods too. We got lots of stuff. Crayons and clothes and all the foods we can eat up. Toys, lots of toys and stuff that makes loud sounds and plays songs. We can see TV some but not too much Mama Martha says. We got beds now. Soft ones. But we can’t sleep cuz the room don’t sound how the woods does. We turn on the fan and talk real low some when we can’t sleep. Fern say she hear Ma hum when the yawns come. She sleeps extra happy then. We long for the woods but the real world can be swell too. Mama Martha says we always got tomorrow to start new. Do we?

We do have tomorrow for more cheeseburgers and coca-cola and the park that has a bouncy seal and a bouncy duck. Ma and Pa got stuck yesterdays ago so we’ll go to tomorrow for them.