by Avi
“Thank you. But why?”
“Uncle Ereth said you flew away. Did you?”
“In a way, yes.” Poppy sat up and looked around. “Where’s Bounder?”
“Who?”
“The fox who was taking me to warn the family about the fire.”
“A fox?” cried Spruce. “Oh wow! Do you have a friend who is a fox?”
“I suppose you might say so. I fell off. He must not have noticed.” She considered Spruce. “I’m glad he didn’t.”
Poppy stood up, gave herself a shake, and then looked in the direction of the fire. The flames were much closer. “Spruce!” she said. “We need to get home fast. To warn the family.”
“I know. But, Grandma, I did find you, didn’t I?”
“You certainly did,” said Poppy, with another look at the fire. “Now let’s run.”
“Okay.”
They ran down the path at full speed. When they paused to catch their breaths, Spruce asked, “How did you learn to fly?”
“Actually it wasn’t me who did the flying, but a bat.”
“A bat!” cried Spruce, his eyes very big. “Do you have a bat friend, too?”
Instead of answering, Poppy looked to see how far the fire had reached. For the moment they were safe, but she was quite sure their time was short.
“Would they take me flying, too?” Spruce asked.
“I’m sure they will. Now, less talk. We need to go very fast!”
It was Ereth’s log that they reached first. Poppy turned to Spruce. “Run home to your father and mother,” she said. “Tell them about the fire. I’ll be right there.”
The young mouse raced away, calling, “Dad! Mom! Everybody! I found Grandma! I really did! She really was flying. With her bat friend! I’m going to fly, too.”
Poppy, meanwhile, plunged into Ereth’s log. “Ereth!” she called. “Are you in here? You need to get out!”
When no reply came, she ran inside, only to discover that the log was deserted. She dashed out and saw Spruce running toward her. Dogbane was with him. When Dogbane saw Poppy, he stopped.
“There’s no one home,” cried Spruce. “Except Dogbane with a message for me.”
“What’s the message?” asked Poppy.
Dogbane, still staring at Poppy, said, “Everybody’s gone to the dell.”
“Who is everybody?”
“The whole family.”
“Why are they doing that?” asked Poppy.
“It’s…well…,” stammered Dogbane. “It’s…your funeral.”
Poppy stood speechless.
Spruce tugged on her. “Grandma,” he said, “if it’s your funeral, aren’t you supposed to be there?”
CHAPTER 32
Poppy’s Funeral
ERETH WAS THE FIRST to arrive at the site of Poppy’s funeral. “I’m the mourner in chief,” he muttered. “I should be the first one.” He was determined not to budge from his speaking post. No mouse would take his place! Front paws folded under his chest, he gazed at nothing and practiced his smile.
The sky turned quite hazy until it became so overcast Ereth was sure it was going to rain. Except there was not the slightest scent of rain in the air. On the contrary, it felt drier and hotter than it had all summer. The porcupine lifted his nose and sniffed. There was a strange smell in the air, but nothing he could place.
The day’s light was beginning to fade when Junior, along with his brothers and sisters—Mariposa, Snowberry, Walnut, Columbine, Sassafras, Crab Grass, Pipsissewa, Verbena, Scrub Oak, and Locust—and their spouses, and all their children, and their children’s children made their way into the dell. As they came, Ereth stared straight ahead, with only an occasional twitch of his tail and a curt nod to the few mice he knew by name. To all he offered what he considered his best smile.
The mice who knew Ereth kept looking at him. He could hear them twitter: “What’s Ereth smiling about?” “It can’t be a smile.” “Ereth never smiles.”
The younger mice stared up at Ereth, too, speaking to one another in whispered undertones.
“There’s the great Ereth.”
“Wow! Poppy’s best friend!”
“If he was Poppy’s best friend, and this is her funeral, how come he’s smiling like that?”
“Maybe he’s going to throw up.”
“Hey, guess what? Have you heard? Spruce is missing.”
Ereth heard these words, but he remained quite still and continued to smile.
Junior climbed onto the rock and whispered into Ereth’s ear, “Uncle Ereth, I think everyone is here. We should begin.”
“Fine,” replied Ereth, smiling.
“Uncle Ereth,” Junior whispered, “you haven’t seen Spruce around, have you?”
“No.”
“I’m afraid he’s wandered off. One of his brothers said he went looking for Poppy.”
“He’ll never find her,” said Ereth, smiling broader.
“Well, you better begin,” said Junior. “Better keep it to a few remarks, okay? I’ll speak next. Then some of my brothers and sisters want to speak. But Uncle Ereth?”
“What?”
“Really, why are you smiling?”
“Want to.”
“It’s…well…strange.”
“Beat it!” snarled the grinning porcupine, and Junior stepped away from the stone, but, along with his siblings, stayed close.
Ereth sat up. “Okay,” he shouted, loud enough for all in the dell to hear. “It’s time we began.”
Almost two hundred mice stopped their conversations and stared up at Ereth, their ears cocked forward, with an occasional twitch of a tail.
“My name,” began the porcupine, “is Ereth. I suppose you know that. You should know it. If you don’t, I’d have to ask why you haven’t been paying attention. Anyway, this is all about…Poppy. We all know…knew…Poppy. But no one knew her better than me, since—”
When Ereth paused to catch his breath, Laurel whispered to Junior, “That’s not a very nice thing to say.”
“The point is,” Ereth went on, “Junior asked me to make a few remarks. I suppose I could give a brief summary of Poppy’s life. All about her parents, Lungwort and Sweet Cecily. Where she was raised, Gray House. I could mention Ragweed, too. Briefly.
“I don’t know why, but Poppy always thought Ragweed was something special. Not that I ever met him. Wish I had. I’d have given him a quill up the snoot.”
Pipsissewa turned to Verbena. “That’s so rude!”
Ereth continued. “That Ragweed, he was always mixed up in things. Even after he died. Don’t exactly know how. Or why. But he was.” Ereth shook his head.
“Or,” he continued, “I suppose I could tell you about Poppy and that owl, Mr. Ocax. Of course, if she hadn’t met me, things would have been very different. Because it was with one of my quills and my advice that she defeated him.”
“I thought this was going to be short,” Laurel said into Junior’s ear.
“So naturally,” Ereth went on, “you’ll want to know how she met me, how I was able to encourage her, give her a sense of the real world, get her to grow up.”
Ereth put his paws into his mouth and grinned while gazing down at the puzzled eyes of the mice.
“Let me see if I can get him to stop,” said Junior. He began to move forward.
Ereth, seeing Junior coming toward him, hurried on. “But then I could explain how Poppy asked me to go with her on a trip to tell Ragweed’s parents how Ragweed died. Naturally, I went. And that’s how, because of that trip, of which I was in charge, she met Rye. Fell in love with him. Married him. Not that I understood why. I could mention Rye’s poetry. But I don’t want to because I couldn’t stand it.”
Junior was now close to Ereth. “Uncle Ereth…,” he whispered.
“Buzz off, fur ball,” muttered Ereth, and went on. “I could tell you,” he said, louder than before, “in case you never heard it, about the great battle with the beavers. If it hadn’t been for
me, all of Ragweed’s family—Rye’s family—would have been beaten up. Fortunately I was there. Gave those beavers a few pokes. That battle made it possible for Poppy and Rye to stay together. Me, again.”
“Ereth…,” Junior said. “I really think that’s enough.”
Ereth shoved Junior back and boomed on. “Anyway, since I was so important in all of those happenings, the hero, actually, I could talk about that, too. For instance, Poppy and Rye had children. Too many, if you want to know what I think. Fact is, Poppy and Rye were too young to be parents. Fortunately, I lived close. They used to come and ask me for advice about how to raise you annoying kids. I gave them plenty. In fact, I could give a brief talk about how to be a good parent. Might be useful.”
Ereth sighed deeply, caught himself, and grinned.
“Uncle Ereth,” said Junior, standing right next to him, “you really need to—”
“Just getting to the really important part,” Ereth muttered under his breath, and kept on. “So it would be only right to explain how she felt about me! After all, we were the best of friends. Best, best friends. Which means I should give a little talk about…myself. My early life. How I came to Dimwood Forest. Naturally I’d include how I met Poppy. I was saving her from a fox. I could even talk about that fox’s children. I took care of them too. I saved them from starvation. That’s me, always helping someone.”
“Ereth, please…”
“And speaking of starvation, I suppose I might explain how I see life here in Dimwood Forest, what we could do once this heat wave passes—”
“Ereth! Stop!” shouted Junior.
“I suppose that’s enough,” said Ereth. “For introductory remarks. Of course, if there’s time, someone else could speak. But they had better keep it short and only about Poppy. Long, self-centered speeches are stupid. Besides, the whole point is, Poppy has gone and died!”
“But that’s not true,” cried a voice from the back of the dell. “I’m right here!”
CHAPTER 33
Poppy Alive
ALL THE MICE swung around to see who had called. There, at the back of the dell, stood Poppy. By her side was Spruce.
There was a great gasp of shock and surprise.
Ereth leaned forward and, seeing Poppy, bellowed: “Poppy! You suffocating sack of squirrel spit! Is that you or your ghost?”
“Why…it’s me, of course,” returned Poppy. “Who else would I be?”
“But I saw your ghost vanish into the sky!” yelled Ereth. “You’re supposed to be dead!”
“Dead? Ghost? Ereth, I’ve never heard anything so silly. Look at me, for goodness’ sakes! I’m very much alive.”
“Then you’re fake alive!” screamed Ereth. “And that’s worse than being dead.”
By this time Junior had found his voice and was able to say, “But Mom…never mind Ereth. Where were you? What happened?”
“Junior, please tell me what’s going on here.”
“Uncle Ereth told us that he saw your ghost flying up in the air.”
“Well, though I did go up into the sky, I certainly am not a ghost.”
“Dad!” shouted Spruce. “It was bats who taught Grandma to fly!”
“Junior,” said Poppy, “aren’t you pleased that I’m alive?”
“Yes, of course!” cried Junior. “Very happy. Aren’t we?” he said to the crowd.
“Yes!” “Of course!” “Absolutely!”
“And I’m so glad that Spruce is with you,” said Laurel.
“Spruce,” said Junior, “we were getting worried. Where did you go?”
“I had to find where Grandma landed after her flying.”
“And did you?”
“As a matter of fact,” said Poppy, “he did. But never mind me. Do you have any idea what’s happening?”
“What’s happening, baboon bottom brain,” shrieked Ereth, “is that we’re in the middle of your funeral. In fact, I just gave a beautiful speech about you. I even learned to smile because you died. What a waste! Let me tell you right now, I’ve no intention of ever smiling again! Not even when I die!”
“But if we don’t hurry,” cried Poppy, “we will be dead. All of us. The forest is on fire!”
“Fire!” someone shouted.
“Did she say fire?” called another.
“What fire?” “Where’s the fire?” “I don’t see any fire!”
Spruce, standing next to Poppy, yelled, “Everybody! Listen to Grandma! The forest is really burning! I saw it! Listen to Grandma. She always knows what to do.”
“Truly?” came the frightened voices of the mice. “Honestly?” “Not a joke?” “First she says she isn’t dead.” “Then she said we will be dead.” “I don’t get it.” “What’s happening?”
“There is a fire,” cried Poppy over the chatter. “And every minute we stand here it’s getting closer.”
The mice began to scream, shout, and cry.
“Where do we go?”
“What do we do?”
“What about my home?”
“We’re doomed!”
“We’ll be killed!”
“Let me out of here!”
“Not that way!”
“This way.”
“Which way should we run?”
“Somebody, help!”
“Help!”
Junior leaped up on the boulder. Standing next to Ereth, he called across the teaming dell, “Mom! Poppy! Where’s the fire coming from?”
“From Bannock Hill,” Poppy called back over the frightened, jabbering mice. “It’s leaped Glitter Creek and is coming this way. Spreading quickly in all directions.”
Ereth, who had been staring at Poppy with a mixture of fury and disbelief, looked up. He could now see that the sky was full of billowing, churning dark smoke. When he looked in the direction of the creek, he saw spikes of flame cutting through the trees.
“Thundering turtle toilets!” he cried. “Poppy’s right! Look! The whole forest is on fire!”
Now the sounds of burning were unmistakable: the snapping, crackling, and crashing of falling trees seemed to come from every which way.
“How do we get away?”
“Can we escape?”
“Should we go now?”
“Should we stay?”
Poppy, standing as tall as she could, called to her children across the dell: “Mariposa! Snowberry! Walnut! Columbine! Sassafras! Crab Grass! Pipsissewa! Verbena! Scrub Oak! Locust! Junior! Each of you. Head off in different directions. Find where the fire has reached, where it’s heading! Then get right back here and tell us. See if there’s a way out.”
Poppy’s children scattered. When they had gone, Poppy made her way through the crowd, reassuring now one mouse, now another, telling each one to keep calm, that they would all surely find a way to escape. Spruce stayed by her side. Reaching the other end of the dell, Poppy climbed up on the rock where Ereth was still sitting.
“Ereth,” she said, “I’m so glad to see you!” She reached up and kissed his nose.
“Glad!” he cried, rubbing the kiss away. “I want to know where you went! Here I’ve been—”
“Ereth,” said Poppy, “we’ll talk later. We’ve got to deal with the fire.”
“Mom!” came a call from across the dell. Scrub Oak had returned from scouting. “The fire is only about a hundred yards that way,” he yelled, pointing.
The next moment Pipsissewa appeared, coming in from another direction. “The fire is over there!” she called.
One by one, Poppy’s children returned. Each had the same message: the fire had spread all around them. They were surrounded.
CHAPTER 34
Surrounded
POPPY STOOD ON THE ROCK beside Ereth. All the mice were staring at her, as if she would know what to do, as if she would know some way of escape.
She gazed around. Through the ring of trees surrounding the dell she saw flames leaping and darting, moving about like mad dancers to the sounds of the all-consuming fir
e and roaring wind. Within the dell the air was growing thicker and heavier with smoke. The heat was almost unbearable.
“Grandma Poppy!” cried Spruce. He had been telling his brothers and sisters about his adventures, but seeing Poppy on the rock, he ran over to her.
“Spruce, I’m trying to decide what we can do—”
“I thought of what to do,” Spruce shouted to her. “Call your bat friends. Get them to fly us all out of here.”
Poppy stared at Spruce. Then she said, “Spruce, that’s a wonderful idea. Brilliant!”
“Everybody,” she cried out. “Listen to me! There is a way to get out of here. We all need to call.”
“Call whom?” cried someone.
“A friend of mine,” replied Poppy. “Luci.”
“Luci?”
“Who’s Luci?”
“What’s this Luci going to do?”
“Never mind Luci! We’ve got to get out of here.”
“No, no!” shouted Poppy over the increasing din. “It’s the only way. It’s Spruce’s clever idea. But we have to do it all together. As loud and as high as we can, shout—Lu-ci!”
Lifting her head, Poppy began to shout in her loudest voice, “Lu-ci! Lu-ci!”
Spruce was the next to take up the call. “Lu-ci! Lu-ci!” he called.
Junior joined in, followed by Laurel and all their children. Next were the rest of Poppy’s children and their children—until all the mice in the dell were crying, “Lu-ci! Lu-ci! Lu-ci!”
Again and again they called, while the sky grew darker and the fire crept closer.
As Poppy cried “Lu-ci! Lu-ci!” she kept her gaze aloft, staring into the ever-thickening smoke.
A shrill, squeaky voice came from above: “Miss Poppy! What’s happening?” The young bat swooped in and landed on the rock right next to Poppy. “Told you I’d come if you called. But oh my gosh! This fire is awful!”
“It’s a bat!” cried one of the mice, and backed away.
“It’ll kill us!”
“Kill it first!”
“No, no!” shouted Poppy. “The bat’s our friend.”
“They’ll teach us to fly,” cried Spruce.
