Rahvak wrung his hands and hastily continued, “Please, please, dear friends. Let’s try to return to a more pleasant mood. Perhaps it’s best if we move on to the next Sharer, Mrs. Yolana Shedfir. She has an exciting story to tell about her frightening encounter with a snake during a recent mushroom-picking expedition.”
Kehla turned her attention to the Story Stone. She had been looking forward to this. Yolana was the town huntress and brought in much of the meat and game that fed the town.
She was very skilled and very brave. From time to time she would even track down a bear single-handedly. In fact, there was only one thing that she was afraid of: whenever she was around more than a few people at a time, she became uncontrollably babbly.
Though Yolana enjoyed her solitude and preferred to hunt alone, on several occasions she had taken Kehla along, teaching her to hunt and forage. The two had become friends. She had confided to Kehla her one true fear: speaking in front of groups. Kehla had encouraged her to face her fears by speaking at Story Night.
Tonight was Yolana’s third attempt. The two previous occasions had ended with Yolana getting confused and embarrassing herself. Kehla had hoped tonight would be different, but even as Yolana approached Story Stone, Kehla could see that she was already giggling. She quickly recovered and turned to face the assembly. Then she waved her hankie at her friends in the crowd. “Well. Hello, Lana. Yoo-hoo, Cleo! Hi, Kaylie!” She giggled again, then fanned her face with the hankie.
Annabelle scowled at the use of the familiar ‘Kaylie.’ Kehla clapped a hand to her forehead, and concentrated on her lap.
“Ahem! Well. I left home early five days ago with my mushroom basket, you know, the little marsh-grass basket I made last fall. It’s such a delightful little thing, light and pretty, but just right for mushrooms, don’t you think ladies? Yes, I think so. Oh, and the rain. Well. It was right after that gentle rain shower we had the night before. I like that kind of rain. The heavy rains are not good. No, I don’t care for heavy rains. I’ve seen my share of hard and heavy rains, believe me! Why I can remember several years ago – it was early spring, or was it in late summer… No, that late summer rain was all of fourteen years ago. Now THAT was a hard and heavy rain too. Buckets and buckets of rain. Lots of buckets of rain. Lots of buckets, and lots of rain. Well. But the hard rain I’m thinking of happened only… let me see… Yes, I think it was only a few years ago. Early summer it had to be. I remember that month well, because that month—it was the twelfth day of the month, I believe, or it could have been the seventeenth—I don’t recall exactly… Twelfth?… Seventeenth?… No matter. Well. Anyway, I had made myself a new social dress to wear at Erma Neméa’s ‘Healthy Foods’ tea party. Oh! Did I say Erma? I’m sorry Lana. I know you hate your real name. I just slipped. I’m so sorry, dear. Well. Anyway, that was back when we still had some nice materials and a few baubles for making our clothes, before those stupid Fessals took everything from us. Well. Anyway, it was a lovely little thing. The dress, that is.” She giggled again. “The dress was a gorgeous lemony yellow and moss-green cotton, ankle-length dress. You remember my gorgeous dress, don’t you Lana?”
Lana yawned and nodded.
Old Mr. Broadlog, who was mostly deaf, raised his cane in the air and yelled out, “Speak up! I can’t hear a thing you say.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Mr. B. I’ll have to start over from the beginning.”
The crowd roared unanimously, “NO!”
“Well. Anyway.”
Mr. Broadlog grinned wickedly. “Deep subject, that.” The crowd chuckled.
“Well—ehem. It had a smart rose-colored brocade vest with tiny sassy tassels running around the fringes. The tassels were made of smartly wound macramé ringlets. The bodice was cleverly, if I may say so, adorned with silky yellow ribbon all around the borders. I also made an exquisite cape that tied at my… ”
Some in the crowd scratched their heads. Was Yolana, the intrepid huntress of Pond Town, actually babbling on about frilly clothes?
—”That cape go well with your buckskins, Yolana?”
—”Don’t the sassy-tassy fringes get caught in the brush?”
Yolana pretended not to hear. “Well. Anyway, that hard rain came down in buckets. Yes sir. Buckets. Buckets and buckets, and buckets of buckets. Nearly washed the town away. You remember that rain, don’t you, Cleo?”
There were several more groans from the audience. Cleo was sitting near the front and was trying very hard not to be noticed by anyone, but she courteously nodded and looked away.
Yolana continued droning on, staring upward now and then, talking more to herself than anyone else. “Well. But gentle showers are best. And of the gentle showers, I much prefer those that happen at night—never during the daytime. No, nighttime rain is best. Daytime rain is not good at all. Why, what can one do during a rainy day? There you are, all shut up in the house, wasting an otherwise perfectly good day while it rains on and on, buckets and buckets, and buckets of buckets of rain. Oh, and they, that is, the night rains, must be over by sun-up. I mean, who cares if it rains at night? I certainly don’t. Cleo, do you? No, I am sure you don’t. And if I had my way, I would insist that the following day be sunny. Yes, just like last Friday, the sunny morning after the gentle rain shower the night before.”
Several more from the audience groaned again. Someone from the rear called out, “Puh-lease get on with the part about the snake!”
Rahvak rose from his seat and approached Yolana, and gently touched her shoulder. “Our dear friend loves to spin a yarn, doesn’t she? May I please ask, Yolana, that you share the part about the snake now? I’m sure the friends will enjoy that story too.”
“Well. Anyway, as I was saying, I set out that sunshiny morning with a couple of empty baskets toward the large mushroom patch, the one northwest of town, near the blackberry patch, not the one further north. Not that one, the north-most patch, won’t be ready for another day or two, I think. But if it rains, then maybe either patch will produce. I don’t think we’ll have rain, will we? Does anyone know if it’s going to rain in the next day or so?”
Someone pretended to sneeze quite loudly, causing several others to giggle.
Yolana didn’t appear to notice, but her voice took on a lower and more serious tone. “Well. Anyway, as I was gathering those wonderful little button mushrooms, I became lost in my thoughts and I wasn’t paying much attention. The sun was so warm, and the shady trees so pleasant I just had not noticed the large flat rock—you know the one, Cleo. Well. Anyway, I had just reached down to collect a cluster of the buttons near it—”
Rollam Beckmoss got up on his knees, clasped his hands, and feigned a very sad and tortured face. “Not the rain, again, lady, please. I’m beg-ging you, lady! Please, oh please, stick to the snake story!” A few giggled at Rollam’s antics.
“—when I saw a huge snake.” She stopped abruptly, glared at Rollam, blushed deeply, then mumbled, “IhadallthemushroomsIneededsoIwentonhome.” She abruptly left the Story Stone and took her seat.
After a lengthy silence, Rollam shouted, “Well, what about the snake?”
Yolana whipped around and growled in his face, “I killed it with my stick, fool. What did you think I was going to do, kiss it?”
Back to Episode 2
Table of Contents: The Worldheart Epic – Season 1