Part 6
Hannibal Horrible lifted from the top of the
great pine and headed back to the yard…”Ah, the catch of the day, fresh and
sweet. Life is good, on this nice summer
day”. He breathed into the wind.
The human returned
home and saw the yard men finishing up two houses down, good they would be in
her yard soon. She could put away the
groceries and straighten the back porch for the evening guests knowing the yard
would be cut and edged, and the porch blown clean with the loud smelly
blowers. She began making the martini
that was her late afternoon ritual on the porch. She put away the folded
towels, took supper out of the freezer to thaw and decided to take a ten minute
power nap. She could hear the mower coming
into her yard and the sound of the big engine always made her feel safe… it was
part of being home.
Thirty minutes
later, Jake the Pine Snake gave up. He had lain under the spigot in the front
yard coiled and ready but the humans stepped over him several times with nary a
gasp or a notice. He was slithering home
as his heart wasn’t in the prank anymore… besides, he couldn’t get his own back
yard troubles out of his mind. Scott and Zelda and their vanishing families
were a part of his world, a world he had chosen many years ago, and weren’t
they a part of the whole that made up his world? Could he really be so disloyal as to turn and
slither away? Jake loved that word,
slither… he loved to slither… he was the only one in the back yard that could slither,
and he was proud of his slithering abilities.
He slithered over to the pond just as the humans opened the gates to the
backyard and drove their terrible machine through. The conspirators at the pond disappeared just
as Hannibal Horrible came cruising overhead.
The machines didn’t bother him, he had no truck with them, and their
worlds were millions of miles apart. If
anything the humans with their mower loved to watch him soar above their
heads. Once one had even taken a picture
of the great owl perched on the limb of a big Sweet Gum tree. Yes, they were fans of Hannibal as they
pointed and drew each other’s attention to the big bird.
Amy was watching
in the dogwood tree as the great Owl returned.
The big bird searched the trees looking for the little Robin. So, she was to be the target along with Scott
and Zelda? Amy had made a promise to the
fish she was afraid she couldn’t keep, but she sure as hell would try. When
Amy gave her word it stood for something in the back yard. She began to prepare herself and gather
strength for the oncoming battle.
Bull was under the
eave of the roof watching for any signal from Amy. A squirrel had to do what a squirrel had to
do and if it meant getting killed, well… oh crap, getting killed? Suddenly he had an urge to bolt back to Bill,
the big Chinquapin Oak and crawl in next to Precious, cuddle up and deal with
all of this another day. But a loud
sharp bark from Precious resounding from the nest, reminded him that the joy of
his fantasy was just that lately, a fantasy, and suddenly being a hero seemed
safer and a little less challenging than trying to make Precious happy. He puffed up to twice his size, began to bark
an angry bark and prepared himself for battle.
“Battle with a
bulldozer.” Said Bull to himself. “Great odds here…” He almost whimpered.
Amy was watching Hannibal circle as
she kept an eye on Bull. When they attacked,
it would have to be very fast, and very sure.
Jake the Pine Snake suddenly saw an
opportunity to help. One of the humans
was walking toward the pond with a clean filter for the fountain. The human was sitting on the porch holding
the small, weird little birdbath she held every evening. Good, it was still full, she would not be too
calm to care what was going on, she would help…
he knew it… hell he counted on it.
He positioned himself between Bull and Amy just under the edge of the
porch. Amy smiled and acknowledged his
presence and was more than glad for whatever help Jake had cooked up. Then Lil Bit, trembling and scared came up
beside Bull, she was little, but she was wiry with strong teeth.
“Go home Lil Bit, this isn’t for
you…” Bull barked in his meanest voice.
“I won’t leave you Bull, so don’t
ask me, I can help”. Bull was totally
bumfuggled, how was he ever going to save himself and her in the bargain. What to do now?
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