Chpt 5
There was silence for a while. A few beavers turned to look at the story-telling trio. Turtle was a little mesmerized by the turn of events. Even Toad failed to summon his usual good-natured cheer. Still he asked, "But then... how did you guys manage to esc..."
There was a loud crash. "The truck gates!" Beaver hopped off the bed and exclaimed. A stream of beavers were already heading out of their sleeping quarters into their workplace. "The truck gates - they are open. I wonder what happened." Beaver rapidly joint his compatriots. Turtle and Toad threw a glance at each other and followed. They got to the back of the dewormification unit, where a huge panel of louvered gate was thrown up, and parked outside, in an expanse of glittering snow against a rapidly darkening horizon, was the delivery truck that Turtle saw in the morning.
It was nearly 7.30 now. Turtle had no clue if the truck had any business here in IME. The driver was a mouse in grey overalls and a beige-coloured hat, which turned out to be one half of the shell of a pistacchio nut turned backwards. The taper made it look like a French beret. "You'll never believe this folks!" He exclaimed as he jumped out and approached the company in strodes. His countenance was pale and, with the exclamation, it turned from a worried and strained look to one of relief - relief for finding someone to talk to finally. The beavers apparently knew him well, as he who had direct daily contact with the dewormification unit probably knew his present audience. Driver Mouse shook off the snow on his overalls and combed his head from ear to mouth with his forelimbs before jumping onto the conveyor belt to talk. His pistacchio hat fell off but apparent the news was too important for him to care. The news, as it turned out, was indeed important. But the telling was executed in no more than a squeak and Turtle had to stretch her neck out long to hear what was going on.
"I got up at 3 pm and was headed to the warehouse. On my way, I went to my usual hangout to grab a mouth of cheese. It's no joke driving this thing across the snow half the night and up this slope too. Why do you guys work up here, really? But anyway where was I? Oh yes, the cheese. And I heard the strangest thing I've heard in a long while. These two ducks sitting at the table next to mine - they were saying stuff so loud that just about everyone's within earshot. They said they saw strands of GOLDEN hair in the room they stayed the night."
There was a murmur in the crowd. Toad was fascinated, but didn't forget to remind Turtle under the breathe, "We don't see gold in this land." Turtle frowned and replied, "Yeah, I know THAT." There was a pause as Toad took one look at her and then said with a deadpan face, "Cool." Meanwhile the mouse was going on amidst mounting curiosity of his audience. "And so they were! Golden hairs they produced, about a dozen of them, as we gathered all around to take a better look. They were real thin but kinda wiry, and you can say almost of the same exact length. Who do you reckon could have come to our land?" There was a silence as everyone anticipated some sort of answer. But then Driver Mouse started to appear embarrassed because he apparently had none. An open-ended question mistaken for eloquence. Instead he hurried on with the real story, as his countenance fell again, being reminded of what he was about to tell, "Well that was just the first strange thing I came across today. I should've known today was no ordinary day man.. As I got to the warehouse, I waited a good whole hour for the foreman to appear. That was most unusual, really! And he appeared just to tell me... to tell me..." His nervousness mounted as he finally drew a breathe and broke the news, "That there's no sand. For tomorrow. At least."
Turtle then knew that the mouse was the delivery man of IME's raw materials, and he did night shifts to deliver by dawn. She could see he was saying something else but the crowd broke out and drowned his already barely audible squeak.
"What do you mean!?"
"Why, is there no work for tomorrow? We haven't been told.."
"And you came all the way..."
But soon there were voices that went "No wait - he has something to say! Hear him out! Hear him out!". And the crowd fell silent once again, each eagerly anticipating, eyes gleaming in the twilight.
Driver Mouse took to his narration again, which was really coming to an end - "They said they haven't got no sand for me. The sand...'s been stolen."
There was a loud crash. "The truck gates!" Beaver hopped off the bed and exclaimed. A stream of beavers were already heading out of their sleeping quarters into their workplace. "The truck gates - they are open. I wonder what happened." Beaver rapidly joint his compatriots. Turtle and Toad threw a glance at each other and followed. They got to the back of the dewormification unit, where a huge panel of louvered gate was thrown up, and parked outside, in an expanse of glittering snow against a rapidly darkening horizon, was the delivery truck that Turtle saw in the morning.
It was nearly 7.30 now. Turtle had no clue if the truck had any business here in IME. The driver was a mouse in grey overalls and a beige-coloured hat, which turned out to be one half of the shell of a pistacchio nut turned backwards. The taper made it look like a French beret. "You'll never believe this folks!" He exclaimed as he jumped out and approached the company in strodes. His countenance was pale and, with the exclamation, it turned from a worried and strained look to one of relief - relief for finding someone to talk to finally. The beavers apparently knew him well, as he who had direct daily contact with the dewormification unit probably knew his present audience. Driver Mouse shook off the snow on his overalls and combed his head from ear to mouth with his forelimbs before jumping onto the conveyor belt to talk. His pistacchio hat fell off but apparent the news was too important for him to care. The news, as it turned out, was indeed important. But the telling was executed in no more than a squeak and Turtle had to stretch her neck out long to hear what was going on.
"I got up at 3 pm and was headed to the warehouse. On my way, I went to my usual hangout to grab a mouth of cheese. It's no joke driving this thing across the snow half the night and up this slope too. Why do you guys work up here, really? But anyway where was I? Oh yes, the cheese. And I heard the strangest thing I've heard in a long while. These two ducks sitting at the table next to mine - they were saying stuff so loud that just about everyone's within earshot. They said they saw strands of GOLDEN hair in the room they stayed the night."
There was a murmur in the crowd. Toad was fascinated, but didn't forget to remind Turtle under the breathe, "We don't see gold in this land." Turtle frowned and replied, "Yeah, I know THAT." There was a pause as Toad took one look at her and then said with a deadpan face, "Cool." Meanwhile the mouse was going on amidst mounting curiosity of his audience. "And so they were! Golden hairs they produced, about a dozen of them, as we gathered all around to take a better look. They were real thin but kinda wiry, and you can say almost of the same exact length. Who do you reckon could have come to our land?" There was a silence as everyone anticipated some sort of answer. But then Driver Mouse started to appear embarrassed because he apparently had none. An open-ended question mistaken for eloquence. Instead he hurried on with the real story, as his countenance fell again, being reminded of what he was about to tell, "Well that was just the first strange thing I came across today. I should've known today was no ordinary day man.. As I got to the warehouse, I waited a good whole hour for the foreman to appear. That was most unusual, really! And he appeared just to tell me... to tell me..." His nervousness mounted as he finally drew a breathe and broke the news, "That there's no sand. For tomorrow. At least."
Turtle then knew that the mouse was the delivery man of IME's raw materials, and he did night shifts to deliver by dawn. She could see he was saying something else but the crowd broke out and drowned his already barely audible squeak.
"What do you mean!?"
"Why, is there no work for tomorrow? We haven't been told.."
"And you came all the way..."
But soon there were voices that went "No wait - he has something to say! Hear him out! Hear him out!". And the crowd fell silent once again, each eagerly anticipating, eyes gleaming in the twilight.
Driver Mouse took to his narration again, which was really coming to an end - "They said they haven't got no sand for me. The sand...'s been stolen."
posted by Azzurra | 10:46 PM
1 Comments:
Ha ha, the long awaited sequel. So the creative juices flow again? Looking forward to the next one =)
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