Poppy and Ereth (13 page)

A
LL 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.

P
OPPY 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 fire 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.

Poppy turned to Luci. “Luci,” she pleaded. “Please, we need your help. Fly back to your cave—fast as you can. Get as many of your family as possible and bring them here. You've got to fly us out of this place.”

Luci looked at Poppy and then at the mice in the dell. “Really?”

“Absolutely,” said Poppy.

“Miss Poppy,” said Luci, “there's fire all over Dimwood Forest. It's getting hard to fly.”

“Please,” Poppy pleaded. “It's the only way to save us. Please, just try!”

“I'll be back as soon as I can!” cried Luci, and off she flew.

As soon as the bat was gone, Poppy went to the edge of the rock. “Everyone!” she called. “Listen to me. The bats are my friends. They will be yours, too. I'm sure they will come. When they do, don't be frightened. They can carry us to safety.”

“They'll teach us to fly!” shouted Spruce again.

“When they come,” Poppy continued, “they'll be able to pick you up by your backs. It won't hurt, I promise.
I've already done it. It's the only way we're going to get out of here alive!”

The mice stared at her.

Poppy felt a nudge from behind. It was Ereth.

“What about me?” he whispered in a frightened voice.

“You can come, too.”

“But…but they won't be able to pick me up by my back.”

Poppy stared at him for a moment, then said, “Ereth, it'll have to be your belly. It has no quills. It's soft.”

“My…
belly
?” he roared.

“Ereth, it's the only way.”

“Pickled pink pockets!” cried Ereth, backing away. “I can't. I won't. It's not right. It's humiliating. It's my one tender spot. Everyone will laugh at me.”

“They won't!”

“Will!”

“Ereth, listen to me. I've been to the bat cave. Have you any idea what's there?”

“I don't care!”

“You do!”

“Don't!”

“It's
salt
!” she cried.

Ereth stopped moving away. He peered at Poppy through
the thickening gloom. “Did you say…salt?”

“Yes! Right there, in the bat cave. I've never seen so much. A whole beach of soft salt.”

Ereth stared at her. He began to salivate. “A whole…beach…of…salt?”

“Enough for the rest of your life!”

“The bats!” came a cry. “They're back. Look at them!”

Poppy looked up. Down through the clouds of swirling hot smoke fluttered hundreds of bats into the dell. Their wings beat the air, pushing the smoke away.

“We're here! We've come!” their voices cried, high and shrill.

“Lie down!” Poppy shouted to the mice. “Quickly! Let them grab you by your backs! Hurry!”

It was hard to know who squeaked more, the bats or the mice. But as the bats hovered over the dell, dipping and diving, Poppy could see one mouse after another lifted away. Most were carried the way she had been, by the back. In two instances she saw small great-grandchildren carried by their tails. And at one point she was sure she heard Spruce shout, “Hey! I'm flying! Like Grandma!”

“Miss Poppy,” Luci called, “what about this huge, prickly mouse?”

Poppy turned. There was Ereth. He was alternately
cowering in the midst of some two dozen bats, then spinning and smacking about with his tail. The bats kept approaching the porcupine, only to leap away when he lashed out.

“Ereth!” cried Poppy. “Stop! Be calm! Just roll over. It's the only way they can pick you up.”

“Toenail toothpaste!” bellowed the porcupine. “It's insulting! Humiliating!”

“
Salt
, Ereth,” cried Poppy. “Think about that salt! Salt enough for the rest of your life!”

Ereth blinked at Poppy. Then, drooling a little and muttering, “Salt! Salt for the rest of my life. Salt for the rest of my life!” he rolled over and stuck his four feet straight up in the air. Bats instantly clustered over his belly. Poppy saw Ereth rising—upside down—in the air.

“Great gobs of chicken cheese!” Ereth bellowed as he disappeared up into the smoke. “This tickles!”

“That's everybody but you, Miss Poppy,” Poppy heard Luci say into her ear.

Poppy took one more look around the dell. She was indeed the last one. The flames had crept in very close and had reached the base of the boulder. The howl of burning filled her ears. Each second the air grew hotter,
scorching hot, so hot her whiskers curled. Even as she gazed about, the trees surrounding the dell exploded into flames.

She looked at Luci, nodded, and then offered her back.

The young bat sprang over her and gripped her fur. “Ready, moth-mouse?”

“Ready as I'll ever be,” said Poppy.

Luci unfolded her leathery wings, flapped them furiously, and soared up in a tight spiral.

Poppy, eyes closed, felt the terrible heat and the buffeting winds. She smelled the acrid stench of burning. Then the heat and the stench retreated, though her eyes still smarted from the dense smoke. At last, when fresher winds blew into her face, Poppy opened her eyes, looked down, and gasped.

All of Dimwood Forest was burning. Flames lit the sky, reaching enormous heights as if trying to pull it down. Black, gray, and white smoke billowed and roiled. Patches of smoldering scarlet dotted the earth like a glowing crazy quilt. “It will all…all of it…be gone,” Poppy whispered.

Then she looked ahead and saw the swarm of bats carrying her family to safety. Amid them she could see the bulging bulk that was Ereth. And she was almost certain
she could hear him bellowing, “Bring me to the salt!”

When Poppy looked down again, her tears—tears of sadness, tears of relief—fell. Whether they reached the burning forest she never knew.