A LIGHT IN THE DARKWOOD
Ernest Kinnie
Copyright © 2012 by Ernest Kinnie
Smashwords Edition
Dorothy and Squeaky ran down the path. Splashed across the tiny brook. Hurried past the stinky skunk cabbage. Waved to the red-headed woodpecker banging his nose against an old tree. And came to the huckleberry patch. Hundreds of blue huckleberries. Thousands of fat huckleberries. Millions of juicy huckleberries.
They stuffed their mouths and stuffed them again, and were about to stuff them some more when they heard a sound nearby. They went over to see who it was, except it wasn’t nobody. It was a big, black, sow bear, eating huckleberries like everybody else. Except she didn’t want to share. She reared up on her hind legs, growled, and waved her long yellow claws in the air. A very selfish bear. And then she dropped down on all fours and started toward them.
“RUN!” Dorothy shouted. And they ran.
They ran into the woods. Past the squawking blue jays. Past two noisy squirrels jumping up and down on a tree branch. Past a brown rabbit with big eyes who stared at them as they ran by. Past the green bushes and the green trees. Deeper and deeper into the Darkwood. Past bright yellow bushes and bright blue trees.
They ran until they couldn’t run anymore. They looked back to see if the old, black, sow bear was following them. No sow bear. She was probably back at the huckleberry patch eating all those juicy huckleberries.
It was getting dark and everything looked very strange. “Are bushes supposed to be yellow,” Squeaky asked, “and why are all the trees blue?”
Dorothy decided that they were in a very creepy place.
Everything became very quiet as the darkness came on. The strange trees and bushes disappeared into the darkness around them. “What are we going to do? Squeaky asked. “Well it’s too dark to find our way home now, so we’ll just have to wait until the sun comes back up,” Dorothy answered. “I don’t wanna,” Squeaky wailed, and began to cry. Dorothy wasn’t feeling too happy either, but had to be brave for her little brother.
“Hey look,” Squeaky said, pointing to a tiny light that was bobbing up and down off in the distance. It was coming toward them. “Let’s go see who it is.” Dorothy wanted to but remembered that her mother told her not to talk to strangers. “No, might not be friendly.” Dorothy grabbed Squeaky and they ran behind a bush as the light got closer and closer.
A little man with red hair and a big grin held a lantern out in front of him as he came toward them down the path. He was carefully sniffing the air, and stopped in front of them, sucking air into his nose. His grin got bigger and bigger, and he looked straight at the bush where Dorothy and Squeaky were hiding.
“Come, come, don’t play hide and seek with me. I can see you behind the bush.” They slowly stood up. “My, my, what handsome children. Don’t be afraid. I’ll help you find your way back home.” Dorothy didn’t much like his big grin but she did want to go home. “Thank you. We got chased by a big sow bear, and got lost. How do we get home?” “No problem children, just follow me.” and he turned and walked back the way he had come. The children came out from behind the bush and followed him down the path.
Squeaky grabbed his sister’s hand as the light from the lantern danced ahead. They could hear things slithering and sliding around them in the darkness. They went over a small, wooden bridge that creaked a little. Past flowers of many colors shining in the light of the lantern. Past a pair of red eyes behind a bush. Down a slippery path to the mouth of a dark cave.
They could hear low grunts and high whistles coming from inside the cave. “No,” Dorothy said, “We don’t want to go in there. You said you were going to take us home.” He turned and smiled his biggest grin. “Children, children, it’s too dark for you to go home now. I’ll take you home tomorrow when the sun comes up. Come on now and meet my friends.”