marigold (part 6)
Walking in the wind was one of Marigold’s favorite things and this morning it was very windy! It was still quite early but she was out, doing her morning exploration, she called it her walkabout.
She would survey the flowers, the trees and shrubs. Looking for changes both below and above. She walked towards the stump, yes, the now famous stump. As she got closer her heart started to thump…
Another pencil - it was just sitting right there! Marigold was stunned, she was locked in a stare. Her mind was racing, her thoughts were alive…
How did this happen again? What is going on? How can we figure this out? Where could a pencil just come from? Is this some kind of trick? What will we do now? What is going on?
Just then Cody skittered along, when he saw Marigold’s face he worried something was wrong.
“Marigold, what happened?” Cody let out a combination squeak and scream.
Marigold pointed to the pencil and the words, out they streamed, “Another pencil, there like before. The mystery is deeper, I have to think more.” With that Marigold plopped herself down, right on the leaf covered dirty hard ground.
Cody decided to leave her alone. He would go find the other Detective Club members and share what was known.
Marigold sat there, trying to think. She sat and she stared, not even a wink. As she was trying to puzzle it out, she was startled indeed by a friendly small shout.
“Hey, you there! Can I ask you a question. I may have left my pencil here after my last drawing session. Have you seen it?”
Marigold’s eyes grew as big as saucers and she whipped around to see a teenage boy standing there. He was carrying a big drawing pad.
In an instance she knew, the mystery was solved! This boy left his pencils on the big log while he was drawing the view she had seen. So simple, so perfect, so truly delightful!
She bounded up and grabbed the pencil from its perch, “Is this it? The one you left. Can you now stop your search?”
“Oh, and by the way,” she rummaged through her coat pocket and produced yesterday’s appearing pencil, “did you leave this one yesterday?!”
“Yes yes, those are my pencils. My favorites for drawing in fact. Thank you so much for finding them. I must have just set them down and forgotten.”
He reached out his hand, “Hi, I’m Peter. And thank you again.”
Marigold reached out and shook his hand, she felt like a real adult, “I’m Marigold. I’m the head of the local Detectives Club and we are so glad to have this case solved.”
Peter chuckled.
Just then Marigold noticed that Cody had returned with the rest of the club. “Oh, let me introduce to everyone! This is Bernice, and Reginald, and Mildred and Mattie, and Stan, and of course here’s Cody.”
Peter thought he heard something that sounded like a squeaky scream coming from the little mice, and, wait a minute… were their lips moving? And then he thought he heard a sound like a owl’s hoot but maybe a word as well. He was truly perplexed. Of course, the entire Detectives Club was excited and they were all talking at once. But Peter was probably a little bit too old now to really understand anyways. It takes a certain kind of person to keep their ears open to really hearing.
Instead, he thanked Marigold again, glanced around at the animals, nodded his head, and was gone.
Marigold declared “Time to celebrate our first case solved by the Members of the Detectives Club! Good work all! Hip hip hooray!!”
Everyone was happy, except maybe Stan. What do you think he was doing? Of course, he was taking a nappy.
