Moving Day
Thistlewyn spent one more night bunking with Steve. It was a nice gesture, but she’d had Steve’s tail hair up her nose quite enough. And Steve was a bed hog. Other than that, she cared deeply for the squirrel family. As she awoke, Steve was nowhere to be found. She knew she had slept in, but where was everyone? Anyway, she had plenty to do today with the new abode that was currently littered with bug carcasses.
As Thistlewyn was about to take off, Arthur flew up and greeted her. “Good morning, Miss Thistlewyn, how’s your day going so far?”
She replied, “Good morning, Sir. Top o’ the morning to ya.” Thistlewyn was wondering what was about to happen. Seems like anytime Arthur was around, things got sketch. He was just standing there doing nothing, so she asked him how he was doing.
He replied, “Yes, I am doing quite well” … then said no more. Thistlewyn gazed at Arthur, puzzled. After a few minutes, Thistlewyn invited Arthur to accompany her to her new cottage. Arthur concurred, if they could stop by the creek to see a friend for a moment.
As they reached the creek, Thistlewyn observed no one there. After a 30-minute break, she began getting a bit testy. Arthur reassured her there was someone coming. After a short-added wait, a mockingbird showed up. Arthur introduced Tex and Thistlewyn and soon it was like she wasn’t even there. The two of them had been besties for quite a while. They were doing impressions of other bird species and some mammals also. Thistlewyn got tickled at the two of them. This mess continued for a bit, and she began trying to get them separated so she could get to work.
After another thirty minutes or so, they had pushed her to the limits of her composure. Thistlewyn finally exploded, the two guys could see her eyes begin to glow, and Tex exclaimed, “Arthur, will you look at that!” After that, neither of them spoke again for the rest of the trip to Thistlewyn’s new place.
As the three of them showed up, Thistlewyn was looking around at what seemed to be the entire population of T-Bone’s Place. Cranford walked up and greeted the trio, and Arthur apologized for not detaining Thistlewyn for the required time. Cranford was so excited about the way this whole plan had come together that he had become verklempt. He was really a great guy with a massive appreciation for structure.
There were so many residents there that she couldn’t see her new home. She had finally resorted to trying to push her way through. When she finally got to where she could catch a glimpse of her house, she could see Steve organizing and controlling all the actions taken by the residents to show their appreciation for the newcomer. Steve had turned into a powerhouse. There was no stone left unturned and no surface untouched. Finally, through the chaos, one of the residents recognized her, grabbed her, pulled her forward, and took her into her new home.
Steve was so glad she had arrived. Thistlewyn was rapidly getting emotional as she looked around at her beautiful new cottage. No bug carcasses, no cobwebs, the windows were squeaky clean, and it smelled amazing. Over by the washbasin, Thistlewyn could see a stack of butterfly cocoons, put there by Steve. He saw her gazing at them and explained that he might like to come over for an occasional sleepover. Upon hearing this, she reached her limit of emotional overload, and tears began to flow.
The whole crowd watched her break down in front of them. Steve handed her a cocoon to clean up with, tried to console her, and apologized for upsetting her. Thistlewyn finally got it together and tried to convey to all the residents her appreciation for all their efforts and all the love they had bestowed upon her. That they had given her something tangible that had never been given to her before, and what they had given her held more value to her than all the stars in the night sky.