Chapter 8: A Riddle Solved
Although he did not mean to, Ho had heard every word that was said downstairs. He was lying on his bed and had covered his head with the pillow. But he was marked with elfin ears – ears that could hear a mouse scurry in a thick field of grass. What was spoken downstairs he heard with such clarity as if he were just sitting on the sofa next to Mr. Bobbs.
He heard everything. He heard Talla’s trembling voice read the letter from Uncle Hickory. He heard Pappy’s tirade afterwards and he heard him and Mammy run out of the house. He heard Mr. Bobbs and Mr. Apple’s comments after his parents had fled.
He sensed that Talla was crying. Talla Bobbs was good. He was certain of that. But Mr. Apple? Pappy was right that there was something sour about that elf. Ho didn’t trust him and wondered what he was doing here in the first place. Uncle Hickory’s note made no mention of Fender Apple being privy to this information. The letter was only for the ears of Talla Bobbs and Pappy. Even Mammy should not have heard it. But Talla Bobbs probably thought nothing of it. He was a trusting old soul and could not imagine the worst in any people that he encounters. That must have gotten Uncle Hickory’s pickle now and then.
Ho rolled over onto his back. This bed was very comfortable. Sometimes in the morning it was hard to leave it. He started thinking about Hickory’s letter. Hickory had said that a Robinbreast must perform this duty or curse, as it was more likely to be. If Pappy didn’t do it then who would?
“Me,” Ho said out loud. “I’m a Robinbreast. Maybe I should do it!”
The young elf started to imagine himself crossing the Sierra de Gata Mountains in a rickety old canoe. He would know about the waterfall and would bring his vessel to shore before encountering the treacherous rapids that led up to them. From that point he would follow Hickory’s map to where the emeralds were hidden. He would have Hickory’s map for he had figured out his Great Uncle’s riddle. ‘When the ear is hot you will find it at the bottom of the pot.”
There was only one answer to this riddle and that was …
He sat up with a bolt. “Mammy!” he cried out loud. If Pappy figures out this clue, which surely he will, he will know that Mammy had been lying. Pappy was mad enough as it was now. He couldn’t let Pappy get any angrier. He had to protect his Mammy. Without another thought, Ho flew out of his room. He had to set things straight for Mammy.
** ** **
There was a gentle wind blowing down from the olive bluffs. The dismal clouds and rain that had dominated the day had gone elsewhere to torment others besides the elf folk. In their wake, a low hanging sun did much to radiate warmth to the nestled town of Woodhaven. Birds that had roosted all day long amid the branches and bramble of yuccas and sycamores now found it advantageous to take wing and hunt down the hardy November insects.
Pappy found the air refreshing and invigorating. The Earth was replenished by the rains and it was new again. Woodhaven might be as old as the hills that made up its perimeter but after a rain it was as if it had just been born for the first time. The colors of the grasses, the trees and the houses became brilliant. It could almost overwhelm your senses if it were not that it had such a soothing quality. No beast or spirit could remain feral and gnarled when it moved through this sanguine valley veiled from the rest of the world.
He did not ever want to leave Woodhaven. It was his home and unlike Gabby Gibbons or Uncle Hickory, Pappy was not plagued by a restless urge to wander. The only world that he wanted his eyes to ever see was the world of this valley etched out by the nurturing Miracle Creek.
Why had those two old-timers come? Why did they insist to rake him away from a life that had been nothing but a blessing to him from the day he was born? He had been lucky all of his life. He had not been born to high aspirations. His contentment was just to merely provide for his family and to watch his fine children grow. He had a wife to whom he had sworn to stay by until the last breath faded from his lips. It was a most serious vow that could not be discarded for any whimsical foolhardy folly. No, he was entrenched to that promise and he was determined to carry it through.
Why had the ghost of Hickory come now to plague him? Why couldn’t Hick remain peacefully in his grave where he could be embalmed by the fond memories of those that loved him? What made the Questioner’s request a thing of such grave importance that it dared to violate the sanctity of his contentment? Great Uncle Hickory may have been frivolous in many of the things that he did but Pappy could not deny that the old elf had a keen sense of priorities. He was able to chaff away the pretending from the real. What that Harpy told Hickory in secrecy must have been of the utmost importance. Hickory was not one to impose on others if he need not have to. Whatever the Harpy said, Hickory deemed it of such a priority that he did dare to intrude on his grandnephew’s life. Hickory would not have done this normally.
But it was such a silly request! Of what significance could throwing a few stones in the ocean have upon the world? The act itself was something that even a child could not get very excited about. Why must those emeralds be thrown in the ocean? And why at precisely the time of the two comets? And even more importantly, why a Robinbreast?
His family was not of any royal or heraldic line. They had always been just common folk for as many generations as anybody cared to go back. Now, what made them suddenly the most important people in the world? It was ludicrous. Perhaps Hickory’s judgment had suffered from some sort of lapse. He had been under strain. He had just barely escaped death at the hands of the waterfall. And no matter what anybody says, he must have been scared to his very core by the sight of that great Harpy. This would have been enough to diminish anybody’s sense of what was important and what was not.
Pappy sighed for he knew he was just reaching at empty straws. Plenty of time has passed since Hickory’s Portuguese adventure and the time he wrote the note to Talla Bobbs. There was time enough for him to reflect upon faulty reasoning and time to make amends. If there were something to change, Hickory would have done it. He didn’t. He had stuck hard and fast to what the Questioner had told him. For some reason unbeknownst to Pappy it was of supreme importance that he cast those gems into the Portuguese ocean on the night of the two comets.
Then again, doesn’t anything of a grand scale always have its roots in something that was trifling at the time – something as trifling or ludicrous as throwing stones into a body of water?
Pappy picked up a stick and tossed it. He knew what he had to do. He wasn’t happy about it. A child, a daughter he hoped, would be born while he was away. He had witnessed the birth of each of his three sons. He had been there to comfort Mammy as she was wrought with anguish over the agony of her labor.
None of the births had been easy. With Kiddo’s birth, Dr. Cherrydown was very concerned over Mammy’s health. She had lost a lot of blood and had been so weak that it was almost a month before she was even allowed to walk on her feet.
After Kiddo, Pappy had decided that three children were enough. He did not want to endanger Mammy again.
But she would not have it that way. She wanted a brood of twenty. She said that what had happened with Kiddo was because she was not looking after herself properly. Uncle Hickory had died and the stress she had suffered from this death had caused her to neglect her health.
This would not happen again she said. Afterall, she was still a relatively young elf. Other than this lapse during her third pregnancy she had always been strong. She said that her heart would break if she could not have any more children.
Her persuasiveness forced Pappy to consult with Dr. Cherrydown. The good doctor at first reminded him of all the dangers that a fourth childbearing might engender. But, he said, if Mammy did look after herself and did not become prone to any undue stress, a fourth child would not be in the realm of the impossible.
It was a reluctant okay from the doctor but when Mammy caught wind of this approval, it was all that she needed. She promised that she would look after herself.
Pappy had no reason not to believe her and thus far it seemed that she had lived up to her promise. She had never once complained about any aches or pains the way she did with Kiddo. Pappy hoped that she was not holding back on anything. He had no reason to believe that she would. Nonetheless, he wanted to be there at the moment of the fourth child’s birth just in case the unforeseen may occur.
But, now there was this thing of Hickory’s last request. It threw him into a quandary. He did not want to leave his wife at this crucial moment. Yet, this quest from Hickory may be pre-emptive to any concern he had for Mammy. Only a Robinbreast could perform this act. Only he could perform this act. What was he to do? He wished he could know what was right.
“Merek!”
Pappy turned his head. Across this field of grass he saw Mammy’s buffalo form hobble against the sway of the field. Looking at her, he was swamped by the immensity of his love for her. This was the girl that he had promised his all.
As she drew nearer, he could hear the puffing of her hard breath. He could see the redness in her cheeks. She had been crying. She had probably been stricken by the competing demands just as he had been.
Pappy’s resolve became firm. He had made a promise to Silvie Dawnrose a long time ago that he would stick with her through thick and thin. It had been a solemn vow. It could not be set aside – not even for dear departed Uncle Hickory, bless his soul. Had the circumstances been different, had the timing been more fortuitous, he would have grudgingly obliged his Great Uncle. Once circumstances have been set down, you have to accept them for what they are. He’s got a wife near full bloom. It is to her that he owes his primary allegiance.
He started toward her. He spread out his arms, ready to embrace her. But Mammy stopped short of his hug. She looked at him with inquiring eyes that already had a taint of separation in them. He had been right. She had been crying. There was still a trace of tears in her face.
“Have you set your mind Merek?” Mammy asked. Her voice was a faint hush in the immensity of sky about them.
Pappy smiled. She was afraid that he was going to accept Hickory’s request he thought. It warmed his mind that he was not going to realize her fear. “I have made up my mind dearie.”
There was no reaction in her face. It remained as blank and as cold as before. She was too far in her numbness to think properly, he thought. “What is your decision Merek?”
“Oh Mammy!” Pappy flushed and felt a tepid gush of tears in his eyes. “I can never leave you!” He wrapped his arms around her.
To his surprise, Mammy did not respond reciprocally. In fact, she started to push him away from her. When his eyes fell upon her face, he could see that it was all contorted.
“You’re not the person I married!” she cried. “The elf that I married would never breech the request of the dying. When one is about to leave the world one knows what is important and what is not.”
Pappy looked at Mammy with bewilderment. He could not believe his ears. “You want me to go? You want me to leave you? Dearie, I made a vow to you!”
There were new tears in Mammy’s eyes. “You can’t forsake Hickory on my account. He is your blood. I am not. What he promised the Questioner is of paramount importance. It involves a lot more than just two people not seeing each other at Christmas!”
“But you’ll be giving birth Mammy … Silvie!” Pappy beseeched her. “You’ll need me there with you!”
“I’d rather your hands being throwing stones into the ocean than be holding mine,” Mammy threw her hands into the air. “Oh Pappy, don’t look so bereft and forlorn. My love for you is stronger than it ever has been. It pains me that you have to be away at this time. But we can’t let our love blind us to what is! The Harpy’s mission must be carried out. I know that and I know that it is you that has to do it. My mind will be with you even as I give birth to our new child. Dr. Cherrydown will be there with me. We have nothing to fret.”
“But what if something goes wrong Mammy? What if complications set in? If the worst happens Mammy, do you think that I can live with myself knowing that I was not there with you?”
“The worst won’t happen, dearie. I’ve looked after myself this time. The only pain that I’ve felt in this pregnancy is when I burned my lips yesterday.” Mammy was about to say more but she clamped her mouth shut. She had told him too many lies already.
“But what if it doesn’t?” Pappy said worriedly.
“It won’t dearie. I love you,” Mammy embraced her husband, hoping that the craving in her arms would sway him to do his Uncle’s wishes.
Pappy felt suddenly tired. What was set before him would be extremely demanding. It was going to be long and arduous. He hand never traveled abroad. He had never seen more of the world than this beloved elfin valley. How was he going to be able to deal with all of this novelty when he knew that it would be hard for his mind to ever leave Woodhaven? He would be thinking of Mammy and the kids constantly. “Oh Silvie! Why must this come into our lives? What have we done to deserve to be shorn away from the happiness that we thought would last forever?”
“Oh Pappy!” Mammy laughed. “You talk as if we will never see each other again. You’ll only be gone three months at the most. The time will go by fast, mark my words. It has to because you will be experiencing things that you have never experienced before. It will be a trip that you will always remember with fondness for when you get back, you will have a brand new child! A daughter I bet!”
Mammy began crying anew. She did not want to part with her husband. She wanted and needed him to be there by her side but some things take precedence. She was able to tell by her two houseguests that what Hickory required from her husband was very serious. You can’t stop the broad and sweeping by the minute and trivial. She wished that she could honestly say that she was going to be all right but she couldn’t. In many ways this pregnancy was even worse than the one before, the one with Kiddo. The pains were longer and of a brittle soreness. She had done her best to keep it hidden and thus far had been successful. As soon as Pappy leaves for Portugal, she will send for her brother Egbert to help her along and she would keep in frequent contact with Dr. Cherrydown.
Pappy said, “Dearie, I hope that you have been completely truthful with me because as I said if anything happens to you that will be the destruction of me.”
“Stop talking like that!” Mammy replied. Her eyes saw something in the distance.
“Look!” she cried. “Isn’t that Ho? What is he doing out here?”
Pappy let go of his wife and quickly spotted his eldest son sneaking about in the tall grasses at the field’s periphery. “I thought I told that boy to stay in his room,” he muttered more to himself than to Mammy.
“Ho, get over here right this minute!” he bellowed. “What are you doing out here?”
The young elf was startled. He jumped at his father’s piercing words. But he did not come as he was told. He was behaving like a criminal caught in the act.
“Get over here now, boy!” Pappy craned. To Mammy, he said, “That child is not listening any more! I don’t know how you’re going to handle him without me around!”
Mammy sighed. “Pappy, don’t be looking for excuses. You must carry out Uncle Hickory’s …”
“There!” Pappy cried out loud. “What was that that he threw?” His eyes bilged from his head. His face was reddened. “Did you see that Mammy? Ho threw something into the grass! What was that that you threw Ho? Get over here now!”
This time Ho listened. He came creeping up towards his parents like a dog in trouble with its master.
“What are you doing out here? What was that that you threw?” Pappy was all a rage. He was almost beside himself with anger and Mammy knew the reason why. He was not mad at Ho. He was mad at a world that was forcing him to leave all those that he loved just to carry out some lame-brained task whose meaning to him was lost.
Ho did not know what to answer for anything that he could say would not get him out of trouble. Anything that he may say might get Mammy into trouble.
“Well, what are you doing out here?” Pappy demanded. His tone was less fierce but still was just as angry.
Ho’s voice was shaky but he did find words to say. “I figured out Uncle Hickory’s riddle.”
“You heard the riddle?” Mammy inquired.
“I couldn’t help it. Mr. Bobbs’ voice is very loud. Anybody could have heard him!” Ho pleaded, his eyes looking at his Pappy.
The anger that had smitten the elder Robinbreast was shuddered out with a laugh. “It’s the corn pipe, isn’t it?”
Ho smiled weakly. “What else could it be? When the ear is hot you will find it at the bottom of the pot. A cob of corn can be known as an ear. Hot could mean fire and it is fire that you put into a corn pipe when you light it. I bet Uncle Hickory’s map is in that corn pipe of his.”
“Old Uncle Hickory knew his Robinbreasts!” Pappy chimed. “I knew the answer as soon as Talla Bobbs read the riddle.” Ho had no reason to doubt his father. “Great minds think alike, eh Sonny!” Pappy hugged his eldest child.
“You came out here looking for the pipe?” Mammy asked, her face eleven and a half shades of red for it seemed that her lie was about to be revealed.
“Yes, I did Mammy,” Ho stated solemnly. He now knew his mother’s secret. “And I found it!” the child declared.
“Where?” Another shade of red was added to Mammy’s face. Her moment of reckoning had come.
“Out here in the field!” Ho cried. “Out here in the field where you said that you threw it. Where else could it be?” Ho was protecting his mother. That’s why he came out here. To Pappy the boy said, “That’s what you saw me throw Pappy. I threw it because I thought that you might get mad at me for finding it first!”
There was a glimmer in Pappy’s eyes. “Me? How could I ever get mad at my son? Or my wife?”
Chapter 9: A Dinner To Settle Matters
When Talla Bobbs learned of Pappy’s decision, he wept aloud. The elf was a blubbering, blustering bag of tears. He kept on sobbing, “Hick, Hick, you live on!”
Pappy felt somewhat disconcerted by Talla’s reaction. Apparently, Mr. Bobbs had feared that Pappy would turn down Hickory’s request. He was afraid that this trip to Portugal in his autumn years would not see a departure date. Pappy wondered if even Talla had any idea of exactly what they were purporting to do.
“Oh Mr. Bobbs!” Mammy chuckled. “You’re acting like one of my babies!”
They were all sitting at the large round walnut table in the kitchen. Kiddo and Hum were propped up in high chairs with mounds of date porridge heaped directly upon their feeders. Hum ate quietly and seemed somewhat oblivious to his surroundings. Kiddo, on the other hand, was creating a ruckus of his own to compete with the blustering of Mr. Bobbs.
Ho looked somewhat irritated by the noise his little brother was making. He did not want his attention taken away from anything that might be said by the adults. He just toyed with his fork in the beet slaw that Mammy had rather hastily prepared. Even the sound of his own eating might rob him of a snatch or two of important words that might be said.
Pappy was eating his supper with an ardor that made it seem like this might be his last home-cooked meal. He wanted to relish every texture of the food. He wanted to savor each iota of taste within it. But he was not given the opportunity to luxuriate in this meal for his concentration was being raided by Mr. Bobbs’ incessant babbling and the stares of Mr. Apple. It seemed that Fender Apple was not scolded enough for his habit of ogling others. Those buggy eyes of his seemed to creep onto Pappy’s fork with each and every bite. Finally, Pappy could not take it any more. He opened his mouth wide to the staring elf and revealed a tongue that was strewn with half-chewed food.
Ho caught this and started to laugh. He was well aware of Pappy’s less than admirable attitude toward Fender Apple.
“Pappy,” Mammy cried. “Where did you learn manners like that? At a pig sty?”
“I will not have you poking fun at my upbringing!” Pappy said jovially. He did not want this last meal home to be only a memory of how much Fender Apple irked him. He wanted to remember the happy faces of his wife and children. “Kiddo, will you please stop your crying!” he sighed.
Mammy raised herself up from the table to attend to the youngest.
Was that a wince in Mammy’s face, Pappy wondered?
Mammy scraped away the date porridge from Kiddo’s feeder and hoisted the little one onto her shoulder. She began rubbing his back in the way that she knew that the child liked. It worked for Kiddo’s screams now turned to gurgling. “You are such a sweet child,” Mammy cooed.
It had been a day since Talla and Fender arrived. Much of the evening had been spent in packing all the articles that Pappy would take along with him. For some reason Mammy had taken charge of this task and when she assembled the pile in the living room, clearly half the space had been taken up by the articles she deemed necessary for Pappy to take.
“Good Lord, dearie!” Pappy had said. “I will need a train and seven men to carry that load. I am not leaving for good, you know. I do intend to come back. I do not need most of these things. I want to travel light.” So, the husband and the wife preened and pruned the luggage until after a good deal of squabbling they had reached a point that both could live with.
That morning Pappy had stayed in his room longer than normal. It was not so that he could deeply impress upon his mind the comforts of his bed. It was rather an opportunity for him to study the map that Ho had so accurately predicted would be at the bottom of Hickory’s corn pipe.
The parchment that the map was on was badly worn. Parts of it were browned because of being so near to the burning tobacco in the pipe. Despite this, Pappy was able to discern most of it.
It was fairly legible although its points of reference had no particular meaning to Pappy. He assumed that once they were along the highway in Portugal, he would be better able to understand what Hickory had inscribed upon his map.
He had not told either Talla Bobbs or Fender Apple that the map had been located and found. He asked Mammy and Ho to keep it a secret as well. Pappy just did not trust this Fender Apple character and he had learned from Hickory’s experiences that Talla Bobbs’ mouth wasn’t often where his heart was.
He folded up the map into a small, neat square. Then he tucked the square under the cap of his molar. He had lost the tooth years ago when he fell out of an olive tree. Dr. Cherrydown had replaced it with a removable cap. It was an ideal place to hide things.
Once his tooth was secured, Pappy spend the next fifteen minutes crying. He felt bereft at having to part with his family. He felt better after this flow of tears. The rest of the day he took things slow and easy. He wanted to languish within the atmosphere of his family.
But before too long, supper had come around. He knew that an hour after supper, at the time of the setting sun, he would be embarking upon the road to Portugal. He wanted this dinner to be perfect. He did not want Fender Apple to ruin it for him.
When Fender saw the boorish tongue lap out at him, his eyes quickly went down to his own plate. “We shall be leaving soon,” he mumbled. Pappy had embarrassed him.
“Yes, that we will!” Pappy declared. “But I wonder Mr. Apple to where you are bound for I know that you will not be accompanying Mr. Bobbs and me?” The words came out of him from nowhere. He did not want to travel with Fender and he had not seen any indication that his Great Uncle intended Mr. Apple to be privy to this quest, let alone participate in it. But, he had no intention of voicing these thoughts. They were drawn out of him as if someone else had control over him.
Fender Apple’s head shot up as if a brawny puppeteer had drawn it on strings. His face was aghast. He started to blubber. He could not find words he was so shocked by Pappy’s assertion.
“I assumed that Mr. Apple would be coming along with us Merek,” Talla Bobbs replied. He, too, was startled by Pappy’s remark.
“Great Uncle Hickory never mentioned anything about him coming along,” Pappy pointed out. “It almost seems to me that my dear Great Uncle was practically saying that Fender Apple was not to go.”
“But you need me with you! I have spent many years in that part of the world. You will need me to guide you because it is tricky country around there,” Fender protested.
“Hickory and Mr. Bobbs did quite well without you. They found their way about.”
“They found themselves in the Baron’s hands!” Fender Apple barked. “If it is a stealthy mission that you embark upon then you must take stealthy roads. You do not walk along the main highway and expect not to be accosted.”
“But that was thirty years ago Mr. Apple! I daresay that that wicked Baron’s regime has fallen by the wayside.”
“You do not know that Mr. Robinbreast! Men like the Baron of Castelo Branco do not falter easily. They are like spiders. They cling on tenaciously to what is theirs!”
“But thirty years, Fender, thirty years! Even wicked men grow old and die. The Baron, if he is not dead yet, would most assuredly be beset with feebleness. A feeble man has no grasp at all.”
“You do not know that! Look at Talla and myself. We are both in the wane of our lives, yet we still dare upon this adventure. I grant you that the Baron may have grown old but I believe him alive and I believe that the years have not mellowed his evil countenance.”
“If he is alive or not, I still see no reason for you to accompany us, Mr. Apple,” Pappy said firmly, his eyes digging deep into the grizzled mien of Fender Apple.
“Merek, I do believe that you misjudge Fender Apple,” Talla Bobbs spoke up.
“I only know that he was in the Baron’s services. I do not know to where his allegiances are rendered, Mr. Bobbs. I do not want to gamble our security upon someone that we cannot trust,” Pappy voiced his reasons to the cherubic elf.
“That’s poppycock Merek! I have spent most of the past thirty years in the accompaniment of Mr. Apple. Not once have I discerned devious motives on his part!” Talla defended his partner.
“You insult me, Mr. Robinbreast,” Fender Apple said. “I am a wood elf just as you. I hail from Woodhaven and to this community does my heart stir.”
“Then why haven’t you settled down here just like every other wood elf with any sense?”
“Why do you not ask that question of Mr. Bobbs or your Uncle Hickory? I, like them, have been smitten by the wanderer’s bug. I want to see things, Mr. Robinbreast. I want to know what there is to this world other than this quaint and beautiful valley. And because of these wants, I have traveled far and wide and have been gone for many a year. But just because I am elsewhere does not mean that my heart has left Woodhaven. To this place it will always yearn.”
“Do not forget Merek of what the Portuguese sailors, mariners and navigators that had nothing to do with the Baron thought of our Mr. Apple. They considered him their talisman, their good luck charm.”
“As did the Baron!” Ho cried out. He was siding with his father. He did not want his Pappy to be running abroad with the shifty Fender Apple.
Fender Apple gave the boy a cruel look. This unnerved Ho. His eyes fell down to his plate of beets.
“Little Ho, may I ask you what luck Mr. Apple gave to the Baron of Castelo Branco?” Talla Bobbs asked gently. “Wasn’t it Mr. Apple that had secured your Uncle Hickory and my release? At great peril to himself, no less. The only luck that Fender Apple gives to those that are bad is bad luck. But to us,” Talla’s voice rose, “he will be good luck!”
Then to Pappy, Talla plead, “We need him Merek, sincerely we do. We need him to guide us through that distant land for he knows it. And we need him more because he is filled with elfin luck. He may prevent us from taking wrong turns. And …” Talla Bobbs paused for a moment to gulp at some air. “And as much as I know of the importance of this mission, I shall not go if Fender Apple is not to come with us!”
Pappy saw that Talla Bobbs was indeed earnest in his ultimatum. He nodded his head and mulled over this demand. Did he truly need Talla Bobbs to come along with him? Talla was old and was prone to cretinous mistakes. He could feasibly endanger the entire mission with just one of his blabbermouth blunders. Wouldn’t it be better to take somebody else along – somebody say like Gabby Gibbon, who is well traveled and may know Portugal as well as anybody?
Yet, how could he deny this old adventurous elf one more adventure? Indeed, you can’t deny him that one unfinished bit of business that would give his life completion. Afterall, it was Talla Bobbs that was there when the Questioner had bestowed the emeralds upon Hickory. In a very real sense, was not his mission as much Talla’s as it was Hickory’s? Hickory did not finish his mission and had to pass it on to others. Was that travesty also to befall Talla Bobbs? He had not the right to take this away from old Talla.
Even if Talla made demands that weren’t to Pappy’s liking, Pappy could do nothing other than to comply with them. An elf that reaches old age must be venerated even though his past might be tainted with poor judgment.
“Are you sure that you stand by your statement – that you will not go unless Fender Apple also comes along?” Pappy asked in a tone that he hoped would shake Talla away from his commitment.
Talla Bobbs looked nervously over to Fender Apple. The slender Mr. Apple’s face would not reveal a thing although there seemed to be some sort of hold he had on his chubby buddy. Talla’s eyes drifted back to Pappy. Was there resolve in those eyes or was there not?
“I swear Merek Robinbreast that I shall not go along with you to Portugal unless Fender Apple comes along as well,” the old elf said, his voice never gaining strength in the statement.
“Then,” Pappy said, “I have no choice. Fender Apple shall accompany us.”
Talla sighed heavily. “Thank you Merek. Thank you. You shan’t be sorry!”
But Pappy never acknowledged Mr. Bobbs’ appreciation. Instead he turned to Fender Apple and warned, “If your intentions are not honorable to the goals of this mission Mr. Apple, I will treat you in a less than honorable manner, do you understand?”
Fender Apple did not answer for at that moment Kiddo decided to blare out an infantile cry.
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