WILLIAM E. LOPEZ

HC-66, Box 11014

Pahrump, NV 89048

Approx. 2,785 words

Tom-Tom Leaves Home

W. E. Lopez

Honker the goose ran quickly from the front of the old farm-house to the barnyard at the rear. Her wings had never been used for flying and flap them though she might, they served only to balance her as she hopped and ran across the crab-grass. When she reached the three-rail fence behind the house she didn't try to jump it. Instead, she ducked her head and scampered underneath the bottom rail.

"Hey Porker, hey Steady-boy, hey Sunrise!" she gasped nearly out of breath. "I just saw Mr. Tom-Tom going down the road in front of the house! Where do you suppose he was going? Was he going to the city, maybe? Do you suppose he'll bring back some new seed for the farmer? Maybe he'll bring back some fresh grain! Hunh? What do you think fellas?"

Porker only grunted and rolled over in the cool mud where she was resting. She had spent a very busy summer raising four piglets for the farmer and his wife. She was tired and the day was warm even though the crops had been harvested and the leaves were beginning to dress the trees in hues of red and amber and brown. "Yaaawwwnnn!" she murmured. "Do you have to raise all that ruckus, Honker. I was having a nice nap and a wonderful dream. Why did you have to go and spoil it?"

Sunrise the rooster strolled regally from the cool shadows beneath the farmer's wagon. He pecked at a bothersome chick and shooed the plump little ball of fluff out of his way. "Go way, son. Your mother is looking for you. Cock-a-doodle-doo," he crowed. He felt pretty sure he was in charge of the barn-yard because it was his duty to wake all the animals and the farmer and his wife each morning, as well as call the sun to start a new day.

"No fooling, Honker? Tom-Tom is really leaving home? I thought the farmer's wife was just putting him in the shed now that the vegetables are out of the garden and he won't be needed until spring. She usually does that every year, you know?"

"Honest, Sunrise! I saw him with my own two eyes and he was whistling too!"

"Now I know you're joking," said Mrs. Mischief. She was the chief executive in charge of rodent control for the farmer and usually made her home in the loft of the barn where she had warm straw to curl up in while she kept an eye open for pesky mice. "Tom-Tom can't whistle. Everyone knows he's only a scare-crow. Just a pair of old overalls and a worn out coat older than I am."

"It's the truth," Honker said. "I saw him and heard him as he went walking down the lane. Do you suppose the farmer's wife sent him to buy more feed for us?"

"I'd rather she sent him to bring home a few new hens," Sunrise said. "A few of these old gals are getting mighty scrawny and a bit lazy too!"

Steady-boy ambled his tired legs over to where the goose, the cat, and the rooster were holding their conversation. His name was really Napoleon for the farmer thought he was a wise old mule, but the barn-yard animals had never heard the farmer say anything to him except, "Steady-boy" as he was being harnessed to pull the plow or wagon, so they assumed that to be his name. Even Steady-boy thought so.

Steady-boy's prize possession was a straw hat with a wide brim the farmer's wife had put on his head. It had holes cut in the brim for his long ears and a spray of pink petunias made of paper for decoration.

"Don't be a silly goose, Honker," Steady-boy said. "The farmer would never send Tom-Tom into town on a shopping errand. Tom-Tom's head is full of straw and I doubt if he's smart enough to find his way to the General Store and home again. Besides, he couldn't carry very much by himself. That's why the farmer always takes me to pull the wagon when he wants to buy things at the store. I'll bet Tom-Tom just got tired of hanging around this place and doing nothing except scaring away the crows so he decided to strike out on his own."

Porker raised a sleepy eyebrow from her mud wallow. "I'd like to go to town on an adventure," she said. "You're the only one who's ever been to town, Steady-boy, at least the only one who's ever come back. Where do you suppose the piglets went when they went to town?"

"The farmer took them to the train station," Steady-boy said. "I think they were going to some place called Chicago."

"She Kah Go?" Sunrise asked. "What's that?"

"It's a very big city in the east," Mrs. Mischief said. "I've been in the house when the farmer's wife looked through a magazine and told the farmer she wanted to order some dresses from Chicago. So I guess Chicago is the place where they make dresses."

"That's even more silly," Sunrise said. "Piglets don't know how to make dresses and they would surely look silly wearing them."

"Well I didn't say that the piglets were going to make dresses," Mrs. Mischief said. "I also know that they have things like 'the theater' in Chicago."

"What's a theater?" Honker asked.

"It's a big building where humans go to watch singing and dancing and Shakespeare," Mrs. Mischief said.

"Oh, wonderful," Porker said. "My piglets are going to be performers on the stage and they'll be wonderful, I just know! I'll bet Tom-Tom is going to Chicago to see my piglets in the theater!"

Giselle the Goat just happened to be wandering by, looking for some tender and juicy corn stalks, no doubt. She liked to nibble and was even getting a little round in the middle. "Oh, that's marvelous!" she said to Porker. "I sure hope Tom-Tom comes back to tell us all about his trip to the city."

"I do too," said Porker. "My piglets were always such wonderful singers when they were here in the barn-yard. It's no surprise the farmer sent them to Chicago to be on the stage."

"Singers?" asked Mrs. Mischief. "Was that singing they were doing? I thought they had all eaten something that gave them a sore tummy!"

"You're just jealous because you don't have any kittens to be proud of, Mrs. Mischief," Porker said with an air of haughtiness. "My piglets were the very best singers and dancers you ever saw."

"I have to agree with you at that, Porker," Honker said. "Since I've never seen any singers and dancers, your piglets certainly were the best!"

Giselle the Goat wandered across the barn-yard and into the barn. Even though her feed box was empty, she knew where the farmer stacked grain sacks on a large wooden table. Maybe she could nibble one of the sacks open and help herself to some dessert this morning. Giselle saw Carla the Hen sitting on her eggs in a basket of straw.

"Did you hear the news, Carla? Tom-Tom went to a big city where the piglets have become famous theater stars. He's going to watch them singing and dancing and come back and tell us all about it!"

"I knew Tom-Tom would go far one day," Carla said. "All the time he was in the garden he used to stare off into the distance as if he were longing to see what was on the other side of the world. I always knew he had big plans in his straw head."

"Hmmm," Giselle said. "I wonder what is really on the other side of the world?" she asked.

"When Tom-Tom comes back, we can ask him. I'm pretty sure it is just like this side of the world, but it might not be safe for us to travel there until Tom-Tom comes back to tell us. Wouldn't it be such fun to go on a trip? Aren't you excited?"

Gissele didn't say anything. She had a long piece of twine in her mouth and was vigorously tugging at it. The twine tied the top of a burlap sack closed, and if Giselle could get it untied, she would snack on the delicious corn nubbins she could smell inside. As Giselle pulled on the twine, Rupert the Squirrel scampered away from the tiny hole on the underside of the sack where he had been stuffing his cheeks with corn.

Rupert climbed the wooden post that supported the loft and when he reached the loft he scurried across the floor, racing under fat piles of straw until he came to a secret knot-hole that only he and a few mice knew about. He leaped from the knot-hole and flew through the air for a moment until he landed on a large branch in the hickory tree that grew alongside the barn. He scampered along the branch and climbed high up to the home he had made where an old limb had been blasted away by lightening.

After he had added the corn to his supply of feed for the coming winter, he crawled back out onto a branch in search of hickory nuts for his cache. He almost bumped into Diane the Dove. "Cooo-oooo," Diane said. "Where are you going in such a hurry, Rupert?"

"I was going to look for hickory nuts, Diane. But now that I think about it, I guess I should be looking for a cart. Have you seen a small cart around the barn-yard?"

"Can't say as I have, Rupert. What do you need a cart for?"

"Because I have such a large cache of food for the winter, Diane. I won't be able to carry it all when we move."

"Move? Where are you going, Rupert? Why would you want to leave the barn-yard?" Diane had flown all over the county but she always came back this farm. There were wonderful dry and warm places for her to sleep in the barn, and she had many, many friends among the barn-yard animals.

"Why, haven't you heard, Diane? The farmer sent Tom-Tom to town to take the train to the other side of the world. He's looking for a nice home for all of us, and when he comes back we are all going to pack up and move there."

"Well, I certainly hope I can find as nice a home as I have here. I very much like this old barn. I've been many places in the county, but this is the place I like best."

"Of course it will be nice, Diane. Probably even nicer! I'll bet you won't have to share your new barn with Steady-boy and Mrs. Mischief and the mice too. I'll bet you have your very own barn, all for yourself."

"Really, Rupert? I sure hope it will be close to your home, and Porker's and Giselle's. I wouldn't want to be lonely when we go to live on the other side of the world."

"We'll each have our own tiny barn, Diane. The farmer will build us each a home, all in a row. And there will be plenty of food and drink, and we can play all day and all year long cause there isn't any winter on the other side of the world."

"Wow! That really sounds nice, Rupert. I'll have to go ask Bluster how soon we will be moving so I can pack all my treasures."

Diane was not kidding, she had found and collected many treasures during the past few years. There was a short piece of red ribbon that she had plucked from a night dress the farmer's wife had hung on the clothesline. A tiny, bright fragment of broken mirror she had found near the back porch. A silver thimble she had found on the front porch one afternoon when the farmer's wife had been sewing and then went inside to fetch a glass of lemonade. Diane had collected many treasures and certainly did not want to leave them behind when they moved to the other side of the world.

She flapped her wings and leaped from the branch in the tall hickory tree and flew around the house and spotted Bluster napping in the shade of an apple tree.

"Bluster, oh Bluster," she said as she landed on the crab-grass just in front of his nose. "Wake up, Bluster. Do I have time to pack all my treasures? I surely don't want to leave them behind."

Bluster opened his jaws in a wide hound-dog yawn. "Behind? Why, where are you going, Diane?" Bluster was seven years old and had lived with the farmer and his wife longer than anyone on the farm except Steady-boy. He wasn't as frisky as he once had been, but he still managed to bark and bark whenever strangers approached the farm house, though he had never bitten anyone in his life.

"Oh, the whole barn-yard is talking about it, Bluster. The farmer sent Tom-Tom to the city to take the train to the other side of the world. The piglets have been singing and dancing in the theater in Chicago. They are so famous and have made so much money that we are all going to move to the other side of the world and the farmer will build us each our very own barn, all lined up in a neat row. And we can play in the sunshine all year round 'cause it never snows on the other side of the world."

Bluster lifted a lazy eye at the white dove as she paced to and fro in the tall grass. What a silly bird, he thought. They were all silly animals! No wonder the farmer kept them in the back yard and away from the rest of the world.

"You are such a bird-brain, Diane. Didn't you see the hobo who came to the front door this morning?"

"Hobo? What's a hobo, Bluster? I didn't see anybody?"

"A hobo is a human who travels around the country doing odd chores here and there in exchange for a meal, and maybe a few dollars, Diane.

"This morning a hobo knocked on the door and asked the farmer's wife if there was any work he could do in exchange for a meal. She let him chop some firewood for the woodpile so the farmer and his wife can keep warm this winter. After he was done, the farmer's wife fed him some vegetable stew and made him some sandwiches."

"Well, that certainly was nice of her, Bluster. But the farmer and his wife have always been very nice people."

"Since fall is here and it will soon be winter, she gave him the old overalls and that worn out coat that made the scare crow for the garden. Then the hobo put on the old clothes and went off down the lane towards the next farm where he will probably find more work."

"Well, I never heard of such a silly thing, Bluster. Why would the farmer and his wife need more fire wood when we are all moving to the other side of the world where it never snows? You are a very nice person, Bluster, as dogs go, but you are beginning to get on in years, you know, and sometimes you have been acting very strange. Well, I am going to go pack all my treasures so I will be ready for our trip. Will you let me know if you see a small cart that Rupert can use? He doesn't want to leave behind all the food he has collected this past year, and I'm sure we can all use a few snacks on our trip."

Diane hopped around twice in the tall grass and then spread her wings and returned to the hickory tree beside the barn in back of the farm-house. Bluster watched her go. "Silly bird!" he thought to himself. They were all a bunch of silly animals.

As he thought about it, the animals had surely invented a wonderful story. No wonder they wanted so much to believe that it was true. He stretched his tired old legs and wondered what it would be like to live on the other side of the world where it never snowed. It must certainly be a wonderful place. Perhaps the hobo wearing Tom-Tom's coat and overalls would see that warm place, but it wasn't for Bluster and the rest of the animals.