A Volemas Story.
November 28, 2010. The task was set to write a short Xmas story leading up to the festive season. © GregW. This wasn’t so short.
Verity got a bit of a surprise when she stuck her pink nose out of the burrow and had a big fluffy crystal settle on it. The flake was cold on her bare nose but at the same time it felt sort of crinkly. She raced back to show mummy the present she had been given.
“Oh Dear” Mummy grimaced as Verity watched the flake dissolve in the warmer air.
“Never mind mummy” squeaked Verity, “There are lots more landing outside, I can bring you heaps of them!”.
“No sweetie, I mean ‘oh dear’ winter has arrived very early. I'm not ready... There is so much we have to do.” And she started to bustle around making lots of clear spaces.
“Come on Verity, help your mother. You can clean out your brothers' and sisters' space for me, and after that, well, oh deary me, there is so much more for us to do! So little time....”
Verity busied herself doing as she was told, a bit perplexed at her mother's urgency. When all the sleeping places were clean, and many more cleared spaces had been made, Mummy sat Verity down and tried to speak very calmly to her.
“You and I are going out to find seeds and fill all the spaces we have made with food for the winter”.
“What is, win-ter” Verity asked trying to make sure she said the new word right.
Mummy was a bit distracted as all the children had now woken up and wanted a feed.
Laying on her side, Mummy said “Winter is a cold time, a long time, when there is very little food for us all. We will get very tired and we won’t want to go out in the cold. So now we have to collect lots of food to last us through winter.” Verity could tell mummy was trying to be very patient with her.
“But Mummy”, Verity wondered, “won’t Daddy and Russell come back and help?"
A very sad look came over Mummy’s face, “No sweetie, When the big birds took Russell and Daddy away it was for a very long time and they won’t be coming back to help”.
“But that’s not fair.” complained Verity, not really knowing what a big-birds was. More new words.
“I know sweetie but you just make sure to look up for any big birds and run and hide when you see one.” Mummy was distracted as she began to clean up after the children’s meal.
“Okay” Verity said, and Mummy headed off to look outside, Verity knew she must stay and care for the children.
Mummy got to the burrow entrance and let out a big sigh when she saw how deep the snow was, she turned and came back to where Verity was pushing the fed and sleepy children back into their nest.
Mummy looked very worried, then slowly she got a bright look in her eyes and spoke excitedly to Verity.
“What you and I are going to do today is very, very exciting” she said. “we are going to explore the ‘not-outside’ place!”
This was too many new words for Verity to understand but because mummy had said to be excited, she was excited. “Let’s go then!” she squeaked and dashed off down the entry burrow.
“Verity!” Called out mummy, “Not that way. The ‘not outside’ place is this way”. And she led Verity to the very back of the nest burrow, down and up a long tunnel, at the end of which was a big, long, flat piece of wood on one side of the tunnel. The way through here was a bit narrow but plenty big enough for a vole. From under the long flat wood, through little gaps, came some light, and some warm air carrying a scent of smoke but mostly a nose filling smell of foody stuff. Verity had no idea what the smells could be. She was really excited and scampered back and forth along the wood wall smelling each little gap until Mummy caught her by the tail and went “Shhhh!” which Verity knew meant be still and quiet.
It was very hard to be still and quiet when there was warm and deliciousness so close.
Mummy said in a very soft voice, that in the ‘not outside’ place, there was sometimes lots of lovely food, but, she had to make sure there was nothing moving in the ‘not outside’ place before they went looking for it.
Then Mummy asked Verity to follow her along beside the flat wood. They came to a big piece of stone. Here the wood and the stone left a gap. Verity could see a vole-sized hole had been chewed to make the gap bigger..
Mummy was looking out of the hole and her tail was twitching as she sniffed the air.
She popped her head back in to look at Verity and said. You wait here, I am going to be back very, very soon.
True to her word she disappeared out the hole and in no time at all had returned with a seed bigger than any Verity had ever seen before, it was all black with white stripes and smelled glorious. Before Verity could stop marveling at this wonder Mummy had left and returned again, this time with a smaller brown seed with a little bump on its end that smelled, if it were possible, even more delicious and in desperate need of a taste.
“Verity!’ Mummy scolded, suddenly a bit cross, don’t be there smelling them, take them back to the burrow and start stacking them in the store spaces we made. Reluctantly Verity complied and worked very hard to keep up with the supply of seeds mummy was collecting..
After many trips to and fro, Mummy stopped for a rest and told Verity that there were so many seeds and things called crumbs, another new word, 'not outside' it might be best if they both collected and just bought it all back in here.
It was just then that loud noises came from the ‘not outside’ place and they scared Verity a lot.
Mummy again said ‘Shhh!’ and Verity did.
~~
The kitchen door creaked as it always did. Alice didn’t even hear it any more, it was just part of the house and it’s bumps and lumps, she probably would have been more surprised if her ancient home stopped creaking and groaning.
“Tsk tsk tsk” she tutted as she cast her eyes around the kitchen floor. “Margaret!” she called out. “Margaret! Come here will you? Right now please” as she opened a tall cupboard and took out a broom.
“Yes Auntie?” said Margaret, pulling a strand of hair from her sticky lips while peering into the kitchen. Auntie Alice’s call had the sound of trouble and Margaret came with a worried look.
“Didn’t your mother teach you to clean up after yourself? Look at this place, bread and honey left out, butter not back in the fridge, crumbs everywhere. You are a big girl now and you know to be tidy. I want to be able to tell your mum and dad how good you are so they will let you come and spend more visits in the country.”
“Yes Auntie”, it really was worth the extra chores to be here with Auntie but especially with her horses. And tomorrow was cooking day, Auntie had promised that they would use the big mixer and the oven and she could lick the bowls if she was a very good helper.
“I don’t mean to be cross with you dear” Auntie continued, “but we don’t want to have pesky little rodents scurrying through our kitchen do we?”
“No Auntie” lied Margaret. She would love to see a little mouse.
“All right then you set-to and tidy up here while I go outside and clear a path to the barn. This snow may be fun to for you but it doesn’t half make my life difficult.”
And with that Margaret was left alone in the kitchen, with the broom.
Cleaning up was a bit difficult as the table was very high, so after giving the floor a sweep or two she pulled the chair over and climbed up to clean the crumbs from the surfaces. The wood grain of the table made nice lines and the crumbs were fun to push around like cars on a road. Margaret knelt on the chair for some time quietly playing with the crumbs.
~~
Behind the flat wood, keeping very quiet and away from the hole, Verity and mummy hid, listening to the big noises. After a while everything went very quiet and mummy sneaked a peek through the hole again. There were seeds and crumbs very close now and she looked around and could see nothing move except the flames in the big box at the other end of the ‘not outside’ place.
“Verity”
“Yes mummy”
“There is lots of food very close to the hole here, I think it is safe. You should help me quickly”.
Verity was so pleased mummy trusted her like this. Checking that nothing moved every time, they busily dashed in and out collecting all the yummy food they could as quickly as they could. It was very hard for Verity not to nibble a crumb or two, just a little bit.
~~
Margaret watched very quietly from her high perch as the two little voles dashed in and out looking around and then grabbing the tiny morsels and shuffling away behind the skirting board.
They are so cute Margaret thought, I do hope Auntie doesn’t see them.
Whenever the mouses went behind the skirting board Margaret would throw some of her crumbs down, each time a little further away from the hole.
~~
Eventually Mummy stopped collecting and said “I think we have enough food now to take back and store for today”. Carrying and placing all the different sorts of food into the storage places is very tiring work and Verity was soon nestling in to sleep in her straw and feather nest.
Verity woke well before she would normally have and she darted quietly past where mummy was sleeping , past the wriggling children who would soon be demanding food, then down and up to the vole sized hole in the wood wall.
Very carefully she looked out into the ‘not outside’ place to make sure there was no moving thing. What she saw was amazing. It was just outside the hole. It was a long sort of a seed, bigger than any food thing Verity had ever seen. It smelled so wonderful Verity just had to try to have a nibble. She was very nervous and taking a last long look around she dashed out. Her teeth sank in easily and the flood of flavour and smell was wonderous. Verity looked back at the hole as she swallowed a morsel. She didn’t know if she could drag the huge seed back all that way. She tried to pull it with her mouth but her claws kept slipping on the smooth ground. Try as she might, pushing or pulling, she couldn’t make the seed go where she wanted.
Suddenly there was a huge noise and a big animal breath smell, sort of sweet but scary too. Verity looked around and then up.
OH Gosh! She nearly screamed.
Looking down at her from very high up was a huge animal with hair hanging down, it’s mouth opening and closing and horrible sounds shaking the air all around.
Verity froze for a second.
This must be the big bird thing Mummy had warned her of. She was sure she was going to be taken to where Daddy and Russell were and away from mummy and all the lovely food.
Verity didn’t want to leave.
The big animal bared its teeth and made some more noise but it didn’t move.
Verity took the chance and made a dash back into the hole, down the tunnel and all the way back to the nest panting and puffing.
“Gracious Verity what ever have you been up to?” asked Mummy.
Verity explained all that had happened as Mummy preened at her coat.
“I can smell the seed on your breath.” Mummy said. It does smell delicious she thought.
~~
Margaret was ecstatic. She had got up very early, cleaned the kitchen floor and placed a peanut just outside the mouse hole hoping against hope a little mouse would come back. And here it was.
It was sooooo cute.
And as the tiny fury thing tried to take the nut away she said. “Hello little mousie”
The poor little mouse jumped and stared frozen at her. Smiling she said “Don’t be scared, I wont hurt you” “If you leave it there I will make it smaller for you.” but the cute little thing ran away.
Nevertheless, Margaret broke the peanut into tiny pieces and pushed them into the corner and right into the hole where Auntie wouldn’t see them.
‘Happy Christmas little mouses” she said as she left to make Auntie a cup of tea before breakfast. Today was cooking day and she would make sure the little mouses would find a good selection of Christmas baking crumbs right at their doorway.
~~
Much, much later that night when everything was really, really quiet in the ‘not outside’ place, Mummy and Verity, being very brave, found lots of scrumptious food pushed into their vole hole and they danced and jumped around with the taste and aromas of the gifts that the ‘not outside”’ place had given them.
By the end of the night the burrow was full of food and Mummy was happy she was not going to be hungry, which meant that the children were not going to be hungry and they and Verity would grow up to be very happy voles indeed.
~~
It was a good time for everyone in the farmhouse that year, despite the snow.
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