Eric-Part Twenty-Four

Splog # 113

Twenty-Four

   The man looked up at Eric. After a moment, he caught Eric's eye and gazed into it with a puzzled expression on his face. He lowered one eyebrow and raised the other causing the skin on his forehead to crease into lines that ran into the curly hair surrounding it. He raised one hand to his mouth and beat a tattoo on his parted lower lip with two of his fingers. Interrupting this, his tongue peered out of his mouth and lightly touched his upper lip. He closed his mouth, looked down into the water and then, lifting his head only slightly, raised his eyes again to Eric's, rolling them quite far up in his head for this purpose. Eric observed this peculiar performance, wishing he could move his mouth to ask the stranger what it was all about.

   After some time, the man rolled his eyes back to their accustomed position and bent over to refill his flask. When bubbles stopped rising from its opening, he took it from the water, poured a little into his hand and then held it out to the rabbit. The small animal's nose twitched fiercely. When it made a movement to approach, the man rested his hand on the stone barrier where the rabbit was perched. The rabbit stepped to it and, as he buried his face in the man's palm, the man sat on the stone with his back to Eric. The deer and frog were to his left, the frog on the wall and the deer standing on the grass. The rabbit was to his right, gently snuffling the water in his right hand.

   The man lay his flask down by the frog and stroked the deer on the head. While thus engaged, he recommenced to speak.

   "There has been a bit of a mix-up and a young man has been sadly misplaced. A young man - quite a special young man - a young man with qualities that..."

   He paused and turned his face over his shoulder and took another look at Eric. Then he turned back and remained sitting without speaking. Eric wondered why he didn't help him down from whatever trap or prison he'd been caught in. He was a young man, too. If the man helped set him free, maybe he could help the man in his search. Why did he just look at him and then ignore him?  He seemed a kind and gentle man from his behavior to the animals. Why wasn't he helping him?

   As these queries pulsed in his head, Eric watched the man get up and walk past the deer and approach his knapsack. He walked completely around it a couple of times and then stopped. He came to rest in a place where he was facing both Eric and the animals. He took a quick look at Eric and then squatted down on his haunches and peered intently at the knapsack. It's mine! Eric wanted to yell. It's mine and I can help you if you untie me and get me down from here! The rabbit had leapt from the wall and hopped over to the man and the knapsack and was once again nosing at the pocket in which Eric had placed the apple he'd found on the bough. Of course! That must have been what the rabbit was attempting to retrieve when he'd first opened his eyes. Unfortunately for the rabbit, the pocket had a flap held closed by a strap and buckle. Observing the rabbit's quest for food, Eric began to think about how long ago he had found the fruit on the branch. And instantly a ravenous hunger awoke within him. The apple in his knapsack took on itself the qualities of the most tantalizing and glorious piece of fruit in creation. In his mind's eye, he could see its rosy redness and full round form. He could almost smell it.