Eric--Part Twenty-Nine

Splog # 134

Twenty-Nine

   The man gave a friendly nod and then reached out his hand and offered it to Eric. Eric reciprocated and gave it a shake, then let it go and looked up at the statue again.

   The man looked up also and murmured, "The sheep."

   Eric looked back to him. "I beg your pardon?"

   "The sheep," the man repeated without taking his eyes from the statue. "Of course, it would be the sheep but part of me was certain it would be the horse."

   "I'm not sure I know what you're talking about."

   The man's gaze travelled back to Eric. "No, no, of course you don't. I seem to have misplaced my manners, along with all of my common sense and a good deal of my intelligence." He let out a long breath. "Well, unless you are resigned to this location for our exchange of information and ideas, what say we seek accomodations of a more un-damp type of setting? What say?"

   The man stood up and leaned down to offer Eric a hand. Eric rose and found himself eye to eye, the same height as the stranger.

   "Splog," he said, and again held out his hand.

   Again Eric took it and said, "Splog to you too."

   The man chuckled a little but didn't say anything else. The two of them climbed out of the fountain and Eric hurried straight to his knapsack. He crouched beside it and took out the towel-wrapped book. He unwound the towel, replaced the book and closed the knapsack tightly. Then he pulled his wet t-shirt over his head and dropped it on the grass. He rubbed the towel over himself quickly and lightly to remove the excess moisture, then threw it over his shoulders, picked up his knapsack and shirt, and turned back to the man.

   The man was sitting on the rim of the fountain, scratching the fur beneath the deer's chin. The frog and rabbit were on either side of him, the rabbit soaking wet.

   Eric wanted to get one thing straight before anything else.

   "You're not going to call me Cor, are you?"

   "Why would I do that, if your name is Eric?"

   Eric expected that the man would either regard him as Cor or as a stranger, but that the man seemed to know who Eric was only added to the myriad of questions and the puzzlement running through his mind. He stood and looked at the man with his mouth open but no idea of what to ask first. The man sat and stroked the deer, seemingly content to let Eric wrestle with his conundrums and wait until he was ready for conversation. Some time passed. Eric remained still, looking at Splog, but unseeing of anything in front of him. And then a plop woke him from his reverie. He automatically looked up at the sky and when he looked back, he noticed that the frog was no longer perched beside the man.

   He took a breath in order to frame a question. The man looked at him in expectation. He seemed to want to converse with Eric. Eric tried to think of what to ask. But the breath finally just gusted from him in a frustrated sigh. The man put his finger to his lips as though thinking. This gesture somehow caused Eric to feel suddenly a little more at ease. He had seen his father make the same gesture when he was pondering an issue.

   He took a few steps towards the man.

   "How did you - " as he paused to choose between "know my name" and "get me out" a long deep rumble echoed through his torso that caused the rabbit to jump to the ground and scamper a few feet distant and the deer to slowly move away from him. The man looked at him and he looked at the man. Two pairs of eyes opened fairly widely and then they both exploded with laughter. All tension and confusion seemed to evaporate. The man, in his hilarity, leaned back so far as to almost resume his submeged situation, but Eric rushed forward and grabbed him before he could topple over. He then lowered himself to the fountain's rim and there they remained while their laughter diminished.

   "I imagine we had better do somthing about that lion on the prowl inside  of you," said the man once they both had regained control of their vocal apparati. "What say?"

   "I could sure use something to eat, if that's what you're talking about."

   "Nothing else. I'm sure we can find appropriate hospitality in a reasonable length of time. It just so happens that I , too - "

   H was interrupted by a series of low popping noises from beneath his own belt that once again sent the two of them off into hearty laughter.