Eric--Part Thirty-One

Splog # 141

Thirty-One

   And then the jokes began.

   Eric was caught off guard when the man asked him, seemingly out of nowhere, "What do you get when you cross a mad dog with a crow?"

   Eric started to look around to see if there were either a mad dog or a crow accompanying them along with the deer and the rabbit. But hardly had he begun his search when he realized that he was being asked a riddle.

   He looked at the man and thought for a moment. The man was looking fairly excited, almost childlike in his glee. Eric wondered if he didn't often have an opportunity to play games such as the one he had embarked on. The riddle seemed familiar but Eric knew the man would rather reveal the answer himself, so he didn't make any serious effort to solve it. He jsimply looked at the man and said, "That's a tough one. I don't know. What do you get..."

   But before he could repeat the question, the man burst out with, "A raven maniac!"

   His laughter as he exploded with the pun was so infectious that Eric couldn't help joining in, even though the riddle, admittedly rather clever, wasn't that funny.

   Before the laugh could die out, Eric said, "Try this one. What do you get when you dip a sheep in chocolate?"

   The smile quickly fled the man's face and he assumed a serious mien. "Now, don't tell me. Don't tell me. I'm sure I can figure this out. 'A sheep in chocolate', eh? Let me see. Let me see. Could it be...Let me see. Let me see. Yes! I've got it. Brown wool!"

   Eric found that rather funny, but only smiled and said, "Nope."

   "Ok. Ok. Let me see. A sheep in chocolate. A sheep in chocolate." In his vocal ruminations the man experimented by emphasizing different words of the riddle, now "sheep" and now "chocolate" and once the word "in". He lifted one hand and held an imaginary sheep and dipped it down, once, twice, three times. "I've got it! One of those candies shaped like a sheep!"

   Eric laughed once more and said, "Nope. Do you give up?"

   "No. No. No. No. No. It can't be that difficult. Let me think."

   They had been walking for a while now and Eric hoped they'd arrive soon at the place where the man planned to eat. It suddenly struck him that he didn't know the man's name. But the man had known his, without him even mentioning it. He felt slightly awkward about asking his name after they'd been conversing for some time, but he finally just blurted out, "What's your name?"

   The man held up the hand that wasn't entwined in Eric's arm. "Wait. Wait. Wait. One riddle at a time. I've almost got it. A sheep in chocolate...has to be a...a...an edible...um...a lambchop that's...um...a...a...a chocolate sheep cookie!'

   Eric burst out laughing and the man looked at him expectantly. "Is that right? Did I get it?"

   Eric found it hard to stop laughing. The man's answer was so unexpected and clever, in a way. Finally, he said, "You got it. That's perfect!"

   The man let go of Eric's arm and jumped up and down. The deer and the rabbit stood and watched the two humans. Eric, musing on the riddle's standard answer. wondered if the man had ever heard of a Hershey "baa".

   Finally, the man ceased his celebratory dance and took Eric's arm again. Regaining some semblance of serenity, he said, "Let me ask one more before you pose that other you asked, and by the time we've finished we should be at Lon's."

   Eric wondered what Lon's was but had no time to think for the man said abruptly, "How do you get down from an elephant?"

   They were walking down the path again and Eric started to think about the question. He thought of different answers but none seemed clever enough or amusing enough to be correct. Just to say something, he ventured, "By sliding down his trunk?"

   "Nope," said the man. He still seemed very happy with his accomplishment in solving the riddle of the sheep. He walked with a kind of spring to his step and his contentment was contagious. Eric felt happy that he'd be eating soon and found the forest they were traversing to be peaceful and picturesque. He made another attempt at the riddle. "By swinging off his ears?"

   "Nope," the man repeated. "Do you give up?"

   Eric didn't reply. The trees around them were thinning and something very large seemed to be filling the area ahead of them. Was it the trunk of a tree? A very large tree? An extremely huge tree?

   "Do you give up? Do you give up?"

   Eric murmured yes or sure or somerthing to that effect. As they got closer, he saw that it was a tree. A tree from a fairy tale or a myth or some such unreality. He knew that with his arms completely outstretched he couldn't begin to encompass even the side of the tree facing him. And not too far over his head the branches began. It looked like thousands of them in all different sizes and the leaves colored every shade of green that had ever been seen in nature. He couldn't see any sign of how high the tree soared into the sky. He stretched his head back on his neck, but only saw layer after layer of browns and greens with no hint of blue.

   "You didn't care for it?" Eric receded from the magic that had enthralled him. The man was gently tugging on his arm and looking slightly disappointed.

   "What? I - what was the - did you say the answer?"

   The man peered at Eric for a moment and looked to the tree.

   "Of course," he said. "I should have realized. Magnificent, isn't it? Welcome to Lon's. I hope you don't mind heights. Although everything is so intertwined that, once you're there. there's really no sensation of how high you actually are."

   And he hurried Eric up to the trunk. On the right side of it, there was a staircase that looked like it had somehow been grown from the tree itself. It went up the massive trunk following the side of the tree towards the back.