Before the Storm

Things get complicated for Noah.

The time came to open the gangway and begin accepting animals.  Noah allowed himself a moment to imagine his voyage:  a level horizon in all directions, a slight breeze in his hair, and the playful sounds of his family and the animals on deck under a sky of lapis lazuli.  He had been led to believe the voyage would be a pleasant one, after the storm.

The first to arrive was a pair of small sleek brown rabbits.  Noah looked in his manifest under 'R' and found them near the top of several different rabbit types.  They sniffed at his feet as Noah put a check mark by their listing, and then they sniffed around and up the gangway as if they did this every day.  Next to arrive was a pair of large sleek brown rabbits, and Noah quickly checked their listing above the first pair.  

It wasn't long before a pair of bears showed up.  These were large scruffy brown bears, so Noah found them listed 'Bears, brown, scruffy, large.'  Just as the bears were out of sight on the deck, along came another pair of bears, and these bears ambled up to him as if they just happened to be in the neighborhood.  One of them plopped herself down near Noah's leg and scruffed a pair of fleas off onto Noah's ankle.

Although these new bears were also brown, and very scruffy, they were at least twice the size of the first bears.  They scruffed on up the gangway without waiting for Noah's permission, and Noah looked in the book to find his mistake.  It didn't take him long to find 'Bears, brown, scruffy, large' listed at the bottom of one of the pages, and turning the page, he found 'Bears, brown, scruffy, small' listed at the top of the next page, and so he had marked the wrong listing.  Noah thought he should be careful to look at all the listings for each type of animal before making any marks in the book.  He then thumbed over to the 'F' listings, hoping to find not too many types of fleas, and he was thankful to see only one entry - just 'Fleas.'

A calico cat ran up and flopped over in the short grass at Noah's feet, twitching her tail as she awaited her mate.  Hoping the fleas might notice her and transfer their berth for the voyage, he moved his flea-spotted ankle over to the cat and began gently rubbing her back with the side of his sandal.  She closed her eyes in appreciation.

Presently a bright yellow canary landed in front of the cat's nose.  Although the cat didn't open her eyes, Noah noticed the cat's tail had stopped twitching.  And then out of a big clump of dark green monkey grass a cobra lifted her milky head and poised looking at Noah's knee, only about two hand-spans away. Carefully holding very still so as not to cause the snake to bite him, nor the cat to bite the bird, Noah noticed small sounds coming from the ship making it clear that there were now many more pairs of sleek brown rabbits on board.

          

A badger sauntered around the far side of the gangway, seeming unaware of the tension in the situation. The badger leaned to sniff the cobra's cheek as if whispering to an old friend at a party, then opened his mouth and reached for the cobra's neck at the base of her hood.  Just then a great golden furry blur bounded out of nowhere and knocked the badger off his feet, tumbling him over a few times up onto the gangway.  Noah heard a commotion behind him and craned his neck to see another Afghan hound herding another badger in a flurry of activity toward the ship.  The canary flew off in a straight yellow line to the yard of the mizzen.  The cat opened an eye at the arrival next to her of her mate, a stocky black cat, and the fleas pounced on him, whereupon he made a great leap directly up to the gunwale and began scratching frantically at the side of his back.

          

Another cobra crawled out of the monkey grass, and he wound his way up the gangway past the first badger, who then followed close after the snake.  The first cobra waited until her mate and both badgers were well up the gangway before she turned and followed, losing none of her poise.

          

Noah felt the ground shake and looked across the clearing where he saw trees moving behind some large bushes.  An elephant lumbered out of the bushes, flattening them, but careful in placing her feet and lifting them high so she wouldn't step on two anteaters weaving in and out and around her legs.  Noah laughed because if he squinted his eyes it looked like one creature dancing on many legs, with three long noses.

          

Noah hurried to mark the listings for these new animals in the manifest while he still remembered them. After he had checked off all the new arrivals, he began to feel troubled at the size of the manifest and at what seemed to him endless lists of animals still to be checked.  Just then Noah's wife appeared on deck, looking harried while carrying a tall stack of bowls and a big sack of rabbit food, and with a broom and dustpan wedged under one arm.  An uncomfortable thought occurred to Noah, that loading the animals could take longer than the actual voyage, and he complained loudly to his wife, "This could take a month!"

          

A distant clap of thunder made Noah jump, and he turned to see a straight black line of clouds rising above the tops of the trees.  It looked like night was coming in the form of a dark blanket pulled across the sky, and moving very fast.  Then the trees and bushes exploded with thousands of animals of every size and shape and color, a wall of creatures stampeding toward Noah and his ship.

Copyright©2013 by T. R. Phillips

Reviews

[Marie]

Poor Noah...that couldn't have been an easy trip...