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HUDGEON
TALES
By Eleanor Goodman
BOOK I
CHAPTER 7
Lily Rose flew quickly from the road into the forest, searching
for the green something she had seen earlier.
“Definitely not a parrot—not a bird of any sort. Anyway, I’m
hungry.”
She set herself down on the ground and started looking for something to eat,
giggling to herself.
“Not going to find any buttered toast around here. Let’s see now.
Berries. Of course… there are lots of berries here.” She reached
for a juicy-looking purplish berry growing close to the ground.
A voice surprised her, “Uh oh, better not eat that one. It’ll
make you sick… might even kill you.”
It was a sing-song voice-- high-pitched and definitely not human—but she
didn’t see anyone attached to it.
“Well, come out and show yourself! Lily demanded imperiously, in the tone
that had always brought immediate compliance from the humans.
“Hey, hey, hey, will ya look at who’s giving orders? Miss Littlebitsy
herself.”
“How rude,” she announced to the air. “That’s not a nice
way to treat a guest.”
“So it’s a guest, are you, and who invited you? And you’re
not so polite your own self. But I can see that you’re hungry, so
I’d best help find something for you to eat before you kill yourself and
I have to dispose of the body.” He laughed at his own joke.
“That’s not funny! Lily Rose said, stamping her foot soundlessly
on the soft earth.
“Well, I think it is, Miss Littlebitsy.”
And there he was, standing right
in front of her, a big grin on his face. He was dressed
in raggedy green with a floppy, dirty, green hat, looking somewhat
like the pictures in her favorite book. He was taller than
she was, but not people-tall—not even people child-tall. He
would barely have come to Jimmy Jake’s knees. His
ears were sort of pointy, his body thin, and his face smooth-skinned
and pale except for a bit of rosiness on the slightly rounded
cheeks. His eyes were black and sparkling.
“You must be the green thingamabob I saw in the trees
earlier.”
“Thingamabobby? Thingamabobby?!” His whole skinny body
rattled with laughter.
“They thought you were a parrot,” Lily said ignoring the laughter. “I
knew you weren’t. Are you an elf?”
He crossed his eyes.
“Don’t do that! Just answer my question!”
He rolled his eyes this time, stuck out his tongue and disappeared
into the trees.
“Oh m’gosh, what a tiresome creature. But no use letting
him spoil my day.”
Lily sat down on a little grass hillock and closed her eyes.
She felt the grass sort of tickly beneath her and smelled the
forest smells and heard the forest sounds and let the warmth
of the sun hug her and she began to purr and hum to herself:
“A life of freedom suits hudgeons fine,
I really like this place of mine.”
“A hudgeon. So that’s what you are,” said
a voice from the tree right close to her, “and what, what
is a hudgeon, pray tell me?”
“O.K. Mr. Green Thingamabobby, you tell me what you are, and I’ll
tell you what I am. And if you are nice to me, I’ll make you some
new clothes.”
“New clothes? New clothes?! What’s wrong with the ones
I have? And how about you? Yours look like people clothes!”
This time Lily Rose giggled and said, “They do, don’t
they?”
At that, he smiled, bowed low, doffed his hat and declared, “Will
Billygon, at your service, Milady.”
“Bill Willygon? That’s a funny name.”
“Other way round, other way round. You may just call me Will.”
“O.K. then, my name is Lily Rose. Just call me Lil.”
“Will and Lil, Lil and Bill, Lily and Willy.”
“And ain’t we silly.”
They kept chanting the words, rearranging them and rolling on
the ground laughing till they ached..
Finally, Lily stopped laughing and gasped, “Hey Will Billy,
are we ever going to eat?”
Hanging on to the last gusts of laughter, Will lazily reached
out his hand and plucked a small red berry from a nearby bush
saying, “That should do you. It’s just about
your size.”
Lily Rose, looked at him and said, “I must tell you, I
may be small, but I have a big appetite—a real big one.”
She gobbled up the berry. “More.”
“More what?”
“More food, silly Willy.”
“More food PLEASE. Why can’t you say ‘please?’” Didn’t
anyone ever teach you manners? And stop calling me names.”
“Then you stop calling me names. I am not ‘Miss
Littlebitsy.’” My name is Lily Rose, and you’d better
call me that!”
He looked down his nose at her. “Well, maybe I will
and maybe I won’t.”
Then he turned around and took off in a huff.
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