Chapter 34

(earlier story:  http://ognyen.blogspot.com/2018/12/chap-28.html )

 

***Chapter 34***

Redtail opened her eyes and stretched.  She smiled, thinking about her lack of scheduled plans.  Then the random thoughts struck.  Nothing planned except three afternoons a week at the hardware store, and today is Thursday.  Her hardware days were Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Redtail hoped she’d get a special order tomorrow at work.  Special orders were for the T.D.Fera plant just outside of town.  It’s where Lena works.  Redtail was excited about her first day at work tomorrow.  She’d heard about those orders on the few other times she’d informally covered for Big Al when he had to go on errands. Going to work tomorrow gave Redtail the feeling she was settling in to life in her new environment.

Redtail looked forward to the Monday, Wednesday, Friday, walks and rides to town and learning where all the good forage was located.  She liked the idea of regular forage, library and hardware days.  She thought, “I think I’ll go for a groceries walk and to turn in my library books to see how long a leisurely walk to town takes.”

Redtail took care of her morning necessities and rounded up her library books.  She looked at her dried meat and decided to take a few slabs of fish with her.  The fish would be supplemented by forage on the way.  Redtail packed her forage bag, tire iron, pocket knife, books and food and set off.  She even poked a note under George’s windshield wiper. “Grandpa, I’m headed into town.  Should be back mid to late afternoon.  Redtail”.  She reached down and gave Mr. Ziffel a head scratching and began her trip.

Halfway up the driveway, Redtail noticed Mr. Ziffel trotting along side her.  “I’m going all the way in to town.  It may be a long walk and I don’t have a planned ride back.”

Mr. Ziffel stopped for a bit and sat down.  He scratched himself behind the ear with a hind leg.  He gave Redtail a smile and let his tongue flop out the side of his mouth.

“So we’re good then?”

Mr. Ziffel thumped his tail on the ground a couple times and rolled over to give himself a back massage.  Redtail laughed and continued up the drive.  Tall plants by the driveway got her wondering how many different kinds of wild lettuce there might be.  She knew of prickly lettuce, and knew these tall ones were with the latucas, as well.

Directly across the road from the drive grew a small patch of blackberries.  Redtail wondered who owned the property, so she could ask to forage some.  She headed west on ZZ, walking on the edge of the road so she could slip off should any vehicular traffic approach.  It was still early enough in the day that the chicory flowers looked like a light blue fog along the road.  Redtail slipped off and pulled a couple dozen plants.  She shook most of the dirt off the roots and folded the plants into her bag.  The road turned north and near a trickle of a creek, she found smartweed.  Smartweed is one of the knotweeds or polygonums.  Redtail wasn’t certain of its ID until she nibbled a bit to see if it made her tongue smart.  This was, indeed, smartweed!

The red sumac berries started to turn brown and it hadn’t rained hard lately.  Redtail stepped off the road and pinched some berries between her fingertips.  She tasted her fingers and smiled as the tartness caused her face to pucker up some.  She broke off four berry clusters, thinking, “These oughtta make for some refreshing drink!”  Redtail stepped back up to the road and continued her trek, thinking, “I should keep walking and not stopping so often for forage.”

“Oh, OK, I’ll stop for some of those.”  Redtail stepped off the road again to break odd some young milkweed pods. “I don’t know who said milkweeds are toxic.  The shoots are edible.  The flowers are edible and these young pods are edible, too!”  Redtail heard a car approaching and looked up quickly.  The car started to slow and came to a stop.  Redtail recognized Kitty driving and waved, as Kitty rolled down the window. 

“Good morning, Redtail.  Would you like a ride in to town?”

“I would, but I’m sorta walking for time.  See, I start my new job tomorrow and need an idea of how much time to allow, but thank you!”

“Where do you work now?”

Redtail said, “Big Al’s got me at the hardware, Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons.”

Kitty said, “That should be fun!”

“It’s mostly to allow Al time for errands in to Higginsburg and other stuff as needed.  I think he might’ve felt sorry for me, too.”  Redtail laughed.

Kitty said, “Well, you walk safely.” 

Kitty waved and rolled up her window and drove off.

Redtail waved, and swatted the air as a couple Japanese beetles dove at her. “I think I’ll spring for a two liter bottle of soda when I get ready to leave town today.  I feel like I’m wasting good food by not taking advantage of those beetles.  There’s just so many of them!”  She thought about the little plastic coffee creamer jars at the Bumpy Log and how they’d make convenient collection jars.  The little flip top spout would make for easy access to add insects while minimizing escapes.  About a hundred yards farther down the road, Redtail found a plastic water bottle.  “I’ll use this for a collection jar until something better comes along!” While she was catching the nearby cricket, she found a cap for the bottle –not perfect, but it fit tightly enough to prevent escape.

The engine revved and gravel scritched.  Redtail didn’t see it, but she smiled, knowing she was getting close to town.  A deer fly pestered her a bit, then Redtail heard a low buzzing quickly getting louder and louder.  She swatted at the deerfly again, and the low buzz peaked and faded off.  She saw the robber fly land on a nearby weed to eat its freshly caught deerfly.  Redtail smiled.  “I like you.  Thank you!”  A fat clumsy differential grasshopper caught Redtail’s attention and she pounced on it, adding it to her collection jar.  Little Al accompanied a lady out to her car at the station and they popped the hood.  Another car turned into Thistle Dew’s town square.  Redtail closed her eyes, took a deep breath and joyfully exhaled.  “I like home.  I think this is home.  It sure feels homey!” 

Not many blooming dandelions, but the town square was covered with mowed clover and violet foliage.  She went up to a tree and snapped off some of the taller violet leaves, and went into the hardware store.  “Jingle creak, jingle.”  Redtail caught the door before is slapped shut. 

Big Al bid Redtail greetings and glanced at the calendar.  “OK, this is a social visit.  Not Friday yet.”

“No, I thought I should see how much time to allow to get here.  I won’t have any problem at all –even if I oversleep.”

“I wonder what time you left?  It’s barely after 9:00.”

Redtail cocked an eyebrow. “Hmm.  Just what time I DID leave?  I hate to get a clock to know for sure, because I think I might try to push the limits then.  Al, if I was to get into town a bit early on work days, could I leave collected forage in the fridge when I got here?”

“You can leave stuff in the fridge even if it’s NOT a work day.  Sure.  The store can be a base for you whenever you’re in town.”

“Thank you so much.  I won’t today, because I’m headed right back after I stop by the library.”

“Creak, jingle, slap, jingle,” went the door.  A round guy in maybe his mid-40s came in looking apprehensive.  “Can I place an order for special manufacture here?”

Big Al called Redtail over, and said, “Yes, this is the place.  If it can be described in words, it can probably be made at T.D.Fera Manufacturing.  Redtail, you wanna watch a special order?”

Eagerly, Redtail set her things down and took a place behind the counter, but not crowding Al. “I’ve been hoping to see one before I started working here, or at least real soon.  This is great!”

The man twisted his face a bit and said with a touch of hesitation, “I want to keep a lawn in Higginsburg in pristine visual condition.  It’s at the bank on the corner of 13 and Main.  It seems spray doesn’t keep the weeds down quite like I want it, so I want a tool to cut flower heads without having to stoop over.”

Al cocked his head.  “I know where your bank is.  What kind of flowers are you wanting to cut?”

“Mostly dandelions.  Others aren’t coming to mind right now.”

Redtail said, “Sounds like it’d be a handy tool.  I might even want one.”

The man looked at Redtail.  “You a grounds keeper?”

“Oh no, but I’m a forager, and dandelion flowers are mighty tasty fare.”

He smiled, and went back to describing his tool.  “I’m imagining a sort of deeply toothed comb with a little basket in the back, on a long handle.  The teeth would glide through the grass, but catch on those thicker dandelion heads and snip them off and they’d fall into the basket.”

Redtail smiled. “I can almost see it.  I picture it about 6-8” wide with comb-teeth about an inch and a half long and gaps of about an eighth of an inch.  And on the back would be a basket-like attachment like one of those long-handled dustpans.”

The man gave a little laugh and asked, “Have you seen one of those?  That sounds just like what I’m after!”

Al stepped aside and motioned Redtail to step in to do the paperwork.  “The form is self-explanatory.  The hard part is writing a details but concise description.”

“Can I draw a picture or can we attach something the customer brings?”

Al said, “Yeah, anything to make it easy for the plant to decipher.”

“OK, so, name, address, phone or e-mail or preferred contact method, description.  Do we take any money now or is it on delivery?”

“T.D.Fera looks over the request and makes an estimate.  The customer is notified and makes a 50% down payment, with the rest due on delivery.  Their prices really aren’t bad at all for special order manufacturing.”

Redtail smiled at the customer and turned to Al. “The form seems complete, so how do we submit the order?”

“When the order’s done, we just leave the paperwork in the ‘plant basket’ on the desk.  If Lena doesn’t pick it up by the next morning, I’ll call it in or work something out.  That’s one of the things your being here will help me take care of.”

Redtail said, “That sounds easier to do than to explain.”

“Yeah, we try to be informal but still effective and timely.”

Redtail asked, “How long does an order usually take to fill?”

Al looked at their customer. “I tell the customers usually around a week, but usually, it’s quicker.”

The customer said, “I was about to ask that.”

Redtail said, “I’m glad I popped in when I did.  Good to get some practical training.”

The customer said, “I’m glad you did, too.  I liked hearing the process.  So if I don’t hear from you in a week, I should start pestering you.”

Al laughed. “I guess so, but I hope it only takes a couple days. We’ll let ya know.”

The customer sighed and looked satisfied. “Well, I’ll look around some here, then take off and wait for the order.”

Redtail said, “I’d better head off to the library.  Got stuff to return and others to look up.  And Al, I won’t bill you for my time for this advanced training.”

Al laughed. “I was going to charge YOU for the unscheduled training session.”

Redtail just shook her head and called back, “See you tomorrow!”

“Creak, jingle, slap.”

Redtail passed in front of the bait and tackle store.  She smiled and waved to Gus.  A few steps later, she paused to let a skink take cover in the boardwalk in front of the library.

Linda-Jean looked up from her desk when the library door jingled.  She gave Redtail a vocal welcome.  Redtail put her returns on the circulation desk and requested Internet access.

“Got some research to do?”

“Yes, it hit me that I really need to know what stuff attracts those biting insects and other bloodsuckers,” said Redtail, “well, besides nights, full moons, young pretty virgins and that kind of stuff.”

Linda-Jean laughed and said, “If you find you’re wanting to look up vampire stories, we seem to have a glut of those lately.  Take your pick on the computers.”

Redtail took the one closest to the circulation desk.  In a couple minutes, she announced she’d figured out how to avoid the biters.  “All we seem to have to do is quit breathing.  It seems all the little invertebrate critters who hunt their blood prey eagerly sense carbon dioxide!”

“That sounds simple enough.”

“Yeah, I’d seen a mosquito on a toad, and a tick on a turtle, but really had no clue how they found their stuff,” said Redtail.  “Stuff like ticks and chiggers just wait for what happens to come by, but the flying biters and fleas even, all seem to like CO2 most.  It’s cool.  It seems like deer flies and gnats like dark colors in addition to CO2, but horseflies like bright shiny stuff.  And I don’t know what it is about them, but stable flies, also known as barn or biting house flies, seem to have a thing for ankles.”

“Are stable flies those nasty little ones that seem to love folks working at a barbecue grill?”

Redtail smiled, “I think that’s right.  And fleas are almost scary.  They can wait in their pupae until they sense body heat and vibrations enough to convince them there’s food nearby.  Adults can go for a couple months before they have to have food, and use body heat, vibrations, and, of course, CO2 to find us.  Mosquitoes seem to be triggered by CO2, then hunt for motion if you’re not easy to find.  But it seems CO2 is the main attractor for all these nasty little blood hunters.”