Ok. Somethin’ happened. I dunno if maybe I made it happen, or if maybe I didn’t, but that last mornin’ onna mountain didn’ quite go as planned…
Bean an’ Aunty Glenda an’ Grammy Happy was packin’ an’ movin’, gettin’ stuff outta cabin an’ inna car. Cooper an’ Hittys an’ me were waitin’ in our pink case onna table, wishin’ we could stay a li’l bit longer, watchin’ Hittys an’ dollies an’ dragons bein’ born an’ spendin’ time with Pip an’ Amalynn an’ Pinkly an’ Smidge an’ Voir (even tho Smidge an’ Voir’d been gone a bit). We were talkin’ bout the Big Green dragon, an’ how super cool it was but super scary too, an’ Cooper was talkin’ bout how a dragon coulda flown us up inna tree to get some mistletoe (cuz alla Beans kept talkin’ bout some mistletoe inna tree!), an’… An’… Wait. It was awful quiet. No Beans were talkin’. Nobody was movin’ things around.
I flipped the pink case latch an peeked out. Cabin was empty.
But we were still onna table. Oh. My. Gumdrops!
I slid back inna case. It shut with a soft click. Cooper looked over at me. I think he was startin’ to realize somethin’ wasn’t quite right. We let the Hittys keep talkin’, an’ he scooted over closer to me.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. When he’s worried, his right eyebrow goes up high. It was wavin’.
I pushed open the case a li’l bit. It took him a minute, but then his mouth rounded into an “O” an’ his eyes got all big. “Bean’s gone,” he said, closin’ the lid again. Gotta hand it to Cooper. He’s gotta good brain.
“Yep,” I said. I pushed the lid open again. The sky through the window was pretty an’ blue, an’ there were no clouds. It was a nice day. “We said we wanna stay onna mountain longer. Guess we’re here now.” We got out of the case an’ sat onna table, watchin’ things for a bit. There was a hawk flyin’ inna sky, an’ a dog barked off inna woods. Cooper was swingin’ his legs off the table edge. I confessed I didn’t know if I’d done somethin’ to make it so Bean didn’t see us when she was leavin’. I didn’t think I could do that, but I did really wanna stay longer an’ watch sunrises an’ listen to coyotes an’ stuff.
But there’s only so much sky watchin’ I wanna do from inna cabin. It seemed too far to jump to the ground–like, break-your-leg kinda too far. Maybe we could slide down a table leg…
While I was thinkin’ bout whether or not we’d get splinters, Cooper told me I hadda stay with him an’ the Hittys. An’ he had a point. If somethin’ bad might come, I outta be near to keep everybody safe.
“Besides,” he asked, “how are we getting home, Kestrel? We can’t live here forever.”
He hadda point. But now this was an adventure. I was ready to go! Still…Cooper would worry. An’, if I did have somethin’ to do with us bein’ left, I didn’t wanna leave him worried an’ alone. I needed a plan.
For sure Bean would realize she didn’t have us. Right? But maybe she wouldn’t know where we got left. Or maybe she’d worry our case fell outta car or somethin’. Plus I didn’t have a plan yet for gettin’ us back offa mountain… Maybe Bean would come back for us. That wouldn’t take too long. We just hadda make sure she knew.
Hitty Lily popped outta the pink case. She had our ‘puter with her. Hittys are so smart!
So I wrote messages onna Facebook, cuz ‘puter was hooked inna Sky Vue‘s wifi already. Bean’s not much on Facebook, but Grammy Happy an’ Aunty Glenda are. So I wrote messages on their pages too, an’ made a big, stinky message on my page. Somebody would see it. Somebody would let Bean know, an’ she’d figure out a plan.
Pretty soon, messages started comin’ back. People knew we were stuck onna mountain. An’ a plan was made for gettin’ us home: Miss Janice an’ Mister Glenn, the nice beans that own Sky Vue Lodge, would box us up an’ get us tickets to ride the Postal! I was super excited. I always wanted to ride Postal, but Bean said it was too dangerous. Plus, super added bonus, the Postal wasn’t gonna leave ’til Monday, so we hadda whole extra weekend onna mountain!
People onna Facebook were blamin’ Bean for leavin’ us behind, an’ I kinda felt bad bout that. I mean, I guess she did kinda leave us, but I also dunno if I made it happen too, just a li’l bit… I figured people outta blame me too if they were gonna blame. Pinkly investigated the mess too, an’ she ruled it was just an accident, so I felt kinda better. Bean didn’t mean it, an’ we didn’t really mean to be bad dollies either. Accidents happen. But we got an Overstay outta it!
Pink Case got moved from the cabin inna main lodge. It smelled mighty good there! An’ it was warm an’ cozy. We were safe, we hadda plan, we were gonna go home, but we gotta enjoy the mountain a li’l bit longer. Everything seemed all good. Cooper could stop worryin’, so maybe I could start pokin’ around a li’l bit.
After alla Bean’s voices were gone an’ it seemed quiet, we peeked outta the case. The Hittys’ tummies were rumblin’, an’ mine was too. Cooper didn’t say anything, but he also didn’t object. He said he was comin’ with me, tho.
Coast seemed pretty clear. So Cooper an’ me got outta box an’ started pokin’ around, foragin’ for food.
Cooper found somethin’ inna bag. I dunno what it was. Maybe beans? Or peas? Or corn? Somethin’ kinda healthy. But we didn’t have any way to cook stuff. I didn’t wanna use a bean’s stove, in case it got us melted or somethin’. That seemed like a bad idea. We kept lookin’. Most everything was put away nice an’ neat. But we found a cookie, an’ rolled it back for the Hittys. Gettin’ it back up the table was tough, but we used some rope an’ cables an made a pulley thing. Then everybody was fed an’ happy!
At nights, I poked around outside a li’l bit too, lookin’ for coyotes an’ takin’ walks. Cooper kept trying’ to get me to stay put, in case I got lost, but I couldn’t resist. There was a whole mountain out there, beggin’ to be looked at! It’d be a shame not to explore it a li’l more. I saw an owl. I heard more coyotes, an’ maybe some wild dogs. I saw mistletoe inna tree an’ wanted to go get it, but Bean let me know she an’ Aunty Glenda got some on their way home too, so I didn’t climb up after it. I almost fell down the mountain when I slipped on moss. It was super fun.
Cooper an’ me kept foragin’ for food, too, tryin’ keep Hittys fed an’ keep our stomachs from rumblin’ too loud. We found an’ shared some cake, which was yummy.
But Cooper found this drink, too. There was only a li’l bit left, I think. After he drank it, tho, he got kinda weird an’ crazy an’ talked like a mile a minute. He wouldn’t stop talkin’, which was kinda weird an’ not really Cooper-like. Then he got a headache, so maybe I’m glad there wasn’t much of whatever it was.
One foragin’, though, we found a bunch of candy! Oh my gumdrops, it was good! I know we were supposed to share with the Hittys, but I kinda forgot, an’ I think Cooper forgot too. Instead, we ate…an’ ate…an’ ate!
Then we passed out onna table from too much sugar. The Beans found us there like that inna mornin’. Oops. But it was Postal day anyway, so they put us back inna pink case an’ got us ready for travel. They put us inna pink case inna big brown box. There was lotsa tapin’ an’ jostlin’, an’ I heard someone say they were takin’ us to the Postal Office. An’ we were off!
Thanks to Miss Janice an’ Mister Glenn an’ Sky Vue Lodge, we hadda great Overstay!
~Kestrel
Kestrel's Roost 