The meeting began under a tall umbrella of rust-colored leaves high up in the middle of Peachview State Park.
“First to Mrs. Blackbear,” Delia said to the group gathered. “Can you update us on the humans causing trouble around your winter cave?”
Shaking her head to flick off a bee, Mrs. Blackbear addressed the large group. “It was terrible, so, so terrible. They woke up the children, and Marvin and I had to try and find food for them from the slim pickings this time of year.”
With Mrs. Blackbear not able to go on, Delia turned to the rabbit family and inquired about the damage to their holes. It seemed the humans entering the forest illegally brought shovels and filled in the top of the rabbit’s homes.
They had to dig for a long time to get them cleared again. The elders reported they were glad to have found all their family and friends.
“Miss Delia, why is it that you can hear what we say to you?”
Looking at the young fox, she told him it was a special gift she was born with, just like the one he is born with to search for food.
Delia looked out over the series of woodland creatures before her. They had stopped running away from her once they realized she could hear them as they spoke. Over the past year, she visits every morning as the sun is coming up. She has conversations with the birds flying by on their way to find food for their young.
When she was very young, her mother would take her for long walks in the woods that were on the edge of their farm. They would sit in the very spot where the meeting is being held today and just remained still when the animals went by. At first, she was afraid, and then it became a game to see if any of them would sit next to them.
“Okay, everyone. Back to the problems at hand so I can get them taken care of. Who is next?”
“Me,” said the beautiful doe with her twins at her side. “I want to tell you about how those bad humans tried to steal one of the twins. If it wasn’t for my husband showing up in time, Pascal would be gone, and who knows what they would have done to him.”
“Oh, that is not a good thing. I’m so sorry that happened to you. I’m sure all of you were very frightened. I’m going to have another meeting this afternoon with the park ranger to see if we can find out who these bad people are and make it stop.”
“Miss Delia, Miss Delia, I have a question,” a red-headed woodpecker called out.
“What is your question?”
“How do I stop those bad ones from raiding my nest? Every time I lay new eggs the next day when I get back from finding food, they’re gone.”
“Have you ever seen anyone around when you fly off? It could be one of the bad woodland creatures, like some squirrels, we know about who also steal eggs from nests to eat.”
The woodpecker didn’t know and has never seen anyone around as she flew up into the sky. Delia knew about a few creatures who would steal eggs to eat or just to break open. She did speak with them, but it is difficult to change old habits.
“I hope there is no one here guilty of doing that to Mrs. Woodpecker. I will have the ranger put a protection cage around your nest until you are ready to sit on the eggs.”
Delia assured her that the hole to get in and out of the cage is too small for even a small squirrel to get into, and besides, the eggs would be too big to pull them out.
Having written down all the complaints, Delia said goodbye to all her woodland friends and went to her meeting with the ranger. He indicated putting the cage over the woodpecker’s hole in the tree would be done before dark. As for the humans causing chaos to the animal world, he had no news yet.
The following day on her way to go sit in the woods, Delia heard something happening a few yards in front of her. She slowed down her pace and approached as quietly as possible.
In the clearing, she saw two teenagers carrying backpacks that had small folding shovels attached. Hiding behind a tree, she listened as they carried on a conversation while sitting on a log.
“Mistie, we sure got those foxes this time. I bet they will never get back out of their tunnels for hours.”
“Henry, that was so much fun, but it is getting later than usual, and we don’t want anyone to see us here, so we best head for home and not miss breakfast.”
Delia watched as the two got up and walked down the path that went back to the village. She followed them from a distance. She had never seen the two before, having lived here all her life.
When they got to the visitors’ parking lot, the two climbed into a dark green jeep and drove away. Delia memorized the license plate and headed for the ranger station to write it down and have him find out who the jeep belonged to.
When Delia got to the ranger station, no one was there. On the door, there was a note, ‘Will be back at 3 p.m.’ There was a notepad nearby for people to leave messages. She quickly wrote down MITE-394 and tore off the page putting it into her jean pocket.
She was desperate to find out who the jeep belonged to but how. Maybe she could ask around town at the coffee shop and see if anyone has seen the teenagers named Mistie and Henry or might have seen the dark green jeep.
First, though, Delia went back to her house, got a shovel, and headed for the closest fox den to see if she could dig them out before the babies died without enough air. Once she got one cleared, she could ask where all the other dens were located.
As the mother fox came out of the den, she just sat for a minute, appearing exhausted. “How are your babies doing, Daisy?”
“They will be better now that they can get some air. Thank you.”
“Do you know where all the other dens are located? I heard the teens say they cover several of them with dirt and branches.”
After checking the babies first, Daisy took her to the other three locations, and she freed them. Putting down her shovel she Delia sat on the ground next to it to regain her strength and then headed back to the ranger station.
She walked and pulled out the paper she wrote the license number on and placed it on the counter in front of the ranger.
“Can you check this plate number out and see who it belongs to. I saw the teenagers very early this morning and listened to a conversation between the two of them. Afterward, I followed them to a Dark Green Jeep in the parking lot, and this is the plate number from it.”
He looked at her intently when she mentioned the two teenagers’ names and then glanced down at what she had written on the paper.
“It will take me a little while for them to do a search on this, so I will let you know later today by phone once I have a result.”
Delia thanked him and went back to check that all the animals were okay.
After Delia left, the ranger took a deep breath, knowing who this Mistie and Henry were and who the jeep belonged to. He needed to go home for a bit and speak with his sister about what her children have been up to and the damage they may have done to the animals.
His sister was visiting him and his wife and had brought along her son and daughter so they could take classes on conservation in the forest. Well, he guessed they have decided to do more before attending those such classes at the high school.
“Martha, are you home? I need to speak with you about Mistie and Henry.”
“What’s up, Mark? You sound so official.”
“The kids have been wreaking havoc on the animals in the woodland areas. Before breakfast, they went out there and buried the fox entrances with dirt so they couldn’t get out. Luckily, a special friend of the animals heard them talking and undid the damage.”
“What? How do you know it was my children?”
The ranger handed his sister the paper with the license plate number on it. “Does this look familiar?”
“My jeep has this plate number. So you’re saying that my two have also been driving the jeep without a driver’s license?”
He told her it looked that way and wanted to know where they were right now. He did see the jeep parked in the driveway when he pulled up.
“Mark, I promise you this will be handled by me as soon as they get home from class.”
Satisfied, he went back to the ranger station. He now needed to decide how to explain to Delia who those teenagers are and what was being done to keep them from never terrorized the animals again.
