Chapter 7: The Guide
ARTHUR and Olivia came back home from Doncaster to a huge welcome from Rob and the goats, then returned to the peaceful life they’d led before.
Olivia made soup with seasonal ingredients, cooked sides to go with the soup, took care of the potted plants, and chatted with the animals. She spoke with Arthur, her love, occasionally filling with warm and fuzzy feelings when his gentle emotions swept into her.
That continued, day after day.
Today’s soup was a chunky soup made with dried mushrooms and boar meat. She served it with an omelet loaded with caramelized onions. The omelet was rich and luscious from the milk and cream she added to the egg. She even grated cheese on top for anyone who wanted some.
One customer, after tasting the soup, said to Olivia, “Ah, you really get the flavor of the mushrooms in the broth. Really goes nice with the boar. It’s good.”
“I wonder why mushrooms taste so wonderful when you dry them,” pondered Olivia.
“Huh, you’re the cook. Thought you would know.”
“You’d think I would, but I don’t.”
She smiled and told the customer to take his time, then turned back towards the kitchen, but another customer called to her.
“This is one filling omelet,” he said. “Which is a big help since I’ve got to work until nightfall. And it’s delicious. There’s this crumbly, crispy stuff under the omelet. It’s like a cookie, but not sweet.”
“You bake it basically the same as a cookie, but it’s not sweet and has walnuts in it. I think it’s nice to eat with an omelet since it gives you something to munch on,” she said.
“It is. You got this crispy base and soft omelet. It’s good. I can’t get enough of it.”
“I’m glad you like it.”
Arthur was sitting at the table in the kitchen listening to Olivia chat with the customers. He had the day off from the pharmacy. Olivia told him not to worry about her and to go out wherever he wanted to on his day off, but he told her he was happiest in the restaurant, smiling as he begged her not to send him away.
The lunchtime customers left, and Olivia hurried into the forest with Arthur and Rob in tow now that she had some time before evening.
“The bugs get to the mushrooms if you don’t harvest them quickly,” she said. “And they don’t taste as nice if their caps open too much.”
“But you gather so many every day. Aren’t you going to end up with too many?” asked Arthur.
“Nope. I’ll dry them all before winter comes, then cook with them throughout winter. I have never ever had too many mushrooms.”
Olivia was so energetic at times like these. Arthur thought she seemed like a squirrel in the forest hoarding for winter.
It was late into autumn, and the bears were busily gathering food in preparation for hibernation. Knowing this made Arthur worry every time Olivia went into the forest.
“I know your grandpa protected you when he was alive, but your grandparents died at almost the same time,” he said. “What’d you do for the five years after that? You didn’t go all the way into the forest on your own during that time, did you?”
“I did. I’d sing really loud while I gathered mushrooms and walnuts to let the animals know there’s a human so they shouldn’t come near.”
“That’s dangerous. I’m just glad there weren’t any bears who heard you singing and decided they’d actually rather go towards the sound.” He’d heard that after a bear’s first taste of a human, it’ll keep on attacking humans. Arthur whispered a thank you to God that nothing ever happened to Olivia.
Olivia was pleased she managed to gather as many mushrooms and walnuts that day as she did. Arthur smiled as he glanced at her.
Once back at the restaurant, Olivia picked the leaves and large debris from the mushrooms, then wiped them clean with a damp cloth before sliding them onto long, thin wooden skewers. She had a lot of those skewers, a whole box full.
“What are those?” asked Arthur.
“Grandpa made these skewers. I guess Grandma was happy to use sticks, but Grandpa always wanted to do things right. Apparently, he made all these skewers himself, the exact same length and thickness.”
“Skilled with both a sword and his hands, it seems. Can’t get a better husband than that. I’ll help with this. You just stick them on upside down, right?”
“Yep. Grandma said they taste better if you dry them upside down. I don’t know how true that is, though.”
The stove had a gentle fire going with a kettle set on top; the only sound in the kitchen was the gentle piping sounds informing them of boiled water. The only other thing was the occasional caw or hoot from the forest.
“You know, living here makes me feel like one of the little animals living in the forest,” said Arthur.
“Little? You mean like helpless and weak?”
“No, not that. I feel like I have plenty of food and clean water, and there are more living creatures around me than I could possibly count. I’ve become a part of that. And I’ve got a wife who can hear animals talking, so things never get boring.”
“Only you would see things like that, Arthur.”
They finished threading all the mushrooms on the skewers.
“What do we do with these now?” asked Arthur.
“We slip them in two lengths of twine and hang them. When I don’t have many, I’d just lay them out on a sieve.”
They strung two pieces of twine from the back of a chair then stuck the ends of the skewers into the braid of the twine. Each addition of a mushroom skewer made it look like they were making a rope ladder. Olivia kept shifting the ropes until she’d made a mushroom ladder as tall as herself.
“Once we have a bunch of these, we’ll hang them from the eaves. They’ll get nicely dried out in the sun, which will preserve them.”
“Huh. It’s not just cherry tea, all sorts of things take a lot of effort,” Arthur mused.
“I enjoy it.”
“I do, too.”
Rob, who had been sleeping in his bed in the corner, jerked his head up, then jumped to his feet before pushing the doggy door open with his head and slipping outside.
“What’s that about? I didn’t sense anything,” said Olivia.
“I’ll take a look. You stay here.”
Arthur picked up his large knife and an oil lamp before following Rob out the kitchen door.
Olivia waited, worried about what was happening, when Arthur returned with something cradled in his arms. Rob stood up on his hind legs several times to get a look into Arthur’s arms.
It was a wild rabbit, unconscious.
“It’s got a pretty bad wound on its hind leg. I don’t know if it’s going to make it,” said Arthur.
“Oh. I must not have felt anything because it’s unconscious.”
“What should we do?”
“Well, we found it. We might as well tend its wound. I’ll get a box we can put it in.”
The brown rabbit was knocked out cold. It didn’t move even when they put it in the box. Rob shoved his snout near the rabbit, sniffing and snorting.
“He’s curious about the smell of blood,” said Olivia. “Mm, it looks like something bit hard on its leg. I’ll have to stitch it.”
Arthur watched in silence. If this were his mercenary days, he’d be thrilled to have a meal drop in his lap, but Olivia always treated any animals that came to her then released them back into the forest. That was the end of the relationship with most animals, but some, like the female wolf, never forgot Olivia.
“Arthur, can you hold the rabbit so it doesn’t move? I don’t want it to thrash about if it wakes up while I’m doing the stitches.”
“Sure, I’ll handle it.”
Olivia applied rubbing alcohol to the rabbit’s wound, shaved the fur from the area, then began stitching. The rabbit was completely unconscious. It didn’t move or wake up during the entire process.
“All right,” said Olivia. “Now we have to make a hutch for this little one so it doesn’t decide to run away.”
“There was a stack of boxes in the barn, right?”
“Yeah. The goats like to be up high, so I used those to make stairs. I guess it should be fine if we take one box away, right?”
“I don’t mind. I won’t be able to hear them if they complain,” Arthur said.
“And I’ll make sure to apologize. It’ll be fine.”
Arthur got one of the wooden boxes from the barn, spread straw out inside, then put together a lid with gaps in it for air to pass through.
The rabbit lay still in the box, and Olivia said, “I pray you’ll be able to return to the forest,” like she was casting a spell, then went back to making mushroom ladders.
They hung the mushroom ladders from the second-story eaves where the autumn sun would hit them and dry them out nice and crunchy.
The rabbit thrashed in the hutch on the first day, but Olivia talked to it, and it calmed right down.
“I’ll let you go back to the forest once you’ve healed,” she said. “We won’t eat you, I promise.”
It ate the vegetables and wild plants they gave it and slowly healed.
Two weeks later, Olivia checked on it and said, “Hm, the wound has completely healed. Wild animals do heal quickly.”
She picked up the hutch and went out into the back garden. She took off the lid and tilted the box, and the rabbit bounded out. Olivia assumed it would head towards the forest, but it only got about fifteen feet before stopping and turning back to look at her.
“What’s wrong? Aren’t you going to go back to your den?”
It hopped back towards her, then moved towards the forest again before stopping and looking back at Olivia. It was like it wanted her to follow it. She had some time before she had to serve dinner at the restaurant, so she took Rob with her as the rabbit guided them into the forest.