Togg's Arc

Chapter 4 of 8

The ladder hung firm, but every rafter still waited bare. Togg sat on the high beam and stared down at the empty pavilion. One afternoon left. Rope, ribbon, and not a single bloom. Then Delphine snatched up her reed trug and pointed out the doorway. "There's a spring past the trees. All kinds of flowers grow there. Come on." Togg climbed down the ladder fast. Delphine was already trotting ahead, trug swinging. They followed the sound of running water to a hidden pool ringed with soft grass. Wildflowers crowded the edges. White daisies. Purple bells on a woody vine that climbed the rocks. A cheerful patch glowing in the sun, pink and yellow and orange. "Look at all of them," Togg said. His whiskers twitched with the size of the haul. Delphine dropped to her knees and picked without slowing. She loved the vine best. "These purple ones. They'll hang perfect off the rafters." She tugged a long strand loose and coiled it into the trug. Togg gnawed daisy stems and passed them up. They worked until the trug brimmed with color. They carried it back between them, the handle heavy with blooms. At the pavilion, Jimothy hopped down from the bench to meet them. Togg had brought the raccoon into the plan days ago. Jimothy was cheerful and eager and never once asked what was in it for him. His short body and long arms made him a strange sight, but his grin was wide. "Flowers!" Jimothy said, peering into the trug. "Now we can start." Then a voice called through the trees. "Delphine! Delphine, where are you?" It was Grampy, somewhere across the meadow. Delphine froze. She looked at the trug, then at Togg. "If he finds me here, he'll wonder why. The whole surprise is done." She was already backing toward the door. "I have to go before he comes looking." "But the rafters," Togg said. "You climb better than Jimothy." "I know." She pressed the trug into his paws. Her face said she hated leaving. "I'll come back if I can. Promise." Then she was gone, running toward Grampy's voice, cap bobbing. Togg turned to Jimothy. The pavilion felt suddenly larger. He had flowers now. He had a raccoon with long arms and a good heart. But the thin twig ladder needed a light, quick climber, and Delphine was the light, quick climber. Jimothy was broad and heavy. "Can you fit the ladder?" Togg asked. Jimothy set one wide foot on the bottom rung. The twigs creaked and bowed under him. He stepped back. "That won't hold me." Togg looked up at the high beams, then down at the brimming trug. The flowers were his at last. But the only climber left small enough for the ladder was Togg himself, and he could not carry a whole trug of blooms up a thread of twigs alone.