BEDTIME STORY
Once upon a time, there was a baby fox who was all ready for bed.
His mother had fed him, bathed him, dried him off and slipped him into his favorite pajamas, tucked him in and read him a story. Now there was nothing left to do but pull the sheets up tight and kiss him on the forehead and say good night…so that’s exactly what his mother did. “Good night, Baby Fox,” she said as she leaned over him and kissed his forehead. “Sweet dreams!”
But as she was walking to the door, the baby fox said, “Mama Fox!” “Yes?” she said as she stopped in the door and set her paw on the light switch.
“I’m hungry.”
Mama Fox smiled. '“If you’re hungry, Baby Fox, you should go to sleep and dream that you’re sitting in a field of soft green grass, eating sweet roots and berries. Doesn’t that sound delicious?” He admitted that it did. “Now good night, Baby Fox.” “Good night, Mama,” said Baby Fox. And Mama switched off the light and stepped into the hall and started closing the door.
“Mama Fox!”
Mama Fox stopped closing the door, opened it again and stepped ever so slightly back into the room and leaned in the doorway. She looked patiently at Baby Fox from across the room. “Yes, Baby Fox, what is it?”
“I’m thirsty.”
Mama Fox sighed and walked over to the bed, leaned over and pulled his covers up tight and sat down beside Baby Fox and smoothed his hair back.
“If you’re thirsty, Baby Fox, you should go to sleep and dream that you’re lapping up crystal-clear rainwater from a fresh, perfect puddle, doesn’t that sound refreshing?” He admitted that it did. She leaned over and looked into his eyes. “Now go to sleep. You and your father have a lot to do tomorrow. You need to get your good rest.” Then she kissed his forehead and said, “Good night, Baby Fox, sweet dreams,” and she stood up and headed for the door.
“Mama Fox.” Mama Fox didn’t stop this time but went all the way out into the hall, turned and began to close the door as if Baby Fox were already asleep.
“Mama Fox!” said Baby Fox. “Mama Fox!”
This time she turned but she didn’t come back into the room.
“What is it now, Baby Fox? It’s time for bed. What is it now?”
“I want to go for a walk.”
“If you want to go for a walk, Baby Fox,” said Mama Fox, “I can think of no better way to do that than by going to sleep right now and dreaming that you’re walking in a deep green forest filled with tall, tall trees., doesn’t that sound like a fine adventure for a baby fox to go on? A quiet forest walk?”
“But…”
“Good night, Baby Fox,” said Mama Fox, and she shut the door. Baby Fox lay there in the dark, listening for her footsteps in the hall. There they were.
“Mama Fox! Mama Fox, come back!” said Baby Fox, sitting up. Mama Fox!”
The door opened and there was Mama Fox. She walked in at a brisk pace and came straight to the bed, picked up Baby Fox’s pillow, fluffed it, flipped it and set it back down again and Baby Fox laid back down on the fat, cool pillow.
“What’s the matter now, Baby Fox? It’s bedtime.” She looked down into his eyes and smiled, as if she was as happy to see him again as he was to see her. He didn’t say anything for a moment. He just looked into his Mama’s eyes.
“Do you even remember what you wanted?”
“I want to go swimming.”
“Oh, you do, do you?” She pulled his covers up under his chin nice and tight.
“I do.”
“Well then, if you want to go swimming, I can think of no better way to do than to go to sleep right now and dream of finding, in that deep, green forest full of tall, tall trees a little pond.” She stood up and smoothed his hair back. “A pond that’s just the perfect temperature for a little baby fox to swim in, with a bottom of big smooth rocks, no weeds, doesn’t that sound nice, Baby Fox?”
He nodded. It did sound perfect. No weeds. He was getting tired now.
“Now go to sleep.” She leaned over and kissed his forehead. “Good night, Baby Fox,” she said firmly and then she stood up and let him know without saying so that this was the last time she’d be coming back in tonight. “I love you.”
“I love you too, Mama Fox, more than anything.”
“I’ll see you in the morning, Baby Fox. Now good night.”
“Good night,” he said, and she walked out into the hallway and shut the door. Baby Fox listened for her footsteps in the hall. There they were. And then one by one they grew fainter and were gone and Baby Fox lay there in the dark.
“‘I’m not the least bit sleepy,” thought Baby Fox and the next thing he knew he wasn’t in his bed at all. He was sitting in a field of soft, green grass, munching on a crunchy wild carrot and lifting tiny berries to his mouth with his paw — and they were just as delicious as his Mama had told him they would be.
But then he saw another Baby Fox peeking up at him from out of a hole in the field, a hole encircled by wet, green grass. That Baby Fox was eating berries too and behind that other Baby Fox’s head Baby Fox could see blue sky in the hole and the tip of a branch from a big tree, heavy with rain.
“That’s not another Baby Fox,” thought Baby Fox, “that’s me.” And he leaned over and lapped at what he knew now was a perfect puddle full of fresh water from the rain and it was just as clear and refreshing as his Mama had said.
A rustling from far off, behind him, startled him then, and he turned just in time to see a little baby deer stepping into a big green forest at the edge of a nearby field. Baby Fox stood up and ran across the grass, into the neighboring field and all the way to the spot where he’d seen the baby deer and there at his feet was a path. He looked up from the path and into the woods. He could see the path wind into the mossy woods and then turn into darkness. His gaze drifted up into the tall, tall trees, where he could see little shafts of sunlight hanging like icicles and see pollen moving slowly in the dusky light as if the entire forest was a lake and he, Baby Fox, was at the bottom.
Far off in the distance the white tail of the baby deer flashed like a star and was gone. Baby Fox stood there and considered going into the woods. He was scared. But then he thought, “If a baby deer isn’t scared of these woods, then certainly there’s nothing to fear for a brave Baby Fox like me,” and he walked in. Step by step, he moved deeper into the green darkness. He looked up and saw the shafts of light, high above. He looked ahead and saw the trunk of a big tree that had fallen over the path. It was furry with thick moss. It must have been laying there for a long time, thought Baby Fox. He turned and looked back at the spot where the path had begun. He could just make out a slice of the field and see cloud shadows moving across it. He turned and looked into the deep, green darkness. And then he heard a sound.
It was the sound of water.
Baby Fox stepped off the path and followed the sound until he found its source: a thin stream running almost parallel to the edge of the field but not quite, running downward to his left into the deep, green darkness, into the velvety little valleys beyond which Baby Fox could only see green shadows, heavy green shadows heaped on depths of even deeper, richer greens.
“Certainly,” thought Baby Fox, “if a baby deer can walk farther into these woods, there’s nothing for a brave baby fox like me to fear,” and he walked deeper into the woods, following the stream now, dancing across it this way and that as it widened and grew gradually deeper. He soon found himself stepping lightly from rock to rock in the middle of the stream and peering this way and that up into the trees through which no light fell now. He came to a stop atop a large boulder in the middle of the stream and wondered at how loud it was, here in the middle of the forest. Was that wind blowing?
He looked ahead, toward where the sound was loudest, made a plan and then hopped here, then there, then there, and then there and then there he was — standing at the edge of a waterfall that dropped straight down into the end of a long, narrow forest pond the likes of which Baby Fox had never seen.
It was perfectly clear. From where Baby Fox stood, he could see all the way to the bottom, and the bottom was huge white boulders, no weeds! Only a few large-leaved water frilled the edges of the pond. Baby Fox jumped right in.
When his head popped back up in the smooth water, Baby Fox marveled at the temperature of this pond. Just like his Mama had said, this pond was just the right temperature for a baby fox to swim in. Baby Fox swam back and forth across the pond, back and forth, dove to the bottom and felt the smooth white stone with the tip of his nose and finally grew tired and swam to the little beach at the far end of the pond and lay on his back. Far up above he saw blue sky, but a blue slightly darker than the last sky he’d seen. And carved into the deep blue sky was a crescent moon of dark stone that it took Baby Fox a few seconds to realize was a very high cliff overlooking the pond.
Something told Baby Fox that was where he wanted to be.
He rolled onto his feet and ran to the foot of the cliff. There was no way he could ever climb straight up, so he took off at a gallop and ran around the back of the hillside, turned to the right and ran this way and that, enjoying the way the sky opened up as he ascended, enjoying how the air grew thinner and clearer as he ascended, and he finally came to a stone wall embroidered with moss and lichen, with tender baby trees growing out of the cracks in the stone, stretching away from the stone and bending up towards the sky.
Baby Fox stepped cautiously around the stone wall and peeked.
“There you are, Baby Fox!” said his mother, who was sitting there, smiling.
“Mama Fox, it’s you!” said Baby Fox, and he ran to her. He tumbled into her with much force that he knocked her over onto her back and she laughed. In a few moments she had arranged them both such that Baby Fox’s back was curved against his mama’s warm side and she was smoothing his still-wet hair back from his face with one paw and he was staring up at her face and the sky, in which twinkled the first star of the evening. Baby Fox yawned.
“I’m tired.”
“I know, Baby Fox. You’ve had a very big day.”
There was so much he wanted to tell her, but he was too tired to even begin.
“Is it okay if I fall asleep?” he asked. “Just for a while? And then I’ll wake up, I promise, and I’ll tell you everything. I think I just need to sleep for a while.”
“You can sleep for as long as you want, Baby Fox,” Mama Fox said. “And when you wake up, I’ll be right here, because you are my Baby Fox and I love you.”
“I love you too, Mama. I love you so much. I want to tell you everything.”
“And you will, you’ll tell me everything.”
“I will, I promise, Mama, I’ll tell you everything. Everything.”
“Good night, Baby Fox,” said Mama Fox, and then she leaned over and kissed his forehead. “Sweet dreams,” she whispered and Baby Fox, finally, fell asleep.