day fifty-seven and a crane at the door

Ron and Benny had three bowls of potato and carrot soup and two bowls of leek soup each with crackers. The spiders caught some mountain flies. 

Then, after a short snooze, Benny got in the autogyro and screwed the joystick back into place.

“I’ll be back tomorrow morning on the airship!” he shouted to Ron, as the autogyro rose into the air. “You’ll have to get some soup ready for the passengers. Follow the recipes in the book - you can’t go wrong!”

“Right!” shouted Ron, as confidently as he could.

Benny opened the throttle and set off, but a few seconds later he came back and hovered above the Soup Shack.

“Not too much pepper!” he shouted.

“Right” shouted Ron.

Benny set off again, but was back half a minute later.

“Don’t let it boil!” he shouted.

“Right!” shouted Ron.

“And keep the door closed tonight. Don’t open it for anyone - whatever they say!”

And then Benny was gone.

Ron sat down at the table and opened Benny’s Big Book of Recipes, but before long reading the recipes made him feel sleepy and he nodded off with his head on the open book.

He was woken by a tapping at the door. 

“Oh, please let me in! I’m a poor crane who has got lost in the mountains and it’s terribly cold, so can I just come in for a while to get warm and then I’ll be on my way!” said a voice.

Ron remembered what Benny had said. He went to the door and listened.

“Please let me in, “ said the voice. “There’s a terrible icy wind blowing and it’s going through my feathers!”

Ron didn’t know what to do - the crane must be freezing out there. “Oh, please, please!” said the voice. 

Ron heard the sound of the wind VHOOOOHH! and he couldn’t stand it any longer. He opened the door and the wolf ran in snarling and grabbed Ron’s neck in it’s jaws.

© David Severn 2012