Little House on the Prairie (Part 2)

Mugiko was awakened one night by a strange sound from the darkness outside the window. As she lay there motionless she heard it again. Her brother grabbed her hand and whispered, “What’s that?” It sounded a little bit like the fuzzy-wuzzles’ howling, but it was higher-pitched. The unnerving sound repeated again and again. Mugiko felt her heart thumping in her chest.

A light came on in the hallway. Mugiko and her brother came out from his room to see Pa with a coat on and a flashlight in hand.

“Don’t you two worry about anything. Go on back to bed,” he told them, before leaving the house.

Mugiko and her brother went back to the room, but they were too anxious to sleep. The sound came again and again. Her brother pulled aside the curtain and looked outside, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. Bright moonlight shone through the window.

After a considerable amount of time had passed, Mugiko was starting to doze off, when she heard Ma and Pa’s voices at the front door. She and her brother came down the steps, rubbing their eyes. Just by the door there was a cardboard box, and inside it was a little fuzzy-wuzzle, curled up on a bath towel. Mugiko sucked in her breath.

Pa said that it had been caught in a trap someone had set outside. He’d come outside to find that Mr. Edogawa had come out as well, flashlight in hand, to investigate the noise. Together they had discovered the fuzzy-wuzzle in the trap, crying plaintively for help.

“I can’t believe someone’d do something like that.” Pa’s face was a thundercloud. “Mr. Edogawa reckons he’s got an idea who done it. And I know it wouldn’t be you two?”

They quickly shook their heads.

At that moment Mugiko remembered what Yūta had said: I’m gonna catch me a fuzzy-wuzzle. But she was too afraid to tell Pa about it.

“It’s a little hurt, so your father brought it in,” said Ma. “We’ll have to dress the wound and feed it, poor thing.”

“You mean we’re going to keep it?” Mugiko exclaimed.

Pa shook his head. “Fuzzy-wuzzles aren’t the kind of creature you keep for a pet. We’re just going to treat its wound, that’s all. It’s still only a little fuzzy-wuzzle, and its mother must be worried sick.”

That same night Pa took the little fuzzy-wuzzle outside and released it. A large fuzzy-wuzzle came to fetch it in the empty lots. Pa said that it watched him the whole time he was walking back home, its silver fur glinting in the moonlight.

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As summer neared its end, the house began to resemble a home. New things arrived: a table, a sofa, a TV, a bed for Mugiko. On Sunday, Pa and Ma went out to the yard to discuss things. Pa said he wanted to build brick flowerbeds and pave out a path with cement blocks and gravel.

“One thing at a time!” Ma laughed. “You don’t have to do it all at once.”

“It’s hard to sit still with all these projects locked up in my head. This yard would look a sight better with a lawn, trees, flowerbeds. Then we could set up a table and eat breakfast out here.”

“What about camping?” asked Mugiko.

Pa nodded. “Sure, I don’t see why not.” He waxed on about building a simple firepit for barbecuing, like the one the Andōs had.

On Saturday the Andōs had invited them over for a barbecue. They took Jack along, of course. The Andōs had a firepit built from grey cement blocks in their yard, with a metal grate on top where they roasted meat and vegetables. Mugiko loved how it felt like camping.

The food was delicious, and Daichi and Kyōko were agreeable as could be when they saw Jack. But Yūta was grouchy and wouldn’t say a word to Mugiko.

“I’m afraid it was Yūta who tried to catch the fuzzy-wuzzle,” said Mr. Andō. “I’m awful sorry about all the bother.”

After the food was gone, Mugiko drank barley tea. Her brother was drinking cola, but Mugiko didn’t like the way cola tingled in her nose.

Yūta came up to her.

“You tattled on me,” he said threateningly.

Mugiko’s heart jumped into her throat. “I did not!”

Yūta thought that she had told on him, though it had been the mayor who saw him setting the trap.

“You shouldn’t have set that mean trap!” she retorted.

“You were begging me for a fuzzy-wuzzle!”

“I was not!”

“You’re a liar!”

Yūta grabbed her hair and pulled. Tears sprang into Mugiko’s eyes, and she hit Yūta with both hands. Everyone else quickly separated the two. Mugiko burst into tears, but Yūta remained stonefaced and silent even when Mr. Andō was scolding him.

“Why did Yūta pull your hair?” Pa asked her after they went home.

“I don’t know,” Mugiko sulked.

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One morning Pa went overseas for a business trip.

To Mugiko’s disappointment (for she had wanted to see him off), by the time she woke up he had already gone. He didn’t come home that night, and wouldn’t be returning for another four days. The house felt a little bit empty without him.

Jack was restless that evening. Tied up in the yard he ran around and around, pointing his nose up at the sky and sniffing intently.

“Might be a storm brewing,” Ma mused as she took down the laundry.

No matter how Mugiko stroked his back, Jack just wouldn’t settle down.

“What’s wrong, Jack? What is it, boy?”

A warm breeze was blowing, and the grass swayed in the empty lots like a living thing. Clouds steadily rolled in, smothering the sky. Jack let out a howl. Standing up, Mugiko saw several fuzzy-wuzzles in the grass, staring her way.

Jack wouldn’t stop howling, so they let him inside the house. Even then he wouldn’t stop pacing, his claws click-clacking on the floor, letting out the occasional howl just for good measure.

The fuzzy-wuzzles were still prowling around outside after the sun went down. Mugiko peeked under a curtain and saw their green eyes shining. Everyone was on edge.

Mr. Edogawa came after they had finished supper.

“I think we’d better do something about that pack of fuzzy-wuzzles, drive ‘em off. I’ve got some sparklers with me.”

“What good will sparklers do?” Ma asked.

“They’re afraid of fire, you see.”

Mr. Edogawa was right: once he set off the little sparklers in the yard, the fuzzy-wuzzles vanished into the night.

But the next night, and the night after that, the fuzzy-wuzzles came back to lurk around the house. Strange sounds could be heard all through the night, and come morning the yard would be covered with footprints.

“What do they want?” Ma fretted, her voice filled with apprehension. “We haven’t got any food for them.”

Poor Jack was at the end of his rope.

I just know that Pa would do something if he was here, Mugiko thought, wishing that Pa would come back soon.

On the fourth night, there was a storm.

Pa must have been back in Japan by then, but when Mugiko listened to the wind rattling the windows she felt that he still must be on the airplane somewhere up in the air. Frightful images of the plane crashing filled her head. But that wasn’t so. She knew that Pa’s plane had landed long ago and that he was on the train at this very moment heading home. Yet for reasons she couldn’t explain she was worried all the same.

By the front door Jack would not settle down.

Mugiko and her brother tried their best to stay up waiting for Pa to come home. But the hours went by, and the knock on the front door never came. The dark wind lashed at the window panes, and occasionally the rain would come pounding down in sheets. And amidst the wind and rain, they could also hear the howling of the fuzzy-wuzzles. What could they be so riled up at on a stormy night like this?

Mugiko found it harder and harder to keep her eyes open, and she began to nod off on the living room floor. Ma brought out a thin blanket for her to lie on.

There was a sudden flurry of activity at the front door.

“Whoa, Jack, whoa!” came Pa’s voice, followed by Ma saying, “You’re home!”

Mugiko got up and went to the entryway to see Pa standing at the door, soaking wet. She raced up to hug him.

“You’re getting soaked!” he laughed.

“I’m so glad you’re back,” Ma said.

“The flight was fine, but there was some trouble with the train,” said Pa.

“Things have been awful here. The fuzzy-wuzzles have been on the prowl, and Jack has been so restless.”

“I saw them as I was walking back. Took me for a turn, seeing them all howling in the rain.”

“What do you think they’re up to?”

“They’ve been riled up ever since that business with the trap. All we can do is hope they calm down,” Pa replied, listening to the voices clamoring outside.

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The fuzzy-wuzzles continued to show up every night. They would gather in the empty lots and howl, or climb onto the roof in great numbers and make eerie scratching noises. Everyone started to call these Fuzzy-wuzzle Jamborees.

The neighbourhood association held a meeting to decide what to do. Pa joined them as well.

Mr. Edogawa, the association chairman, apparently even went to city hall to ask what to do. Everyone had to work together to chase away the fuzzy-wuzzles when they came out of their forest. Mr. Edogawa said that they had to light bonfires on the fuzzy-wuzzle trail and catch a few to make an example out of, or else the fuzzy-wuzzles would keep coming to make trouble in town.

Pa looked troubled when he came back from the meeting. “I hope we won’t have to resort to that,” he said.

“Is it bad for fuzzy-wuzzles to come to town?” asked Mugiko.

“They have to stay in their forest. People live here, they can’t just come as they please,” Pa explained.

“But aren’t people going to build more houses in the forest?”

When Mugiko had gone shopping with Ma the other day, she had seen clearings of reddish dirt where part of the forest had been felled.

“That’s just the way of it. Otherwise folks wouldn’t be able to move here.”

“But if the forest goes away, where do the fuzzy-wuzzles go?”

Pa didn’t answer.

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A few days later, a fire broke out nearby.

It’d been started by Yūta. He’d cornered a baby fuzzy-wuzzle in the empty lots, but then a lot of big fuzzy-wuzzles had surrounded him. Knowing that fuzzy-wuzzles were afraid of fire, he lit a piece of paper that he was carrying, but ended up setting the dry grass ablaze.

In a panic Yūta ran to Mugiko’s house, shouting, “Fire!”

Ma called the fire brigade. “Stay in the house!” she instructed Mugiko. Mugiko could hear Mr. Edogawa and the neighbors shouting urgently outside.

Thankfully, Yūta had raised the alarm quickly enough that the fire was extinguished before the fire truck even arrived. But he did, of course, get another severe scolding.

After that the fuzzy-wuzzles stopped showing up at night, perhaps startled by the fire. But Mugiko could still feel them lurking out there, somewhere. She went to look at the fuzzy-wuzzle trail with her brother, but now it felt different. It was as though there were things hiding all around, watching them. When she sat down on the grass, she could sense something slinking towards her through the grass behind her, but when she turned around there was nothing there. So the days passed.

Pa took Mugiko and her brother and Jack to cheer Yūta up. “Yūta’s learned his lesson,” he said.

When they arrived at the Andō residence on the hill beneath the water tower, Pa got to talking with Mr. Andō. Daichi and Kyōko played with her brother, while Yūta stood alone in the yard with his hands in his pockets, deep in thought.

Mugiko went up to him. He scowled at her.

“I won’t try to catch any more fuzzy-wuzzles,” he said. “Wish I could have gotten my hands on a baby, though.”

“But you shouldn’t be mean to the fuzzy-wuzzles.”

“It’s not like anyone cares.”

“What do you mean?”

“Mr. Edogawa scares them with sparklers, and people from city hall come to catch them.”

“But that’s not being mean to them.”

“Shows how much you know. When they catch the fuzzy-wuzzles, they kill them.”

“That’s not true!” Mugiko said in shock.

But this time Yūta didn’t get mad at her. He just stood there looking down at the floor.

“Everyone’s mean to the fuzzy-wuzzles,” he declared.

“Pa’s a good man. He isn’t mean to them.”

“Yes, he is.”

“No he isn’t!”

“All this land belongs to the fuzzy-wuzzles. But your pa and my pa drove them away. That’s why the fuzzy-wuzzles are mad. All of the people here are mean to them.” Yūta said all of this in one breath, a frightening glint in his eye as he glared at Mugiko. “Everyone’s mean to them. So why can’t I catch them, too?”

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That night everyone was in pajamas and getting ready for bed when a rustling broke out in the front yard.

Ma looked out a window and let out a little scream. “Good gracious, it’s a whole pack of them!” she gasped.

Pa took a glance outside and said, “I’ll go take care of it.”

“It’s too dangerous!” Ma insisted.

Pa looked at everyone and grinned. “It’ll be alright. You all stay right here.”

He opened the curtain wide, letting the light spill out from the living room into the yard. The fuzzy-wuzzles retreated as if they were afraid of the light. Pa opened the front door, put on his sandals, and calmly walked into the yard.

“Shut the curtains,” he instructed, so Mugiko had to peep out from the gap between the curtains. Multitudes of green eyes glittered in the empty lots.

Pa stood alone in the empty yard, smoking his pipe.

Before long a large fuzzy-wuzzle crept out from the neighboring lot and entered the yard. Its beautiful silver fur shimmered in the light which leaked out between the curtains. The silver fuzzy-wuzzle came right up to Pa’s feet and sat still on the ground. Pa swayed back and forth a little, and the fuzzy-wuzzle did the same, as did all of the emerald eyes sparkling in the darkness.

Pa crouched down by the fuzzy-wuzzle and grinned at it. The fuzzy-wuzzle’s ears twitched. When Pa offered it his pipe, the fuzzy-wuzzle opened wide and put its mouth on the mouthpiece. It inhaled deeply, then smoothly exhaled a puff of smoke. It was almost as if it was playing with Pa.

After a little while the silver fuzzy-wuzzle returned to the darkness of the empty lots, and as it did the emerald eyes all winked out, leaving Pa standing there alone.

Pa came back inside. “I wonder what they came here for,” he said. As he went up the stairs he hummed a little tune.

“Good gracious,” Ma said. “I just don’t understand it.”

Pa’s voice came echoing down the staircase.

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August was almost over.

Mugiko and her brother were starting school in September. Her brother would be attending the same school as Daichi, and Mugiko would be going to a brand new kindergarten.

The fuzzy-wuzzles began their strange march on the last Sunday in August.

The sun sank behind the mountains near the prefecture border that day, a sun which was redder than Mugiko had ever seen before. It bathed the town in a dreamy, golden light. And in that light the fuzzy-wuzzles came marching through the streets. They walked without making a sound, in an orderly, single line.The townsfolk looked on in wonder, though the fuzzy-wuzzle marched on as if they were not there.

Pa took the family to see them.

There were big fuzzy-wuzzles, and small fuzzy-wuzzles. The baby fuzzy-wuzzles clung onto their mothers’ backs. That was the first time Mugiko had seen a baby fuzzy-wuzzle. They were as tiny as cotton balls, and they had tiny ears and tiny tails. One of them stared at Mugiko with its big black eyes.

Mugiko couldn’t help herself.

“Please, Pa,” she said, “Get me that baby fuzzy-wuzzle.”

“Hush, Mugiko. The fuzzy-wuzzles are going far away.”

“That’s why I want it!”

“Why, Mugiko, what do you want a fuzzy-wuzzle for? We already have Jack at home,” Ma exclaimed.

“I want a fuzzy-wuzzle too! I’ll take care of it, I won’t ever let it come to harm!”

Mugiko knew that she would never see the fuzzy-wuzzles again. That was why she couldn’t help but be unreasonable now. Tears began to brim in her eyes.

A very large, stately fuzzy-wuzzle walked by. It was the silver fuzzy-wuzzle which had played with Pa in the yard. Pa said nothing as it passed before him.The line of fuzzy-wuzzles wound its way through the streets, onwards on the fuzzy-wuzzle trail towards the hill with the water tower. There were so many of them it was impossible to count.

“This was their road,” Pa murmured. “That’s why they wanted to pass by it one last time, before they go deep into their forest.”

The line of fuzzy-wuzzles wound on for a long time, and everyone stood still and watched them go. By the time the line had pulled itself over the edge of the world the sun had sunk behind the mountains, and the sky was a velvet blue.

No one said a word.

The world felt very empty now. The music which Mugiko had always heard had gone quiet, and she would never hear it again.

“Come, let’s go home,” Pa said in a lonesome voice, beginning to walk across the empty lots.

From then on there was never another word of trouble with the fuzzy-wuzzles, and Mugiko never saw them ever again.