Aaron to the Rescue!

It was a beautiful day in the backyard, but Aaron was playing alone. Ella was practicing piano. Ashton was finishing up his kindergarten homework, Livia and Preston were napping. Even his good friend, Spencer, wasn’t home that day. Aaron sat in the backyard looking at the grapevine. Hmmm….something was missing but he couldn’t quite place his finger on what it was. As he reached for a particularly juicy looking grape he realized what it was. Jake and Julie elf weren’t there grabbing it first. They were nowhere to be seen. They weren’t always there when Aaron was bored on a beautiful day but today was so much like an elf day...

The more he thought about it, the more worried Aaron got. Something must be wrong. Jake and Julie were always there to bring any of the children through the grapevine to their forest but Aaron somehow knew that today, and maybe only today, he could go through on his own if he wanted to…needed to. He ran into the house to ask his mom for permission. “Mom, I think I need to go see if everything is alright with Jake and Julie. Is it OK if I go look for them?”

None of the kids had ever mentioned that Jake and Julie were elves to their mother. She gave him a long look and said, “That will be fine dear. Just don’t cross any roads and be back in time for supper.”

“Thanks Mom,” Aaron said over his shoulder as he ran back to the vine. There was only the alley behind the grapevine to anyone looking, but Aaron wasn’t looking, he was going through the middle of the vine. There was no alley when he went through, only the deep shaded forest of Jake and Julie’s homeland. Aaron looked around and thought a minute. He needed a plan. If Jake and Julie were in trouble there had to be Bogworts involved. Aaron knew the trail to the elf village was over to the left. That meant the Bogworts were somewhere over to the right. Aaron went running, quietly, down the path to the right where he knew trouble would be waiting.

It didn’t take long to find the trouble. Aaron wasn’t as quiet as an elf, but it didn’t take a lot of quiet to sneak up on Bogworts. As he crept around the edges of the Bogwort village there were Jake and Julie, tied to a pole in the middle of town with great big Bogworts all around. One of the biggest Bogworts was speaking, “Ha, the famous Jake and Julie elf…our prisoners. We knew you couldn’t resist that big pile of fresh raspberries we put in the middle of our trap. Now you’re our prisoners and we will never let you go.”

That didn’t sound too good to Aaron. When friends are in trouble you didn’t wait, you helped. Aaron knew he needed a rescue plan, and it was always Julie who came up with the plans. “Think,” thought Aaron, “I need a plan before dinner. Hmmm, Jake and Julie couldn’t resist raspberries. I need something Bogworts can’t resist.” With a few more thinks that became thoughts, Aaron had his plan. It was obvious, and like the best plans it couldn’t fail…if Aaron was brave enough to make it work.

While all the Bogworts were busy with Jake and Julie, Aaron looked around town until he found what he was looking for. A trail of soggy empty pizza boxes led to the pizza shop. Boldly, Aaron walked into the front door. The little ding from the door didn’t worry him a bit. He knew Bogwort service would be terrible. Looking carefully around, Aaron found just what he thought he would. The only Bogwort working at the shop was out the back sneaking a cigarette. That should take plenty of time.

Aaron moved like lightning around the shop. He spread out some pizza dough he found and looked for the sauce. What was in the dish labeled, “Sause” looked like something out of a bad movie; more like something Aaron’s grandpa would use for tomato soup, than tasty pizza sauce. Aaron looked on a dusty shelf and saw a big can of tomatoes. He found an old onion that he peeled back the layers until he found some good parts, and then, on that same dusty shelf he found some garlic powder. He didn’t want to risk anything that looked like it might be meat such as pepperoni or sausage. He quickly put the sauce on the dough and found some, not too old looking, mozzarella cheese and a reasonably clean grater. In no time the pizzas were in the oven and Aaron worked on part two of the plan. He found a big fan and set it up by the front door. He found the microphone that they used to tell customers their pizza was ready. Then it was just waiting for the pizza. Of course there was still the Bogwort out back seeing how many cigarettes could be turned into butts in a single break, but Aaron wasn’t too worried. Ten minutes was plenty of time to cook pizza, and Aaron was pretty sure it would take the Bogwort longer than that to finish his last one and find out the door was locked. After that it would still take the average Bogwort at least another ten minutes to figure out he could go around to the front door instead of just pulling on the locked door.

When the pizzas came out of the oven, Aaron opened the front door and turned on the fan to blow the pizza smell all over town. Then he turned on the microphone and turned up the volume as high as it would go. “Free pizza to the first hundred customers, today only,” he announced and he ran out the door. You would think that your typical Bogwort would be a little curious about a boy running away from the pizza shop when everyone else was running towards it, but hey, this was free pizza. (In fact it even ended up great for the pizza shop. When they found out that Bogworts really liked pizza that didn’t taste like someone spilled tomato soup on a piece of cardboard, business became super good.)

The town square was empty of everyone but Jake and Julie when Aaron ran up to them. “Great to see you Aaron,” said Jake, “we knew you would come to help us.”

“How could you know that?” asked Aaron with a tilt to his head. “I had a feeling you were in trouble, but I didn’t know anything.”

“Feelings can be a way of knowing,” said Julie, “You didn’t have to see us in trouble to know we were in trouble. We’re glad you came. Now how are you going to cut these ropes?”

“I know,” said Jake. “You could go to the glass cliff, get a big chunk and chip it into a sharp edge and come back and cut the rope.”

“That would take too long,” said Julie, “How about if you sneak into all the houses in town, take out their mirrors, focus the sun’s rays on the back of the pole and burn the rope in two.”

Aaron thought about those options. “How about if I just untie the knots and we get out of here?”

Jake and Julie looked at each other, “Simple, but effective,” said Julie. “Sometimes the best plans are the easiest.”

With no more delay, Aaron untied the knots (he was really good at knots) and the three of them headed out of town. “Just a minute,” Jake said as he ran back.
“What…” said Aaron, but Jake was back in no time with a big box of really good looking raspberries. “We can’t leave this behind after all the trouble we went through to get it!” He said.

“I have to get back before dinner,” Aaron said as they ran along the path. “I don’t know how I’ll make it.”

“Leave that to us,” said Julie, “A little elf magic could come in handy here. We don’t want your mom mad at us.”

Aaron was sure they were at least another twenty minutes to the grapevine, but there it was around the next bend. As Aaron went through, Jake pushed the box of raspberries over to him. “We know where there’s more,” he laughed. Aaron just smiled and brought the box into the house.

“Is everything OK with Jake and Julie?” asked his Mom as Aaron handed her the box of raspberries.

“Oh yeah, everything is great. They sent these raspberries to thank you for letting me go over to see them,” said Aaron.

“I can make some more raspberry freezer jam, that’s perfect!” answered his Mom. “And look, it’s just time to eat now.”

Aaron smiled.

The End

© Roy E. Moxley 2011, all rights reserved