A couple of weeks later, the weather suddenly turned warm.
One morning, the commune woke up and it seemed like everything had turned to mist. Beyond the houses was a grey cotton curtain. Shapes and forms could be dimly seen through the warm winter murk.
“Man, it’s spooky out there,” said Strange Brew. “I was checking on the animals and I started worrying about whether I would become lost in those wild wisps and clouds.”
“I know what you mean,” Blue Sky said. “Even walking to the farm stands is an eerie adventure. I’m scared something is going to come out of the haze and grab me.”
“I think that you’re both letting your imaginations run away with you,” said Grace. “It’s just a little fog. You’d think you’d never seen fog before.”
“I don’t know,” said Strange Brew said. “That’s more than a little fog. It’s more like a soft seductive pale brume. It’s uncanny.”
“Hey, what’s with the weird miasma that’s taken over the farm?” asked Paul G as he entered the room. “It’s gotten creepy outside.”
“I want know, what’s with you all?” asked Grace. “Am I the only one not being bewildered by the fog? It’s really not that scary.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re fine with it,” Blue Sky said. “But it’s way too unsettling for me. I like to be able to see my way around without worrying about things emerging from the fumes.”
“Yeah,” said Paul G. “It’s like cream of gruesome soup out there.”
“Fine,” Grace said. “You can all frighten yourselves to death over a little fog. See if I care.”
She was starting out of the room when Patsy came in.
“OMZ,” Patsy said. “It’s like the place has been taken over by translucent spectral vapors. Has anyone else noticed?”
*
Two days later, the fog was but a memory. The weather had gotten colder and everything had gotten clearer.
Nevertheless, the foggy day came up in the commune meeting.
It wasn’t an item on the agenda. Instead, Blue Sky happened to mention it when the commune was discussing repairing the toilet.
“Speaking about messy,” Blue Sky said. “I hope we don’t see another day like Monday for a while. I was totally unnerved by that gruesome gloom.”
“I can’t figure out what happened to everybody,” Grace said. “There was a little mist around and the entire commune was freaked out.”
“It wasn’t ‘a little mist’,” Patsy said. “It was a full fledged mystic mystifying mist.”
“Hold it,” Marge said. She was attempting to be the facilitator for the meeting. “We’re discussing how we can get the bowl fixed. Let’s not get off track again. We’ve got to keep focusing, people, just keep focusing.”
“Yeah,” said Chuck. “And all that muck soiled the hem of my best baby blue pinafore. We need to do something to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.”
Dan started to respond, but Strange Brew broke in with, “You got to understand. There was something in that fog. I don’t know…”
Marge said, “Excuse me but Dan was trying to speak. Come on. At least pretend to keep on topic.”
“Sorry,” Strange Brew said. “But you should know what I saw.”
“Can we get back to the topic of toilets?” Marge asked.
“I do have a solution,” Dan said.
Almost simultaneously, Patsy asked, “What did you see?”
“I don’t know,” Strange Brew said. “There was something in the woods. You know, the woods where we had been camping.”
“Oh, you’re just caught by those clouds again,” Grace said. “I can’t believe that grown ups would be so scared of a little fog.”
“A little fog, nothing,” Blue Sky said. “It was an absolute cream of pea souper.”
“Yeah, and what’s important...” Strange Brew started.
“The toilet? Please?” Marge pleaded.
“Wait a minute,” Blue Sky said. “What was important?’
“I’m sure that there was something out there,” Strange Brew said. “I saw something moving in that mist.”
“Sure,” Grace said. “It wasn’t the mist that was moving, believe me. It was your mind that was moving.”
Dan was looking bewildered, Luna was looking at Marge, and Marge was staring at the floor with her head in her hands.
“Okay,” Strange Brew said. “I just wanted to let you know. There was definitely something out there. I swear.”
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