10. Too Tired

"Whoops." Carlos gently rested the basket on the floor to pick up the stick that fell and lightly placed it back along with the other twisty sticks in the basket. As he let go, he watched the stringy arms that branch off the sticks cling to each other and entwine--the other sticks pulling their brother who had once been lost into their embrace again.

Tomorrow the villagers from Pelose Terra will come to make apple pies in Jardinville. In preparation, Carlos had to stack the sticks in the ovens.


Sticks, sticks, sticks. Big sticks and little sticks. Fat sticks and skinny sticks. Each oven needs a good mix. Yes, a good mix of all kinds of sticks to make a good fire. A good fire to bake the apple pies. A burning cleansing fire to cook the fresh apples into softness. A hot refining fire to make palatable pies of pleasing aroma.

As he put the basket on the dusty ground with all the other sticks, he twittled his fingers and looked around, as if a mouse looking for a piece of cheese it smells. Or like how squirrels rustle to and fro looking for a nut that had been meticulously buried. The nut is somewhere there. The squirrel knows. Every time Carlos was looking for something, he would twittle his fingers. And thus, he twittled them.

"Where are the dried cranberries?" He knew he was in for a long night. Dried cranberries were his source of energy to keep him working on these long nights as water in cacti keep them from dying during months of dreary desert drought. But he was tired. He had been collecting sticks all day. A small brown sack of dried cranberries. He could see it in his mind, but no where was this sack to be found.

He weakly lifted a few rags to check if the dried cranberries were there but let them fall back down with dusty dense clouds of disappointment--like a little girl trying to carry a bucket of water, getting a few centimeters of air, and then dropping the bucket in forlorn helplessness.

He wanted the dried cranberries. He needed the dried cranberries. As soon as his molars crush the dried cranberries and his saliva soaks in the flavor and sends the tangy sensation to his tongue, he would be up and working. Re-energized. Ready to face all challenges! Sticks, sticks, sticks. Short sticks and long sticks. Happy sticks and sad sticks. Sticks here. Sticks there. Sticks everywhere!

But he was too tired to look for them dried cranberries.