The Paynim.

 

Did you ever see that Tex Avery

cartoon where the cat accidentally

eats a bag of Mexican jumping beans

and its head goes bouncing all over

the place?

That's how I felt on the Saturday afternoon

I discovered a Paynim in my closet.

I was looking for an old bottle of

Turtle Wax for my bowling ball

in the hall closet when I caught

a stealthy movement out of the

corner of my eye.

I pounced on it immediately,

thinking it might be a pesky

inner tube moth --

but instead it was a Paynim,

trembling like a leaf.

Recoiling in surprise, I 

fell over some croquet mallets

and got entangled in a sinister

green badminton net.

By the time I had extricated myself

the Paynim had zipped out of the closet

and was up on the fireplace mantel

in the living room, next to the Shelf Elf.

Trying to blend in, no doubt.

But I wasn't fooled for a minute.

I glanced out the picture window a moment,

to let my eyes readjust to the light.

Snow was being shaken from the sky

like salt.

Then I turned back to the Paynim.

"I suppose you have a name" I asked.

"My name is Hooghly" said the Paynim.

"Like the river?" I asked.

"No, like my father -- who was

also named Hooghly, as was

his father before him" the little

Paynim said. He put a companionable

arm around the Shelf Elf,

who was looking distinctly uncomfortable.

Just then my therapist came in.

She often drops in through the trap door

I've installed in the roof.

"What do you see next to that Shelf Elf?"

I asked her.

"Well" she replied slowly

"I see a lovely holiday wreath next to your

Shelf Elf, and a framed photograph of 

Winston Churchill, and what looks like

an opened box of peanut brittle."

"Nothing else?" I asked her.

"Not really, no" she told me.

The Paynim made some frantic gestures,

which I ignored; instead I went over to gaze

out the picture window again.  Then I said:

"The snow drifts down like a lift net, doesn't it?"

I heard the Paynim jump off the mantel and run

over to me. He took my hand.

"And we are all little fish that will be hauled

gently up to heaven for sorting and canning" said

the Paynim quietly.

"I believe in myself" said my therapist happily.

And out in the yard the snowman's carrot nose,

which had been gnawed away by squirrels,

was made whole again.