Lauren--Part Twenty-Eight

Splog # 88

Twenty-Eight

   Lauren stared into the camel's eyes wondering if there was any way the beast could protect her from the snake, if it proved to be dangerous. At the same time, she held her breath, in an effort to hear how close the snake had come by the sound of its passage through the grass. She could hear nothing and hoped that, perhaps, the snake had gone off in a different direction. She stood looking into the camel's eyes and then gave a little jump when it suddenly let out a snort that blew warm oddly-smelling air into her face and made her hair chase around on top of her head. Then it raised its head on its neck and, with its jaws moving as though it was chewing, it began sniffing at something. But it wasn't Lauren the camel was sniffing. It seemed to be something behind her. Lauren turned quickly, expecting to see the snake, but a smile of relief lit her face at an unexpected sight.

   There was a table on this side of the large globe and she had not noticed it while she was circling the camel, so intent was she on escaping from the snake. She walked to the table, the top of which was halfway up her chest, and found that it was laid out for a meal. But before taking notice of what the eatables might be, she turned back to the camel, only to find that it was right behind her. There were benches on either side of the table, so she pulled one close to the camel's side, to try to get up on its back from that height. She found that she could reach the area around the camel's shoulders, which was a lot lower than the high hump on its back. But even though she could reach it, she wasn't quite sure how to get up on it. The camel stood patiently while she leaned against it and tried to pull herself up without pulling on the camel's hair, which she thought might hurt it. She tried stretching one leg up while holding on around the neck, but couldn't reach high enough to get her leg over. When she finally let go and heaved a dejected sigh, the camel echoed it with a snort and then got down on all four knees.

With the camel kneeling, Lauren was easily able to get from the bench astride its back. She sat between its neck and its hump and said, experimentally, "You can get up now." But when the camel started lurching from side to side in its effort to regain its feet, Lauren was nearly thrown right back off again. As she started to sway off to the side, she pushed herself forward and clasped both arms around the camel's neck. They didn't encircle it completely, but she was able to steady herself against the jerking movements that the camel was making. Once it had risen, and had stood still for a few moments, Lauren felt steady enough to sit back upright and now finally, high off the ground, she began to feel safe.

   She wanted to thank the camel for the help it had given her. It had seemed to know what she was trying to do when it lowered itself.

   "Well! That's a relief," she said. She knew the camel probably wouldn't understand what she said so she spoke gently and patted its neck and sides as she went on.

   "I don't know if that snake is coming this way or not but I sure feel a lot better up here where it can't reach me. I hope it won't hurt you. I guess you know what to do about it. I wish I knew what happened to Austin. I want to thank you for letting me get up here on your back - or neck. I'm not really sure. But it was nice of you to get down so I could reach. I guess you've had riders before. I wonder if there were any like me or if they were all grown-ups. The food on the table looks good. But I think I'll wait a little before getting down. And I wonder what's in the jug. Could be water or milk or lemonade...Mmm. Lemonade sounds good. But there doesn't seem to be anybody around. I wonder who set all this out. I wonder if it's for us or somebody else."

   All at once the camel started walking and Lauren fell forward again to clasp its neck. It walked past the table and back around to the other side of the globe. It was ambling slowly and Lauren shakily tried to sit up and see if she could    maintain her balance. She found that if she planted one hand on either side of her and let her body move with the swaying rhythm of the camel's walk, it wasn't really that difficult to keep her upright position.

   Just as she was feeling confident in her high seat, the camel stopped with its eyes on the ridge they had descended only shortly before.