by Ron Van Sweringen

Something was wrong! Something was very, very wrong!! Not a single snow flake filled the night air on Christmas eve.

All of the animals in the forest, dressed in their warm winter furs, sat looking up at the starless sky. Even the wise old owl in the oak tree, ruffled his feathers in discontent, ignoring the little field mouse sitting on the branch beside him.

“Who, who, what to do?” the owl kept repeating, his big black and yellow eyes blinking.

“It’s not cold enough to snow,” said the little field mouse, wiggling her nose at the owl.

“Who, who, what to do?” the owl repeated again.

“Am I the only one around here with a brain?” the little mouse sighed, running circles around the old owl.

“He’s not listening to a word you say,” a gray squirrel sitting on the branch above said.” Perhaps if I drop a handful of these acorns on his head, he’ll pay some attention.”

“Who, who, what was that?” the owl frowned.

“A wake up call,” shouted the mouse, “tell all of the animals in the forest to open their refrigerator doors and when the temperature gets cold enough, we’ll have snow.”

So the great old owl flew about the forest, telling all of the animals, from the biggest bear to the smallest chipmunk and every one in between.

Soon there was a chill in the air and a ring around the moon. Before long the first snowflakes began falling gently on the forest floor.

“Oh dear,” yawned the mother black bear to her three little cubs, “come along children, it’s time for our nap,” as she pulled on her long woolen cap.

All of the animals agreed it was a beautiful sight, every refrigerator door in the forest, open with it’s blinking light.

And so Christmas arrived on time, with the great owl hooting “Who, who, who” and the little field mouse singing” Merry Christmas to you!”

All of the pieces of rat art in this story were done by Drusilla Kehl of The Illustrated Rat. To see more of her work go to her website and check out KRL’s article about Drusilla.

Ron Van Sweringen, painter and writer, 76 years old resides in Vero Beach Florida with his Carin Terrier,’ Punkin the lizard catcher’. Recent exhibition of Astroismart at the MENNELLO MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART in Orlando, Florida. Astroism is the art of air born painting, created by Ron Van Sweringen. The artist’s paintings have also been exhibited at the CORCORAN MUSEUM OF ART in Washington, D.C. and in the WHITE HOUSE during the Reagan and Bush administrations. Ron began writing 5 years ago and to date has had 54 short stories published and three Novellas.