Late in the night, Snooze Puk woke up from his slumber. After making sure that every member of the household was asleep, he quickly scurried through the silent house.
At first, he made sure to take a look at the front door.
There, standing right where he had positioned it the previous night, stood his grit pot, filled to the seam.
"That's how I like it," he shouted in joy. "As full as possible, and with a patch of butter on top."
He picked up the pot and spooned up a tiny bit of barley grits.
"Aaaaaah..." he sighed. "It's melting away on the tongue..."
He ate a few spoons full, but kept the rest for later, as he still wanted to visit a friend. And if his assumption was correct, there would soon be an Extraordinary Puk Meeting one or two nights later. And every Puk Meeting, may it be ordinary or extraordinary, always starts with the usual grits meal.
Snooze Puk wasted no time and quickly jumped on top of the roof. There, he gave off a sharp whistle. Afterwards, he waited.
Some time later, a gray pigeon with elegant wings was landing next to him.
"I hope I'm not too late," the bird apologized. "We just got informed yesterday that a Puk clan has settled in the neighborhood. I hope we'll do you justice." All Puks were respected among the animals that have heard of them.
"Don't worry about that," Snooze Puk calmed her. "You'll do fine! Here, have a snack before we go." And he offered her his grit pot.
Puks and pigeons never mind eating out of the same pot. After she had tasted the barley grits, the pigeon commented: "My, now that's delicious!"
Snooze Puk hopped on the back of the pigeon. "Where do you want to go tonight?" the bird asked him.
"To the library," Snooze Puk said. "I have to meet someone there."
"Right away," the pigeon nodded, and she took off.
A short ride later, they arrived at the big building. The pigeon landed on the roof.
"Could you please stay nearby?" Snooze Puk asked as he dismounted. "I might need another ride later on."
"No problem!" the pigeon exclaimed. "I'll just visit a good friend of mine who's living nearby and who I haven't seen in months."
The pigeon flew away, and Snooze Puk searched for the best entrance. After a while, he found a hole underneath a loose roof tile. He climbed in and let himself fall down into the darkness.
He landed gently on top of a big pile of books. "Grit Greetings!" he shouted.
"Grit Greetings!" a grumpy voice came out of the darkness.
Snooze Puk jumped off the books and walked over the dusty floor, until he found the Library Puk sitting next to another big book pile, reading some old parchment with his magnifying glass.
"What's up?" Snooze Puk asked his old friend.
"Three customers didn't return their books in time today," the Library Puk replied in his gruff voice.
He knew everything about the library he was living in. He was the most intelligent of all Puks, but also the most silent one. He rarely spoke more than ten words in a row.
He had always lived in libraries' attics, between old, dusty books that no one ever wanted to read anymore. Whenever he had spare time, he walked around the library by night, read through all kinds of books and enriched his already impressive amount of knowledge.
And whenever he would be angry some time, he would hide away books or scribble down on the pages.
"I found a new home," Snooze Puk exclaimed happily.
"Good for you," the Library Puk replied.
"Two families live there, with four teenaged children."
"Uh-huh..."
"And I even got a swinging bed now."
"How nice."
For a while, they both stayed silent. Then, Snooze Puk asked something that had been on his mind for some time:
"Have you ever heard of a storage room that is attached to a normal house, but is never used for storage?"
"Maybe, maybe not," the Library Puk shrugged.
"I also can't read the strange text written on the board standing in front of their house." He pulled out a small piece of paper. "Here, I've written it down as best as I could... can you translate it for me?"
"Child's play," the Library Puk said and took the piece of paper from his friend.
He squinted his eyes. "Terrible handwriting, as always..." he scolded. Snooze Puk blushed.
A few seconds later, the Library Puk nodded. "There, I've translated it. 'Tendo Dojo of Anything Goes Martial Arts. Challengers, please head for the dojo!'"
"A dojo?" Snooze Puk asked in bewilderment. "A real-life dojo where they train karate and kung fu and taekwondo?"
"Don't put all types of martial arts together like this," the Library Puk said. "There's a big difference between them."
"Yeah, okay, but... What kind of martial arts do they train?"
The Library Puk squinted his eyes. "Can't say... hmmm... 'Anything Goes'... never heard of that one before."
He then looked at his friend, who was still fidgeting around nervously. Obviously, there was something else he wanted to say.
The Library Puk knew his friend. He just folded his arms, looked at him sternly and said: "Well?"
And Snooze Puk told him about the bad news regarding the financial status of the Tendo and Saotome families.
"If we don't do anything, they might have to sell the house," Snooze Puk finished. "We have to do something! Let's go to the Chief Puk and ask him to call an Extraordinary Puk Meeting."
"Good idea," the Library Puk nodded.
"But where should we hold the meeting?" Snooze Puk pondered aloud.
"Reading Room B, first floor," the Library Puk suggested.
Snooze Puk nodded. "Okay, I'll go and tell the Chief Puk. You prepare everything for the meeting. I suppose it will take place tomorrow night."
In his hurry, Snooze Puk totally forgot to bid farewell with 'Grit Greetings'. But the Library Puk didn't mind. This way, he was able to spare two words.
(Posted Tue, 23 Jan 2007 11:03)
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