The Willows in Lock Down
MARCH
SPRING! Spring is here!
I dart out of my burrow and into the open air. It smells delicious out here. New life! New stuff! New hopes! Fresh air!
Hurray! Hurray for another new year by the riverbank!
I rush straight over to Ratty’s house, hoping for a good lunch and a catch-up of all I’ve missed during hibernation.
Ratty’s sitting on his porch with a pot of tea and the newspaper.
‘Ah, Moley, old chum.’
‘Ratty! It’s spring! I’m back awake – and the whole countryside is coming back to life!’
He looks at me sadly for a moment and says, ‘I’ve got some news for you, Moley. It’s all going to be quite different this year.’
‘Oh?’
‘Yes, I… err… I’d best explain…’
*
APRIL
Every day Ratty and I take our hour of exercise by walking alongside the riverbank a little way and then back again. All the blossom is out now, pink and white. I never get bored because the trees change every day. Ratty is more restless than I.
‘It’s becoming what you might call rather samey,’ he observes. ‘What say we take the boat out tomorrow to a spot downriver and find a new place to have our walk?’
‘Are we allowed?’ I ask fretfully.
‘I’m sure we are. And what’s more I’m going to go bonkers if I don’t get to see some new scenery soon.’
I think Moles are better equipped for Lock Downs than Rats.
‘That’s because you’re almost blind and you like digging holes,’ he says. ‘You’re more easily pleased than I am. I’m craving all kinds of things.’
I must have looked hurt then because he added, ‘Oh, but you’ve been lovely company during this pandemic so far, old chum. I couldn’t have asked for better. Honestly!’
*
MAY
‘I’ve been furloughed!’ Toad complains loudly. He’s standing at the end of the jetty, several feet away from us. For once he’s observing proper Social Distancing Rules, rather than jumping up and down, flapping all around and slobbering on us.
‘You’ve been what?’ I ask.
‘I’ve been sent home from work and I still get paid,’ he says, looking amazed and smug.
‘Where do you even work?’ Ratty snaps. ‘You don’t have a job! You only ever stay at home anyway. You’re rich, you idiot.’
‘Oh yes,’ said Toad. ‘It’s just everyone was saying it.’
‘Yes, well. It doesn’t apply to you.’
‘But what about this working from home business?’ he asks. ‘Will I have to do that?’
Ratty is losing patience with him. ‘YOU CAN’T DO ANYTHING ANYWAY! YOU’RE TOAD, TOAD! Now shut up and go home and STAY HOME!’
‘Maybe someone in the government could give me a job I could do?’ Toad muses.
*
JUNE
Badger is shielding, deep in his burrow, deep in the Wild Wood.
We take a chance and carry a basket of supplies to his door. We knock for ages and eventually he glares beadily through the letterbox.
‘Very kind of you, I’m sure,’ he growls. ‘Coming all this way.’
‘There’s some plum cake, and some eggs, and some dried pasta. And forty-eight toilet rolls.’
‘Just pop the basket in front of the door and leave it there,’ he says. ‘I’ll fetch it in when you’ve gone.’
‘How are you coping on your own, old fellow?’ Ratty asks him. ‘Are you bearing up?’
Badger seems to consider the matter. ‘Well, my life’s hardly any different. It’s just got fewer foolish animals in it. And at least I never have to see that awful Toad.’
JULY
Toad has asked to join our Household Bubble.
‘Look, you chaps. I’ve read up on this, all the government guidance and whatnot. Says that I – lonely and unloved Toad that I am; solitary and hopelessly bereft as I feel – am allowed to team up with one other household. For the sake of good company and my good mental health, don’tcha know. So what do you say, boys? Is that all right with you, if I bubble up with you both?’
‘Absolutely not,’ says Ratty, and turns on his heel.
*
AUGUST
Sometimes at night you can hear parties going on in the Wild Wood.
‘Weasels!’ Ratty groans. ‘Typical! They never do the right thing.’
‘They sound as if they’re having a lovely time,’ I venture.
‘All that hullaboo,’ he frowns. ‘Coughing and spitting on each other, I shouldn’t wonder.’
*
SEPTEMBER
Toad’s insisting that we all go out to dinner.
‘We have to Eat Out To Help Out,’ he says. ‘We can’t arrange in advance to meet up at the restaurant, but if we happen to meet By Chance, that’s fine. We can sit down together and pretend we’re in a Bubble and then we get to eat as much as we like for free.’
‘I’m not sure you’ve got that quite right, Toad,’ sighs Ratty.
‘It’s true! I’m right! And if we do this we’ll be Helping Out The Economy, or something. So – will you both come? I quite fancy Chinese. Or an Indian, perhaps.’
‘Ooh! A restaurant!’ I gasp, counting back on my claws and realising that it was probably last December I last went anywhere like that.
‘Oh, very well,’ says Ratty tetchily. ‘But I think it’s all probably a terrible idea.’
*
OCTOBER
Toad is going round saying the whole thing is a hoax. He refuses to wear a mask. ‘Look at you lot! You all look ridiculous. I’m not hiding my lovely face for the sake of something that probably isn’t even real.’
*
NOVEMBER
Toad is in hospital.
He tried escaping in a hazmat suit but they dragged him back.
‘I sort of miss him,’ Ratty admits.
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