The Seed on Peeba's Whisker

MORNINGSIDE MEADOW

Season Two · Episode 1

The Seed on Peeba’s Whisker

The sun had warmed the clover beside the burrow ring. A bee moved among the little white flowers, humming to itself.

Peeba was eating clover when Rill stopped in front of him. “Don’t move.” Peeba stopped chewing. “Am I sitting on something?” “No.” “Is something sitting on me?”

Rill leaned closer. A white dandelion seed had caught on one of Peeba’s whiskers. Its soft hairs trembled each time he breathed. “What is it?” Peeba asked. “A little white thing.” “That is not one of my colors.”

Thimble came through the grass and looked. “It has feathers,” she said. Peeba tried to see it. He turned his head one way, but the seed went with him. He turned the other way. It stayed where he could not see.

Rill moved around Peeba to keep watching. Peeba turned again. Soon they were both going in a slow circle through the clover. “Is it still there?” Peeba asked. “Yes.” They went around once more. “I am a little dizzy,” Peeba said. “So am I,” said Rill. Thimble had not moved at all.

A breeze crossed the burrow ring, so softly that only the seed seemed to notice. It loosened from Peeba’s whisker, rose past his ear, turned once in the light, and drifted over the clover. Rill ran after it. Thimble followed beneath it.

Peeba stayed where he was. He rubbed his whisker with one paw, then looked at his paw. “Nothing,” he said. The seed floated low over the path and settled on a dandelion among the other white seeds. It rested there until Rill could no longer tell which one it was.

Peeba waddled over. “Which one was mine?” Thimble leaned closer. For a moment, she thought she knew. Then another breeze passed through, and all the seeds trembled together. “I don’t know,” she said.

Peeba looked at them for a while. Then he went back to his clover. A little breeze moved through the grass. One white seed lifted from the dandelion and drifted away. Then another.