Over The Transom

— Over the Transom —

Toto—Are We in Portland Yet?

By Sandy Raschke

For most of the spring and into the middle of June, it rained—and rained—and rained. I was beginning to think we were living in Portland, and not on the dry side of the Cascades. Our trees have shot up almost overnight and now block my view of the stars. Our front acre resembles a real grassland—not the sparseness of the sage-dotted hillside of last year.   And in that grassland about the middle of June, unbeknownst to us, a doe left her newborn twin fawns while she chowed down on our plants in the back yard. That’s where my husband saw her and went out to shoo her away. A few hours later we decided to go shopping and as we headed out to the car, we saw two little faces peek out from a clump of bunch grass a few yards away from our mini-lawn. Oh oh…
        At first, I thought they were foxes, but as they got up, spun around, then plopped down again, we realized they were fawns—and we had scared away their mom. So, we waited for her to return. And if she didn’t, we decided we would look for an animal rescue group to pick them up in the morning.

A few hours later, the doe returned, made a complete circle around the house and into the neighbor’s yard, then settled into a swale at the bottom of his property. Occasionally her head would pop up and once or twice she ventured across our neighbor’s driveway to check to see if her fawns were still there. Then the wind picked up and it began to rain (again) and the fawns were revealed as the grass swayed back and forth. They hunkered down even more, and as a car drove by, the doe ran back to the swale, to wait for dusk we figured.

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Finally, around 8:30 pm, the doe carefully treaded across the neighbor’s driveway and onto our property. It was like watching a movie in slow-motion, as she stopped, looked around then

took another careful step toward her twins. When she got within a few yards of them, they popped up and ran to her, and had their long-awaited lunch and dinner.
        Not wishing to be party-poopers, we waited until they were done, then encouraged them to leave. The last thing we wanted was to have a tiny pair of twin fawns become breakfast for a predator.
        The other day, my husband went out and cut down some of the bunch grass, so that it can’t be used for camouflaging tiny fawns, or the neighborhood cats that like to stalk the birds at our feeder. And yet, the deer still tromp through our property and munch the shrubbery, and the cat without a tail has found another place to hide within view of the feeders and the birds.
        No matter how hard you try, you can’t outsmart Mother Nature.

Cynthia and I have been mulling over an idea that would help our member/subscribers sell their self-published work: Free advertising space—A Calliope Marketplace where members can list their books, fiction, poetry, artwork, etc., with perhaps a little description, the price, and contact information.
        If any of you would be interested in this feature, please let us know.

The guidelines for the next fiction contest will be in the Fall 2010 issue. It will be a themed contest and the entry fees will apply to everyone—members and non-members—for the first entry. Additional entries (the number to be determined) will be free to members. The reason for this is to increase the cash prizes for the winners, while still offering a benefit to our membership.
        Your comments are welcome.