Chapter 15: The Two Scarecrows

The scarecrow in the passage-way then made its way slowly up to the table where Jared and old Mrs Clusky were seated. The scarecrow then sat down on one of the spare chairs then looked slowly at Jared and Mrs Clusky trying to work out what on earth was going on.

Presently, that still very sleepy looking scarecrow spoke up in a soft feminine voice and asked, “Who are you guys and where am I?”

Moments later another scarecrow appeared at the end of the passage way and said, “Oh, there you are Vanessa. Where are we and who are these guys?”

The scarecrow called Vanessa looked up at the other scarecrow as it came and sat down with the others and said, “Oh, hi mom. I don’t know where we are or who these guys are but I am just so hungry!”

Mrs Clusky didn’t need any other prompting but was up at her pot of broth in a flash ladelling it into two bowls for the newcomers to the table. She placed the food in front of the two women and said, “Now you git that stuff inside of yuh then we can talk later. You two younguns could have died out there today if it weren’t for this here gentlemen and myself comin’ to the rescue. We sent that brainless bum of a husband packing but he might come back. But we can sort that out later. We gotta get the life back into you two and it looks to me like you still need a mite more sleep. So eat up them vitals and then we’ll see what happens.”

Jared and his neighbor watched the hot broth get wolfed down by their hungry guests. And to Jared they really did look like a couple of scarecrows - all dressed up in the oddest assortment of clothes imaginable. The young girl had on one of Jared’s large flannel shirts with sleeves that kept falling down over her hands. On her lower half Jared had put on an old pair of very warm track pants that were also way too big for the girl’s body. The material was all concertinaed up the length of each leg and the crotch was hanging down near her knees making her butt look way over-sized. The girl’s black hair was also still all matted up even though by now it was completely dry. Big tufts of it stuck out in all directions adding to the whole scarecrow affect of her appearance.

As for the mother - well she didn’t look any better. Her dark hair was shooting out all over the place too and Jared’s baggy shirt and pants she had on also made her look deceptively over-sized in the butt department - just like her daughter.

Neither Jared nor Mrs Clusky dared show the girl or her mother a mirror. The shock of what they would have seen might have killed them both quicker than Mrs Clusky’s elephant gun could have. So the girl called Vanessa and her mother were just left to eat their soup in piece. They were both still extremely tired and exhausted and were even falling asleep into their bowls of soup as they ate.

After they had eaten Jared took them both very quietly back to the bedroom and tucked them back into bed again. By now the day was coming to a close so Mrs Clusky packed up her large pot and headed back to her own place leaving Jared to work out how he was going to clean the whole place up. But try as he might he just couldn’t get himself motivated to do anything about it or not just right now at least.