The Journey of Perry, the Peanut Gnome-Pt 2

Breezy danced away on the wind so effortlessly. His massive ears shifted and twisted like rutters in the wind. Perry reached up to his small ears and felt them with his big hands. 

“Perry?” Atlas tugged on the peanut gnome’s elbow. “I asked if you wanted to give it a try.”

“I—” Perry caught himself before the word can’t left his lips. From his perch, he could see the ocean of grass before him decorated by ships of pinecones, small branches, and large stones. As inviting as it was, Perry swallowed hard. “I’ve never... how would I?”

“Just hop on,” Atlas explained. “When you want to go right...” Atlas pointed to his left ear. It folded into itself. “And when you want to go left.” He lifted his left ear and allowed his right ear to fold in on itself. 

Perry put his hand up to his tiny ear and tried to fold it in. 

Atlas chuckled. “Just use those hands of yours.” Atlas took Perry’s hand, directed all the fingers together, and cupped it. “There you go.”

Perry tested out the shape with both hands. “I can do that, but what about landing?”

“You’re at the mercy of the wind on that one. I wouldn’t fly in conditions where the leaf—” He jumped on the zucchini leaf. “—is getting pushed around. Oh boy, no, no. That’s when you could end up three yards over. Other than that, you just steer in circles until you hit the ground or the port you’re coming in on.”

“That doesn’t sound so hard,” Perry admitted.

“That’s the spirit—oh! Here come two! You want one?” Atlas waved an eager hand to the pollen gnome coming to port. 

“I, uh,” Perry fumbled. 

“I’ll ride along next to you until you get the hang of it.” 

Perry sighed in relief. “Yeah, yeah.”

“Wooh! Let’s do this. Wave down the pilot to show you’ll accept it, and they won’t put it on the ground.” Perry stood at Atlas’ side and waved his large hands. 

“That’s right,” Atlas encouraged him. 

The first pollen gnome steered the dandelion seed right towards Atlas and hopped off as soon as Atlas took hold of the stem. 

“Coming in!” the second pilot shouted as it steered toward Perry. 

“Great, now give him room,” Atlas directed. 

Perry took a step back. The seed barreled in towards the edge of the zucchini leaf. The pollen gnome began to step off. 

“And grab the stock,” Atlas shouted.

Perry grabbed the stock, and the pilot hopped off. “All yours, buddy.”

“Alright, feel how the breeze is dying down,” he explained to Perry. “If you hop on, and there is no breeze, you will descend slowly. If you hop on when there is a breeze, you can ride that current into another one. You can see the wind coming in the grass.”

Atlas pointed down to the ocean of grass before them. It was still with the shadows of the trees above. 

“Prepare for departure!” the bug at the leaf-hopper gate shouted through the blade of grass. 

“If we don’t get a breeze before that leaf-hopper takes off, we will be stuck here until after it goes.” Atlas kept his eyes out on the grass. “Oh, look. Here it comes.” 

From the eastern side of the yard, the wind pushed down the tops of grass and formed a wave, which rippled and shimmered before them. 

“Set your foot,” Atlas demonstrated. “Prepare to kick off.”

Perry hurried to copy him.

“Three… two… one… kick!” 

Perry pushed with all of his might. His hands wrapped around the stock and held on for dear life. Something invisible pushed him towards the right, and that’s when Perry realized he had shut his eyes.

“Woo, that’s right! Good on ya,” Atlas cheered. 

Perry opened his eyes. Far below him was a sea of pointy grass speckled with clover and small purple flowers. Perry tightened his grip on the stock.

“Alright, loosen up. This is the fun part.” Atlas floated past him. “When I lift an ear, you lift your hand. Got it?”  

Perry nodded.

“Got it?” Atlas repeated.

“Got it,” Perry shouted back. 

Before him, beneath a canopy of off-white florets, the bright-yellow pollen gnome with a long shirt lifted his right ear and lowered his left. Perry watched as he gently swayed to the right. He followed by lifting his right hand. 

Atlas folded both ears in and glanced back over his shoulder. “There you go. You’re a natural.” 

Perry smiled wide. 

“To the left this time.” Atlas reversed his direction, and Perry followed. The two danced back and forth on the wind. Perry’s shoulders relaxed, and his jaw loosened. “Where are you heading, Peanut Gnome?” 

“I have no idea,” Perry gleefully admitted. 

“Wanna try a stuffed petal?” 

“Oh yes, I do.”

“Follow me.” 

The two floated further into the yard and over to a flowerbed tucked against the fence. Circular green leaves rolled down like a waterfall from a tipped-over wooden bucket. Bright orange and yellow flowers accompanied them. 

“You don’t want to land on the rocks; they are too hard. Could break a leg,” Atlas called out. “Try for something soft.”

“Like the leaves?” 

“No, we are going to have to do a ground landing.” Atlas demonstrated as he stuck out his right ear and tucked his left in as tight as it could go. He hooked strongly to the right and began a controlled spiral towards the ground. Perry followed not far behind. “Try not to land too close, or we will crash into each other.”

“How do I fix it?” Perry called back. 

“Just try and steer differently. Maybe make your circle wider?” Atlas tried to demonstrate by drawing a circle with his hand.

Perry tilted his hand inwards. The dandelion seed straightened out, bringing him closer to the flowers and rock edge. 

“Don’t get too close to the rocks,” Atlas shouted. 

Perry opened his hand back up to cup the wind. The dandelion seed harshly corrected itself and began its circular descent once again. On the first lap around, he had managed to encompass the rock edge and mulched terrain. The second lap around, just the rock edge and grass of the yard. 

Atlas didn’t shout any more directions.

When Perry finally got him in his sights again, the little yellow gnome expertly landed his seed on top of a large clover leaf. 

The ground was coming closer, and no matter how hard he tried, Perry couldn’t get the rocks out of his landing zone. He clutched the stock tightly with both hands and closed his eyes. 

The bottom of the seed hit the top of a rock, scratched against it, and sent the dandelion toppling seed over floret into the grass below. Perry flew through the air and crashed into a wide blade of grass. He slid down its length right into the soft, damp ground below. 

“Wooh,” he exclaimed as he lay on his back in the dirt.

“Perry,” Atlas shouted. 

“I’m over here.”

“Perry,” Atlas called again. Atlas’ footsteps announced his arrival before Perry could see him. “Oh, man. I thought you were a goner.” 

“Takes more than a rock to stop a peanut gnome.” Perry sat up and looked around him. Beneath the grass canopy, it was dark enough to see without his glasses.

“That’s impressive. I’ve seen pollen gnomes fall to less.” Atlas’ ears lifted to their natural pointy state, and he took in the scene around them. “Looks like we have a bit of a hike. We won’t make it back to Zucchini Depot before nightfall. If things haven’t changed too much, there should be an opening in the rocks by the fence line. A couple of pine gnomes have a house out there.”

“Pine gnomes?”

“Yeah, type of tree gnome. They usually live around the roots of pine trees and harvest the seeds from pinecones when they fall. Rough life, though; not for everyone.” Atlas shook his head.

“Why’s that?”

“Squirrels.” Atlas’ eyes were distant with a haunted memory. 

“What’s a squirrel?” Perry brought his hands close to his stomach. 

“I hope you never know the answer to that question.” Atlas shook his head. “We should get a move on.”

The two gnomes walked side by side through the forest.

“That’s a lot bigger than I remember,” Atlas muttered and paced from left to right as he eyeballed the rock. “It will take us forever to climb over it.”

Perry followed along. As he paced to the left, around the far side of the structure, he saw a small crevice created by two rocks coming close together, stuffed with dirt. A smile pulled at his lips. “I can dig us through.” 

“Dig?”

Perry held up his large hands and wiggled his eyebrows. “Hold this.” 

Atlas took the leaf glasses as Perry walked over to the dirt wall, cupped his hands together, and began digging. The dirt was free of small stones and easily gave way beneath his hands. Quickly, he broke through to the other side. Much like when he first emerged, Perry covered his eyes. 

“Well, that’s impressive,” Atlas commented and handed the leaf glasses to Perry. “Never seen a gnome tunnel like that before.” 

Regaining his ability to see in the bright light, Perry held his head high and followed Atlas into the mulch-covered nasturtium garden. Atlas threw his head back and took a deep breath through his nose. 

“You smell that?” Perry followed him. The sweet smell of nasturtium nectar filled his nostrils. His stomach rumbled. “That’s what we came all this way for.” 

The round leaves covered most of the mulch bed. The two gnomes climbed over chunks of decaying, damp wood until they came to the bottom of the plant. Green bugs with plump backsides held to the underside of the leaves and sucked away at the leaves. 

“What are they doing?” Perry whispered.

“Eating leaf sap.” Atlas brushed it off. “Aphids travel in packs. They are as greedy as squirrels, but the farmer hates them. We want to get as far away from them as we can, so we are not discovered.”

Eventually, Atlas directed Perry onto the stems of the plant, and the gnomes began ascending the length of the plant. The smell of the sweet flowers guided Atlas until they found the perfect, private spot away from aphids and other creatures. 

“I’m assuming you want yours stuffed with pollen?” Atlas asked before he climbed out onto the flower’s stem. 

Perry shrugged. “Sure.”

“This may take a minute; make yourself comfortable.” Perry sat back on the leaf and watched as Atlas climbed up the stock and wiggled his way into the red curtains created by the petals. “You’re probably the first peanut gnome in all of gnome history to fly,” Atlas called back as he worked. Small grunts followed his statement. He emerged from the flower with an armload of red funnels stuffed with yellow puffs. When he reached Perry, he handed the peanut gnome one of the funnels. “We can have as many of these as we want.”

Atlas sat down and laid out the stuffed petals before them. He wrapped nearly a dozen. His eyes widened, but his pupils shrunk as he was thrown into a world of flavors. It was fresh and light, sweet and spicy, crisp and delicate. Eagerly, he took another bite, then another. 

“Guess you like ‘em.” Atlas chuckled as Perry grabbed his second one.

True to his word, Atlas made stuffed petals until Perry couldn’t eat another bite. The well-versed pollen gnome fashioned a rucksack out of a smaller leaf and stem. He loaded it up with stuffed petals and secured it over his shoulder. 

“How often do you visit here?” Perry asked as they began their descent. 

“Once every week or so. I try to load up on as much pollen as I can before the winter hits. Then there is no food to be found.” Atlas grunted as he struggled to get through a tangle of windy stems. “Harder to travel too.”

“Winter?” Perry hopped down a staircase of small petals. 

“When the world freezes over, and all the plants die. No flying, no food, no nothing. Just cold, cold, and more cold.” Atlas told Perry all about the small cities pollen gnomes construct in the autumn beneath piles of dead leaves. How they trade canned pollen, pollen jelly, dried petals, dried seeds, everything they can get their hands on and preserve. 

“That’s a lot of work,” Perry exclaimed when he finally hopped down to the mulch bed below. 

“Every year we do it.” Atlas shrugged and got his bearings at the bottom of the plant. The picket fence created a wall along the property. “I believe they are back this way.” 

As they walked towards the fence, Perry couldn’t help but think of what life would be like underground. Did the cold reach them down there? What did they eat?

“Here we are. I knew they were around here.” Atlas pulled back a large dandelion green to reveal a small hut created by bark, pinecone scales, and a pool made from half an acorn. “Ready to check in?”