Get caught up on Susie’s Adventure and read the previous chapters.

Susie’s Shell Searching Adventure /// Chapter 13

The creature raised their head. They looked around like they were sure they had heard something, but they weren’t sure where the sound had emanated. Mel called out again and the creature seemed to finally locate her. 

‘Why, I do offer my most sincere apologies, madam slug. I did not see you down there,’ the creature said.

‘Yeah, well, we defs saw you up there eating our boat.’ Mel scowled.

‘This is a “boat,” you say? Please do forgive my ignorance, but whatever is a boat?’  

Susie nearly laughed. Mel was right, she thought, and now here they were doing the saying about a boat. She moved to join Mel at her side. She said, ‘A boat is a vessel which floats and glides upon water, protecting those on board from the elements. Or at least, it’s supposed to.’ She flashed a sort of half frown on her face. Their boat wasn’t doing too great a job of being a boat at the moment.

‘It glides, you say?’ said the creature. 

‘Well, not right now,’ Susie said. Obviously. 

‘Right, well surely there sprouts the confusion,’ said the creature. ‘Do tell, why have you stopped it from sliding? Surely you must have known that doing so would confuse its whole being.’

‘You mean if it were gliding you’d have recognized it as a boat?’ said Mel. She raised one eye above the other as she questioned the furry creature. Doubtful, clearly.

 ‘Why, of course!’ said the creature. ‘Then it should have been a boat!’

‘You didn’t even know what a boat was until we told you so,’ said Susie. ‘How would its gliding have made any difference?’

The creature seemed to think for a moment, almost dropping the wooden shard from their hands as they stared off into a land of wonder. ‘I should think it would make all the difference,’ the creature said. ‘The act of being what you say. In any case, what right had I to call a thing something which it says it isn’t?’

Before Susie could interject, Mel moved both her eyes up in a look like excitement as if she were ready to understand. She said, ‘I’ve said just the same as you, only Susie…’ 

‘Listen. This, is a boat.’ Susie gestured. ‘It is our boat, in fact, and we would very much like if you would stop eating it.’

Mel made a move like a gasp as she lost what she had meant to say. But as Susie finished speaking, Mel came back to reality and fiercely nodded her agreement. Before the creature could respond to the slugs, however, a second furry head began to creep over the side of the boat. Mel spoke out of the side of her mouth. ‘There’s.. two of them, right? You’re seeing this?’ she said. 

Susie nodded.

The second creature hoisted themself up with one last hefty pull. They were considerably larger than the other and the climb aboard the ship didn’t seem to be as easy for them. They huffed and puffed and held their arm out announcing their intent to speak once their lungs had been replenished.

‘Beavis,’ the second creature said at last. ‘What in heavens are you doing up here on this…’ they looked around and threw their arms up. ‘This thing!?’ they said. 

‘It’s a boat,’ said Beavis. 

‘It is completely stationary,’ said the other creature.

‘Well now, that’s precisely what I said,’ said Beavis. ‘These two, however, assure me that it is indeed a boat and that many moons ago it floated just as a boat does.’

‘I mean, it really wasn’t many moons. It was literally floating like just before you started attacking it,’ Mel said. 

But the new creature was aghast. It seemed they hadn’t noticed Mel and Susie up until Beavis had told them of their existence. The creature seemed rather like they might faint and Beavis rushed forward to catch them from falling off the boat.

‘Oh, Beavis,’ said the creature. Mel sent Susie a look of confusion. ‘You know how terrified I am of slugs,’ they said. They began fanning themself with what appeared to be a tail, or perhaps, some round piece of leather.  

A large beaver, scared of a couple of slugs. Susie was so confused she didn’t even stop Mel from piping in. 

‘Well I’m a slug,’ said Mel. ‘Susie’s actually a snail.’

Pure exasperation departed from Beavis’ face. ‘There, there, Beverley. Everything’s fine, you see. The not-boat is a boat and the not-slug is a snail.’

But Beverley did not see. She began to wail ever louder and Mel retracted into her not-shell, as if embarrassed by the action that her words had created. 

‘You know I hate snails even more!’ said Beverley.

‘I am sorry, Bev! I cannot change their nature,’ said Beavis. 

Susie was altogether unsure how she should feel about everything transpiring in front of her. All she knew for certain was that she was growing to dislike beavers in much the same way as Beverley hated anything she was or was not. She told them as much. ‘Now would you please leave our boat? Clearly, we have business to attend to,’ she said. 

Mel nodded triumphantly in agreement. ‘Yes, please depart,’ she said. 

For whatever reason, the slugs’ speech seemed to dry the well of tears in Bev’s eyes, or rather, Bev seemed to find a different well to draw from. Both she and Beavis burst into raucous laughter and Mel and Susie were now all the more bewildered by the two beaver pirates.

‘I do apologize,’ Beavis said at last. ‘You didn’t mean to suggest that the two of you might get to repairing this boat, did you?’

Susie looked at Mel and then back at each of the beavers. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘That’s exactly what I meant.’

The beavers erupted into another guffaw of hysterical laughter. Between laughs, Bev managed to say, ‘You were right, Beavis. There’s nothing to be scared of. They’re delusional!’ 

‘Two slugs,’ Beavis said, forcing back his own laughter. ‘Fixing a boat!’

‘She’s a snail,’ Mel said. 

‘Oh heavens, dear, you must learn to get over it. We’re clearly trying,’ said Beavis.

‘That’s right, we call this a boat, don’t we?’ Bev gestured to the boat.

But it’s not even difficult, Mel thought. Though Susie soldiered onward. ‘And why shouldn’t we fix the boat?’ she said. ‘We built it after all.’

‘Do stop with the lies, child,’ said Bev. ‘You couldn’t possibly have built this. It is ever so much larger than the two of you.’

‘But we did build it,’ said Mel. 

Beavis and Beverley rolled their eyes in unison. ‘And we built that,’ Bev said. She nodded to Beavis who pointed towards something outside the boat. The two waited for the slugs to slime their way up the boat’s walls and see what they were indicating. 

‘A bunch of sticks?’ Susie said once they’d reached the top of the wall. The river seemed to fork ahead. On the right side, where Beavis was pointing, the water dipped dangerously close to the bottom, with some of the larger boulders on the floor peeking out, dry, above the river. Just beyond the dry spots was what appeared to be a mountain of sticks. The left was full, deep, and fast, and of course, the path they had meant to follow before they apparently made landfall on the rocks on the shallow path.

‘They are so rude,’ Bev said. She threw her head back and held one arm outstretched towards Mel and Susie as if to distance herself from them. ‘I cannot deal with them, Beavis.’

‘It’s not a bunch of sticks, slug,’ Beavis said. 

‘That’s right, it’s a whole community in there,’ said Bev. 

‘A magnificent bar. Where people bring their problems and leave having forgotten all about them,’ said Beavis. 

Mel’s eyes lit up like the rear end of one of Pedro’s fireflies. ‘That’s just it!’ she said. ‘We’ve come into a problem and would like to have it forgotten, you see. But the only way we can forget it is if we can get this boat back on the river.’

Beavis flashed a look of annoyance towards Bev. He scooted over closer to her and the two began to whisper, though neither Mel nor Susie could hear what they had to say. At last, they turned back towards the boat captains. 

‘Very well,’ said Beavis.

‘What does that mean?’ said Susie. 

‘That we shall grant your request,’ said Beavis. 

‘But you haven’t left,’ said Susie, making note of the two beavers’ absolute stillness which did not seem to communicate their leaving any time soon.

‘Well of course not,’ said Bev.

‘You must enter the bar, first,’ said Beavis. ‘When you return, all your problems will be forgotten!’ 

Mel poked Susie with one of her eyes. ‘I don’t like this,’ she said. ‘I was always told never to enter a bar.’

Susie didn’t like it either, but she had to admit, a world without problems sounded pretty appetizing right now. 

‘Go, go. Head to the bar, treat yourselves with some mushrooms and beverages, and when you return we will have your boat all fixed up and ready to travel again,’ said Beavis. 

‘But what’s in it for you?’ said Mel. 

‘We must eat too!’ said Bev, pushing her teeth forward as if to show them off. ‘It is very bad for our health if we don’t.’

‘Yes, yes. Plus we’ll be rid of you,’ said Beavis. 

Susie scrunched her mouth. ‘Come on, Mel,’ she said. 

‘For serious?’ Mel said. 

‘For mushrooms,’ said Susie. And they set off down the ship, onto dry land and began to snake their way around the rocks towards the bar while Beavis and Beverley began rapidly chewing on trees and bits of wood surrounding the boat.

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