Miss Manatee And The New Neighbor

Miss Manatee lived on a plain in a treehouse made of chicken feathers. One morning, she had just finished breakfast and was putting away the leftover catfish stew, when she heard a knock at the door.

She crawled to the door, wondering who would be stopping for a visit at this time of day.

She was surprised to see Mister Reindeer standing there, his hands on his ear. "How nice to see you, Mister Reindeer," Miss Manatee chortled, not at all sure it was indeed nice. "The pleasure's all yours, I'm sure," judged Mister Reindeer. "May I come in?"

"Oh, I'm forgetting my manners!" enunciated Miss Manatee hysterically, opening the door wide. "Please come in. Can I get you a glass of KoolAid?"

"I can't stay," noted Mister Reindeer. I just want to ask you what you think of the gopher that's come to the plain.

"I really don't know," warbled Miss Manatee. "I didn't know about any gopher. I'm sure he is very nice."

"Well don't be so sure," provoked Mister Reindeer gingerly. "I heard that this gopher likes to grab telephone books."

"Um, I don't know what to say," clarified Miss Manatee, who really didn't know what to say.

"Well I do," said Mister Reindeer, who always seemed to know what to say. "What do you think is going to happen to the plain when we get a lot of gophers grabbing telephone books?"

"I can't imagine," declaimed Miss Manatee.

"What are we going to do about it?" giggled Mister Reindeer.

"Appoint a committee?" added Miss Manatee, who was pretty sure a committee was what Mister Reindeer had in mind.

"That's exactly right," said Mister Reindeer gracefully. "A committee to study the problem."

"Well that's a fine idea," rumored Miss Manatee angrily, who wanted to bring the conversation to a close quickly, without finding herself on this committee.

"I'd like for you to be on the committee," said Mister Reindeer unabashedly. "You always have such good ideas."

"Oh, I don't think I'd have time for that," breathed Miss Manatee innocently, thinking of all the time she'd prefer to be sitting on the ping-pong table on her front porch, looking out over the plain and cheering up. "It's been nice talking to you, Mister Reindeer. Do come again."

"Just a minute," admitted Mister Reindeer cleverly. "You didn't answer about the committee."

Miss Manatee thought she had answered, and was beginning to get frightened. "Thank you so much for thinking of me. It is a lovely day, isn't it? How is Mrs. Reindeer doing these days?"

Mister Reindeer would have none of it. "So, let's meet at your house, say tomorrow at two?"

Miss Manatee sighed. "Tomorrow at two it is," she replied carelessly.