The Flompers of Faulderville, Cassie Sipes [dar e dil novel online reading .txt] 📗

Lorali told Sunshine that she had to be brave to go on an adventure. And Sunshine was sure that she would be. As they walked Lorali told Sunshine all about living in Faulderville and how Sheriff JR and Mayor Brett didn’t like for the town people to wander too far off. “They worry too much I think,” Said Lorali. “There isn’t anything out here except Flomper Fogle; he’s the caretaker of the bridge.” “Is that where we are going?” asked Sunshine. “Yep,” said Lorali. “Look, there’s the bridge up ahead.” She pointed to an old bridge crossing a little stream of water beneath a large willow tree with leaves blowing in the cool autumn breeze. “It’s so pretty,” said Sunshine. “I know I love this place,” said Lorali as she led the way to the bridge.
The willow tree was so tall; Sunshine thought that it was probably close to being as tall as Grandfather. The bridge was very big also it looked like all of the Flompers on the forest floor could stand on it at the same time. “Who made this?” Sunshine asked. “I don’t know really, Fogle says that it has always been here.” “Wow, always is as long as forever huh?” Sunshine asked Lorali, “Yep.” Lorali answered. The two Flomper girls finally reached the bridge. As they stepped onto it they heard, “WHO GO’S THERE?” in a very deep, very loud voice. Sunshine turned and ran as fast as she could until she was hiding behind the giant willow tree. “Hahaha,” Lorali laughed so hard, “Come back Sunshine, it’s just Fogle!” Lorali shouted. Sunshine poked her head around the side of the tree to see for herself. Sure enough a little old Flomper came hobbling across the very large bridge, “Hello Lorali, who is your little friend?” he said with a very kind smile. “This is Sunshine, she just fell today.” Lorali said as she reached her hand out to Sunshine who was now walking over to the two Flompers talking like old friends.
“Sorry to scare you Sunshine,” Fogle said. “I never know who is coming, and it’s my job to keep Flompers from crossing this bridge.” “Why?” asked Sunshine. “Why can’t any Flompers cross over the bridge?” she finished, very curious by the statement made by Fogle. “Well, I don’t really like to talk about it, but since you are new to the forest floor, you need to know. It’s the rupins,” he said with a whisper, “they live on the other side of the bridge and many years ago Grandfather asked me to guard the bridge to keep Rupins out and Flompers in.” “Do you ever see them?” asked Sunshine. “Every once in a while I catch a glimpse of a rupin peeking through the tree line at me across the stream. I usually walk the bridge and pretend not to see them, most of the time they go back to what they were doing.” Fogle told Sunshine as she was gazing into the thick woods on the other side of the stream.
About that time she heard a sound coming from the woods. All three of the Flompers jumped and stared into the woods to see if it were a dreaded rupin. They would see two glowing red eyes looking right at them. Fogle took the two girls by the hands and pulled them beneath the bridge to his little house. “Shhh” he said, “be very quiet.” With his finger to his lips he turned slowly and began out his door. “No,” Lorali started, Fogle turned back around and hushed Lorali. Sunshine and Lorali held onto one another as they waited, quietly anticipating the fate of their dear friend Fogle.
“All clear girls,” Fogle shouted from outside. The two girls ran out the door, “What happened?” asked Lorali. “Not much this time, it just kept on going into the woods over there, didn’t pay me any mind.” Fogle said.
Lorali and Sunshine were very happy to know that everything was okay. As they walked out the door of Fogle’s house, they heard him yell. They looked to the top of the bridge and saw Fogle chasing a large creature off of the bridge and into the woods on the forbidden side. It was black and had a long tail and sharp teeth. Fogle looked very brave. The creature made a hissing sound and ran into the forest. The girls cheered, “Hooray!”
Fogle walked down to the girls and said, “That one just came out of nowhere. That never happens, they must be getting braver.” “Oh dear!” Sunshine cried. “It’s getting pretty dark out we may need to head back home.” Said Lorali. Fogle agreed that the two should head back home, and told the girls that he would talk to Grandfather about the Rupin first thing in the morning. They all said goodbye and the girls headed home.
As they slowly walked back home, Sunshine looked to Lorali and smiled a big beautiful smile… “This has been so exciting! Thank you Lorali. I was so afraid to leave grandfather, but now I’m so glad I did.” Lorali smiled brightly, “I’m glad you did too, plus we never REALLY leave grandfather.” The two little Flompers held hands and walked back to their village. As they reached the outskirts of Faulderville, the girls saw that a crowd of Flompers stood at the entry gate. They all looked very angry! Lorali swallowed hard and stopped in her tracks. “What is it?” asked Sunshine. Lorali looked down to the ground and whispered, “He found out where we went…”

Sunshine and Lorali slowly walked toward the crowd of angry Flompers. Sunshine quietly asked, “Who?” Lorali whispered back, “Sheriff J.R.” Sunshine didn’t quite know what to make of this. Just when they reached the gate, Mayor Brett came running through the other Flompers and grabbed Lorali and Sunshine with a great big hug! Lorali laughed nervously and said, “Its okay Brett, we are fine… see?” as she said this she swirled in a circular motion. Sunshine leaned her head closer to Mayor Brett and asked, “Why, exactly, is everybody out here?” Brett opened his mouth to answer Sunshine, but as he did Sheriff J.R. came bounding up and stopped Big Green right in front of the mayor and the two girls.
Sunshine jumped back with a gasp, Mayor Brett grabbed her arm to steady himself. Lorali stood firm in place, with one hand on her hip she pointed at Sheriff J.R. and scolded him, “Why did you have to go and get everybody all worked up Sheriff?” J.R. hopped down off of Big Green and walked up to Lorali, he towered over her “You know better Lorali, and to take the new Flomper to the bridge?!” She wasn’t going to back down, just then Mayor Brett stepped in and said, “Okay Okay you two, they are back now and no harm seems to be done, so let’s just go back to our homes and get some rest.” He waved the other Flompers in the direction of their houses and made a “shoe shoe” sound.
Sheriff J.R. and Lorali stood in place, staring at each other. Sunshine reached out and grabbed Lorali’s hand and the two girls began walking toward their houses. As sunshine looked back over her shoulder she saw Mayor Brett talking to Sheriff J.R. and neither one of them looked very happy. Sunshine wondered what this was all about. She remembered Lorali saying that those two were over protective, but this seemed a little silly. They had merely gone for a walk…
Sunshine was in her house, sitting on a chair, sipping on some honey suckle tea, when there was a sudden knocking at the door. She jumped and ran to the door; she opened it to find the sheriff on the other side. “Sheriff?” she said, “Please, call me J.R.” he responded. She invited him in, curios about this visit, “Would you like some tea?” she asked very politely. “No thank you.” He said. He went on, “I wanted to tell you, we have two rules around here, one – never go out after dark, and two – NEVER go to the bridge.” He stood there for a minute waiting for a response. “Okay…” Sunshine said quietly. “Is it the rupins?” she questioned the sheriff. “Yes, mostly. It’s just safer this way. And the last thing old Flomper Fogle needs is two young Flompers up there distracting him from his job.” With this J.R. walked to the door and let himself out. Sunshine just stood there looking in the direction of the door. She blew out her lights and crawled into bed, wondering what tomorrow might bring.

The next morning as Lorali sat eating her bowl of oats; there was a knock at her door. She answered it, seeing Mayor Brett standing there. He smiled at her, then lowered his head and said “Lorali, why do you insist on breaking the rules? And on Sunshine’s first day, I mean really?” Lorali looked up at Brett, “We just went to see Fogle, you know he gets lonely and I thought it would be fun for her. I didn’t mean any harm,” Brett interrupted her “Okay, I know. I just told sheriff J.R. that I would come by and talk to you.” He let himself out. Lorali sat down to finish eating and realized, if Brett came here, that means J.R. went to talk to Sunshine… She ran out the door.
As she ran into Sunshine’s house without knocking, she found Mayor Brett was