The Land of the Flowered Bed tries to Beat the Heat

"Drat!" Pumble bellowed. He pounded his hands on the keyboard and glared at the paper computer screen. "I missed it!"

"Missed what?" Hairy looked up from his crossword puzzle.

"I missed Grace's Beat the Heat contest," Pumble wailed.

"Who's Grace?" Hairy asked, confused.

"A Southern Grace," Pumble shouted. "From the blog? She held the Beat the Heat event?"

Hairy stared at him blankly. Pumble sighed and waved his hand. "Never mind," he huffed. "The point is I had a brilliant entry and I missed the deadline."

"If we had a real computer instead of a cardboard box monitor and egg carton for a keyboard, maybe you'd be able to keep up with your deadlines," Cookies mumbled.

"Yea, I'll get right on that," Pumble shot back. He cupped his head in his hands and moaned. "Now the world will never know my brilliance! I'm doomed! Dooommmmed!"

The seals rolled their eyes. Miss Moose McKinley tried not to smile. "Pumble, why don't you just make your recipe anyway?" she suggested. "You won't win, but at least you'll get to share it with everybody." Pumble leaped to his feet and beamed.

"That's a great idea!" he cried. "I've got to start right away!" Mumbling to himself, he waddled as fast as his feet would carry him to the kitchen.

Cookies rolled his eyes. "He gets worked up over the dumbest things."

"You get worked up over Shark Week on the Discovery Channel," Miss Moose McKinley shot back. Cookies scowled as Hairy and the seals laughed.

Hours later, Pumble emerged from the kitchen breathless. He was covered in splatters of flour and chocolate and several unidentifiable stains.

"I've done it!" he cried. "I've created my masterpiece! Come see!"

Curious, all the creatures rushed to the kitchen.

There, they saw this.



"What is it?" Cookies asked bluntly.

"You moron!" Pumble snorted. "They're ice cream wafer pizzas!"

Everyone stared at him blankly.

"That's it?" the first duck from the Spa asked.

"That's your brilliant idea?" the second one asked.

"I like the pink sprinkles," the third duck said with a smile. "They're quite cheerful."

"A three year old could have made that," Cookies said with a sneer.

Pumble huffed and shook his spoon at them. "You're all idiots!" he cried. "The mark of genius is to create a simple recipe into a exquisite work of art. What we have here is a simple base of vanilla and chocolate ice cream topped with hot fudge, tiny curls of flowers, fairy dust and crushed dragonfly wings, with a dollop of pure sunflower honey."

"It's sprinkles," Cookies said flatly.

"Dragonfly wings and fairy dust!" Pumble bellowed.

"Sprinkles!" Cookies argued.

"Did you curl the flowers? I didn't think so!" Pumble roared.

"Well, I think it's lovely," Hairy interjected, pushing himself between them. The seals squeaked in approval.

"They are very cute," Miss Moose McKinley said, reaching her hand towards the plate. "May I have one?"

"No!" Pumble howled. "Until Grace sees them, no one can touch them."

"But they'll melt," Hairy reminded him. "And all your work will be ruined."

"Don't worry," Pumble said, smiling widely. "I have a special way of preserving them. Now shoo! Shoo!" He waited until all the animals had trickled out of the kitchen. He stuck his head out the doorway, looking toward the left, then the right. When he was sure no one was looking, he reached out and grabbed one of the ice cream wafer pizzas.




"Oh yes," Pumble mumbled as he shoved a second creation in his mouth. "They'll be very safe in here." He rubbed his belly and belched, a satisfied smile on his face.

It was a wonderful way to beat the heat.