And it came to pass that Golyga was no longer in the mood to be the all-seeing, all-caring, all-reliable originator of tales of adventure and wanted nothing so much as a good long flying trip to the biggest trees wherever they might reside.
He told Lillykins and the by-now teenage baby that he would return one fine day, but for now he was off and so long, everybody.
Lillykins and the boy stared at Golyga as though he had committed a heinous crime, then they frowned ferociously and Lillykins spoke as follows: “What in the world are you talking about? We were going to build some great big ladders, remember? And then we were going to climb them and….”
Golyga shook his head. “Not me,” he said. “I had no part in that plan. I was away at the time you made it. I was diverting a river which was threatening an entire ant hill with destruction.”
Lillykins turned to the boy and said: “Ant hills and big old trees. That’s what Golyga has time for but how about….”
Lilykins paused because she couldn’t at that moment come up with any tasks or plans which were so urgent as to demand instant attention. Golyga made a show of patiently waiting for her to resume speaking.
Boy, however, had other plans. “Gotta vamoose”, he said and in a flash, he was gone.
Golyga and Lillykins looked at each other. Vamoos? Where in the world did the boy dig up that ancient expression? Since when, they wondered, did the boy just disappear with a “gotta vamoos” without giving any indication about where-to, what-for, and when back?
The surprise made them both thoughtful and a little weak in the knees so they hied themselves to their favourite rock in the middle of the lake and sat facing each other.
“Let’s be clear,” said Lillykins. “This is an emergency and we need to deal with it immediately so you’d better forget about taking off to visit old trees, goodness knows where.”
“Well said Golyga,” that was actually part of the enticement: flying here and there on the search and encountering goodness knows what- all on the way. If you recall,” said Golyga, “the last time I went searching for something – don’t remember now what that was – I found and brought back baby!”
Lillykins had to nod and smile at the memory and then grew a little melancholy at the way time had flown and baby was now a boy who said “gotta vamoos” and did.
And right then, a large barn swallow swooped around them in a circle and landed on the rock and…turned into the boy.
“Sorry,” he said, “forgot to tell you something: I’ll be gone for one season and when I come back, I’ll be bringing you a surprise.”
And before another word was said, he took off again as a barn swallow, flying and swooping and obviously having a wonderful time.
Golyga and Lillykins looked at each other and smiled and then decided to spend some “quality time” together while the boy was away.
