paradise

    "Where did you find those grubs?"
    "I told you. Behind three cabbage tree palms."
    "Are you trying to trick us?"
    They didn't believe what they had told him the second time. This was because they had sent him into the most foodless, unexplored part of the woods.
    Gumbark was a bush turkey. Every evening he and his family went searching for food. In the late afternoon they had decided where each of them would go. To his surprise Leaf came back with a full stomach. Even Gumbark did not believe Leaf. Redtree got chased by a dog, Gumbark found only a few worms, Krar could not hunt for food because some of her eggs got eaten by a snake and she wanted to defend the rest...
    ...and Leaf found more grubs than anywhere else while searching in a place with no food? Impossible!
    "He could have found some apples making a wide loop and going to the houses at the side of the road" Redtree said to me,"but I was walking around all of the houses and did not see a hint of him."
    Gumbark did not say anything back to Redtree, because he had started to make sense out of what Leaf said. That part of the forest had never been explored before.
    Then Leaf said "Come over here. I'll show you."
    With Leaf leading the way, they went to the place with flat rocks covering the ground. Here It was windy, the few trees crammed in between the rocks being too small to stop the wind. Any dead trees were not moist but dried to a crisp. The scarce soil was as dry as sand, and no worms or grubs could live here.
    But soon the bush turkeys felt wet earth beneath their feet, they passed three cabbage tree palms, and there was it. In the middle of a bunch of flowering grass trees and tall plants, was a bunch of rotting dead trees, slithering with worms and grubs.
    "Enjoy" said Leaf.
    All three returned home more full than they ever were before.