Mossy ????

Silence.  I have NOT found it to be very golden.   November 2nd was the last time I saw Mossy as she rode away with a herd of buffalo.  Thinking she would "appear" as she so often has, I didn't think much of the silence until it stretched on and on and on...........   Obviously, the return from Yellowstone was without one small gnome.  Was this it?  Mossy appeared one day around three years ago.  Would she disappear as unexpectantly as she had appeared?  These questions as well as a thousand others kept me company in the silence of the shop, in the silence of the house, in the silence of the gently falling leaves.....

I found myself going back to the beginning.......  Wee Thomas jumping from one pumpkin after another, as if they were tiny trampolines.   I was digging through a vast supply of dried safflower, pods, hydrangeas, etc......   Alone, or so I thought.  Admittedly, my eyes were somewhat glazed over from several hours of creating lovelies when I heard the tinkle of a bell.  Drawn to the sound I watched with fascination as a small boy sprang from first a Fairytale pumpkin to a Cinderella, to a Wee-Be-Little, and then to a Baby Boo.  Don't you just love the names of all the varieties of pumpkins?   No sooner would I open my mouth to speak, he would disappear, only to reappear elsewhere.  The first afternoon of this "gnome-spotting" continued in this manner.  If I drew nearer to the Lil Pumpkemons, no appearances.  If I returned to my creating, bells and sightings.  Truly, I regretted the end of this day!!!!  I left whispering of my return.  Surely, I would see him again!!  Memory fails on the exact amount of time, but I do know that Thomas entertained me for sometime before he ever spoke.  Customers would be browsing and suddenly he would appear hanging from their purse or sitting on their shoulder.  His favorite (or so it appeared) would be to ride on the pumpkin arrangements straight to the checkout counter.  How this was done without detection, I have no clue but the pure entertainment value was priceless!  Many a moment, I would duck behind a counter stifling my giggles.  Seriously, customers are not quite sure how to take unexplicable sudden outburst of laughter.    

"You left it on."  These were his first whispered words to me.  He pointed to the glue gun as he spoke them and POOF. 

Oh POOF on me!!!!! Memory lane has just created a rather "well done"  pumpkin loaf!   I shake off the memories as reality needs a few burned edges pinched away.  "Mossy?" I question outloud.   Mossy, would most definitely have a comment or two for my latest culinary feat.   Silence.

I miss my friend.