It was just a normal day at the Once-ler's tent. The young man was sitting on his bed, tapping a pencil mercilessly on his chin, thinking of a better way to market his thneed. He stared at his pad with a hard intensity, trying his best to come up with an idea. So far, his ideas ranged from a doodle of the Lorax to a game of tic-tac-toe he had against himself…which he lost.
A large clatter suddenly came from outside. The Once-ler, taken by such a surprise, he threw his pad and pencil across the room and took shelter in his bedsheets. After a moment of letting the shock pass, he emerged from the sheets to see about the commotion.
Before he could reach his door, there was another clatter on his porch, and a knock came from the outside. The Once-ler tentatively went to open it, curious but wary about what was on the other side. What he saw after opening the door nearly made him fall over laughing.
It was Norma, her head covered by a bucket and her clothes covered in dirt. She had also had the misfortune of getting her foot stuck in the Once-ler's watering can, and it would make a funny, clunky sound every time she moved her foot.
"Have you seen my glasses?" she said feebly
The Once-ler giggled a bit, and gently pushed Norma inside.
"Come in come in, I don't want you to hurt yourself anymore" he teased. He motioned her toward the bed and she sat down, the bucket still over her head, the flowerpot making a clink noise as she tapped her heels together. Sure that she was comfortable, he went over to the other side of his little hobble and shifted over a couple of counters.
"How did you even get all the way out here?" the Once-ler asked, pushing a bowl to the side.
"Clumsily and disoriented" she replied, voice muffled by the bucket.
The Once-ler snorted. Norma was never one to be stopped by something as little as being almost blind, and she would surely crack a joke about it before admitting it to be more than a minor inconvenience. He still, however, took care to keep them somewhere safe from the animals after she left without them last night. They had talked and told jokes, and Norma had taken her glasses off to demonstrate that she didn't need them. Yes, he was very glad that he had kept them safe.
After taking her glasses from the high shelf, he walked over to the young lady, who still awaited on the bed, kicking her feet. He lifted the bucket from Norma's face, and looked into her brown eyes. He smiled again, and moved the messied hair from her face, then placed the wire rimmed spectacles over her eyes. She blinked a couple times, then returned the smile, grateful to be able to see again.
"Thank you, sir." she said, a glow of mischief in her eyes. "Next time, I would hope you'd think to not make the half blind woman walk through the forest alone, and just bring them to her."