Tigger came whistling down the path to where I was waiting with my arms folded over my chest. "Cub! Long time no see. Hmmm, something seems a bit unusual about you this morning. Let's see… You didn't cut your hair, it's shaggier than ever. Your face is still dirty and your paws grass stained. That's normal. You're sure as round as always, although you aren't more rounder." He flung his arms up in the air in a dramatic fashion. I just can't figure it out."
I gave him a sour look. "Done yet? Had you big laugh?"
"Who's laughing? It sure doesn't look like you are," Red said as he came from the opposite direction and stopped in front of Tig and myself. "What happened?"
I started explaining things when Red held up his hand and told me he couldn't understand a word I was trying to say. He got down on his hands and knees, looked through his legs and told me to continue. "I said, Tig set a trap and I stepped in it." My head was about two feet off the ground. I was hanging upside down from my right ankle from the lowermost limb of a small tree.
"It's no wonder I didn't understand you. You're upside-down, you know. Your words were upside-down too. He got back up to his feet and looked at Tigger who shrugged. "You weren't after Cubs, were ya?"
"Not really," Tigger explained. "I wasn't so much after anyone as I was after something. It wasn't a Lost Boy trap but it wasn't a pirate trap either. It was sort of a general 'catch anything that might come this way' trap. I thought I might catch a troll or even an ogre, but I never thought I'd catch a Cubby."
"Even though you know I come this way to get to the river?" I asked, slowly turning as the breeze pushed me.
"Did not. I thought you went the other way."
"There is no other way."
"Sure there is. I've been using it forever. You go down by that old oak tree and take a left. Wander up the hill, go through the briars, tunnel under the blackberry bushes, take the right fork on the left spoon, dive through the muddy place, go twice around the blue tree, vault the thing that looks like a fence but is really not a fence, use the vines to swing over the bottomless cavern that isn't bottomless and is more a hole than a cavern, then come to the big tree. It's simple."
Red and I looked at each other as we tried to picture the directions Tig had just gone through. We each mumbled back to ourselves. I was still 'at' the fence when Red yelled out, "All that does is take you back to the Tree. That's not the way to the river."
"Red wins. I just said it was another way. I didn't say it was another way to the river."
"So what'd I win?" Red asked as I sighed and looked up at the sky. A cloud was passing by overhead, which was actually over-feet in this case, and it looked as though a bunch of pixies were having some sort of tea as they sat around it. I tried to make myself invisible by thinking clear thoughts. It must have worked because I didn't hear any jangling from Tink. If she had seen me, I'd've never heard the end of this.
"What do you want to win?" Tig countered.
Red made a big production out of trying to figure out what he wanted. "I don't know. I got everything I need." He snapped his fingers. "I know. How about Cubby's right-side-up-ness?"
"It's going to take more than that. He is the biggest Lost Boy after all. All you've won so far is just his levelness."
"Then how can I get him the rest of the way rightside-up?"
"You just gotta win one more thing. That's all. But what could it beeeeee… Hmm, I wonder what contest or game we could play."
"Marbles?" Red asked.
"Too much gravel."
"A flying race?" I asked. The fact I was hanging in the air probably influenced it.
"I don't have any pixie dust."
"Wheelbogans?" Red asked, suddenly excited.
"Yeah, right. Cubby hasn't fixed the one he broke yet." I looked guiltily up at my feet.
"I know! It's perfect. Red, I challenge you to a game of tetherball."
"What?" I yelped, knowing exactly how this was going to play out. "Cool," Red exclaimed at the same time, giving me a mischievous grin. "C'mon guys. This isn't funny."
"I think it's extremely funny," Tigger said as he drew a line on the ground on both sides of the tree. "This is my side and that's your side. First one to get around wins. Ready?"
"How come you get to serve?" Red demanded.
"Cuz I thought of the game."
"Oh, okay."
Tigger pushed me with a majorly exaggerated grunt. I went slowly around the tree until I got to Red's side. He pushed against my back and I went back in the direction I had come. "Hey, that's my nose," I yelled as Tigger pushed in the opposite direction.
"Oops, sorry 'bout that." I was pretty sure he wasn't, but I was already heading back towards Red's side. This time he caught me in the stomach as he pushed harder in the opposite direction. I was beginning to feel dizzy as I once again went around. Somehow Tigger managed to miss me and I made a complete circle so I was at Red's side again. He caught me in my side and I headed towards Tig's side again. This time the tiger-pelted boy was ready for me and gave me a huge push in the opposite direction. Red wasn't ready for me, because when he tried to push me back towards Tig, I ended up knocking him down. By the time he got back up, I'd gone two or three revolutions around the tree and was beginning to feel like I probably was green-looking or something.
"Okay, enough of that," Red said. He pushed my upper-back so hard that I felt like I'd hit a wall or something. The world suddenly became a blur as I started twirling faster and faster. I opened my mouth to try and warn the two that I was going to puke, but the warning that came out was a lot more literal than any words would have been.
"Gross," Tigger said as Red started laughing. Apparently that scared Tig off because in the next moment I felt my ankle connect with the tree. A second later my skull did the same thing with the trunk.
"I win," Red announced. As if to emphasize that fact, the rope holding my ankle chose that moment to part and I landed on the ground with a thump.
"Nice game," Tigger muttered. "I'll see you guys later. I gotta go clean up."
"Wow, Tig. A bath? I can't believe it." Tigger didn't deign to answer as he left. I watched as the world continued to slowly spin around me. I get dizzy really easy and it can take awhile for it to stop. "You both planned that, didn't you?"
Red stopped whistling on the blade of grass between his fingers and looked up with a grin. "Maybe," he admitted. "It could have just been an accident though. Either way, that was a pretty cool trick you pulled. You timed it just right." I snorted which came out more like a cough. Red looked at me with that considering look he sometimes gets. "I've seen Tigger's traps before. They'd be less noticeable if he put up a sign saying 'trap here' and I know that you're always noticing stuff. You stepped into that trap on purpose, didn't you?"
"Naw. I wouldn't do that. What fun would that be?" He didn't look at all convinced.