June 19
Last night was a strange one! Funny, embarrassing, frightening, and educating all at once!
Some time after about 9:00, Thorin and I had at last managed to get Frodo to sleep in his bunk, and we went to bed in a rush (well, and why not?). We were just sort of getting comfortable - and suddenly we heard this blood-curdling scream just outside the trailer! I yelled and jumped, and I guess I must have jostled Thorin, because he fell onto the floor on his side of the bed! And maybe I should have tried to get him out, but I was, of course, scared for Frodo; so I threw the sheet around me (I had no clothes on, after all) and sped on to the back room!
And, well, Frodo had slept right through the noise! But then there was another scream, and this time it did wake him up! He started crying, so I grabbed him and held him tight while I looked out the window. It was completely dark outside! And I heard Thorin talking rather anxiously in our room, so I hurried there with Frodo in my arms, all the while trying to keep the sheet around me, and I found Thorin (the poor darling, bare-naked as he was!) stuck where he'd fallen into the little space between our bed and the wall!
He had managed to reach his phone, though, and was speaking with the base police. Then, all of a sudden, there was another scream, and he dropped the phone (on his face!) and the battery popped out of the back. Well, so I quickly threw a pillow over his... exposed parts; then I put Frodo on our bed, and Thorin did his best to calm him (since he was out of his reach and he couldn't cuddle him, all he could do was say "It's okay!" over and over!) as I went to the front door and turned on the outside light.
And, oh! In my life I'd never have imagined! It was just a fox! I never knew that they screamed, or that they made any noise at all! But there it was! Up until the light coming on frightened it away, that is! And I was still in a fright, as well; and so I did my best to gather my thoughts and I yelled into the bedroom, telling Thorin what had been making the noise! I heard him groan loudly, and I went back in there and I found that Frodo had wet himself on our bed - and there was Thorin, still trying to wriggle out of his corner, but managing only to shift himself over onto his side a bit.
I started helping him to escape then; but I had just barely managed to get his feet down off the wall when the base police arrived! And so I had to explain our mistake to the officers while I was sitting on the picnic table - still naked under my sheet, and holding a soggy and anxious four-year-old in my arms! And after the police got finished laughing (and kindly explaining that this wasn't the first time someone had made that mistake), they bid us good-night.
And I at last went back inside and managed to un-wedge Thorin, then we gave Frodo a shower and changed him (and we changed the wet sheets on our bed) - but none of us slept for the rest of the night, so this morning we are really all quite exhausted. At any rate, some time after dawn, I finally thought to ask Thorin why he was so startled by the fox's yell, since I am sure that he'd heard it enough growing up in the country. Well, he turned beet-red and admitted that his years in the city and military had made him jump to the conclusion that someone was hurt and needed help. Oh, he is a sweetheart and a protector, after all!
But still, despite everything, Bofur and Bifur are set to arrive sometime towards noon to help install the new hitch. I hope they don't mind doing most of the work, themselves, since Thorin is really wobbly and loopy today!