Children

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Big fat Baby Groundhog waddled towards his ‘favorite’ spot. Moving slowly, he picked up his natural foods, looking like a fuzzy rock sliding through the blades of grass. Seeds, greens and tiny branches are nice, but he was aiming for his ‘favorite’ spot.

Uh oh, here comes nosey Dee Dee Groundhog.

Whatcha' got there?” she chimed cheerily.

“Some wild flowers” he mumbled “but I'm really off to my favorite…” he said the rest of his sentence inaudibly into the ground as he went on eating

“Can I come?”

Baby nodded, “Yes” into the grass.

Suddenly a car’s awful sonar sound interrupted their peace. It was parked sheltering its lounger, in the parking lot of Green Park, which sat strategically on the lush banks of the Potomac River. Baby and Dee Dee set off, back towards Baby’s den, down the slope, right next to the water, waddling as fast as their chubby bodies could take them, Halfway there, the sound stopped and so did they.

Turning around they headed back, Dee following Baby as he went on towards his ‘favorite’ spot. As he passed the bush with great seeds that they had been munching on, Dee slowed down,

“Where are you going? Here’s our spot!”

“Oh, that’s not my ‘favorite’ spot.” Baby waddled on.

“Where is your favorite spot?”

“Have you ever had McDonald’s fries?” Baby panted as he got closer to one of the park’s many garbage bins.

“Mc what?”

“McDonalds fries. I found some yesterday, right over…”

Both groundhogs stopped, stood stock still, and then simultaneously turned to run, looking like wobbly funny balloons in the grass. They stopped together, looked to their right. There! Sure enough, a big black dog was coming their way. Their chubby bodies moved faster than seemed possible, as they headed for shelter by the big river.

When all seemed calm again; no car was shutting its engine off and sending out sonar sounds, no dogs being walked by, no bikers cycling on the path between them and the garbage bins, Baby set off at top speed, Dee in tow, ready to become an addict of these “fries” Baby was talking about.

Across the walking and biking path, sure enough they found a brown package on the ground beside the bin. Baby poked his big head into the bag and emerged with a stick of potatoes in his mouth.

“McDonald fries” he mumbled to Dee, “the best”

She got one for herself, “Mm mm” was all she could say. She was hooked.

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