April Showering

Beloved camp storyteller Chuck Stead tells a tale of trying to help nature expedite spring’s flowering…

Dougy Cramshaw came prancing down into the Fountain Pond Park singing, “April Showers Bring May Flowers!” over and over. Winter was done and all sorts of early flowers had emerged, like snow drops and crocuses. But you know spring is really coming in when you see the long green stems of tulips and daffodils. Dougy, keeping an eye out for these tall friends, made his way down into the Pond Park every day in early April, so as to greet them when they emerged. He knew where they would first break ground at the south side of the Third Street hill. But, on this warm, welcoming Saturday, they had yet to emerge.

That was when the song had come back into his head, “April Showers Bring May Flowers”. It occurred to him that thus far, there had not been a whole lot of showers. He squatted down at the patch of earth that every spring exploded with daffodils, and he poked his little narrow fingers into the soil. He then sniffed his fingers and even tasted the dry smudge of dirt on them. Clearly, he believed, the soil was just too dry for April. He looked toward the Fountain Pond, twenty feet or so from where he was hunkered down. Gathering water from the pond with only his hands to cup it in was his first plan. But, after three or four tries he could hardly get more than a few drops to the dry patch of soil. Then he spotted a Coca Cola bottle in the mud along the pond shore. He dug it out and washed it off, and then he held it under the water and filled up a bottle’s worth. As he climbed back out of the pond, Cindy Maloney’s little brothers Mort and Wort were just coming down the hill. They saw him with the bottle and, naturally, they wanted to know if they could have each have a sip.

Dougy said, “This is water – not Coke!”
Mort snarled, “You’re being stingy, Doug! I want some of that Coke!”
Dougy handed him the bottle and said, “OK.”
Mort swung the bottle to his lips but Wort grabbed it and shouted, “Mort, that ain’t Coke!”
Mort looked again and then swore at Dougy, “Why did you fool me?”
“I didn’t fool you. You fooled yourself.” Dougy grabbed the bottle from Wort and told them. “I got this water for the place over there where the flowers grow. It needs some water.”

The brothers looked at the little dry patch as Dougy poured a stream of water onto it. He explained that there hadn’t been enough April showers for the flowers. The brothers looked at each other and said to Doug that pouring water from a Coke bottle wasn’t enough like a shower, but that they had a plan. It was like those Maloney boys had all sorts of emergency plans in their back pocket. They took off up the hill and across Third Street to their family’s house. In the meantime, Dougy returned to the muddy pond and collected another bottle full of water. He climbed back out of the pond and carefully poured it over the little wild flower garden patch.

As the last drops left the upturned bottle, he heard Mort and Wort shouting to each other. Then, he saw them at the top of the hill, unwinding a long garden hose and dragging it down toward him. It reached just about ten feet short of the spot where he was crouched. While Mort yanked on it to stretch it out, Wort ran up the hill shouting that he would go turn it on. Mort pulled and pulled but the hose was not stretching. He yanked away and groaned as he tried to make it longer. Over the top of the hill they heard the sound of Wort shouting something, and then Dougy saw the hose stiffen up, and then water came shooting out directly into Mort’s face. He fell, gasping, as he had swallowed a lot of water. Next, Wort came charging down the hill with a heavy iron lawn sprinkler. He picked up the hose, still gushing forth cold water and tried to screw it into the sprinkler, now squirting water over all of them. He finally clamped it down.

The sprinkler sprayed them across the face and into the sky and down onto the little patch of flower-expectant dirt. Mort, soaking wet, happily shouted, “We’re April Showering!” Dougy, Mort and Wort backed up to take in the view of their little showering. They were satisfied with their work.

Just then, the boy’s dad, John Maloney, came cruising down Third Street and apparently, he didn’t see the hose across the road. When he drove over it, the hose got caught up in the wheel and wrapped around the car axle. As he drove down Third Street, the hose ran up the hill with the sprinkler bouncing away, furiously spraying the entire world until it wrapped around a tree, stiffened, and burst the hose. They heard John’s car skid to a stop. Next, they heard John release a string of seriously blue language. Mort and Wort charged up the hill to turn off the hose which was now flowing water down into the pond. John Maloney looked over the hill top from Third Street and all he could see was his broken hose draining water into the pond. He shouted, “Why are we filling the pond!?” He then went charging off in search of Mort and Wort. And by the end of the month, a glorious bunch of daffodils, like little explosions of sunburst yellow, celebrated spring at the base of the hill.