FicWad

Groundhog Day

Sunrise was predicted for 6:50 on the morning of Winter 15th, but that didn't stop Mayor Thomas from dragging Harris out of bed at six. Thomas made sure he was dressed in his best for the occasion, or his second best, or his third best since his second best bore an apple pie stain on the lapel and his best was reserved for slightly more important occasions than Groundhog Day. But Harris dragged himself into the chilly breeze with his shirt buttoned crookedly underneath his coat and his pillow hair matted to his head.

Mayor Thomas hummed as he led Harris up the trail behind Mother's Hill, fiddling with his "Groundhog Day" sash all the while. It took him a while to locate the ground hog's hole every year, giving Harris time to wake himself up. After all, his nighttime patrols of the town usually lasted into the morning hours. An extra hour of sleep would be all he needed, as he thought. And the sun shined way too brightly that morning.

"Aha!" Mayor Thomas cried as he scurried through the bushes and towards the burrow in the clearing. Harris clomped behind him through the crunchy, thick coating of snow, and nearly slipped when he skidded to a stop. Mayor Thomas excitedly stuck his arm in the burrow without much thought. Then he pulled it back up and laughed.

"I almost forgot!" he said. "We have to perform the official ode to Mineral Town Max!"

"Not this again..." Harris sighed, letting his forehead meet his palm.

"C'mon, son!" Thomas insisted. "It'll be fun!"

"I've gotta get to patrolling," Harris told him. But Mayor Thomas obliviously raised his fingers and began conducting in the air.

"Oh! Mineral Town Max!" he warbled, completely out of touch with any key. "Won't you show us the facts? Tell us if winter will get the axe!" Harris didn't bother joining with him. "Mineral Town Max! For you are the best. Better than all the rest. Now tell us the facts, and hope winter will get the axe!"

"Okay, Dad," Harris said, comparing in his head his father's singing to the American Idol auditions he 'happened' to catch the night before. "Now let's see if Max sees his shadow already."

"Yes, yes," Mayor Thomas. He got down on his crawls and reached into the burrow. Harris watched as his father dug around through the hole. After a while of waiting, Harris said:

"Maybe he's not in there."

"Nonsense!" Mayor Thomas replied. "He's always home."

"But I don't think he appreciates having people yank him out of bed this early, especially in the cold," Harris added as he slowly remembered how many times he had that conversation with Thomas year after year. His father first dragged him out of bed for the Groundhog Day celebrations around the age of seven. Since then, any reasoning with his father proved futile.

Then one year, Thomas ardently announced his plans of making Groundhog Day an official festival day in Mineral Town. But everyone stared up at him with blank faces, until a ten-year-old Karen asked: "Why?"

Mayor Thomas could never find an answer to appease anyone.

"Aha!" Thomas cried, jarring Harris from his thoughts. "I've got him!" As soon as Harris looked over, Thomas found himself jerked forward into the dirt. With that, he pulled his arm up from the hole and brought himself to his knees. "He got away!" he announced.

"I told you he doesn't want to come out," Harris said. He mused on a thought. "Hmmm... why can't we just use our shadows to tell instead?"

"Because we aren't groundhogs!" Thomas promptly answered. "If we could just as easily predict the coming of spring, then it would be called 'Human Day'."

"I dunno, but I think an animal would know when to come out of hiding for the spring," Harris replied. "And it seems to me Spring comes on the dot, right at the same time every year no matter what Max sees." He paused. "Kinda strange, actually."

Thomas blatantly ignored him, and instead stood up and tip-toed through the snow, watching the ground all the way. By that point, Harris made up his mind that his father had gone off his rocker.

"Thirty-six degrees west at three o'clock and a parallel angle... and..." Mayor Thomas stopped. "Here!" he exclaimed, pointing at the spot below his feet.

"Dad, d'you know what arbitrary means?" Harris asked as he trudged after him.

"He's gotta live right here now," Thomas beamed, proud of his groundhog burrow locating skills.

Harris sighed in exasperation, and turned around. He thought he saw something stand on its haunches near the real burrow. But on the second look, he noticed the something was a chubby, greyish-brown ball of fur that stared almost neurotically Harris with his shiny brown eyes.

"Dad..." he said in a hushed voice. "Turn around slowly." Thomas looked over his shoulder, and then completely forgot what Harris told him five seconds ago.

"There he is!" he cried as he darted in Max's direction. Max spun around and pattered under the bushes and onto the trail of Mother's Hill. But Mayor Thomas stayed on his lack-of-a-tail, and bounded at him once he got close enough. For a good moment, Thomas lay on his stomach and kept the frantically wriggling groundhog pinned underneath his arm.

Finally, he scrambled to his feet. "A-HA!" Mayor Thomas. He turned to Harris with a big grin, covered in twigs, snow, and dirt.

"Good job, Dad," Harris said unenthusiastically as he stepped out from the shrubs. All the while, Max struggled to escape from Thomas's arms. "Now let the guy see his shadow so we can get this over with."

With that, Mayor Thomas set Max on the ground. Max crept about, sniffing at the air. He seemed to take notice to his own shadow.

"I know he sees his shadow, son," Mayor Thomas began. Harris audibly groaned, knowing what Thomas would say next. "He's gotta speak to me now."

"I'm going to patrol now," Harris announced blankly. He made his way down the trail, but not in time to avoid hearing Mayor Thomas's shouts.

"SPEAK TO ME, MAX!!" he cried. Max, like Harris, decided he was better off elsewhere and scurried back down his hole before Thomas could catch him.

Lucky for them, spring came on time that year, just as it did every year.