While Bonita was off on her killing spree, the anxiety took Lester’s extremely sleepy self and transformed it into a wide awake worry wort! He lay there worrying about the poor mice who were losing their heads; he worried about Bonita getting caught and serving a long prison sentence and causing him to lose his job as herbal wizard and especially about taking care of his rascally bunnies, day in and day out.
After an hour of laying awake, not solving any problems, Lester hopped out of bed and went to the medicine cabinet. There he saw not one, but THREE clay bottles with a smiley face on them. He quickly gathered up all three bottles and put them in his little rainbow colored fanny pack to take to Nogdorf. Could getting rid of the old medicine heal Bonita? As he lay awake, Bonita dashed in the door of the burrow and fell heavily into bed. Lester tried waking her so he could ask her if she remembered her errant behaviour, but she was out cold. Well, he would ask her when he came home tonight with her new batch of cookies and she was in a good mood.
Nogdorf was very excited when Lester handed him the clay pots. He examined all three pots, quietly. He took the lids off of them one at a time, sniffed each one, then took the tiniest of tastes of each. He entered information about each one, making sure that each was marked, so they would not be confused.
Lester was dying of curiosity and was trying to stay quiet, so he didn’t interrupt Nogdorf. When a robin sang her beautiful song, it caused Nogdorf to lose his concentration and he suggested discussing the medicine over a cup of tea. Nogdorf started a small fire and set his pot on it. He gathered some mint leaves and rosehips and put them in each cup and poured hot water over it.
As their tea steeped, Nogdorf spoke up.
“So, Lester, I am not surprised Bonita is suffering. She is taking two different kinds of nightshade medicine that should never be mixed, one of which is Carla Rabbit’s prescription. I don’t remember prescribing her fatigue medicine twice, but here it is, so I must have. So, the expired nightshade medicines are causing temporary insanity. You are going to have to let her know her medicine has been recalled. Her cookies are ready to take home. It is possible she will not need them after she gets the other meds out of her system. You will have to monitor her and judge for yourself when and if she should stop the cookies.”
As they finished their tea, Lester asked, “Something has been bothering me, Nogdorf. You know how I wandered into the garden the first time and ate the magic, non-lettuce herbal wizard making plant?”
“Yes, go on,” Nogdorf responded.
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“Well, what is to keep the dark creatures from doing the same thing? That would be pretty scary to have one of them having the herbal wizard power,” Lester said.
Great observation and question, Lester,” Nogdorf said. “That particular plant is highly intelligent and obviously alive, as are all plants. It will curl from the top down to the ground and then be absorbed into the dirt if it feels someone other than the chosen herbal wizard approach it. So, you don’t have to worry about that anymore, Lester.”
“Lester, I wanted to correct you about something that happened yesterday. You were so excited about healing the hemlock plant that I didn’t want to bring you down by telling you in the moment. There is a Hemlock tree, but the plant you were healing, while very tall, is not a hemlock tree. It is a hemlock flower. It is actually the more poisonous of the two.” Nogdorf explained. “Lester, do you know what time of the day Bonita usually takes her medicine? I think you need to go home before that time today and give her some cookies to get her mind off of the medicine and make an easier transition. What do you think?”
“I’m not sure, because I’m not usually there, Nogdorf. If I had to guess, I would say sometime in the afternoon,” Lester responded.
“Well, considering the circumstances, I think you had better take off,” Nogdorf said.
At home, Bonita was frantically asking all of the bunnies where her medicine was when Lester got home. “Oh, Lester, I'm glad to see you. Where is my medicine? I always leave it in the medicine cabinet. None of the bunnies seem to know where it is. I have to have it.”
“Calm down, dear. Have some of your new cookies and I will explain things to you,” Lester said, trying to pacify her.
He turned on the tv while Bonita had her tea and cookies. He had to go round up the bunnies for bed and when he came back into Bonita’s room, she had a frown on her face. “What’s wrong, dear? Aren’t the cookies any good?” JJ asked.
“It’s not that. The cookies are great and I am so happy to have them again. No, I am sad because, “ Bonita started weeping. “The poor mice. Sniff, sniff, They were just laying there without any heads, bleeding all over the ground. Waaaa. How could someone do that? Killing poor defenseless baby mices’ mamas and daddys. How could they do that to our poor neighbors?” She continued wailing until her cookies kicked in.
Lester was explaining to Bonita why he had to take away her fatigue medicine when Jonny Rabbit, their 2 year old son came hopping into the room, crying and spitting. “Angel is teasing me again and she pushed me down in the mud, mom. Do something. Punish her.”
Bonita looked at Lester and burst out laughing! “Ha ha ha, the bunnies are fighting again. Ha ha. And Angel got the better of Jonny this time. Now he is going to have to take a bath. Ha ha. He sure doesn’t like baths.” She continued on for another ten minutes and then fell asleep.
Lester breathed a sigh of relief. Obviously, Bonita didn’t remember being the holy terror of the neighborhood. Now to make it through the night. Hopefully, she wouldn’t go out any more at night. And the bunnies. Oh my, he had to wrestle them to bed.
