Darn Right!

Flash Fiction

Darn Right!

“It’s Groundhog Day!” Ginnie yelled racing out of the house to catch her bus. Mom drove Henry to school. He was in preschool.

She walked into the kitchen where he was still eating his breakfast.

“What’s a groundhog?” he asked.

Mom smiled that smile she always used when he asked questions. “Groundhogs are little animals, the size of squirrels I think…”

“So why do they get their own day?”

“I think it’s because they hibernate in the winter.”

“What is hibergate?”

“It’s hiber-NATE. It means they sleep all winter.”

“I sleep all winter…”

“No, you wake up and go to school or play at home all day long. You only sleep at night. They sleep all day, and all night.”

“Eyew. All day and night?

“Apparently on Groundhog Day, they peek out of their hole to see if it’s spring so they can stay awake.”

“How do they know?”

“It has something to do with if they see their shadow or not. If they see a shadow they think it’s something scary I guess, and they run back into their hole, and go back to sleep. Then we have a longer winter.”

“So, they are in charge of the weather?”

“Ah, apparently...?”

“You don’t really know?”

“I’ve never seen a groundhog. Maybe you’ll see one at school today and you can ask, then you can tell me!”

“Good plan!” Henry said, finishing up his food and running to get his coat.

“That was tricky” came the voice of Henry’s father.

“It worked very well when Ginnie was a kid…” Mom said.

“How did you think that up?”

“Your mother told me she used it on you, so I used it on Ginnie when she asked.”

“Actually, now that you mention it, I remember! Mothers are pretty darn smart.”

“Darn right!”