A Quiet Evening Around the Campfire
by SirGerald
MISTY THE UNICORN, STRIPE THE SKINK, STU THE STEGOSAURUS, and GENTLE BEN THE GRIZZLY were sitting around a campfire one evening shooting the breeze and swapping tall tales with TAILGATER, their host. Each had arrived earlier in the day, coming from all directions. They had never been here before but had heard about it on the grapevine from other Travellers they'd met on the trail and rails. Word was that Tailgater's campfire was a pleasant place to spend a quiet evening after a long day travelling. Time and time again, they had heard other Travel Bugs mention what a fine person Tailgater was.
They had just finished a plate of stew that their host had so graciously provided, when Misty looked up toward the western horizon and gasped. "Oooh, what a beautiful SUNSET that is!", she said. The others, not wanting to miss seeing such a thing of beauty, also looked to the western sky and each uttered a sincere sigh of appreciation. Gentle Ben said, "I suppose sunsets are beautiful everywhere, but I still can't help but think that Utah sunsets are the prettiest." Stripe and Stu immediately spoke up saying that the sunsets from their respective homelands were the best. Eventually, they all had to agree with Gentle Ben's original assessment that sunsets are beautiful everywhere.
"Hey", Tailgater said, "I've got just one request for each of you. You've shared my evening meal and we've had a fine time telling stories of the places we've been and the things we've seen. I'd like to remember each of you because you've been such fine company." He reached into his bag, rummaged around for a few seconds and then pulled out a dark green bottle. "This is my 'TRAVELING SIGNATURE ITEM TRADING TRAVEL BUG'", he said. "I'd like each of you to leave me one of your signature items for my bottle here."
After each of them willingly contributed their sig item to the bottle, Misty said, "I noticed a big diamond ring in there, Tailgater. Where'd you get that? Surely something as valuable as that isn't someone's signature item."
"You're right there", Tailgater said. I got that from a sorry-looking young buck I met a while ago. He was still all bummed out and crying in his beer. Seems his girlfriend had just given it back to him before running off with some other guy. This guy was planning to just throw this diamond ring into the river. But I talked him into letting me hang onto it for him for awhile. You know, just in case he ever might want it back again."
"Ouch, that had to hurt!" Stu said. Ben agreed and added, "I hope that fellow can find someone else soon. A rock like that really ought to be on a pretty girl's finger instead of in an old hobo's bottle." They all chuckled at his bold statement of the obvious.
Later, as they were all doing a bit of star-gazing, Stripe noticed that one of the stars seemed to be moving slowly but steadily across the sky. When he mentioned it to the others, Tailgater said, "Yeah, that's got to be either a satellite or the SPACE SHUTTLE DISCOVERY. You didn't know you could see the shuttle flying overhead, did you?"
Shortly after that, they all yawned, said "Good Night", and crawled into a nearby ammo can.