“Errol”

The wind that morning had been no more than a gentle breeze, but by noon the sun had dimmed and a full out gale was blowing. Frodo hated to do it, but he had no choice. A storm was coming and it was a good idea to get Pippin inside before it started. He would have liked to get Merry back inside also but he doubted that the older lad would be as easy to find.

Frodo walked out into the garden beside of Bag End and began to look around for Pippin. He had instructed the twelve-year-old child to stay in the garden and had even spent extra time making sure that Pippin knew exactly where the boundaries of the garden were. Frowning up at the darkening sky, Frodo wondered if perhaps Pippin had followed Merry and the older lads out of the garden. It had happened before.

“Pippin!” Frodo called. “Pippin, it’s going to storm. You need to get inside now!”

There was no answer and so Frodo walked further out into the garden. Just past the apple tree, Frodo noticed that the door to the Gaffer’s storage shed was standing open. Frodo distinctly remembered telling Pippin to stay out of the Gaffer’s things. “Peregrin Took, you come out here at once!” Frodo shouted, making an effort to speak loudly enough to be heard over the sound of the wind.

There was no answer and Frodo watched in annoyance as the door to the shed banged against the side of the building. The wind was getting stronger with each passing minute. Soon the rain would begin to fall. Frodo decided that the sound of the wind might be keeping Pippin from hearing him and so he went over to look inside of the shed.

He had never liked the little shed. The Gaffer had wanted a place in which to store his gardening supplies and Bilbo had agreed to let him build this little eyesore in behind the apple tree without ever giving a thought to how dreadful it might look. Frodo had always thought that the little shed spoiled the look of this part of the garden. Also, something about the building, which was so unhobbit-like in its appearance, gave Frodo a nervous feeling. He’d never liked coming in here.

Resigned to searching the tiny structure for his wayward cousin, Frodo pushed aside his dislike for the shed and went in. The shed wasn’t very large and it was piled high with all sorts of oddments. The Gaffer had stored a barrel of nails in one corner. The barrel was sealed but someone had painted the word “Nales” on the side of it in big white letters. The Gaffer, like a great many hobbits, didn’t read and so Frodo suspected that Sam had labeled the barrel a few years back before his spelling had improved. He smiled and continued to look about.

Pippin liked to hide just for the entertainment of watching others look for him and even though the shed was small, there were lots of nooks and crannies big enough for a lad of twelve to hid in and not be seen. On top of the barrel of “Nales” there lay several apple cores and so someone had been here recently.

The Gaffer had several feet of rope coiled and hung on a peg at the back of the shed. Three hoes leaned against the wall next to the rope. Several pots that could be used for smaller plants sat in a cluster on the floor. There was a stool, a rake, a wheel barrow, a broken wheel barrow, some extra tomato stakes, some twine, four shovels, an old trunk with the lid missing, a wagon wheel, a saddle with both stirrups missing, several little garden trowels, no less than eight containers of paint, several paint brushes, two posts that Frodo recognized as being from the back fence, some flat stones that could be used for making a walkway and a wall of shelves and dusty old boxes.

Suddenly, there was a loud thud and Frodo whirled about to see that the wind had blown the shed door closed. “Lovely!” Frodo said to no one in particular. It was obvious now that Pippin wasn’t in here. He might have been in here earlier eating apples, but the lad was gone now. Frodo walked over to the door and pulled on the knob. Might just as well continue his search elsewhere. If Merry had taken Pippin with him without letting Frodo know, then there would be two hobbit-lads in trouble.

Frodo pulled the knob again and nothing happened. It rattled but the door didn’t come open. Suddenly a wave of panic hit him and he tugged harder at the door. He pounded on it with his fists. He took a step back and then threw his shoulder against it. It rattled, as if to taunt him, but it did not open.

The shed was darker with the door shut. The Gaffer had built a small six-inch opening into the top of the shed to allow some light to come in, but there was no actual window. With the storm coming, the sky had darkened and so there really wasn’t much light coming in at the moment. The boards of the door had tiny cracks between them and that let some light in, but not nearly enough to make much difference.

Frodo pounded on the door in frustration. Maybe if Pippin were in the garden, he would hear the noise and come and let Frodo out. Frodo laughed and spoke aloud, “Frodo Baggins, you are now at the mercy of a twelve-year-old Took. No good can come of that.”

Frodo kicked the door with his foot, which only succeeded in causing pain to shoot up his leg forcing him to sit down and rub his foot. Next to him on the floor he found a wedge-shaped block of wood, which he held in his hand and admired. “Where were you a minute or two ago?” he asked. This was the wedge that the Gaffer always put under the door to keep it propped open while he worked in the shed or got supplies out. It would have been nice if it had been underneath the door earlier.

Frodo stood up and limped over to the barrel marked “Nales” and lay the wedge down on top of it. He wondered if there might be anything in here that he could use to get himself out of this predicament. He wondered where Merry might be about now. He wondered if Pippin was with Merry. He wondered how long it might be before anyone missed him. How long after they missed him might they think to look in this shed?

“I could starve to death in here,” Frodo said. Suddenly he caught sight of something looking at him and he backed up against the opposite wall. Something was peering at him from one of the shelves. It was something fuzzy and a bit ratty looking. Frodo’s eyes widened and he heaved a sigh of relief when he realized what it was. Errol!

Frodo hadn’t seen Errol in a while. In fact, he hadn’t thought too much about Errol in quite some time. He chuckled and walked over and removed the large, stuffed rabbit from the shelf. “So, Errol, I know how I managed to get into this fix,” Frodo said, running a hand over the furry stuffed rabbit’s ears. “Just how did you wind up in here?”

A loud crack of thunder sounded and Frodo instinctively hugged the rabbit to himself and then sighed. “Look at this,” he said to the rabbit. “I am a grown hobbit and here I am trapped in a shed that I have never really liked and clinging to a stuffed rabbit for comfort during a storm! I am supposed to be a responsible adult. In fact, I am supposed to be watching out for Merry and Pippin. You remember Pippin, don’t you?”

Errol said nothing, of course, and so Frodo continued. After all, there was nothing else to do at the moment. “I wonder if Pippin knows that you’re out here in the Gaffer’s shed? Did he put you here or did someone else do that?” Frodo considered the brown bunny intently as if willing it to give up its secrets.

The thunder sounded again but this time it came as less of a surprise and Frodo sat down with the rabbit in his hands and sighed. “It looks as if it will be just you and me for a while, Errol. I think that the storm is going to keep everyone inside. I don’t suspect that anyone will be looking for either of us anytime soon.”

Frodo tried to remember the last time he’d seen Pippin dragging this rabbit around. Pippin loved this old toy and had slept with it for years. Every time the lad would come to Bag End to visit, he’d have the rabbit under one arm and his pack under the other. Errol had slept with Pippin until Merry had begun to tease their younger cousin about the rabbit. That had been just after Bilbo had left.

Frodo sighed. “I suppose lots of things have changed in the past few years, Errol,” Frodo said. “I’ve come of age and become the Master of Bag End, Bilbo’s gone, Gandalf hasn’t been about for a while, and you have been relegated to the Gaffer’s shed.” He looked around the dimly lit little building and laughed. “I guess we’ve both been relegated to the shed. At least we have company, don’t we?”

The rain was pounding against the roof. Frodo sat with his back to the wall and his feet stretched out in front of him with Errol on his lap. For some strange reason, he felt better now that he had Pippin’s stuffed rabbit in his hands. He wasn’t about to admit that when he was found, but it was true.

He remembered an argument between Pippin and Merry that had taken place not too long after Bilbo had left.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“It’s a stuffed toy, Pippin,” Merry said, sounding disgusted. “You’re too old to sleep with it.”

“I am not,” Pippin said. “I can sleep with Errol if I want to!”

“Give up the rabbit, Pip Squeak,” Merry said, taking the toy out of Pippin’s hands and holding it out of reach. “You don’t want other lads to make fun of you for sleeping with a stuffed toy.”

“Give him back, Merry!” Pippin shouted. “He’s mine and I want him! Give me my rabbit!”

“You’re too old for this,” Merry said, sternly. “This is a baby toy and you are always telling me that you aren’t a baby anymore so you don’t need this bunny.” Merry held the rabbit over his head and looked down at Pippin’s face as the youngster tried to snatch the toy by jumping up and grabbing at it. Merry was so much taller that Pippin didn’t have a chance. Merry was tall for his age and he was eight years older than Pippin. The twelve-year-old was outsized but Pippin was never the sort to give up easily.

Pippin suddenly pulled back a foot and kicked Merry hard in the shin. “Ouch!” Merry yelled, dropping the rabbit and grabbing his injured leg.

Pippin scooped up the rabbit and ran from the room yelling out as he went, “I am not a baby and you leave my rabbit alone, Merry!”

“As soon as I can walk again, I am coming after you Pippin!” Merry shouted.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Frodo chuckled. Pippin might be smaller and younger, but he was not easily out-matched. “You must be a very important rabbit, Errol,” Frodo said. “Pippin usually goes along with whatever Merry tells him, especially if Merry tells him that something makes him look like a baby.”

Frodo frowned. “I hope they’re both inside and warm and dry.” He put the rabbit against his chest and stroked its fur. “They’re good lads, both of them. Merry only teases Pippin because he’s so fond of him and even though they do torment the very life out of me at times, I always look forward to their visits especially now that Bilbo is gone. It’s very pleasant living alone and it suits me quite well, but sometimes even I like a bit of company.”

The wind howled outside and battered the little building with all of its force while Frodo talked to the rabbit. “Merry is at that dreadful age where he thinks that no one knows more than he does. He believes that he has all of the answers that he will ever require and naturally he has no reason to listen to anyone about anything. The truth of it is, Errol, most of the time Merry does have all of the answers,” Frodo chuckled. “That one is far too smart for his own good. He will be a real chore to keep in line from here on.”

He shifted his position on the hard floor and continued. “Now, Pippin is just a complete handful. That one is into something every minute of every day. He can’t keep still even when he’s asleep. He thinks he’s every bit as grown up as Merry and he is the nosiest little lad that I have ever come across. I can’t count the number of times that I have found him snooping in my drawers, or rummaging through the cupboards and he’ll look up at me when I catch him and say, “What’s this, Frodo?” He doesn’t apologize for any of it. It’s maddening, Errol,” Frodo confessed. “One of these days, that lad is going to land in a pile of trouble because of that curiosity of his. He’s already got into some nasty situations because of it.”

The rain droned on and so did Frodo. Errol, being a very patient stuffed rabbit and used to constant chatter as he belonged to Pippin, sat quietly in Frodo’s lap doing what all good stuffed companions do, giving comfort to those in need of it.
____________________________________________

It was a full three hours later when Merry opened the door to the shed and placed a large rock against the door to hold it open. The storm had stopped as suddenly as it had begun and the wind was, once again, only a gentle breeze.

Pippin peered around the doorframe and then whispered to Merry, “What’s he doing?”

“I don’t know, but it looks to me as if he’s taking a nap,” Merry whispered back.

“In the garden shed?” Pippin said, slightly louder.

“That’s what it looks like to me,” Merry said, as he and Pippin tiptoed into the shed and looked down at their older cousin. Frodo was slumped against the wall of the shed sound asleep with a large stuffed rabbit held gently in his arms. His face was resting against the rabbit’s head, pressing its ears down on either side.

“Errol!” Pippin crowed with joy. “Merry, it’s my rabbit!”

Merry groaned and slapped his forehead as Frodo jerked awake and sat up straight. His eyes fell at once on Pippin who was squatted down and looking happily at the rabbit in Frodo’s arms. “You found Errol!”

Merry smirked. “Aren’t you a little too old to be sneaking out into the shed to sleep with Pippin’s rabbit, Cousin?”

Frodo scowled up at him in embarrassment and forced the stuffed toy into Pippin’s waiting arms. “I just fell asleep is all,” Frodo muttered, getting to his feet. “The wind blew the door shut and I got locked in here during that storm.”

“Why didn’t you prop the door open?” Merry asked. “The Gaffer has a wedge somewhere in here, but if you can’t find it, you can always use a rock.”

“Thank you for that pearl of wisdom,” Frodo growled, rubbing his back which felt stiff from his nap on the floor. “The next time I come in here I will remember that.”

“It will save you a great deal of trouble,” Merry advised, sagely.

“It’s all right, Frodo,” Pippin said, still holding the rabbit. “I forget those sorts of things all the time when I’m exploring.”

“You mean, when you’re snooping,” Merry said with a smirk.

“At least you found my rabbit,” Pippin said, ignoring Merry and slipping his hand into Frodo’s. ‘I’ve looked everywhere for him. I wonder how he got all the way out here? I don’t remember bringing him out here. Do you remember me doing that, Merry?”

“No,” Merry said, a bit uncomfortably.

“I wonder how he got all the way out here?” Pippin said, clutching the rabbit tightly and looking at it fondly.

“I wonder too,” Frodo said, with a look in Merry’s direction.

Merry averted his eyes and said, “It doesn’t matter, Pip. Frodo found it.”

“Yes, I did,” Frodo remarked, managing to catch Merry’s eye. “I only hope I don’t find Errol anywhere else unusual.”

“Oh, I promise to keep up with him better, Frodo,” Pippin said, thinking that this warning might be directed at him. “I know it was careless of me to lose him like that.”

Frodo continued to look at Merry as the three of them began to walk back to Bag End.

“I just don’t remember bringing him out to the garden shed,” Pippin said, furrowing his brow and trying to puzzle out the mystery. “But thank you so much for finding him, Frodo.”

“You are very welcome, Pippin,” Frodo said, as the three of them entered Bag End.

“I just don’t know how-“

“I put the rabbit in the shed, all right?” Merry said, stopping and looking down at Pippin. “I took it and I hid it from you in that shed because I knew that you weren’t supposed to be in there.”

Pippin’s eyes widened with surprise and he hugged the rabbit even tighter. “You hid Errol in the shed?”

“Look, Pip Squeak, I only did it because you’re getting too old to be sleeping with a stuffed rabbit,” Merry said. “I didn’t want anyone teasing you about it and so I hid the rabbit.”

Pippin frowned at Merry but said nothing.

“You’ve slept just fine without it,” Merry pointed out. “Why old Errol here has been in the shed since the last time we visited Frodo and that was nearly three months ago.”

Pippin continued to look up at Merry but still said nothing.

“Pippin, it’s only a stuffed bunny,” Merry said. “It isn’t as if I put your sister, Pervinca in the shed or anything.”

Pippin looked down at the rabbit and then walked past Merry into the next room.

Merry looked over at Frodo and sighed. “I really only did it because he’s too old for it, Frodo. Someone has to take it away from him or the other lads will tease him about it.”

“Merry, what other lads are we talking about?” Frodo asked, as he put a kettle on for tea.

“Well, you know,” Merry said, sounding uncertain. “The other lads that he knows.”

“Merry, the only other lad who is staying at Bag End right now is you,” Frodo said. “And you are also the only lad teasing Pippin about his rabbit.”

“Well, what if he takes it other places, Frodo?” Merry said, defensively. “He brings it to the Hall with him when he comes to stay with me and I know he sleeps with it at his smial. What if some of the other lads found out?”

“Is this about Pippin, Merry or is this something else?” Frodo asked, cutting himself a slice of cheese. He’d been in the shed long enough to be hungry.

“I don’t know what you mean,” Merry said, too quickly.

Frodo smiled kindly. “Yes, you do.”

Merry sighed. “Well, I was only trying to protect him.”

Frodo nodded. “I know that, but he doesn’t and so you better explain it to him. That stuffed rabbit isn’t the only thing around here that he depends upon, you know.”

Merry sighed again and left to find Pippin while Frodo greedily stuffed another chunk of cheese into his mouth. Errol had been fine company out in the shed, but there hadn’t been anything at all to eat.
____________________________________________

Pippin was curled up on his bed with Errol in his arms when Merry came in and sat down.

“Pippin, I’m sorry I took your rabbit,” Merry began.

“No you’re not,” Pippin said. “Frodo made you come and tell me that, but you’re not sorry at all.”

“Yes, I am,” Merry said. “I really did take Errol for your own good, Pip.”

Pippin ignored this and turned his back to Merry.

“When I was your age, I had this old blanket that I liked a lot,” Merry said in an embarrassed tone. “I used to sleep with it at night and I liked to have it with me when I was sick or just feeling bad about something.”

“Did any of your mean older cousins steal it and hide it in a dirty old garden shed for your own good?” Pippin asked, still angry.

“No,” Merry said. “Berilac and Freddy caught me sleeping with it on the sofa one afternoon and they teased me something fierce about my baby blanket and they told some of the other lads about it.”

Pippin sat up and moved over next to Merry leaving Errol to fend for himself for a moment. “Why would they tease you about sleeping with a blanket, Merry?” Pippin frowned. “Everyone sleeps with blankets.”

“This one had a bunch of little lambs on it and it was pink,” Merry said, blushing.

“You slept with a pink blanket?” Pippin said, giggling.

“One of my aunts made it when mum was carrying me in case I was a lass or something revolting like that,” Merry grumbled.

Pippin snickered. “You weren’t a lass, so why’d you have the blanket?”

“Because I found it when I was about two and I liked it so mum let me keep it, all right?” Merry glared at Pippin and dared him to say anything. Pippin continued to grin but he didn’t say anything and so Merry continued. “I only took Errol so that something like what happened to me wouldn’t happen to you.”

Pippin hugged Merry tightly and then said, “I don’t care what the other lads think of Errol, Merry.”

Merry pulled away from Pippin and looked at him. “You will if they start teasing you in front of folks and asking you where your baby blank-er, bunny rabbit is.” Merry blushed.

“I know,” Pippin said, sadly. “But Merry?”

“What?” Merry said.

“Couldn’t I just sleep with Errol a little longer?” Pippin asked. ‘I’ll try real hard not to get caught by anyone.”

Merry looked down at the earnest little face and sighed. “I suppose it’s all right. If anyone finds out and picks on you, I’ll beat them up for you.”

Pippin hugged him again and said, “Thank you for looking out for me, Merry.” Then after a pause he said in a whisper. “I don’t think we should tell anyone about Frodo sleeping with Errol. He really is too old for a stuffed rabbit.”

Out in the hall, Frodo grinned. It was comforting to know that his secret was safe with Pippin.

The End

G.W. 05/01/2005