Kathryn Ophelia
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Kathryn Ophelia lives the closest to me. Though I rarely see her, I hear her often. You see, she is the PIP who inhabits the space under my studio where the ground hog used to live. Sometimes he comes back and then Kathryn Ophelia can be heard grumbling and mumbling as she shoves furniture this way and that in order to accommodate him. She knows that he won't stay long, and she likes the extra food that he brings her way, so she's generally cheerful about his presence. Kathryn Ophelia is especially fond of the winter squash that the ground hog drags up from the neighbor's garden. Those squash are much too heavy for her to cart, and he always leaves at least half of it for her to lay out in the sun to dry. After all, with her home being full of the other PIPS each winter there is always need for extra food.
Sometimes if I am very quiet in my
studio above them I will hear tinkling giggles, and I suspect that
Kathryn Ophelia is reading to the Pips again.
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As
told by Maureen
Kathryn Ophelia is the literary one of
the group, and is usually seen with either paper and pencil in hand or a
many leaved book. Since she spends much of the summer preparing food to
store for winter, she decided to take notes on all of her preparations.
She plans to combine these jottings with her collection of Pip folklore
regarding useful herbs and healing tonics. She expects to call her book
A Gathering Together. (I have a suspicion that she is a little
resentful of the extra work expected of her each winter.) She often
entertains the others during the long winter time by reading them the
notes that she took as she watched their summer antics. (Kathryn
Ophelia rarely partakes in their summer games and frolics, as she is
most comfortable being the silent observer.) PIPS never seem to tire of
hearing about themselves, so she always has an eager audience for her
readings. Her dream is to someday own a little printing press so that
she can write a newspaper for all the other Pip communities.
©
1993, 2006 by Maureen Carlson