Heading for the hills?

The large crowd watched as Jagaswami and his assistants headed for the hills.



"I doubt we'll be seeing them again!" remarked a mother kangaroo to the camel beside her.

From her pouch, her little joey asked, "Avian bird flew where?"

Med Rhino called through the crowd to Med Rhino Junior, "Jumbo! Let's head home."

"Let's go and see the young swami on the hill," said the peacock, rushing off.

"Madhav! Wait for me!" called the largest owl.

------

Meanwhile, Jagaswami and friends were NOT leaving town as was expected. Instead, they were stealthily making their way back to the mansion that belonged to the German family. The Germans had come to Arunachala to practice self-enquiry, but when an invitation had come recently from some relatives to join them for a month in the Alps, they saw no reason not to combine self-enquiry and some summer skiing. Krackaswami's ears had perked up when he heard the German father telling a friend in a shop about their upcoming trip.

"Will you be having housesitters?" the friend had asked.

"Oh no!" said the German dad. "I could never bear the thought of anyone sleeping in my bed ... or rummaging through my cupboards."

"Quite so! And specially with the recent ... err... trouble ... you might come back to find your bed quite ruined.! Ha ha!" (A long peal of the sort of laughter only those untouched by the epidemic could indulge in.

The German smiled nervously, not wanting to pursue THAT topic.

Behind a stand of bottled waters, Krackaswami had chuckled behind a paw.

_________


The "swamis" took the long route to avoid being spotted, but were quite soon back in the mansion which they had entered the day before.

Unfortunately, the Germans had finished off all the cream and butter and other fresh foods that would have gone off during their month away. The nerve! thought Krackaswami. A thorough search of the cupboards turned up quite a few treasures -- boxes of imported cookies, jams from the Black Forest, vintage wines. Jagaswami began assembling some of these on the table while Krackaswami and the disguised dog threw together a pot of dal. Balanandaswami kept sniffing about nervously, saying the whole place smelled of humans.

"One quick way to take care of THAT," suggested Jagaswami with a laugh as he struggled to get the lid off the lingonberry jam.