Hokey Comes Home

Remember Hokey, who went out to Death Valley, and wasn't heard from again?

He came back. Although, I may be the only person around who knows it. I went to the Red Barn Theatre to work on a theatrical set I am building. While I was there, I thought I had heard some wee little snore, but it was so miniscule, I didn't give it another thought. Yet, as I was packing up to go, I saw him. Laying on a barn rafter.

I squinted through the din calling out, "Hokey? Is that you?"
I heard a low down-on-your-luck mumble, "Mmm-hmmm."


"What happened?" asked I?

Apparently, Hokey was having a gay ol time in Death Valley, when an ex of Ragtime Lil's hunted him down. Remember Lil and Hokey had quite a hoe-down fling going on....

Penniless, heart broken and, come on TINY and squishable, Hokey knew not~what to do, so he hitched a ride on the Loco Q (that's a train, not a mule), and thumbed it the rest of the way home. Being of western heritage, Hokey decided the best place to hide out would be a barn. First, he slept out in the dandelions.

But spring rains kept washing him down the gully, so he climbed through a knothole in the silo.

And crawled to the nearest post, and that's where he fell, exhausted, and went to sleep. That's where I came in!

I told him to come home and visit the other dolls on Granny's couch and he let me whisk him up; I gave him one last look at the barn, and we travelled home.

All his cousins were delighted to see him home again. I told them in his honor, I would make baked beans and hard tack! Later, he can wrestle a squirrel to the ground and then there'll be a real feast! Oh

 Home on the Range!!