It is so hot and do you know what I like to do when it is hot? That is right it is popsicles.

I like popsicles so much I thought about magnifying popsicle power. How do you think I could do this I will tell you. I collected all the popsicle sticks I could find on the ground and in the sticky garbage cans and of course my own collection. Then I put them together in a pile to make an ice-cold popsicle fire.

But do you know what I made a mistake and there were ice cream bar sticks in there too! So my popsicle fire was not all crystal and green and orange but had melty ice cream and chocolate bits and it cut down on the power output of the ice-coldness and it did not last long.

There is something I noticed about popsicle sticks though. You know that there are jokes on popsicle sticks like "Why did he apple kiss the banana?" but many of these sticks had jokes like "Why was the Tree of Knowledge upside down?" and “What is the difference between ‘secrets’ and ‘secrets of secrets’?” and I did not know the answers and they were not printed on the back of the sticks!

I think maybe it is time to talk to Larry Moon, Skunk Detective again.

I walked through the woods to visit Larry Moon, Skunk Detective, to ask him about the strange riddles on the popsicle sticks. It is very hot even in the woods and Larry Moon was in his office under the rock napping in the shade. He is not so hungry in the summer heat but he enjoyed the fresh squeezed lemonade I brought for him in my picnic basket.

I told Larry Moon about my question and showed him the popsicle sticks and their riddles like "Who is the beautiful maiden without eyes?" and "When does the bee wear the golden crown?" and the other sticks with the riddles written in Etruscan I think.

"Larry Moon what are these riddles?" is what I asked him.

Larry Moon said that this was not a detective problem but a research problem but he would help me find the answers and the ones with the answers were the goats. He said the goats knew the most about these kind of things since they have been paying attention the longest and did not have an "agenda." I did not know what Larry Moon meant by that but sometimes he is a very inscrutable skunk!

He also said that this was a good time to speak to the goats because it was a full moon in Capricorn which is a goat with a fish's tail isn't that funny? So he thought the old goats will be out and about.

I did not know that goats dance so much under a full moon!

At night when it was cool I walked in the dirt-road alleys behind the houses in the town and went to the backyard with all the goats. Sometimes when I walk I take this route and I visit the goats and they look at me with their golden eyes and their funny rectangle pupils and do not say a thing but they look like I just caught them doing something but they suddenly stopped.

But under the Capricorn moon they did not stop! They were dancing in the dirt of the yard and climbing up and dancing on the roofs of their little houses. They stood on their hind legs and waved their front legs and threw back their heads and horns and bleated in the moonlight. There were old goats and billy goats and kid goats and nanny goats.

"Hello goats what do you know about riddles?" is what I asked them.

"Why doesn't Saturn take a baa-aaa-aaath?" said the goats.

"What ru-uu-uns but never wearies?" said the goats.

"What kind of baa-aaaaank needs no money?" said the goats.

The goats thought this was very funny and suddenly they broke into a big song and dance routine that seemed very choreographed and went on for a very long time and somehow I climbed over the fence and was dancing with them! I can almost remember the song but not quite maybe it was like "Step in Time" from Mary Poppins.

It was very late when it was done and I was very dusty and smelled like goats. But before I left one old goat came and whispered in my ear:

"Why is it so easy to weigh fish?"

Then he laughed and bleated and frolicked away.

I was tired of those goats's riddles. I wanted to learn more about the riddles on the sticks but not to be asked so many riddles all the time! The goats's riddles were mostly very easy but I do not really love riddles so much. Maybe I want to know more about who makes the sticks is what I really want. And not be so frustrated.

But I do not know anyone in the popsicle industry. Maybe it would be time to reach out to alumni like the school likes to say but I am uncomfortable asking like that. So it was hot and I went to the river.

There were only some of the horse people down at the river and they were in their own herd so I hid and found a little hollow so I could be cool in the shade. And do you know what I saw right away it was the crawdads, and they were carrying popsicle sticks! I thought maybe the horse people were eating popsicles and then littering. But the crawdads were carrying the sticks in their little claws all in a line going underneath a big rock.

"What are you doing with all of those popsicle sticks, crawdads?" is what I asked.

Just then I saw the biggest crawdad I have ever seen.

"I am the Herald of the Crawfish," is what it said.

I told the Herald of the Crawfish about my curiosity, and the whole story about the popsicle stick fire and riddles I did not understand and the goats and why did the crawdads want the sticks so much too were they making a popsicle fire underwater.

The Herald of the Crawfish moved its antennas and eyes and whiskers a lot and then it said to me "Climb on my back, little girl" so do you know what that is what I did.

I did not know that backwards is the way that crawdads swim! And so I was sitting backwards too, but there were lots of bubbles and swishing and the river bottom became very huge and the Herald of the Crawfish was only as big as me and we were in the Great Hall of the Crawfish and all of the crawdads were only as big as me also.

I was very surprised to see that all the crawdads were bringing the sticks to a big tough crawdad and that crawdad was snip click snipping them into pieces. I was also very surprised that I was breathing underwater.

The Herald of the Crawfish told me that they were clipping and snipping all of the popsicle sticks with riddles into smaller and smaller pieces, till there was nothing left but underwater sawdust.

"We do not like those riddles," is what the Herald of the Crawfish said.

Then he took me back to the riverside.

And so for the rest of summer I picked up popsicle sticks.

I picked up popsicle sticks around the stinky garbages at school and at the bus stop on the road and under the bleachers and on the trails and down by the river a lot. After awhile I started picking up the other litter too because once you start looking for one kind of litter then you start seeing all the other kinds of litter and you feel bad if you don't pick that up also and so that is what I did.

But I didn't mind and I kept the popsicle sticks in one bag and the other litter in another bag and then I threw the other litter away in a dumpster and took the popsicle sticks home and separated the sticks with riddles like "What kind of dog has no tail?" and "What kind of train carries gum?" into one pile and the ones with jokes like "What quenches the unceasing hunger?" "When does the grain maiden rise grey with the moon?" or written in secret alphabets into another pile.

From picking up litter along the river I met the beavers. At first they slapped their tails in the water and swam and hid and looked at me from behind their sticks. But after they saw me picking up litter for so many days in the hot hot heat do you know what they did they spoke to me.

"Thank you for picking up the litter" is what they said to me.

I said it was no problem and went on picking up litter and they were watching me and one of the beavers walked over to me and asked what I did with the popsicle sticks which I thought was an interesting question for him to ask me. So I told him and do you know what he said the beavers were very interested in those sticks too!

He told me that the beavers have a Lodge. And I said yes I know we learned about it in school but he said No! that was not the true lodge. He said that in their Lodge they have a special room where they have a special dark wooden cabinet that is huge that the ancient beavers made. And in that cabinet that is where they keep all of those popsicle sticks that they can find!

He said they did not know what the riddles mean either. But they kept them in there, and on special days a beaver would wear a special hat and open the cabinet and read all of the riddles. And then they would all go build a dam for a school of blind beaver children or some other good deed.

I thought that sounded very nice. Even if they didn't understand the riddles.

So I gave all my popsicle sticks the the beavers. I am kind of over the popsicle sticks and their odd riddles now. I think it is because now it is not hot and I no longer crave popsicles.

I am going to stick to food without words on it for awhile.

Who is this Larry Moon? Is this a relative of mine?

I am keenly aware something strange is lurking here. Perhaps this is the event?

Or maybe it is Nova's new colored whisker...

We shall see.

Perhaps each of the popsicle stick questions have answers that, when put together, reveal a secret phrase. You must follow the secret phrase to wherever it leads you, to complete your quest and journey. Then again, maybe that is my imagination acting up again.