Raccoon was chatting with Sloth one morning when Squirrel skittered past.
“G’morning, nice t’see ya, gotta run!” said Squirrel on his way by. Squirrel didn’t like to talk to Sloth — waiting for Sloth to finish saying anything made his tail twitch and he had to run up and down three trees afterward just to calm down. But Raccoon didn’t mind, and Sloth’s favorite branch — which was lower down in Squirrel’s tree — wasn’t too high for her to climb.
“Good morning, Squirrel,” smiled Sloth. Squirrel was four trees away already, but Sloth liked to be polite anyway.
“Squirrel moves pretty fast,” said Raccoon.
“He certainly does,” said Sloth. “Being Squirrel must be like having a dream, then waking up where you were dreaming of.”
“I suppose so…wait, what?” said Raccoon. “Waking up where you were dreaming?”
“Once in a while that might happen to me,” said Sloth. “I’ll have a lovely dream about hanging upside-down from a nice branch, but not the same branch where I am. Then when I wake up, there I am.”
“That’s strange,” said Raccoon. “Does it happen very often?”
“Not very often,” said Sloth, “But it’s happened a couple of times just recently, and with this very branch. It’s why this is my favorite branch, you see. One of the reasons, at least.”
“When?”
“When I first arrived in the forest, that’s how I got here, as far as I know,” said Sloth. “Those Rat brothers at the party? Bilge and Wharf? They said I must have come on a ship. But I don’t think I did. Maybe I just slept through it, but I don’t remember being on a ship. I was back where I used to live. It was about the same, but the trees were a little different. The leaves weren’t as tasty. I settled down for a nice nap. I dreamed about a branch just like this one here…and when I woke up, here I was.”
That had been a great deal for Sloth to say all at once. By the time she finished it was lunchtime and Raccoon was hungry. She was trying to think of a way to politely leave to get something to eat when Sloth said “Would you excuse me, Raccoon? That was a lot to say, and I think I’m ready for a little nap.”
“No, no, quite alright,” said Raccoon. “Have a nice nap, Sloth. I’ll stop by again.”
“That’s very nice of you, Racoonnnnnn….” Sloth began, but by the time she got to the end of “Raccoon” her eyes closed and she fell asleep.
Raccoon knew that a ‘little nap’ for Sloth might last all day, so she climbed down and went home to eat some delicious onions she’d saved. After lunch she went to see Beaver.
“I’ve never heard of anything like that,” said Beaver, after Raccoon had told him what Sloth said. “Sloth just has a dream and wakes up somewhere else?”
“That’s what she said,” Raccoon nodded. “But she also said she might have been on a ship but slept through it.”
“That could be, too,” agreed Beaver, “I think Sloth can sleep through almost anything.”
Sloth had been living in the forest long enough for nearly everyone to know that she spent most of her time napping. They also knew if you stopped by to say hello and she was asleep, then you might as well go away and stop by later. It was almost impossible to wake Sloth up. Owl had even tried her loudest screech, right next to Sloth, but it hadn’t worked. Otter and Muskrat said they were sure they could wake Sloth up by tickling, or if that didn’t work by some funny trick — but they refused to climb trees. Since Sloth only slept in trees, Otter and Muskrat never got the chance to try. But hardly anyone listened to those two anyway; they were hardly ever serious.
“I wonder if Sloth would like to do a test,” said Beaver, lightly tapping the floor with his tail. Raccoon remembered that he did that when he was thinking.
“What kind of test?” she asked.
“Maybe if we give Sloth a picture of a place before she goes to sleep,” said Beaver, “she would dream about it, and then maybe she’d wake up there. Then we’d know for sure.”
“Does that work?” asked Raccoon. “If you see a picture before you go to sleep, is that what you dream about?”
“I don’t know,” said Beaver. “Sometimes when I go to sleep after reading a book, I dream about the book. That’s what gave me the idea.”
“Wow,” said Raccoon. “I never remember what I dream about.”
“I don’t remember all the time, just sometimes.”
“Hey Beaver, what do you think dreams are?”
“What they are? What do you mean, Raccoon?”
“I don’t know, I just wonder if dreams are like daydreams — where you’re just thinking about something else, like if you’re eating a potato and thinking ‘what if this potato was a radish.’ Or maybe they’re like days but not dreams, like if you’re in Hare’s living room and you look out the window and think ‘there’s the meadow; it’s out there and I’m in here.’”
Beaver blinked. “Um…I don’t have any idea, Raccoon.”
“Well,” said Raccoon, “I was just wondering, that’s all.”
“I have a picture of part of the forest,” said Beaver, holding out a book. “This is from my library. It’s all about trees, and look right here.” He opened to a page and pointed.
“Hey, that’s the tree next to Otter’s mudslide,” said Raccoon. “You can see the slide in the background.”
“Exactly,” said Beaver. “If it works, maybe Sloth will wake up in this tree.”
Raccoon scratched her ear. “Sloth started a nap just about lunchtime,” she said, “and it’s not even dinner time yet. She probably won’t wake up until tomorrow.”
“Take this book with you, then,” said Beaver, “and when you see Sloth tomorrow, show her this page. You can even tell her the idea; maybe she can try to dream about it.”
“Does that work?” asked Raccoon. “Can you decide what to dream about?”
“I don’t know,” said Beaver. “But Sloth is an expert at sleeping, so if anybody can do it, she can.”
“Okay, I’ll try it,” said Raccoon, taking the book from Beaver.
“I’d visit her myself, but beavers can’t climb trees,” said Beaver. “Or, I suppose I might be able to, but the whole idea kind of scares me.Trees are for gnawing down, if you ask me.”
“Don’t worry, Beaver, I’ll visit Sloth tomorrow. We should tell Otter about the plan so he can check the tree.”
“Otter is not very reliable,” said Beaver. “Otter’s house isn’t very far from here. Come tell me after you show Sloth the picture, and I’ll check the tree myself.”
“Can I come too?” asked Raccoon. “Since I’ll be there anyway, to tell you and all?”
“Of course you can,” said Beaver. Raccoon hurried off carrying the book.
