Dog and Ferret were due in Hare’s meadow, along with the rest of the guests, at about noon. Squirrel and Raccoon were helping Hare get everything ready for Sunday Brunch. Magpie, was watching from a low branch in Hare’s oak tree and explaining — the whole event had been her idea.
“Tell me again, why does this have a whole new word that’s not ‘lunch’ even though it happens at lunchtime?” asked Squirrel.
“I don’t know, exactly,” said Magpie. “Like I said before, I heard about it in town, and that’s just what it’s called.”
“‘Brunch’ is such a weird word, though,” said Raccoon. “It’s almost like somebody took the beginning of one word and the end of a different word and put them together.”
“I guess,” said Magpie.
“If the first word was ‘break’, and the second word was ‘hunch’, that would explain it,” suggested Hare, as he carried out a tray of tea cakes.
“But what does ‘break’ have to do with ‘hunch’?” asked Magpie.
“Hey, I know,” said Squirrel, “a hunch is an idea, right? And ‘break’ can mean something gets ruined, but it could also mean something new comes up. So maybe this is a special sort of meal where people have ideas.”
“That makes sense,” nodded Magpie.
“But why would you have more ideas at this meal than any other time?” asked Raccoon.
“Because you’re supposed to, I guess,” said Hare. “It’s like if I tell you ‘don’t think about snow’ — what does that make you think of?”
“Snow,” said Raccoon. “Thanks a lot, Hare.”
“That settles it,” said Magpie happily. “Sunday Brunch is where you have extra ideas. We have to tell everybody when they get here. That way they’ll know what they’re supposed to do.”
“Hang on a sec,” said Hare, “what do we need all these extra ideas for?”
“Need them for?” said Magpie. “How should I know?”
“Didn’t anybody in the town say anything about it?” asked Squirrel.
“Don’t think so,” said Magpie. “But look, if this is a special lunch where you have ideas…”
“Hello!” called Dog, who had just arrived. “This looks great! I love Sunday Brunch!”
“Me too,” said Ferret, who was sitting on Dog’s back, wearing a red and green costume.
“Hi guys,” said Hare. “We’re just getting ready. The others should be getting here soon. We just figured out that Sunday Brunch is for having ideas.”
“Ideas?” said Dog. “Ideas about what?”
“No clue,” said Hare. “It’s because the word ‘brunch’ is made up from ‘break’ and ‘hunch’. We haven’t started to work on why the ‘sunday’ is there.”
“Um,” said Dog, who knew they didn’t have it right but was too polite to make anybody feel badly, “I think there might be another possibility, Hare.”
“Another possibility for what?” asked Hare, setting a basket of carrots down on a flat rock.
“Another possibility for where ‘brunch’ comes from,” said Dog. Dog had been to several Sunday Brunches with her family, and knew perfectly well where the word had come from. “It all goes along with the ‘Sunday’ part. Sunday is a day where most people don’t go to work. So they might not get up so early. That means when they DO get up, it might be a bit late to have breakfast.”
“Go on…” said Magpie.
“Okay,” said Dog. “If you get up and it’s so late that if you did have breakfast, you wouldn’t be hungry for lunch, what would you do?”
“Have lunch anyway,” said Squirrel.
“Yes, well, I guess you would,” said Dog with a grin. “But you might decide to just have one bigger meal — so instead of breakfast and then lunch, you might just eat once. You could call it breakfastlunch.”
“That’s a ridiculous word,” said Magpie.
“Right,” said Dog. “So maybe you’d just take the first part of ‘breakfast’ and the second part of ‘lunch’ and put them together to get ‘brunch’.”
Magpie, Hare, Squirrel, and Raccoon thought about that for a moment. Then they looked at Dog and said, all together, “Naaah. Nobody would do that. It’s gotta be the ideas thing.”
“Whatever you say,” said Dog, rolling her eyes.
“Never mind that,” said Ferret, “somebody ask what I am.”
“Ask what you are?” said Raccoon. “But we know what you are. You’re a ferret.”
“I’m talking about my costume,” said Ferret grumpily. “It’s a new one; Sally just got it.”
“And she didn’t get it for you, either,” said Dog. “You’re going to get in trouble, Ferret.”
“Will not,” said Ferret. “Sally would let me get away with anything. Except maybe chewing things to bits…but I never do that, so I’m safe.”
“Just you wait,” said Dog — but she said it so quietly that nobody else heard.
“You’re a piece of candy?” said Magpie. “Lots of candy is red and green. Or red OR green, at least. I don’t see why you want to be a piece of candy, but nice costume, Ferret.”
“I am not a piece of candy,” said Ferret. “Try again.”
“A sign?” guessed Raccoon.
“Nope.”
“Leaves and berries.” said Hare, “that’s gotta be it.”
“Doesn’t gotta,” said Ferret.
“A detective, then,” said Squirrel.
“A detective??” said Ferret. “What does that have to do with my costume?”
“Nothing,” said Squirrel, “so that proves that you’re a detective, because you’re trying not to look anything like a detective.”
“Hmmm, that’s not a bad idea,” said Ferret thoughtfully.
“Don’t encourage him,” said Dog.
“But that’s not it either,” said Ferret. “I’m an Elf!”
“What,” asked Hare, “is an elf?”
“Oho, I can tell you all about elves,” said Beaver, who was just coming into the meadow with Otter and Muskrat. “Given your color scheme, Ferret, you must be a Christmas elf. Santa Claus’ workshop and all that. I have loads of books that mention various sorts of elves, but that’s the only sort that wears red and green.”
“You’re right, you’re right!” said Ferret delightedly. “And my job today is to fill out Santa’s list with what everybody wants for Christmas!”
“I thought Santa had TWO lists,” said Hare. “The good list and the bad list, and the lists have names, not what everybody wants.”
Ferret sniffed in a superior, ‘I know better’ sort of way. “Santa,” he said, “has THREE lists.”
“Hey, here I am!” said Fox, trotting into the meadow. “Thought I might be late, but I made it! By the way, Hare, what does ‘brunch’ mean? Did you make up that word out of two others? I thought maybe you took the end of a word like ‘lumber’ and the beginning of ‘unchained’ and put them together to make ‘brunch’, because what we’re doing is stacking firewood that came in packages. Like, um, packages held together with, er, chains?” Fox trailed off, perhaps realizing her explanation didn’t make quite as much sense as she’d supposed.
“Hi, Fox,” said Hare. “we’ve already talked about where ‘brunch’ came from, but maybe we should think some more about it — nobody thought of your idea, after all.”
“I thought we were considering elves,” said Beaver.
“I thought we were going to have something to eat,” said Otter. “I’m starved!”
“Well everything is ready,” said Hare. “So sure, let’s eat, everybody!”
“Wait, wait, everybody is supposed to have new ideas!” yelled Magpie. She looked around to see who was listening. Nobody was.
“Oh well,” said Magpie, “we didn’t even get to talk about what the ‘sunday’ has to do with it. Probably two other words smushed together, like ‘sunburn’ and ‘daisy’ or something.” She hopped over to the bowl of birdseed and started in on her Sunday Brunch along with everyone else.
