It turns out that the fight between Ralph’s wasn’t about competition. The idea never occurred that one might be better than the other at guarding the tree—that would have almost made sense. No—it was all over a Skittle…a single Skittle. Apparently both Ralph’s overheard a young three-eyed boy say to his friend he had dropped a Skittle on the ground just a few feet back. It turns out that the whole thing was just a prank, but both Ralph’s were too busy fighting to realize it.

By the time Gatsby and I had gotten to the Ralph’s, they had knocked each other out cold. They had delivered simultaneous kicks to each others head. Both, nearly conscience when we arrived, were mumbling that had tasted they rainbow.

“Those are the ninjas?” Jake doubtfully asked.

Gatsby nodded yes.

“They sure don’t look very tough. They’re shorter than me.”

“Their wisdom and speed make up for their size.”

Jake looked oddly at their collapse bodies, and jokingly said, “Wisdom?”

“Yes, well we all make mistakes.”

“I’ll say.” I added.

“Is that supposed to mean something?” Gatsby inquired.

“Just that this whole entire thing was a mistake.”

“I didn’t bring Ralph.” Gatsby quickly pointed out.”

“I didn’t bring Jake.”

“I’m really sorry.” Jake quietly said.

“Why should you be sorry?” Gatsby asked, “All these people got to see their biggest fan.”

“Me?”

Gatsby nodded. “I believe you’ve read all of our books—Peanut Butter Space Monsters.”

Jake looked surprised, “You grew that?”

“Grew? No Not that one. We wrote it.”

“You write books too?”

“Of course.” He paused, “We don’t get out much on account of our third eye so after a long day of picking and growing books, we all sit around and tell stories—Peanut Butter Space Monsters is our favorite to tell. We’ve all contributed in someway to it.”

“Wow.”

“Do you think you could keep just a few secrets to yourself?” I asked irritated. Honestly, I would not have told you about the books had Gatsby not mentioned it. There should be some secrets, but, as Gatsby will point out in the next bit of dialog, they don’t consider the books secret.

“We have no secrets here—it’s just nobody has ever asked about them before.”

“Well I just hope you know if Jake starts telling people about you, then everyone’s going to be up here wanting a glimpse of the trees.”

“Nonsense.”

“I won’t tell—I swear.” He seemed sincere about this, and, coincidently, it was I, not the boy that told everyone the secret. Do you know that I asked Jake to help me with the book—just to be nice (see I told you I could be nice)—and he said know, because he promised Gatsby he wouldn’t.

“I know you wouldn’t.” Gatsby acknowledged, “But we wouldn’t care if you did.”

“I would.”

Gatsby ignored me. “Now how about we show you the best part—how we make the trees.”

“Really?”

“Sure.”

So there you have it—one more chapter and you get to finally see how the trees are made…unless another mishap happens to provide further distractions to the course of the story. Not that I’m saying something is going to happen, but I’m also not saying that something is not going to happen. Basically what I’m saying is you’ll just have to read to see. Don’t you hate chapters that leave you hanging?

Oh, wait—before I leave you hanging, I need to explain what happen to the Ralph’s just so you’re not wondering later. They were both put in a guarded room. Neither would be released until my Ralph left. So, as it seems from here, there really was no point in Ralph coming along except for making for an extra side story. But—and this is a large but—there’s a chance we haven’t seen the last of Ralph yet. He may make one more appearance before the stories end. Would you like that? Really? I didn’t think Ralph was even that interesting of a character. More of a nuisance than anything else. Well you’ll just have to wait and see because I promise nothing.