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Trust a Brandybuck and a Took!  by Grey Wonderer

This is a bit of harmless fun on a rainy day in an old corner of Brandy Hall with Fredegar, age 25, Merry, age 23, and Pippin, age 15.  Sometimes, when you're bored, you do the strangest things for amusement.

                                                     "Inside Out"

"I think I can do it," Pippin said, looking down and examining the wooden box.

"No, you can't," Merry said with a yawn.  "You're too big now.  It'd never work."

Pippin frowned.  It seemed odd to be told that he was too large for anything.  "Well, I would have to squeeze into it, but I still think I could do it."

Merry looked over from his seat on the old brown sofa and studied the box while the rain continued to fall outside.  "It looks like it might be an awfully tight fit," he said.

Pippin leaned over the box and peered inside as if measuring it in some way.  "Maybe and of course, you'd have to put the lid on if I got completely into this thing," Pippin said, thinking out loud.

"Naturally," Merry agreed, sinking back onto the sofa and waiting.

"I should take my braces off and empty my pockets," Pippin said.  He walked over to the table in the center of the room and began to pull things from his trouser pockets and lay them on the table.

Fredegar, who had said nothing up until now, watched in fascination, as Pippin's small treasures were unloaded and place carefully on the old, battered table.   The room that they were lounging about in was an old storage area and so nothing was in good repair.  The table had one leg that was shorter than the other three and it rocked as Pippin removed three shire pennies, a very large key, five smooth, flat stones, two pieces of peppermint candy, an apple, a pocket knife, a bright red yoyo, and an oddly shaped green rock from various pockets and placed them on the table.  "There, that's all of it," Pippin declared.

"What about that other key that you usually have and where is your whistle?" Merry asked.  He was extremely familiar with Pippin's oddments.

"Oh, I left those in the pocket of my coat," Pippin explained.

"What do you do with all of that junk?" Fredegar asked, inspecting the items curiously.  "Does this key go to anything?"

"I 'm sure that it does," Pippin said.  "Why would there be a key if there weren't anything for it to open?"

Merry snickered at Fredegar,  "Yes, what would be the point in that, Freddy?"

"What does it open?" Fredegar asked, giving Merry an irate glare.

"How should I know?" Pippin asked.  "I only have the key."

Merry laughed.  "Are you going to do this ridiculous thing or not?"

Pippin slipped off his braces and dropped them on the table next to the other items and said, "I'm going to try."

"What if you get stuck or something?" Fredegar frowned, as Pippin approached the box.

"Then you and Merry will have to get me out of course," Pippin said, in a reasonable tone.

"Of course," Merry said, winking at Fredegar.

"I don't know about this," Fredegar said.  "It makes me a bit nervous."

"Why?" Merry asked.  "It isn't as if you will be trying to get into the box and there's been no wager of any kind so you can't lose anything if he manages it.  Finally, neither one of us is forcing him to do it and so we can't get into trouble if it goes ill."

Pippin smiled brightly.  "Merry's right, Freddy," he said.

"I hate it when it rains," Freddy sighed.  "One of you always does something of this sort when it rains and then there's some sort of trouble."

"We get bored," Merry said, yawning.  "Get on with it, Pip, if you plan to do it.  I'm starting to get hungry."

"All right," Pippin said.

"We could eat first," Fredegar said, hopefully. 

"No, because then I might be too full to fold up enough to get into this box," Pippin said.  "I can't have any extra weight or it won't be possible."

"You haven't any extra weight and so you should have no trouble at all with this," Merry said, grinning at his skinny, fifteen-year-old cousin.

Pippin grinned back and stepped into the box and began to bend his knees and fold himself over into the cramped space while Merry leaned forward in his chair holding his watch in his hands.

"What are you doing?" Fredegar asked.

"I'm timing him," Merry said.  "If he can do it and we find out how quickly he can do it, then we can make some extra coins betting."

"Good idea," Pippin said in a muffled voice while trying to lower his head in between his knees and scrunch down into the box.

"I don't think you're going to fit," Fredegar said.

"You sound like a fussy old gammer, Freddy," Merry sighed.  "Where is your spirit of adventure?  Where is your willingness to take a risk?  You’re getting old before your time, cousin.  Have a bit of faith."

"How's that?" Pippin said, from within the box.

"I think you've got it!" Merry crowed.  He looked at his watch.  "And in only two minutes and ten seconds!"

"Can you get the lid on?" Pippin asked.

"Let's see," Merry said.  He picked up the lid for the box and proceeded to pop it into place.  He stood and grinned at Freddy.  "See?"

"Well, I never imagined that he could do that," Fredegar admitted.  "He seemed a bit too large for it."

"I told you to have faith, didn't I?" Merry said.  "Didn't I tell you not to worry?"

"Well, yes you did," Fredegar said.  "It just seemed a bit risky to me.  I guess you were right."

The box rocked slightly and Pippin's voice came from inside very muffled.  "Take the lid off, Merry.  It's hot in here."

Merry laughed.  "Sorry, Pip," he said and removed the box cover.  "There now.  Get out of that box and let's get something to eat."

Pippin squirmed a bit and then wiggled a bit more and then said, 'Merry?"

"What?" Merry asked.

"I think Freddy was right about something," Pippin said in a rather nervous voice.

"What's that?" Merry asked.

"I think I'm stuck in here," Pippin said.

"You can't be," Merry said, leaning over the box and taking hold of Pippin's shoulders and trying to pull him out.

"Do something!" Pippin said, sounding rather panicked.

"I'm trying!" Merry said, even more panicked.  "Don't just stand there, Freddy, help me pull him out.  Hold the box or something!"

Freddy began to laugh as Merry stared at him wildly.  "This isn't funny!  We have to get him out of there," Merry said, growing irritated.

"Merry?" Pippin said.

But Merry had has back to the box and was yelling at Freddy.  "How can you stand there and laugh when Pippin is trapped in that box?"

Freddy smirked again.  "Is he?"

"What do you mean, 'is he'?" Merry demanded.  "Look for yourself!" Merry turned and pointed to the now empty box.  Startled, he looked back at Freddy and then at the box and then he turned and saw Pippin standing next to the open door grinning.

"Got you!" Pippin laughed and ran out the door.

"I am going to catch you and stuff you back in there and nail that lid shut!" Merry yelled, running after Pippin and leaving a very amused Fredegar behind.

Fredegar called out, "Where's your spirit of adventure, Merry?" as he laughed. 

Frodo was nearly knocked down by Merry as he entered the room.  "What is going on now?" Frodo asked, looking over at Fredegar.

"Pippin just suckered me out of three shire pennies," Fredegar sighed.

"How?" Frodo asked, grinning.

"He bet me that he could fool Merry into believing that he was stuck in that box," Freddy said.  "I didn't think that Merry would fall for it, but he did.  Now I owe Pippin three shire pennies if Merry doesn't kill him."

Frodo grinned.  "Your money is probably safe.  Merry looked pretty angry."

                                                        The End

G.W.     05/02/2005





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