"Night-Turnal" Beasts--Things Bumping in the Dark.

"Tuppence, I know we're all kind of down in the dumps about Social Distancing, but could you just wake up and check that no one is approaching the front door?"

Glancing up from her nap, Tuppence, she of Beagle Posse membership along with Tommy, said, "I'd know," and closed her eyes.

"Tuppence, it's the middle of the day, the time of UPS drivers, Amazon deliveries, and neighbor dog walking. Plus, the back yard is full of squirrels."

Tommy walked in yawning, thus completing the quorum of the Beagle Posse.  "Those are Day-Turnal beasts, right now we're resting up to save you from the Night-Turnal beasts."

"Tommy, your dewlaps are flapping, but you aren't making sense."

"It's natural science, one of those 'ologies'," said Tuppence.  "There are two kinds of stuff in the world, stuff out in daytime, and stuff out at night.  So, Day-Turnal and Night-Turnal."

"Oh," I said, "You mean Diurnal and Nocturnal creatures."

"Well," said Tommy, "I guess if you want to pronounce it with a human accent."

"I thought we were talking human talk, Tommy."

Tuppence said, "It depends on which side of the conversation you hear."

"That," I said, "is always true."

"See," Tommy said, "We'll warn you about the Day-Turnal stuff, but you can see them.  You need more help with the Night stuff.  We can hear it, smell it, and see it better.  And, its more 'fernal."

"'Fernal?  I thought we were talking about 'turnal."

"Try to keep up," said Tuppence.

From Tommy, "'Turnal is about day and night.  'Fernal is about bad. There's two kinds of bad stuff in the world.  There's the INFERNAL things, and the OUTFERNAL things."

"Outfernal?

"Bad stuff in the yard, you know OUT the dog door."

"And the INfernal is......"

"IN the dog door," said Tuppence. To Tommy she said, "He's losing the thread."

"OK," I said, "so infernal would be like that chipmunk you chased into the house in Indianapolis."

"Sort of," said Tupp.  "But chipmunks are small squirrels, so they're sort of mini-fernal."

"And when we catch any 'fernal," said Tommy, "we turn it into ex-fernal."

"I see," I said. "It's all about prefixes."

"NO!" said Tommy. "It's all about BEAGLE fixes--keeping you safe.  Sheesh, I don't know what would happen to you if we weren't here."

"Yeah," I said, "or if you napped through it."

"You just don't get the necessity of naps, do you?"

Tuppy turned round three times and snuggled down.  Tommy left the room as he came in, yawning. As he headed for his nap place he muttered, "I hope you learned something today."