Unlikely Friends: How a Boy, a Mole, a Fox and a Horse Bonded Together and Inspired Me
You are enough, and the most important moment is right now
Imagine a small innocent boy, a greedy mole, a wary fox, and a wise horse. I met such a circle of lives in December 2021 when I needed inspiration, a lift from the doldrums of vision loss, and the isolation of the Coronavirus pandemic.
To those with vision, the printed/illustrated book, “The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and The Horse,” by Charlie Mackesy, is an exploration on friendship between four unlikely friends.
I was fixated on the beautiful cover featuring the four characters placed on a cream-colored background and outlined by a gold book-cloth border. I leafed through all 128 pages, which features the author’s playful and sensitive representation of all the characters’ relationships. Rather than Times New Roman or other fonts, Mackesy adds his own style and flourishes onto the page with the use of an old-fashioned pen.
For me, a recently blind 73-year-old woman, my version is the audiobook, which I discovered through the National Library Service. This auditory format lasts only one hour, narrated by Mackesy, who in his introduction so empathically stated his desire to replace the hand-drawn images in his text with verbal pictures instead for this audiobook.
The author’s voice is so soothing that it is like I am being read a bedtime story to lull me off to sleep. It surprised me to discover that this author/narrator who sounded like a youthful man in his 20s, is actually 62 years old. Mackesy says his writing is for those ages eight to eighty and wants to include as many people as possible in his life lessons as they transcend age barriers.
My first encounter with this unlikely quartet emerged in December 2021 from my need for relaxation, peace, and soothing after navigating a four-day illness of my husband, Ted, which cast us out of a planned three-day period of revelry (two holiday parties and an intimate party with friends).
Although we knew Ted did not have Covid-19, we operated on an abundance of caution to restrict our social contacts. After 21 months of isolation, we had anticipated these events with joy and hopefulness — that our lives could now encompass celebrations and connection. Alas, illness slashed these best laid plans. I am not always my best friend at turning lemons into lemonade, but this story provided me sweetness I ached for.
In the beginning, we see the boy sitting alone on the ground when he encounters the grayish mole, who in a self-effacing way, comments on his small size, to which the boy counters with, “But you make a huge difference.”
The newly created duo relocates into the haven of a tree nearby where they continue their sharing. The mole displays both wisdom and humor, since he is always in search of a morsel, a slice, or even the entire cake. As a fellow sugar seeker, I find his pursuits towards cakes and other sweet morsels entertaining.
One time, he burrowed his way into a three-tiered sponge cake, with red fruit and whipped cream, only to land at the bottom of the porcelain plate with no cake left. He stretched out and became a round silhouette. He informed the boy that he had a gift for him, but it was indeed within his belly. Despite the gluttonous, greedy, and gutsy behavior of the mole, he redeemed himself with many wise anecdotes.
Their peacefulness is interrupted by a red fox lurking below them, trapped in a snare. Despite the fox’s entrapment, he reports his animosity towards the mole, who counters with his wise utterance of the fox’s certain death within the snare.
Kindly, the mole with his sharp teeth saws through the snare, freeing the fox. I am keenly aware that enemies can form solid friendships as I see here, and this fills my soul with wonder.
Surprisingly after the fox’s release from captivity, he returns to the boy and the mole’s treetop gathering place and fashions a heart-shape design with his paws in the snow. This speaks to the fox’s gratitude towards and appreciation of those he characteristically considered his prey.
As they share philosophical moments on a rock in the river, the mole suddenly takes a misstep and falls into the water. Deftly, the fox rescues him, and this represents a reciprocal lifesaving act.
As the trio continues on its journey, the boy and mole frequently share their wisdom with each other on topics of forgiveness, getting lost, and the ultimate goal of returning home. The fox is timid and self-effacing about his contributions to the group, but his presence is always appreciated.
After a while, the trio meet a beautiful white horse, which is one of the largest creatures any of them have seen. The horse easily befriends them all, with the boy and the mole enjoying their first horseback riding delights. Their next adventure involves them jumping across the river. The boy falls in but is reflexively rescued by the horse, who states unequivocally that he has his back.
Later, the horse reveals that he has a secret skill, the ability to fly, which he hid because it made the other horses jealous. The winged adventure the horse takes his companions on stands as a highlight of the story for me. The boy, the fox, and the mole receive equal protection from danger of falling.
The fluffiness of the wings provides a safety net for them all. All creatures enjoyed a grand and celestial experience where each could see the stars and touch the clouds. The horse becomes the medium for transcendency and unifies them in this spectacular moment. As I imagine myself atop the horse, I glimpse what some might call nirvana.
As the four return to solid ground, philosophical inquiries return between the boy and the mole on the subject of half-full or half-empty glasses, with the boy admitting he is grateful just to have a glass.
The quartet encounter a storm which they verbalize as emblematic for life. They continue to share poignant nuggets about friendship, self-sufficiency, and love of self and others as the story closes.
The musical background in the audio book is soothing with chirping and muted chattering of birds, the soft gallops of hooves in the snow, and/or the crunching walk of everyone as they move to their new location. No names are used, and the landscapes are serene and uncluttered with urban artefacts, with valleys, hills, dense forests, the horizon, and the moon.
Weather elements are equally represented between sun, rain, thunder, and clouds. Favorite trees of the boy and mole become predictable meeting places that even the fox can clamber up to. There are one-minute periods between travels where all the listener hears is the soothing nature sounds.
Predictably, over each consecutive night I anticipate what will happen next, what gems will be uttered by any of the foursome and know that I feel so peaceful and nostalgic that warm tears course down my cheeks. I wonder what my life would have been like if my father or mother had earlier offered such a story or audiobook to me. I wish that such a story could have been present in my childhood.
We began a family Christmas tradition of watching “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse” on Apple Tv+ on December 25th, 2022. Our enthusiasm for this animated short was reinforced by it winning the 95th Academy Award for Best Animated Short in 2023. This movie adaptation was directed by Peter Baynton with an exquisite musical score by Isobel Waller-Bridge.
In its commercial life, Charlie Mackesy’s book has sold millions worldwide since its publication in 2019. With admiration and glee, I purchased four copies of Mackesy’s book to circulate to my daughters, a great nephew, and an elderly grieving cousin in Minnesota for Christmas in 2022.
To me, this book represents one of the most poignant, heartfelt, and tender books that I have ever shared. With my fading vision, I could no longer enjoy the images on the 128 pages of the book. The pages remain a treasure to my sighted friends, but then they could also experience the video version of the story.
With some final reflections, notable of all is how this author conveys such a sense of love and unity about the tame versus wild, the weak versus the strong, the lost versus the certain, and how important it is to have this ring of friendship remain linked and unbroken.
The author, Mackesy, conveys with love and attentiveness his belief in his words, a belief in love, unity, friendship, a belief that you are enough, and a belief that the most important moment is right now.
I am grateful to and in awe of Mackesy’s melding of his artistic gifts on the page and likewise his inimitable gifts of his heart. His humor is not lost to me, in particular when Dill the dachshund walked all over an illustration that was going into the book, Mackesy decided to keep it since it proved the point of the page: “’The greatest illusion,’ said the mole, ‘is that life should be perfect.’”
I feel so comforted by the music and the messages and I feel embraced by the author’s softness, tenderness, and love. This unlikely friendship shows us that harmony among differences is not only possible, but our true paths.
