Читать книгу Kentucky Tails - Betsy Byrne - Страница 7

Penny remembered her Mom told her that the best place to be safe is way up high in the trees. She eyed the tree that she wanted to rest in, and hesitantly crept towards it. She stopped and began collecting some acorns that had fallen. As she collected them and crammed them as fast as she could into her cheek pouches she felt something excruciating, tear at her back. The acorns flew forcefully out of her mouth.

Although she lost her breath, she spun around quickly to see what had happened. It was a HUGE squirrel bigger than she’d ever seen. He was viciously ripping through her fur and he started bearing his teeth. ‘This is my tree and my acorns’ as he started hugging her hard so he could use his feet to claw at her belly. She was caught so off guard.

She had to try to defend herself as best as possible, against this vicious creature. ‘Everyone knows that ’I’ am the leader here and to dare to steal from me is unheard of.’ She’d never seen such an angry squirrel. The spit flew out of his mouth as he snarled at her. They rolled down the grassy hill, him hanging on to her and kicking with all his might.

Her toe was still quite painful and he could see that she favored that leg. He sunk his sharp teeth into her thigh and she heard a popping sound. Penny blacked out.

Once she had awakened she found that she was in an underground den. It was very cozy and warm. There were young squirrels playing tag nearby. ‘You boys stop it’ shouted a voice coming from around the corner.

It was a very gentle looking female squirrel with a gathering of large leaves teetering on her arms. ‘We’re trying to help keep you comfortable. Well, at least I am. You’re new here and we have much to discuss once you’re feeling better. My husband Peter is on a trip, trying to recruit other critters for our mission here on the hill. You’ll meet him soon; he’s such a good squirrel and wouldn’t let mean ole Dexter able to get away with something like this that’s for sure.’ She looked so proud when she spoke of her companion. She used the leaves to cover Penny to keep her warm and brushed the fur from Penny’s eyes. ‘How do you feel now dear?’ Penny sat up quickly and her head started to swim.

‘Not good, I see,’ Netta said. ‘Where am I and what happened?’ Penny was so confused. ‘My name is Netta and these are my two rambunctious boys’ she giggled softly. ‘I’ll get you some warm cider. I make the best here on the hill if I don’t say so myself.’ One of her boys drew a little closer to Penny ‘and she does say so, all . . . the . . . time . . .’ ‘Hush now you little scoundrel’. She turned to her other son and said ‘this is Chet; we should have named him CHAT. Now, you just rest and save your strength my dear, we have a lot of time to catch up on visiting later. I’ll be back with your cider.’

As she rounded the corner Chet watched from the corners of his eyes till she vanished from the room. The coast looked to be clear for him to mosey on over. He was a cute, chubby little squirrel with a turned up nose and the cutest squeaky voice Penny had ever heard. He made his way over, shuffling and watching the corner that his Mother walked around. ‘My Mama said that you got into a fight with Dexter. Not a good thing to do as Dexter’s very mean.’ Penny straightened the leaves, thinning them out as she was starting to get too warm. ‘I see that. Is Dexter your leader?’ ‘Yes, and that’s what the mission Mama was talking about. No one likes Dexter. He’s a mean squirrel and he’s just been getting meaner by the minute.’

Chet glanced over at the corner that his Mom would be coming around soon and went on with his story. ‘He takes anything that anyone has that his family might like and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. What’s your name?’ ‘Penny’ she really had nothing more to say, she was hurting so much and her thigh kept echoing the pain like she was shouting in the Grand Canyon itself. As Netta rounded the corner once again Chet moved back to where he and his brother were playing.

Netta had a big smile on her face, as she rolled her eyes in a much exaggerated way. ‘Chet, I told you boys to let her rest.’ ‘Sorry, Mama’ said Chet, ‘I just wanted to introduce myself. Oh I forgot, this is my big brother Zach.’ ‘How’d ya do Ma’am’ said Zach, in a very quiet voice.

He had such long eyelashes and appeared to be the quieter, more ‘studious’ of the two. Penny just smiled at Zach and closed her eyes. Netta set the cider on the table beside where Penny was resting. ‘It’s too hot now but in a little while it’ll be cool enough for you to drink. Now you boys shoo, get away from this room now.’

Penny smelled the spicy cider and watched the steam lift from the mug. ‘It smells divine, thank-you Netta. Penny must have slept the whole night. It was dark. Was it morning, or night? ‘I hate it when this happens; it seems that when I sleep too late, I get so jumbled of the time.’

She looked over and saw that the cider that Netta had brought to her was still on the table and now cold. Her body told her that she slept all night, as she had some ‘business’ to attend to. She got up as quietly as possible so she wouldn’t wake up the babies and headed for the tunnel that led to the upper ground.

Once she got there, her jaw dropped. It was like a real wonderland. There were chipmunks chasing each other around trees and deer feeding on the day lilies that seemed to grow wild in the area. Everything looked so surreal and whimsical. A cardinal landed on a rock near her. The brightest red Penny had ever seen before. ‘Hi, I’m Studley.’ ‘I haven’t seen you here before,’ (as he puffed out his chest and gazed at his own reflection in some water that had been pooled up on a flat rock).

‘What’s your name and where are you from?’ Penny could see that he really thought a lot of himself and was surprised that he even bothered to notice anyone else. A huge and very slow moving groundhog came up and had to put his two cents in. ‘Leave her alone Studley, we’ll have a meeting later and introduce her to everyone.’ Penny really wanted to visit but had some urgent business to take care of. ‘Thank-you sir, I’m looking forward to learning your ways. Please excuse me as I have a meeting with Mother Nature right now and it’s kind of urgent.’

Everyone laughed, and they all dispersed. Penny made her way back to the tunnel to Netta’s home to thank her for letting her stay the night and to say goodbye to the boys. ‘We don’t say goodbye around here we say so long’ said Chet as he threw his little arms around Penny’s furry waist. Zach came padding around the corner a look of wonder on his little face. ‘Don’t leave us; we thought you were our lucky Penny on the hill.

Netta was not far behind him as she chimed in with her words. ‘Boys, go do your chores so you can play with the others.’ She smiled warmly at Penny and said ‘let’s sit over here for a moment if that’s o.k.’

They sat on little tree roots that jutted out from their underground. ‘Let me show you around our little section of the world and introduce you to my friends, I know they all want to meet you. We’re having a meeting a little later, so I can ask the others to look out for you and show you the ways here. We want you safe, and there are a few dangers that you need to know about.

There are humans that are, and aren’t safe to be around.’ She looked so concerned and a warm feeling came over Penny’s face and through her little heart. ‘Thanks Netta that would be fantastic.’

‘For now, why don’t we go play above? We can gather acorns while we’re at it.’ The sun was bright, and the air felt so crisp. There were tunnels everywhere and when she looked up in to the trees it seemed like it was almost more alive up there than on the ground. She did miss her family, but not how she was treated. I guess it was just the familiarity of it all. She was treated so special here; it was as if she should have been here all along.

‘I want you to meet Fern. She has been a very good friend to me for all our lives and she always has a lot of wisdom to share.’ Fern was a sturdy little bunny. Well, not so little, but she wore glasses that sat on the tip of her very twitchy nose. It seemed that Penny got along so well with Fern and Netta, they quickly became quite close.

Fern laughed a lot. She really seemed to enjoy her babies. She loved life and found absolutely nothing bad to say about anyone-even Dexter. She didn’t have anything bad to say about him only because she always would find very cunning ways around having to make any comment about him. She only wanted her children to stay clear of him and his little ‘army.’

From what Penny had learned so far, Dexter was a very mean squirrel and she wanted to stay as far away from him as possible. ‘But it’s not possible dear’ said Fernas she hopped through the wire fence that tried to keep the animals out. ‘Netta, remind me of what we’re talking about when I get back.’ and as she hopped off in the distance she glanced back and gave a wink to the other two. ‘Where is she going?’ Penny asked.

Netta could tell that there was much to teach little Penny as she was far too vulnerable around here. ‘Shhh, she’s getting some carrots for her family.’ All of a sudden a loud gunshot cracked the silence. Two, three more shots fired as Penny looked on in horror. Fern, giggling as she always seemed to do came skidding under the fence holding a little bunch of carrots under each paw and half of one held by her teeth.

‘That was very close’ said a heavily panting Fern. She saw the frightened look on Penny’s face and laughed a little harder. ‘I’ll explain it all to you later child. My babies are hungry and if I leave them in the den alone much longer who knows what mischief they could get into.’ She dashed off and scampered over the mound of mossy rock that lay nearby so quickly there wasn’t time for conversation. As Penny turned around to look at Netta she saw that Netta was already scurrying under the trees where the acorns fell.

There were deer grazing near to where Netta stood. This place seemed to be too good to be true, (except for Dexter). Everyone seemed to be very kind and eager to help her get accustomed to her new way of life. There was a Doe in the midst and Penny overheard someone call her Fonna.

Three baby deer were watching their Mama and learning how to watch for danger. It really must have been hard to hide them as the three little fawns were mostly white with a little bit of a soft brown in areas. It had to have been awful scary to try to hide them from danger. They were so white. Netta saw Penny looking ‘in awe’ at the white fawns and commented; ‘Bet you never saw white deer before huh, Penny?’ Fonna grazed her way over and looked up at Penny seeing that she was a stranger to the area.

‘Hello little one, welcome to our paradise on the hill!’ Netta smiled at her and explained that Penny may not be staying for long, but that she was hoping that once she saw how wonderful it is that she’d want to stay and live here too. ‘We need more kind critters up here; it seems that most of us are, except for that mean Dexter and his cronies.’ ‘Have you ‘met’ him yet?’ Penny told Fonna about how Dexter hurt her as Fonna shook her pretty brown head. ‘I’m so sorry that happened to you. We are in the midst of trying to rid of Dexter and his cruel friends.’ Penny was getting more and more intrigued by this location.

The other animals were so nice, and everything seemed very organized. The best part of this was also that there was a team being formed to enforce Dexter and his mean friends out of the area. Netta saw that Penny was in good company so she told them that she’d be right back. Netta slipped over the rolling hills where wild flowers were starting to fade. She went back to the area that Penny started off at, and started discussing with Mr. Bumpus how the meeting that evening would take place.

Mr. Bumpus was always the one that everyone went to when they needed help in planning for anything at all. He was very structured and loved to plan anything that needed it. Netta looked around for his wife as Mrs. Bumpus was always so accommodating, and offered even more good advice. ‘We really are hoping that Penny stays here on the hill with us.’ Netta sounded so hopeful as she twisted her little paws together.

4 Mrs. Bumpus smiled and welcomed her into the den that she shared with her mate. It was so nice inside, but a bit dark. Mr. Bumpus came wandering around the corner, with a confused look on his face. ‘Mama, where did I leave my whittling project?’ It was so sweet, as soon as he saw Netta, ‘Never mind Mama, I didn’t know we had company.’

‘Have a seat Netta,’ as he motioned her to a big stump that was already dusted off. ‘Thank-you, I just wanted to go over our plans for our meeting tonight.’ I want everything to go so well, we are hoping that Penny decides to stay and live here with us.’