Читать книгу Kentucky Tails - Betsy Byrne - Страница 9

Nobody noticed until morning, that the nest that Netta had so lovingly made for her family had been enlarged. There were many colored threads woven within the twigs. There was material used to make the nest even more secure. As the sun arose, Penny, who was so use to being up early to watch the wondrous sun rise at the canyon, noticed a glimmer of gold, which had also been woven into the nest. Netta always kept a basket on the elbow of a branch, so she could take it with her to gather acorns and herbs.

The basket was also very large with a huge bow at the top of the handle and a small card that said ‘welcome home, y’all!’ Someone must have come this morning. The family was so tired, and still sleeping hard, that they didn’t hear. The basket was filled with acorns that still had the morning dew on their backs. A pile of bird seed, whoever did this kind gesture, must have had to maneuver around the various birds.

All of nature is famished after the long nights, which means that there are a lot more birds around than usual in the canyon. ‘Where did those seeds come from though’ Penny wondered. In the canyon, she didn’t remember ever finding food or bird seed just sitting on any random rock. Some animals knew the places that humans left food crumbs, or the snack stands that purposely left bird seed and bread crumbs out for all. There’s no snack stand here, so . . . ?

Still, the sunrise was beautiful as always, just different than before. All of a sudden, Penny felt a light tap on her shoulder. As she spun around, there was Dexter, salivating over the basket. ‘No, you leave that alone.’

‘It’s for Peter’s homecoming, to share with his family, this morning.’ ‘I told you to stay away from me and to mind your own business you squirrely female.’

He swung his hand back, ready to knock her off of the tree branch when someone behind him, grabbed his arm. ‘Didn’t your Mama ever teach you how to treat a female, you filled to the gill dung beetle?’ It was Peter, and he did to Dexter what was about to happen to Penny. When Dexter fell through the various branches, screaming like a banshee, he hit the ground with a thud. He was definitely hurt bad, because he even needed help to get up.

‘I better not find you in MY tree again, or anywhere near my family’, shouted Peter, (with a proud and erect stance, I must say). Dex was so hurt, he was unable to answer, but one of his two cronies that were there to bully the neighbors, picked Dexter up on one side, as his other buddy was already at his opposite side, ready to lift. ‘You’re going to be sorry for this, Peter, you know that’ as Hogarth, a rather large bunny shouted. Olver, the wolf was on the ground, laughing so hard, he rolled down the green, hilly grass. Peter was glad to see that Olver witnessed the incident as he was going to ask the wolf to join the crusade that would oust Dexter.

Peter picked up one of the acorns and threw it with excellent aim. It hit Hogarth square between the eyes, ‘Be off with you, you bunch of bullies. Morn’in Hunter, I notice that we never see any of you tough guys out by yourself, what are you afraid of anyway?’ Hunter spit on the ground, ‘why don’t you come down the tree and talk to me that way.’ Peter laughed, ‘because, my friend, I’m out numbered at the moment and I’m not so stupid as to think I’d have much of a chance with all of you with your balled up fists.

Speaking of out numbering, I got a little surprise for the lot of you; you’ll see it when or ‘if’ you dare to come back later today. Dexter had his arms around each of his friends, his head hanging down, and he was dragging his feet and moaning. The three of them just staggered off. There came crying from behind Peter, it was Netta. ‘Peter, why did you do that?’ You know that Dexter will be back now and bring an army of his cruel ones with him. Now I fear for our boys sake’. Peter went over to Netta and wrapped his arms around her, talking softly to her, while he patted her shoulder.

‘Don’t worry, love. I brought back so many who are as mean as that bunch, and like to be pushed around as much as anyone else. We’ll be alright, I promise you.’ ‘Look, said Penny handing the huge basket over to Netta. ‘Now you don’t have to go hunt for berries or acorns this morning and I even see that someone has also left you some cornbread-oh, it’s still warm!’

Actually, Penny’s little ploy to try to get Netta’s mind off of what just happened seemed to work. Peter gave a quick glance over to Penny, as in thanking her for what she just did. Penny was so grateful to him for saving her from that awful fall from the tree, that she felt redeemed now. ‘Look here too, Netta, someone has woven gold threads in to your nest. I guess last night, we were all so tired, and it was too dark to see.’

Netta started laughing, ‘Look Peter, the fireflies won’t be the only ones glowing soon,’ as she pointed in the direction of the two boys. They were rubbing their little eyes, just as one of them noticed, ‘cool, look Mama, Papa, someone wove some glowing threads in to where me and brother sleep. They could tell that the threads would glow, because they had seen the green color in the daytime before. ‘Fireflies won’t have anything on you boys, laughed Peter, ‘now that the action is all over, let’s eat’! ‘What action, Daddy? Oohh, cornbread, this one’s mine.’

Little Chet never did have much of an attention span, but this time, Netta was grateful for that. Since all the neighbors were up, everyone decided to have a real break ’feast’; together.

Mr. and Mrs. Bumpus had hidden acorns in nearby places so the little ones could hunt for them where their parents could still see them. There were many Red Tailed Hawks seen lately, and everyone was a bit on edge at the idea of not having their babies in sight. Fern and her little one’s collected a few huge baskets of various tree barks and the most scrumptious berries from the house next door’s garden.

Most squirrels won’t try to get anything from over there. The man has a rifle, and is very cranky. Netta had just made a huge batch of the apple cider that everyone raved about. Penny had never seen a community come together like this. It was amazing to her.

Fonna came and brought her massive buck and yearlings. ‘My name is Sterling, and if there’s anything that I can help you with, please let me know’, as Fonna nuzzled his neck and made a soft, cooing sound in his ear. ‘One thing I know that you must be wondering is how our

Yearlings have such different, yet beautiful coats.’ ‘I’ve heard that they are called ‘Piebald.’ To us, they’re just plain ole babies that get in to as much trouble as the brown one’s!’ ‘Did I introduce you to my sister, Penny?’ This is Faith, and we are usually together.

She helps me to keep my babies safe. As light as they are, they stick out like sore hooves, whether it is summer with the lush green or winter white. Penny laughed, and took the hollowed out acorn that Netta gave her, that was filled with cider. ‘This is delicious, thank-you Netta.’ Netta smiled, but was very busy, handing out the cider. Avery, the little chipmunk that lives in ‘Chipmunk Alley’, and Chet, ran off towards the back of the house on the hill.

It was always so fun to see what the man was up to, since he was always building contraptions to either, keep the critters out, or making something really useful for them. He always scattered corn kernels for the deer, and fed the birds seed.

There were little carousels that he rigged up on the trees for the squirrels to be able to play with, and always had treats waiting for them. If the boys got there soon enough, they could beat the others, and get all the goodies that they could carry! O.K., so NOW what is he doing? He had rope stretched across the back area, and a little course for the squirrels and chipmunks to have to go through, before getting their treats.You could see by the man’s expression, that he was very proud of himself. It used to be so easy to get the food. ‘Hey, Chet, ya think we could chew through the rope at the end of the course, and the corn and seed would fall on the ground?’ ‘Naw, let’s try the course first, it really might be fun, and we can get inside and see more of what we can do better.’

‘You go first Chet, since it’s your idea to do this.’ Chet licked his lips, and tried to wipe the nervous sweat off his paws onto his legs. He looked so concentrated, ‘Here goes.’ Avery always knew that Chet seemed to enjoy adventures which was a good thing, since Avery wasn’t a ‘me first’ kind of chipmunk! Chet made an entire circle around the contraption, to see every part of it. ‘I’m off’ and as he held his breath, he did a tightrope walk, up the first section.

He made it to the top where there was a small platform of wood to rest on. To the right of the course was a tube like thing. It was clear, and it opened to a canvas like flat tent. The sun all of a sudden felt like it was beating so hard on his back. All he could do was to jump down the little plastic tube not even knowing what he would be tumbling in to.

He jumped down the tube; the air was a bit warmer inside, and through the blur. He could see Avery, giving the ‘thumbs up.’ He couldn’t help himself from giggling, it was too fun. At the end of the slide, there was a small opening that tumbled him into a tent like contraption, that hadn’t been opened yet. Avery could see Chet’s body, a lump in the canvas that kept moving forward in a very fast way.

When Chet reached the end of the canvas, there was another tightrope that he had to cross but he could see the food at the end. He came this far he told himself, he’s not going to stop now. It was time to start showing off, (something that Chet never could resist). He used his nimble tree squirrel talents and swung his body in circles around the rope till he reached the end. At the platform, he turned to where Avery had been watching, and gave a gentlemen’s bow.

Chet very gingerly reached over and picked up a large piece of corn that was still on the cob and ate it, directly looking again, at Avery. Something in the corner of his eye moved and caught his attention. It was the man and woman standing in the window, watching him. They were laughing and taking photos of his pride in reaching the end of the course. Chet spun around, and ran behind the tent.

He ran back to where Avery was but didn’t tell him about seeing the people inside the house. He thought it would be funny to have Avery finish the course and turn to see them snapping photos at him too. Avery was such a little scaredy cat, he probably wouldn’t even try it anyway. The first thing when Chet ran over, Avery reached for a kernel of the corn. ‘No, if you want some, you have to go earn it like I had to.’

The corn was still moist from the man rinsing it off. It looked delectable but just As Chet suspected; Avery wouldn’t go try the ‘fun run.’ ‘I know, let’s go get my little sister, Amee, and get her to do it.’

‘I bet she’d go right off, and I’ll go too, I just think it would be funny to send her down first.’ ‘Yea, right, Avery, make your little sister go first, so you have that double safety net. What a guy.’

Avery and Chet were such good buddies, that whenever Chet teased him like that, Avery never took it badly. Avery turned his nose up to the sky, and sauntered off the other way to get his sister. ‘Ameeeeeeeee, Amee where are you?’ Right as Avery got to the alley and called for Amee, his other sister Prissy pounced over and tapped Avery on the shoulder. ‘O.K., you’re it’ and she was so fast in getting out of his sight that he ended up playing that silly game of ‘You’re it.’ Not a sound was heard when Avery shouted, ‘I don’t want to play, I want my sister Amee.’

He was stuck in having to play with two bumbly little chippies. He thought he saw a movement behind the large tree near the pond, ‘Aha, who do we have here’, as he grabbed someone from behind a large stump in the soft mossy mound. Struggling hard to break loose of his grip was Amee. ‘That’s not fair, Avery, I didn’t have time to hide well.’ Avery spoke very fast and urgent, ‘You gotta see this, our man on the hill made a real fun contraption.

Chet and I have already gone through it so many times, because at the end of it, he has some delectable food. Get Prissy, you gotta try it.’ Amee’s eyes grew large, and a gasp let out of her muzzle. ‘Prissy, Prissy, come on, Avery says that there’s fun behind the house on the hill!’ Prissy stumbled out of a bush nearby. Her brother Raney jumped out from behind a large rock. “Can I go too, I wanna see.’ Uh, oh, Avery didn’t plan on Prissy and her brother coming. Raney was always looking for a reason to fight, and he was so protective of his sister. He just acted like he didn’t hear Raney, and scampered off towards the hill once again. As he made his way back to Chet, he saw that Chet must have went through the fun house again, because he had a new piece of food that he was munching on.

‘This is the best bark. I haven’t had walnuts in such a long time. I wonder what other tasty morsels are at the end of that fun tunnel.’ ‘My sister’s gonna find out right now. Where did she go?’ said Avery as he squinted in the sun to try to spot Amee scurrying up the hill. ‘Here I am,’ said Amee as she dangled out of a tree right next to Avery’s side. Even Chet got a chuckle out of the reaction of Avery jumping and being caught off guard by his sister.

They were all very excited about the fun that was about to be had. Raney and Prissy climbed down a different tree, giggling all the way. Raney had scabs on his nose from a previous encounter with another chipmunk. He also had bald patches on his back. ‘You’d think he’d learn’, thought Chet, but he supposed that if a chipmunk has to have a mouth like Raney, he deserves whatever comes to him!

‘I hope Mama doesn’t catch us Raney’ said little Miss Prissy. ‘We won’t get our dinner for a month; you heard her say that last time we just took off & didn’t tell her where we were going.’ ‘Aww, shut up, you’re such a baby, go home if you want to. I’m staying where all the fun is. Besides, she had so much going on; she probably wouldn’t miss us anyway.’ They followed Chet and Avery up the rest of the hill in to the back part of the house where the land had the food contraption.

‘Shhh, everyone’ as Avery pointed to where it was. ‘Who’s going first?’ asked Amee with her eyes squinting, and nose crinkled, as she was facing the hot sun. ‘I want to, can I, can I?’

Just as Avery suspected, Amee always wanted to do everything first, before anyone else. ‘Chet being the more responsible one was very serious when he made direct eye contact with Amee and said ‘I mean it Amee, if you hear our warning call you better jump off that thing and come over here right away, promise? ‘O.K, I promise.’

With her bright eyes flashing, she dashed to the contraption. At first, she cautiously made her way around the entire device, which was very clever for such a young chipmunk to do. She jumped up onto the platform, and started the course. After sliding down the clear plastic tube, she tumbled onto the little platform that stood just before the flat tent dais, and the grin on her face was beaming! She dove through the flattened tent part, and her body flew through that tunnel. At the end, she got to eat the food that was on the very last plank, her reward for being so brave and adventurous.

She jumped off of the plank, and ran back over to where the others were watching. She had a corn cob in one hand, and some seed mixed with bark in the other. Her cheeks were bulging with more seed too. ‘That was fun; I wanna go again, can I, can I?’ ‘Wait, my sister wants to go too, and after her, I do too,’ said Raney very eagerly. ‘Go ahead Priss, you’re next.’ Prissy was already jumping up and down, and impatiently waiting for her turn to come. Chet turned to Avery, with his paw covering his mouth so no one else could hear. ‘Good, maybe now she’ll stop that whining.’ Avery leaned back into Chet, ‘Sure, that’s when it’s Raney’s turn to whine!’ Both boys quietly snickered. Raney overheard only what Avery said about him, and he turned towards him, and threw his body into him.

They both tumbled down the hill, growling with a mix between snarls and pants. Prissy was already on her way to the course, and turned back to smile at the others. She saw Raney and Avery tumbling down the hill, fighting and scratching. She started running back to where all the commotion was. ‘Oh no, Raney please, someone’s gonna get hurt.’

Right at that moment, one of the Red Tail Hawks swooped down and with his mighty claws, and snatched her. ‘Prissy, Prissy, come back.’ Amee started to dart towards the open area calling for Prissy as Chet grabbed her. ‘What are you doing, do you want another one to come and swallow you up in the sky as well?’ They hugged each other, as they ran back to the safety of the bushes. Both Chet and Amee ran down the hill after the other two, tears streaming down Amee’s little cheeks.

‘Now you’ve done it, because you can’t control yourself Raney, your sister came back and was running to try to help you.’ ‘A hawk snatched and carried her away. Now what do we do?’ Raney’s face was scraped by rolling down the hill, but also looked so stunned from what Chet just told him. ‘My sister, my sister’, and he buried his head in his paws. Even though he had been trying to hurt Avery, Avery felt sorry for him –but only for a moment. His head started throbbing, after hitting it on a large jagged rock that he tumbled into. Blood ran down the side of his face. Raney’s Mama came skipping over, ‘What gorgeous weather and everyone’s having so much fun. Where’s your sister, Raney?’ It all happened so fast, there wasn’t much time for thinking, but Raney was always so quick to come up with a lie if he needed to. He twisted his face around, sweat covered his brow, and tears filled his little eyes, ‘Oh, Mama, everything happened so fast, I feel sick.’ Emily, (Raney’s Mama), Sensed something was very wrong. Her face got pale, and her eyes looked up to the sky. Amee ran over, and guided her by the shoulders to a stump that was nearby. ‘It’s Prissy, I know. What happened Raney, tell me’ she was so stunned, that no matter what Raney told, she wouldn’t penetrate right now anyway. Chet looked over at Raney, ‘tell her Raney, she deserves the truth. She already knows something’s terribly wrong because she’s listening with her heart.’ Raney cleared his throat, ‘Mama it’s Priss, it’s my entire fault. He started babbling, and crying at the same time. ‘Raney, this isn’t about you’, as Emily stood up too fast, she looked as if she’d faint. Avery was standing behind the stump she was sitting on, and ran over to behind where she was wobbling. He caught her, pulling her back to the stump. Raney put a gentle hand up to brush the fur away from her eyes, and kindly asked everyone to leave.This was so unlike Raney, he was usually such a little bully and always ready to blame anyone for whatever may have gone wrong. Maybe in an odd way, he learned something from this whole situation and Prissy’s capture had some meaning, enough to possibly change his ways? Could that even be possible? Since Emily was still stunned anyway, Chet guided her in the other direction, with Avery following. As Chet turned back to steal a glance at what was going on, Raney and his Mom were hugging, and crying. He heard only the last sentence that Raney spoke to his Mom, before they hugged, and it was ‘Mama, I’ll never fight again, I promise you. . .’