Lexi's Tale (6 page)

“Calm down. Calm down,” I told PeeWee, who by now was running around in circles outside his home, nervously digging little holes in the ground. “Maybe there's still something we can do to help the hungry stranger.”

“What? What can we possibly do?”

I didn't have an idea in the world, but I wasn't going to tell that to PeeWee. I stalled for time, saying I needed my afternoon nap.

“How can you sleep at a time like this?” he asked me.

“Easy,” I replied.

And easy it should have been. Between digging up nuts for the stranger and then lugging the wallet out of my hole for him, I was exhausted. But when I curled up to rest, I found that sleep wouldn't come easily at all. I kept trying to figure out what I could possibly do to help the stranger. If I hadn't thrown that wallet to him, he'd still be sitting on the bench near my tree.

Gradually I formed a plan. But I knew I'd have to take off at once, and without PeeWee. My friend has more spirit than strength, more ideas than energy. There was no way his short legs could keep up with me. So I leaped from my tree to one near by, and from that tree
I leaped to still another and then another. That way, by traveling in the air, I could keep PeeWee from seeing where I was going.

My plan was to look through the park until I found a police car.

“Lexi,” a familiar voice rang out, “I'm glad to see you're behaving the way a squirrel should.”

It was my uncle Ninety-nine watching me from a nearby limb. He seemed to be everywhere today!

“Hello,” I replied, hoping he wasn't going to slow down my progress. I didn't have any time to lose in my search for the police car. But my uncle ran down the tree to the ground and I was able to leap across to the next tree and out of his view.

There are always a couple of police cars driving about in the park, but I wanted to
locate the one with the dent, the one that had taken the bearded stranger way. Luckily, after a few minutes of airborne travel, I spotted it nearby. I proceeded toward it at once. To my delight, because it was a warm day, the front windows were open. That was essential to my plan! I watched as the car moved slowly through the park. I needed it to stop in order to jump into the next part of my plan.

At last the car came to a halt. The driver remained inside, but the other policeman got out. He walked over to a young man who had a loud music-making machine with him. Humans call them boom boxes. “Turn it down,” the policeman shouted above the music.

The policeman who remained in the car watched as his partner spoke to the young man. In that moment I sprang from the ground and
leaped through the car window. The loud music covered the sound I made as I landed on the front seat. I immediately jumped to the back seat. At once I could smell the scent of PeeWee's rescuer. His odor was still in the car where he'd sat just a couple of hours before.

I crouched down on the floor and nervously waited. Perhaps what I was doing was crazy, but I knew that eventually the car would go to the police station where the hungry stranger had been taken. I would find him there.

It took longer than I thought it would. The police car stopped and started many times. The two men spoke together a lot. Mostly it had something to do with the Yankees, whoever they are. I kept still on the floor of the car and the two policemen never knew I was there. And what with the motion of the car and the
warmth of the day, despite my anxiety, I fell asleep.

I woke to find myself in the car, which was no longer moving. It was parked on some dimly lighted street. I guessed it was evening now. All the car windows were tightly shut and I was trapped inside. I scratched myself and wondered what to do next. Being locked inside a car was not part of my plan! In fact I realized now that I hadn't thought out my plan well at all.

In a panic, I began racing about in the car, jumping from the backseat to the front seat and back again. I placed my head against the windows. I could see outside, but there was no way for me to escape. There was even a small tree nearby. Oh, if only I could be sitting in it. A man walked by with two dogs on leashes. And then I saw a young girl going by with two adults. She saw me and pointed and laughed. She wanted to keep watching me, but the adults pulled her along with them. I watched as other people passed by too. Everyone was on the move but me.

I realized that my mouth was parched with thirst and that I was very hungry. There was nothing in the car for me to drink, but fortunately I found half a candy bar that one of the policemen had dropped on the floor under the front seat. I was so hungry that even the paper wrapper tasted good. But when I finished eating, I was thirstier than ever. And where was the hungry stranger?

PeeWee would be wondering where I was, I
thought. Perhaps he'd think I'd gone off to practice my routines for the Squirrel Circus.

Squirrel Circus! Would I even be able to take part, or would I still be trapped inside this hot, stuffy police car on the night of the full moon? Now I knew, like PeeWee, what it felt like to be in a cage.

I must have fallen asleep again, because I was startled by the sound of someone opening the car door. I sat up and listened to familiar voices. It was the two policemen who had brought me to this place. Two other people got into the back seat and the doors slammed shut. I scrunched under the seat so I wouldn't be seen. I sniffed the air from my hiding place on
the floor and was overjoyed to recognize the scent. It was the hungry stranger.

“Oh, my skirt got caught in the door. Can I open it, please?” I heard a woman say.

“Sure,” one of the policeman told her. “The lock isn't on. You're not prisoners after all.”

The door opened again and then slammed shut once more. The stranger spoke to the woman seated next to him in his own language. To my surprise, she replied with those same funny-sounding words in return. I could make out only one word, which she repeated several times: “Stefan.”

Stefan. So that's his name, I realized.

“My cousin Stefan wants me to tell you again how grateful he is,” the woman told the policemen.

“I guess he really must be. This is the sixth time he's made you tell us,” said one of the policemen.

“It's hard to be alone in a foreign country when you don't know the language,” the woman replied.

I began to edge out from under the seat, trying not to be noticed, but my paw grazed Stefan's foot.

Because he was wearing sandals, he jerked his foot and looked down at the floor. A torrent of words flew from his mouth.

“My cousin says there is a squirrel in the car with us,” the woman said.

“I guess your cousin thinks he's still in the park. A hot shower and a good night's sleep in
a bed and he'll be himself again,” one of the policemen replied.

The woman translated for Stefan and he replied insistently. I was relieved that no one believed him though.

I could smell the park before I saw it, as Stefan had opened the car window. The police car was driving across town using the road that runs through the park. I longed for my tree, and suddenly, when I least expected it, the door next to Stefan opened.

“What are you doing?” asked the woman.

I didn't wait to hear the explanation her cousin gave her. I wouldn't have been able to understand him anyhow. But I realized what had taken place. Even though the car was still moving, Stefan had opened the door so
that I could escape—and escape I did. Fast. I'd gone to rescue the stranger and instead, he'd rescued me.

I raced through the park quicker than I'd ever run before. I ran quicker than any competitor in the Squirrel Circus had ever done. I couldn't wait to curl up safe in my own hole. I wondered if my adventures had reduced the number of my existing lives down to sixteen. It didn't matter. I'd be more careful in the future.

Now PeeWee and I had something else in common. We both loved nuts and the freedom of the park. We both liked stories and listening to the birds sing. We both liked running in the dew-wet grass, and we both had been rescued from dangerous situations by the same
man. He was no longer the hungry stranger. He was Stefan.

I couldn't wait to tell the good news to PeeWee. Stefan was no longer a prisoner in a cage, and neither was I.

I slept late the next morning, and then spent much of the day leaping from tree to tree. I was back to practicing for the Squirrel Circus. And I was more thrilled than any other year that I was able to take part in the event. Among the audience only PeeWee would know how close I came to not being there at all. I was pleased with my workout, and it was good that
I had the chance to practice. Starting that night and into the next day and the next, torrential downpours flooded several sections of the park. Mostly I spent the time snug inside my hole eating the nuts that I'd stored for rainy days and catching up on my sleep.

Twice I went to check on PeeWee. I wanted to be sure that his hole was not flooded. Fortunately I had made him stuff it with old leaves and moss, so although his home felt decidedly damper than usual, there were no actual leaks. I'd once considered giving him my woolen muffler, but I liked it too much to part with it.

Fearing he might be hungry, I brought him a nut. He in turn gave me a piece of an old sandwich, which he'd found a few days before
and had thoughtfully stored away. I left PeeWee's home feeling quite proud of myself. He was becoming very self-sufficient, and I had taught him how to be that way.

“I'm glad that our friend is someplace dry too,” PeeWee said to me before I left. He had been very happy when he'd heard the whole story about what happened when I went to the police station. I told him the ending before I told him the beginning. He didn't like the beginning at all.

Finally, after two full days and nights of rain, the weather cleared. The air was fresh and dry, and it seemed likely that we would have a perfect night for our Squirrel Circus. I was busy practicing my leaps when I heard PeeWee's voice urgently calling to me.