Chapter 12
THE ACORN
Pippi stayed awake, listening for the human voices. When she finally heard them, she banged on the metal tube of the stove vent that the squirrels had once used as home base for playing tag.
“What was that?” Mother-Honey shouted.
Yes, she’d gotten their attention. Pippi scratched her claws on the tube, even though the scraping gave her shivers.
“I told you something was still up there,” Daddy-Dean said. “I’ll look into it next week when I return from my business trip.”
Next week? Lana might not starve by then, but if Pippi was still alive, she’d be too weak to flop when they put her in a sack. She banged on the tube again. He had to get her out before he left.
“Daddy, your taxi’s here,” Natalie called.
Pippi banged furiously, but the humans shouted “goodbye” and “I love you” instead of talking about her. Soon only Natalie’s and Mother-Honey’s voices were left.
Daddy-Dean didn’t have to lift the floor. Mother-Honey could do it. Even the smallest people were bigger than squirrels. Maybe Natalie would try.
Pippi scratched on the tube again.
“I can’t stand a week of that noise. I’m calling Fred,” Mother-Honey announced.
Pippi shuddered. Mother-Honey and Natalie didn’t scare her, at least not too much. But Fred was the scariest human she’d ever seen.
After a few minutes of shuffling and soft murmurs, Natalie asked, “What did he say, Mother?”
“He’ll be here first thing tomorrow morning. He thinks something might have gotten sealed in the attic and can’t get out. He’s bringing his trap and some poison.”
Pippi trembled. She’d once met some mice who explained about the special food that tasted good but killed any animal that ate it. Poison did not fit into her plan.
The mice had said squirrels were lucky because humans didn’t try to poison them. Right now, she didn’t feel lucky. She and Lana had to escape before Fred got them.
“Mother, you can’t let him kill it,” Natalie said. “The poor little animal is already probably scared to death.”
Yes, listen to Natalie.
“I don’t care what he does to it. I want it out of my attic,” Mother-Honey said.
Fred planned to poison them, and Mother-Honey would let him. Natalie didn’t like it, but she couldn’t stop them.
Pippi wandered back to Lana who’d been sleeping and hadn’t heard what the humans decided. She wouldn’t like Pippi’s plan either, but this time Pippi wouldn’t give her a choice. She needed to conserve energy and sleep like Lana. But she couldn’t relax enough to settle down.
She would go inside the trap, and she would bring her sister with her, even if Lana froze and panicked. Hopefully, Fred would make them flop and take them away to join Uncle Louie in a place with lots of food.
Hours later, she heard Fred’s rumbling truck through the walls of the nest. She shivered and hugged her tail. Maybe she needed to worry about herself panicking, instead of Lana.
Lana opened her eyes. “I’ve been thinking. If the humans give us poison, let’s eat it right away.”
Pippi stared at her. Lana had heard that Fred was coming. She hadn’t been sleeping, after all.
“We’ll have yummy food in our tummy.”
“That’s a horrible idea. We’ll die.”
“Do you have a better idea?” Lana asked.
“Yes, but you can’t freeze this time.” A loud scraping noise stopped her from telling Lana the rest of her plan to get trapped and flop their way to a safe place.
“Hi Fred,” Natalie said down below. “Mother says you came to catch the squirrel again.”
“I sure did. I got this nice trap with a big acorn inside to lure the varmints in.”
“An acorn,” Lana moaned, clutching her stomach. “I love acorns.”
“That acorn has gooey stuff all around it,” Natalie said.
“Just a little poison to make my life easier.” Fred chuckled.
Oh no, he couldn’t put the poison inside the trap. Lana would never be able to resist until they got to safety.
“But you’ll kill the animal that eats it.” Natalie sounded almost as horrified as Pippi felt. Almost.
“Gotta get rid of it, or it’ll keep coming back. It’s probably the same one I caught and set free before.”
He was wrong. Uncle Louie had never returned. Once Pippi got out, she’d never come back to this building either.
“We’re going to die,” Lana moaned. “At least my stomach will be full, and the last thing I eat will be my favorite food.”
Pippi grabbed her by the cheeks and shook her furry face. “You’re not going to eat the acorn. We are not going to die. We’re going to get out of here.”
The sad black eyes staring back at her told Pippi that Lana didn’t believe her. But before either of them could say another word, the floor creaked. Lana dove under the insulation. Pippi followed her, pushing her claws through the fibers to make peepholes.
The floor lifted and the mysterious hole appeared once again. Freedom. Drool puddled in her dry mouth. The floor board kept rising and moving toward them, then lowered.
Pippi scrunched back, but the piece of floor landed on the insulation on top of her making everything completely dark. Worse, the lid crushed her so she could hardly breathe.
She reached her paw forward but couldn’t feel Lana. She had to get free. She couldn’t let this heavy lid ruin her chance.
“Hand me the trap,” Fred said, his voice muffled from all the layers covering her.
“Acorn,” Lana whispered.
Pippi had to reach her before she ate the poison. She stretched forward as far as she could. With the heavy thing weighing down on her, she could only reach the fluff of Lana’s tail.
“I’ll leave the trap right by the edge. It’ll be nice and easy to take out after the animal’s dead. Dean can pull it down when he gets back from his trip, and it won’t even trigger his asthma,” Fred said, his voice moving down below.
They had to get out. Once the hole closed, she and Lana would die before it opened again, whether they went inside the trap or not, whether they ate the poison or not.
The lid still pressing her on back, Pippi lunged for Lana. Suddenly, the piece of floor lifted off her. She slammed into Lana so hard her sister skidded out from under the insulation, straight through the hole in the ceiling, just as Fred dropped the lid into place.
Lana shrieked.
“AHHH!” Fred screamed. “There’s a squirrel on my head!”