Chapter 13
A NEW FRIEND
“Jump Lana,” Pippi shouted. “Jump to the floor. Run for cover.”
Crawling out from under the insulation, Pippi could hear Lana and the humans screaming, but she couldn’t see them. She couldn’t see anything.
The lid that had been squishing her now covered the hole in the floor but not as tightly as usual. A crack of light shone through one corner. If she could make the crack bigger, she could wiggle through.
“No, don’t touch it with your bare hands,” Fred hollered, probably at one of the other humans. “Squirrels carry diseases.”
“We do not,” Pippi muttered. She and Lana were perfectly healthy. Or at least they had been until they ran out of food.
If he was ordering people not to touch Lana, she probably wasn’t on his head anymore. But she also must have frozen, making it easy for the humans to catch her and put her in a trap with a poisoned acorn that she’d gobble up.
Pippi wedged one paw under the corner of the lid and tried to lift, but it didn’t budge. She tried and tried, using all her muscles, but the lid wouldn’t move an inch.
“Watch the squirrel,” Fred ordered. “I’m going out to the truck for my heavy gloves and some more poison.”
Her stomach clenched. She had to get down there to protect Lana.
“Oh no, you don’t,” Mother-Honey said. “You’re not leaving us alone with a squirrel loose in the house. Natalie and I will get your gloves. You watch the animal.”
Pippi had to get to her before they returned with the poison. If Lana ate it, it would be all Pippi’s fault for pushing her into the house. She lay on her stomach and braced her paws against the floor under the insulation. Then she pushed her front paws against the lid.
Her rear paws skidded backwards, hitting one of the sturdy boards that ran across the floor of the attic. She pushed as hard as she could against it, stretching her body out.
The lid moved a tiny bit and then a tiny bit more. Although the hole was smaller than she was used to crawling through, she couldn’t stretch any further to make it bigger.
She stuck her head in the hole then wiggled her shoulders to get her front paws through. Thanks to not having any food, she’d become really skinny and could fit through tiny spaces.
The human’s ladder was right below her. She scrunched her back legs against the edge of the hole and jumped on top of the ladder.
Lana huddled frozen in the middle of the floor. Fred held a white plastic bucket upside-down in his hands as he crept toward her.
“Lana, run,” Pippi screamed from the top of the ladder. “Go, go.”
Fred swung toward her. “It’s another squirrel!”
Even though Pippi had distracted him and given Lana a chance to escape, she didn’t take it. Except for her quivering fur, she stayed completely still.
“Run,” Pippi yelled again.
Mother-Honey opened a door and stepped inside. “There’s another one?”
The wonderful breeze of outside air ruffled Pippi’s fur. The smell of grass and pine filled her nose and her lungs. She had to get to it.
The door Mother-Honey had come through was the hole to the outside. As soon as it opened again, she had a clear shot to freedom. After she and Lana went through the door, they’d be safe. They were going to make it.
Fred slammed the bucket down on top of Lana. He pressed his hands on the top of it. “Natalie, come hold this down.”
Through the plastic, Lana started to cry.
Natalie walked across the floor and put her hands on the bucket where Fred’s had been.
Pippi wanted to cry too. They could have gotten free, but she’d taken her eyes off Fred and didn’t notice him going after Lana until it was too late. Even if the hole to the outside opened again, she couldn’t run out without Lana.
Fred covered his hands with the gloves Mother-Honey had brought him. “Where’s the poison?”
“I didn’t get it,” Mother-Honey said. “Natalie begged me not to. And really Fred, I can’t stand the thought of poison and dead animals inside my beautiful house.”
“This squirrel is so scared. Can we let it free outside, please?” Natalie begged. She looked like she might cry if the others said no.
Pippi felt a flash of hope. Natalie was on her side!
But Fred was not. He lunged toward her. She dashed down the ladder so fast she ran into Natalie’s legs before she could make herself change directions.
Natalie screamed and jumped. Pippi dodged the little human’s feet before Natalie stepped on her tail.
She had to run, but where? With the door going outside still closed, she didn’t know which way was safe. She whipped to the left and then to the right, trying to decide, and accidentally brushed against Natalie’s leg again.
Natalie screeched and kicked, knocking the bucket over. Lana huddled in a ball with her tail curled around herself and her paws over her eyes, but she was free.
“Lana, come on.” Pippi ran to her and pushed against her.
Natalie screamed so loud Pippi’s ears hurt. She might have been a friend before, but Pippi had ruined it by running into her and scaring her. The two squirrels were on their own again.
Pippi grabbed Lana’s tail and pulled as hard as she could, trying to get her sister angry enough to run after her to fight with her. “You can’t lie still. Fred will get you again.”
Sure enough, he headed straight for them with the bucket in his hands. Pippi left Lana’s side and ran toward him, dashing between his legs. She hadn’t thought of a plan yet, but if she made him chase her, he wouldn’t have a chance to catch Lana.
“Hey, you.” He started to go after Pippi like she wanted him to. But then he stopped and turned back. “Let’s get the one that’s not moving. Then we’ll worry about the crazy bugger.”
No, no, no! Pippi ran to Fred as he held the bucket over her sister. She had to make him notice her before he covered Lana again. She dug her claws into the cloth covering his leg. Human clothes were thinner than fur, and without trying to scratch, she caught his skin.
Fred screamed and ran in circles. Pippi ran higher up his leg, clinging harder, trying to keep from falling off.
Hanging onto the wild man was worse than flopping, worse than poison. Any moment she would fling against the wall or get squashed on the floor under his humungous body.
“Outside, Fred,” Mother-Honey shrieked, pulling the door open. “Run outside with that thing.”
It took Pippi two dizzying spins before she realized she was the thing. Yes. Outside. Take her outside. As long as Lana came too.
“Come on, Lana,” she yelled. “Run outside! Go. All you have to do is move, and you’ll be free.” She tried to see if her sister followed her instructions, but she couldn’t get a good view of anything with Fred jumping and spinning so fast.
His hand closed around the scruff at the back of her neck. Pippi turned her head and snapped her teeth, biting his glove. He jerked his hand away. Pippi scurried up his chest and over his shoulder to his back.
“Oh, you poor little thing, you must be so scared,” Natalie said.
“More terrified than I’ve ever been in my life.” Pippi gasped. Finally, someone realized she wasn’t trying to hurt anyone. She just wanted to get free and return to her own life far, far away from the horrible, scary nest in human territory.
“Natalie, don’t touch that thing,” Mother-Honey yelled.
Fred turned round and round. He reached across his back in every direction. Darting from side to side to avoid his hand, Pippi glimpsed Natalie.
She cupped Lana in her bare hands. She hadn’t been talking to Pippi, after all. She’d been talking to her sister. In fact, she still was.
Mother-Honey held open the door while Natalie slowly carried Lana toward the exit. If Lana was getting free, Pippi could make a run for it too. She jumped to the floor, so dizzy she nearly fell over.
Fred stomped his heavy boot down. She darted to the side at the last second bef
ore it landed on top of her. Then she raced between Natalie’s legs and out of the house. She ran down the rock hard steps and into the grass.
Oh yes, yes, yes! She’d made it outside to freedom.
But Lana wasn’t with her. Pippi stopped and looked back. The human was still holding her sister.