We walked on our secret mission to the hospital. It was early. The street was quiet. Then …
Plunk. Plunk. Plunk.
Jillian and I stopped.
“Shh,” Jillian whispered. “Did you hear something?”
Plunk. Plunk. Plunk.
I heard something. I just didn’t know what it was.
“Footsteps?” I wondered.
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “I hope Mom and Dad aren’t following us.”
“Me, too,” I whispered back.
We both turned around to look. The sidewalk was empty, but somebody could have been hiding behind a tree.
We had to be very careful. We kept walking.
Plunk. Plunk. Plunk.
It didn’t sound like footsteps. It sounded like something was dropping onto the ground.
After a moment, we heard something else: “Oooch. Oooch. Oooch.” A sad sound.
“Is that a dog crying?” my sister whispered.
“We have to check it out,” I said.
We followed the noise and peeked around a big tree. On a patch of grass, a small animal was crouched. She was a little ball of black fur. Both of her paws were covering her eyes.
Nuts lay on the ground all around her. Acorns.
An acorn hit the little animal on her head.
“Oooch!” she whimpered.
“Check out the stripe on her back! She’s a skunk!” Jillian said.
We stepped back.
The skunk whimpered and covered her head with her paws.
Plunk! Another acorn flew down and hit her back.
“Oooch.” The skunk’s legs were shaking.
We looked up. A squirrel was sitting on a branch in a tree.
“Hee-hee-hee.” The squirrel laughed. He had a pile of nuts in his hands, ready to throw.
Jillian took another step back.
“Skunks use their stinky spray to defend themselves,” Jillian said. “That skunk is going to spray.”
“Maybe she doesn’t know how,” I said. “She looks like a baby.”
“Hee-hee-hee.” The squirrel threw another nut.
“Stop that,” I said to the squirrel.
“Hee-hee-hee,” he laughed.
“Come on,” Jillian said. “I’m sure that skunk is going to spray. If we smell like skunk, they won’t let us in the hospital.”
We kept walking. Then I heard a sound.
I turned around. The skunk was following us. She looked at me with her big black eyes.
“Stinkball wants us to protect her,” I said.
“Stinkball?” Jillian turned around. “Oh, hi, Stinkball. You can’t come with us. They won’t let us come into the hospital with you.” She pointed her finger at Stinkball. “Stay!”
“You’ve got to find your family, Stinkball,” I said. “I’m very cute, but I ain’t your daddy.”
We walked a few steps.
“Hee-hee-hee.”
The squirrel threw another nut.
I got mad. “We can’t let that squirrel bully poor Stinkball,” I said.
“You’re right,” Jillian said. “We need to help.” She looked up at the squirrel. “I am using a firm but friendly voice. Go away.”
The squirrel threw another nut.
“Ooch, ooch.” Poor Stinkball was scared.
“The problem is the squirrel isn’t scared of us,” Jillian said. “He sees humans all the time. He’s used to us.”
That gave me an idea. I crouched down and took a deep breath.
“What are you doing?” Jillian asked.
“Shh! I’m getting into character.”
I started pounding the ground with my fists. My face turned red.
Jillian and Stinkball backed away.
I growled. Then I jumped up and roared. I bellowed. I flexed my muscles and hopped from foot to foot like a mad, crazy baboon.
The squirrel’s jaw dropped. He let go of all the nuts he was holding. Zoom! He was off, hopping from branch to branch until he was out of sight.
Stinkball peered out from behind a tree.
“That nut-chunking punk is gone now,” I said. “It’s okay.”
Stinkball wiggled her rear end happily.
“I’m glad you found a way to scare that squirrel,” Jillian said. “I don’t think he’s coming back! You did a good deed for Stinkball.”
A warm, wonderful feeling filled me from the tip of my toes to the tip of my nose. “It feels good to do good,” I said to my sister.
Jillian nodded. “I know! We can’t be Crooks. Come on, let’s find out if we were stolen from the hospital.”
I pointed to a bush. “See, Stinkball? You can hide in there.” Stinkball scampered under the bush.
“Come on, Billy.”
“Bye, Stinkball!” I waved.
In the shadows of the bush, I could see a tiny smile.
