28

He was sound asleep when he heard it: “Revver! Come quick! I need you!” Revver jolted awake and sat up, his eyes wide. What was that? WHO was that? He listened hard, but he didn’t hear it again. He looked around the garage, but it was dark and empty; the team had finally gone to bed. He didn’t hear anything except some crickets far, far away. After a while, he whispered, “Just a bad dream, I guess,” and he settled in again.

He fell back to sleep. “Revver! Help!” He bolted to his feet and listened again. Nothing. Silence. But this time, he remembered the voice. It was Sprite’s.

What a terrible dream! he thought. For sure, it was even MORE terrible because this was the first time that he’d had a bad dream without Sprite to comfort him and talk to him when he woke up. He remembered the bad day. He remembered the bad dream. He remembered Sprite. Now he really missed her.

He couldn’t tell if it was nighttime or very early in the morning, but there was no point in trying to sleep now. He was wide-awake.

He looked around the garage in the dim light. There was so much that he hadn’t noticed with all the action of the crew running around. He saw tall rolling carts and giant toolboxes containing all sorts of magical, shiny-looking things. He saw power tools, floor jacks . . . ​and, of course, the car.

The more he noticed, the more excited he got!

Slowly and carefully at first, he started opening doors and drawers. He felt nervous and excited. He carefully touched things. He gently held every interesting item he could find, pretending he knew how to use it, making sound effects as he went along.

He poked in corners and peeked into bins. He climbed up onto benches and ladders to get a better look. Soon, he’d forgotten all about the bad dream. He also forgot all about being careful.

Now he wasn’t nervous at all. This was fun! He felt happier.

There was a door he’d never noticed in the corner, so he pushed it open and went in. In the low light, he could see that, inside, there were many other doors. And there was just the right amount of space for a squirrel to easily crawl underneath!

He went under one of the doors and found himself in a little room. Most of the room was filled with a shiny white machine—some kind of engine maybe? It looked impressive! It must be very important to be in a room all by itself!

He jumped onto the round part and looked inside the machine and saw a pool of water. Strange, he thought, that’s the fuel? It had no wheels. How does it work? What does it do? Does this go INTO a car somehow?

The machine was cold. Obviously it hadn’t been running in a while. How do they start it? Revver walked all around the machine to inspect, and then he noticed a shiny metal lever near the top.

He jumped on top of the machine and tried moving the lever with his foot, but he couldn’t budge it. He dropped back to the floor and tried pulling on it. He was able to move it a little, and it made a small gurgling sound, like the engine was trying to fire up. He tried harder. He jumped and grabbed the lever and hung from it, and the machine made the LOUDEST, most impressive roar as it started! Revver watched with excitement. As he hung from the lever, he noticed the water moving into a circle and then disappearing deep into a hole at the bottom. Where did it go? Before he had a chance to wonder, the water came back! He let go of the lever. He tried it again. Again, the water circled, disappeared, and returned. He did it again. And again. And again! He tried hanging off the lever longer to see what would happen. And again. And longer. And longer. Finally, he just hung on the lever as long as he could, watching the water swirling around and around.

But then, the water didn’t disappear. Instead, it got higher and higher and began spilling out of the machine and onto the floor. Revver tried to stop it, but the lever wouldn’t budge. It was stuck. The floor got wetter and wetter. Somehow, Revver knew something was wrong. He decided it was time to leave the machine alone.

He hurried out of the little machine room and shimmied back through the crack in the big door. He pushed against the door to make sure it was closed and went back into the main garage. He continued exploring, and, when he noticed it sitting there, alone, his heart skipped a beat.

There, in the darkness, just waiting for him, sat THE CAR.