DIM SUNLIGHT REFLECTED off a brick wall into the pack rat’s den. The pack rat, admiring some of his prized possessions, heard a knock at his storm drain entrance.
“Come in. Ah, Tye. All set for tonight?” the pack rat asked as he placed an ivory button back on a piece of pipe wire sticking out of the mortar between two bricks in his wall.
Tye walked through the pack rat’s cluttered living quarters. “Same as usual. You wanted to see me about something?” Tye looked at piles of coins, some foreign, stacked into a throne and held together with beeswax.
“Yes. Tell me, Tye, have you ever seen either of the two myna birds before?” The pack rat picked up an encased bearing for a skateboard wheel and spun it silently.
Looking through the odds and ends, Tye said, “The young myna bird has been there a long time, four moons or so, and the older one just got there a couple days ago, but,” Tye stopped and looked at the pack rat, “the older one sure reminds me of a crow I know. They sound the same, like Reo.”
“Thank you, Tye. I feel the same,” agreed the pack rat. “I would like you to watch them closely tonight, if you would. When trading is over, I want you to come back here and tell me everything you saw and heard. I will pay you for your eyes and ears tonight. Now go, we wouldn’t want you to be late for the opening.”
Tye went to the entrance, and cautiously looked to the sky and surveyed the ground below before he climbed down the third vine in the El Paseo, a vine jungle clinging to the walls of a south-of-the-border-style narrow passageway with archways and courtyards further down the shadowed corridor. He waited at the corner, and looked both ways and up into the sky again before crossing the sidewalk. Tye ran as fast as he could across the sidewalk and dove through the bars of a drainage grate to cross beneath the road in a drainpipe ending at the creek below the pet shop. The other mice were already on a slippery wet ledge forested with patches of moss and small ferns. In the shade of mixed bay trees and redwoods, the creek clicked and popped below the ledge.
Dram looked up to see Tye scurrying along from a different direction than usual. Dram coaxed his crew. “Let’s get moving.” He began to echo as he entered the red clay pipe leading the field mice to the back wall of the pet shop, but for them it was a trading floor. “Remember to listen to me at the other end of the pipe, and I’ll tell you all when to push.”
The mice entered the pet shop in the usual fashion.
As Tye appeared bounding through the crack, Dram stopped him and asked, “Hey, Tye, where were you coming from this afternoon?”
“The pack rat asked to see me about something.”
“The pack rat! What did he want to see you about? Do you want to talk about it? I do.” Dram blinked his chubby eyes and smiled.
“I don’t know if I should,” Tye sighed, and continued, “The pack rat just asked me to keep an eye on the two myna birds tonight.” Tye shrugged his shoulders and walked off towards his section of the pet shop.
“That’s it? To watch the two myna birds?” Dram muttered suspiciously. “That can’t be it. That’s not all. I wonder why?” Dram looked at the two myna birds, who were thrashing about their feeders emptying out all the seeds. Frustrated, Dram yelled, “Stations, everyone! Tye, you be careful with whom you keep company!”
Soren was thrilled and asked, “How any seeds do you have now?”
“I’m not enjoying my counting as much as you seem to be. I have twenty-one. And you?”
“I have thirty-two. I’m almost out of here,” exclaimed Soren.
Six bells rang.
Soren was full of excitement and explained, “We have to listen very carefully for our trades or else we’ll miss out. Remember what I told you about trading, the language and the figuring out the ratios and stuff.”
“Buying corn kernels!” squealed a guinea pig.
“Sold! Sold!” squawked a parrot.
Soren looked at his stock of corn kernels, counted out five and yelled, “Cross sunflower seeds with corn kernels, two to one, five times!”
“Done. You’re filled,” shouted the guinea pig.
Soren figured out loud, “Ten more sunflower seeds. That’s forty-two!”
Fife panicked immediately, watching sunflower seeds going to Soren’s cage. Fife raised his wings and yelled, “Trading seeds with sunflower seeds!”
“Sold!” chorused the caged white mice.
“Sold!” sang the crickets from the breeding box in the storage room.
The Cockatiel Conglomerate sat four in a row on a perch pole and sang like a barbershop quartet, getting a higher pitch with each word and then a group-shout at the end: “Sold, sold, sold, sold, SOLD!”
Mice ran to and from the myna bird cages. Cedar chips were being scratched up and delivered to Dram. Sunflower seeds were being taken to the myna bird’s cages.
Dram couldn’t take it anymore. “Tye, come here, please.”
Tye tip-toed across the sills and came to Dram’s call. “Yeah, Dram, what’s up?”
“I know something else is going on here. It could be very bad for business if the pack rat and these two myna birds are involved in some kind of contract. We can’t have these two birds mucking up our livelihood. This is how I feed my family, and this is how you help with your family. Don’t mess it up.” Dram looked at the two myna birds accepting sunflower seeds. “I see they’re buying sunflower seeds, and the rest of the pet shop is selling them. If they hold those seeds or give them to the pack rat for a bigger trade, there is no telling what they are planning. Please, Tye, be very careful. The pack rat is the most dangerous creature you will ever meet. He’s ruthless. So, that been said, I would like you to tell me what you know and what is going on here.”
Tye held his paws out and exclaimed, “What? I know nothing. The pack rat asked me to see him. I went to his den and he asked me to watch the two myna birds tonight. When our work is done here, I’m supposed to go back and tell him what I heard and saw this evening. That’s it. Oh, and he asked me if I had seen either of the two myna birds before. I told him the young one has been here his whole life, and that the older one reminds me of a crow I know.”
Both Tye and Dram said at the same time, “Reo.”
“Yeah, Reo. And Dram, I’m being paid extra to watch the birds. As far as I can tell, it’s harmless.”
A voice from across the pet shop yelled out, “Hey, Tye, did I get filled on my trade!?”
Tye shouted back, “You were buying, right?”
“No! Selling! Get over here.”
“Dram, I’ve got to go fix this. Are we good here?”
“We’re good. Go.”
The Jack Dempsey fish swam beside a broker mouse as it walked in front of his aquarium. The mouse was carrying two squirming crickets, one under each arm. The broker noticed the big fish and stopped briefly to explain, “You want these? You have to trade for them.” The crickets began kicking furiously, as the broker began walking towards the edge of the shelf above the scorpion terrarium. The mouse leaned over the edge, dropped the crickets in and watched for a moment. He portrayed the battle taking place below; he pretended his claws were pinchers and bent over at the waist with his tail curved up over his head. He grabbed at a make-believe cricket, then grabbed his own neck, in play, and tapped himself on the head with his tail. He fell to the ground twitching pretending to wrestle death itself. He used one arm and pulled his body across the shelf a few times before he kicked violently and played dead.
The mouse peeked out and around and sprang to his feet, dusted himself off and quickly bowed in three directions to no one. He began to walk back past the Jack Dempsey tank, and again the fish watched intently as the mouse walked the length of the aquarium. The mouse got nervous and looked over his shoulder at the fish staring at him. The Jack Dempsey backed up and charged the mouse. The big fish hit the glass, sending a wave of water over the top of the tank in a waterfall. The mouse was swept over the edge of the shelf, screaming in terror.
An excited green chameleon, happy with his trade for outside spiders, was counting push-ups, “Ten, eleven, twelve, and thirteen …,” as two mice struggled with some small spiders and the webs they were making in defense. The mice tried to drop the small spiders in the chameleon tank, but one mouse got webs all over his paws and turned to walk away, only to trip on a spider web stuck to his foot. He put his hands out to protect himself and bumped into the other mouse. They fell stuck together dangling upside down in mid-air, swinging back and forth.
The tarantulas tapped on their glass for attention, in a panic to save their little cousins from the chameleons.
Two little green turtles squared off in the pool in front of the little plastic beach display. They eyed each other aggressively. One turtle put up a foot and the other turtle matched it, then the other side. They stood up together and backed away. Both turtles lifted one leg and slammed their foot into the water, splashing each other. They raised the other foot in true sumo fashion, and again splashed it down in the water. They bowed their heads and moved towards each other very slowly, clashing shells. Front feet pushing on each other, they locked together, splashing as they turned and pushed, trying to knock the other out of the pool and onto the floor.
The new recruit broker, Wayne, stood on the sill of a snake cage wearing half a walnut shell on his head and carrying a plastic badge as a shield. The snakes below focused on him. Three mice were running along the shelf above with cedar chips, heading for Dram. A yellow-and-brown baby monitor lizard, out of his cage, hissed at the three mice from behind a stack of bagged multi-colored aquarium gravel. The three mice froze in fright. Looking at each other, they screamed and jumped straight off the shelf, startling Wayne on their way down. Wayne jumped backwards onto the screen roof of one of the snake cages. The snake coiled and sprang to the roof of his cage launching Wayne into the shelf above and cracking his walnut-shell helmet into little pieces. Wayne dropped his shield and darted for the safety of the sill, yelling, “Trading places! Trading places!”
The two myna birds turned and shouted, “Sold!”
Dram screamed out, “No trade! Bust trade! No deal!” Dram looked at Wayne, who was trying to get off his shelf. “You stay there and get back to work. You’re alive, so relax.” Dram watched Wayne out of the corner of his eye for awhile, continuing to match trades.
Wayne stopped climbing down, and began climbing back up onto his shelf. A snake pressed its face in the corner, with his tongue flickering close to Wayne.
Fife had just completed another trade, ten sunflower seeds for his beak board to the Parakeet Progressive Partnership. Four mice carried the beak board to the parakeets.
“I’m still short. I don’t have enough seeds. This is no good. Juliet! Trade me something for five sunflower seeds; it’s almost nine bells,” pleaded Fife.
Juliet said quickly, “How about for a promise?”
“Sure, anything within reason,” answered Fife.
Juliet whistled two notes, one high and one low.
Max, the clerk mouse, Juliet’s friend, came running down the line of cages. Tye skidded around the corner and swung off a cage, bumping Max off the shelf. Tye ran to Juliet’s cage. “Yes, Juliet, what can I do for you?”
“I wanted to talk to Max,” remarked Juliet.
“He’s busy. I just saw him heading to the floor. What can I do for you?” asked Tye.
“Here, give these five sunflower seeds to the older myna bird and that’ll be all. Oh, and here are two for you.” Juliet grabbed seven sunflower seeds and dropped them outside of her cage at Tye’s feet.
Tye shook his head and explained, “If it’s not a trade for Dram and trade match, then I need a reason. You understand.”
“It is a trade, but I need the five seeds first!” yelled Fife angrily.
“Please do this for me, Tye. I would appreciate it and Romeo would appreciate it too, if he were here,” charmed Juliet.
Tye picked up the seeds, took five of them to Fife’s cage and ran off out of sight.
Nine bells rang.
“I have just fifty. Thank you, Juliet. I’m in your debt,” said Fife, gratefully.
“I have fifty-two! I’ve done it! We’ve done it!” exclaimed Soren.
The mice began to leave the pet shop when Dram hopped up on the display table near the two myna birds. “That’s quite a bounty for a pair of blackbirds.”
Soren turned around and said confidently, “We’re not blackbirds!”
“Oh, it speaks,” Dram exclaimed in sarcastic shock. He walked over near Soren’s cage and asked, “Why all these changes! Speaking, trading, even consorting with neighbors,” he said bitterly, looking at Fife. Not waiting for a response, he continued, “As I recollect you don’t even like sunflower seeds!” Dram reached in towards the pile of sunflower seeds in Soren’s cage while Soren was preening some new feathers that were coming in on his wings and not paying attention.
“Watch out, Soren!” squawked Fife.
Soren spun around and grabbed Dram by the arm with his beak. Dram held two sunflower seeds, one in each hand. Soren looked Dram right in the eye and bit down slowly.
Dram released the seeds and they dropped back into the pile. “Okay, you win. It’s all right. Forget it, I was just testing. They’re yours. No harm. Let go, please.”
Soren paused for a moment before he released Dram.
Dram instantly withdrew his arms and inspected his forearm for injuries.
Fife watched proudly as Soren began piling his seeds in the center of his cage, so that even the longest arms couldn’t reach in and take them.
Dram walked over to Fife while rubbing his wrist, and said, “You are obviously behind this change in –” He looked over at the young myna. “Soren, is it? Is that his name?” Dram pointed at the young myna bird. “I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me what’s going on around here, or what all these seeds are for?” This time, Dram waited for an answer.
Soren ignored Dram and continued moving seeds to the middle of his cage. Fife stood between his pile of seeds and Dram, just looking at him.
Dram gave up in frustration, jumped off the counter and returned to his matchbox. He packed it up, hid it in its usual place, walked to the crack in the wall and slithered through it by himself. Hidden from sight, Dram peered back through the crack to have a look at the two myna birds. He decided to curl up in the shadows and wait out the night to see what would happen.