Gerbil on a Mission

by Michael Delaney

  “And how, may I ask, do you know that?”

  “Because I can read, that’s how!” Obi had never confessed this to anyone. It was one of her most intimate secrets.

  The Newfoundland chuckled. “A gerbil that can read!” he said. “That’s fabulous!”

  “But I can!” exclaimed Obi. As Obi was saying this, she spotted the squirrel. He was climbing, headfirst, down the telephone pole. The moment the squirrel saw the Newfoundland, he stopped in his tracks. His eyes widened with alarm and then he spun about and hurried back up the pole.

  The Newfoundland, whose gaze was on Obi the whole time, had not noticed the squirrel. “Okay, smarty, what’s my dog tag say?”

  The Newfoundland lay down on the grass and lowered his head so Obi could read the dog tag that hung from his collar.

  Obi clasped the small, shiny, round metal tag in her two front paws. She had to move a tuft of thick black fur aside so she could see what was etched on the tag.

  “‘My name is Mookie,’” she read out loud. “‘I belong to—’”

  “Whoa!” cried the Newfoundland. He sounded shocked. His head snapped up, causing the dog tag to rip out of Obi’s paws. The dog stared at Obi in amazement. “You really can read!”

  “I told you!” said Obi.

  “Who taught you how to read?”

  “Nobody taught me. I learned it on my own.”

  “This is incredible! Do you know what the odds are of a gerbil knowing how to read?”

  “No, what?” asked Obi, who was extremely interested to find out.

  Either the dog didn’t know, or like Kenobi, he had an infuriatingly short attention span, for he abruptly changed the subject. He narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Obi and said, “So why are you so interested in this puppy?”

  “He belongs to my adoptive mother,” replied Obi. “She misses him dearly. That’s why I’m trying to find him.”

  “You’re sure it’s not because of the reward money?”

  Obi stared at the Newfoundland. She couldn’t believe he would think such a thing about her. “No! Absolutely not!”

  Apparently, though, the Newfoundland did not believe Obi. “Tell you what,” he said. “I’ll make a deal with you. If you split the reward money with me, I’ll tell you what I know about this puppy.”

  “You know something about him?” asked Obi.

  “I sure do,” said the Newfoundland. “I ran into him yesterday. I gave him some good advice. So what do you say? Will you go halfsies with me on the reward?”

  “You can have all the reward money,” replied Obi. “I just want to find this puppy. So what advice did you give him?”

  The Newfoundland was about to say something when, down the street, a woman’s voice called out: “Moooookie!”

  The Newfoundland’s head jerked in the direction of the woman’s voice. “That’s my owner!” he exclaimed excitedly. “Wonder what she wants?”

  “Mookie! Come, Mookie!” the woman’s voice called out.

  “I’ve got to go!” cried the Newfoundland.

  “Wait!” cried Obi. “Before you go, what did you say to the puppy?”

  “Moooookeee! Come, Moooookeee!” cried the woman’s voice.

  The Newfoundland looked very anxious as well as confused about what he should do—stay and talk to Obi or obey his owner. “I’ve got to go see what my owner wants!”

  “First tell me what you said to the puppy!” said Obi. “Please, Mookie, I’ve got to know!”

  “I told him not to go anywhere near Rex!” replied the Newfoundland.

  “Rex? Who’s Rex?”

  “He’s the German shepherd who lives in the brown house at the end of the street.”

  “What’s wrong with Rex?”

  “He’s a really mean dog!” explained the Newfoundland. “He’ll bite you if you’re not careful! So I told the puppy not to go anywhere near Rex’s house. And that’s my advice to you, too. If you know what’s good for you, little gerbil, don’t go anywhere near Rex!”

  “Don’t worry, I won’t!” said Obi. “Thanks for telling me!”

  “Moooooookeeeeeee!” the woman’s voice called out again.

  Obi watched as the Newfoundland, barking, bounded down the street.

  Now that the Newfoundland was gone, the squirrel came back down the telephone pole. With a leap, he landed beside Obi.

  “I don’t like that dog!” he said to Obi. “He’s always chasing me! He’s not part of your gang, is he?”

  “Him? No way!” said Obi. “So did you see any sign of the puppy from the telephone wire?”

  “Nothing,” replied the squirrel. “So what do we do now?”

  Obi sighed. She honestly did not know. “I don’t know,” she confessed, “but I’ll tell you one thing. I’m not going anywhere near the brown house that’s at the end of this street. I just found out there’s a really mean dog that lives there.”

  Obi heard herself say this and realized something.

  “Yes, of course, he would!” she exclaimed. Excited, Obi broke into a run.

  “Where are you going?” asked the squirrel.

  “I know where to find the puppy!” Obi shouted over her shoulder.

  Chapter Nineteen The Really Mean Dog

  Obi raced across one front lawn, then another. She knew just where to go: to the brown house at the end of the street.

  Yes, the brown house where the really mean dog lived.

  Even though Obi had been warned by the Newfoundland not to go there, she knew this was where she’d find Kenobi. He had to be there. Whenever Obi had told Kenobi not to do something, what had the puppy done? Exactly what Obi had told him not to do! The Newfoundland said he had told Kenobi not to go anywhere near the brown house where the really mean dog lived. Obi could just see the puppy hearing this and then, lickety-split, making a beeline for the brown house.

  Even if Obi hadn’t known that the brown house was at the end of the street, she would have had no trouble finding it. All she needed to do was follow the sound of a dog’s ferocious barking. The barking came from behind the brown house. With the squirrel tagging along, Obi hurried around to the back of the house, slipped under a hydrangea bush, and peeked out. A German shepherd stood near the edge of the woods, barking at something there.

  Obi was shocked. You’d think a family that owned a really mean dog would keep the dog fenced in or, at the very least, tied up. But they didn’t! The really mean dog was roaming around the backyard free as a bird!

  “Is this the dog you’re looking for?” asked the squirrel. His voice quivered as he, too, peeked out from the bush. The squirrel’s fluffy tail was twitching nervously all over the place.

  “No, he’s not the dog,” replied Obi. “But I think he knows where the dog I’m looking for is.”

  “How are you going to find out?”

  Obi wasn’t really sure. “I guess I’ll have to ask him.”

  The squirrel looked horrified. “Y-you’re going to talk to him?!”

  “I have no choice,” replied Obi. “I have to find Kenobi.”

  Obi decided to wait until the dog calmed down a bit before venturing over to talk to him. The only problem was, the German shepherd did not calm down! He just kept barking and barking! An hour passed. Then another hour. Then several more hours passed.

  The dog kept barking into the woods. Every once in a while, the dog’s owner would stick her head out the back door of the house and yell out, “Quiet, Rex!”

  The German shepherd would lie down and stop barking then, whereupon Obi would start to head over to him. But then, the darn dog would leap up and start barking wildly again into the woods, and Obi, all atremble, would rush back to under the hydrangea bush, where the squirrel, looking scared stiff, was cowering.

  Finally, by the end of the day, Obi realized she had to do something. She couldn’t just sit there waiting. She had to take her chances. And so, with her heart beating hard, Obi stepped out from under the hydrangea bush. She was absolutely terrified
as she made her way across the back lawn toward the barking German shepherd. Who knew what this really mean dog might do to Obi? Tear her from limb to limb? Swallow her up in a single bite? Obi tried not to think about it. She was on a mission, she told herself. She had a puppy to find and nothing, not even a really mean German shepherd, was going to stop her!

  At least that’s what she kept telling herself.

  Obi walked right up behind the barking German shepherd and halted. Her whole body was quivering with fear.

  “Hawo!” she said in her most friendly voice.

  The dog was barking so fiercely loud, he didn’t hear Obi. Indeed, Obi could scarcely hear herself.

  “HAWO!” she said again, only much louder this time. That got his attention. The dog stopped barking and whirled about, startled.

  “Sorry! Didn’t mean to startle you!” said Obi quickly. The dog’s face instantly darkened. He narrowed his eyes at Obi and let out a ferocious growl. “Ah-ha!” he snarled. “Caught you in the act!” Obi had no idea what the dog was talking about.

  “I beg your pardon?” she said.

  “Don’t play innocent with me, Missy!” the German shepherd said. “I’m onto you!”

  “You are?”

  “I must admit, I wasn’t expecting you to be a little mouse.”

  “Well, actually, I’m not a little mouse,” said Obi. “I’m a little gerbil.”

  “So what did you do with it?” the dog demanded.

  “What did I do with what?”

  “You know perfectly well with what! With my rubber ball! What did you do with it?”

  “I didn’t do anything with it!”

  “You stole it!”

  “I did not!”

  “Don’t deny it!” barked the German shepherd. “You’re a doggy-toy stealer!”

  “I am not a doggy-toy stealer!”

  “Oh, like I’m supposed to believe that?”

  “As a matter of fact, yes!” replied Obi. “What would I, a little gerbil, want with one of your doggy toys?”

  The German shepherd was quiet for a moment as he pondered this. He must have thought Obi had made a good point, for he said, “If you’re not here to steal one of my doggy toys, why are you here?”

  “I’m here to ask you if you’ve seen a little puppy,” replied Obi.

  “No, I have not!” replied the German shepherd.

  “Are you sure?” said Obi. “I’m almost certain he came here.”

  “Well, I haven’t seen him!” snapped the German shepherd. “Unless …” His voice trailed off.

  “Unless what?” asked Obi.

  “Unless he’s the one in the woods.”

  “Someone is in the woods?”

  “I keep hearing noises in the woods.”

  Obi thought about this for a moment. Could it be Kenobi?

  “That might be him!” she said. “Thanks for telling me about this!”

  Obi started for the woods. She’d taken only a couple of steps, though, when she heard a vicious snarl. She peered up. The German shepherd was glowering at her with the most menacing look in his eyes. “And where do you think you’re going?” he demanded.

  “Oh! Um, well … to the woods,” replied Obi. “I want to go see if those noises you’re hearing are being made by the puppy I’m looking for.”

  “I don’t think so!” said the German shepherd.

  “You don’t think what?”

  “I don’t think you’re going anywhere!”

  Obi gulped. “You don’t?”

  The dog shook his head. “Nope, I don’t. You know what I do think?”

  Obi shook her head.

  “I think whoever is in the woods took my favorite rubber ball and that you helped him steal it. That’s why you’re here! You’re hoping to distract me so whoever is in the woods can come out and steal another one of my doggy toys!”

  Obi did not like where this conversation was going. The German shepherd was angry and he didn’t seem to be too bright, and, well, frankly, those two things do not make a good combination. Particularly for a little gerbil who’s in the same backyard with a really mean dog.

  Obi tried to remain calm. Think, Obi, think! she said to herself. How do I get out of this mess?

  And then, despite being all but paralyzed with fear, Obi thought of something.

  “Don’t come out yet!” she shouted, waving her two front paws as if she was signaling to someone in the woods. “He’s onto us!”

  The German shepherd swung around and, barking fiercely, rushed over to the edge of the woods.

  Obi hadn’t really seen anyone. She had just shouted this out to distract the dog. The moment the German shepherd took his eyes off Obi, the gerbil spun around and ran like crazy for the woods. The dog saw Obi escaping. At that point, he must have put two and two together and realized he had been tricked. He became absolutely furious! Barking insanely, he charged at Obi, with a fiery look in his dark eyes.

  Obi shrieked. She heard an even louder shriek right beside her. It came from the squirrel; he had come out of hiding to join Obi.

  “HEAD FOR THE WOODS!” Obi shouted to the squirrel.

  As Obi and the squirrel sprinted into the woods, Obi heard a strange sound behind them. At first, she thought it was the really mean dog chasing after them. But to Obi’s surprise, the German shepherd had mysteriously stopped short at the edge of the woods.

  Okay, so if the really mean dog wasn’t behind them, who was? The noise sounded like—Obi gasped when she realized what it sounded like.

  The noise sounded like wings. Beating wings! Furiously beating wings!

  Terrified, Obi glanced back over her shoulder. An enormous bird with an impressive wingspan and enormous, piercing eyes that almost seemed to glow was flying down from the sky, heading straight toward her!

  It was an owl!

  Obi ran even faster. She heard the rushing sound of the owl’s wings grow louder. Suddenly, Obi felt something sharp dig into the fur on her back. The owl had grabbed Obi with his talons.

  “Aaaahhhhhhhh!” shrieked Obi.

  The next thing Obi knew, she was being lifted up into the air!

  Chapter Twenty The Owl

  Obi had never been so terrified in all her life. As the owl whisked her away, she glanced down and saw the squirrel on the ground, with his face tilted up, a horrified look in his eyes.

  “Quick, Squirrel!” yelled Obi. “Go get help!”

  Obi wasn’t really counting on the squirrel to go get help. After all, who would he get help from? The really mean dog? Obi had just said this so the owl would hear her and think the squirrel was going to return with a rescue party—or better yet, a huge army—that would stop at nothing to free Obi. If the owl thought reinforcements were on the way, maybe, just maybe, he’d let Obi go.

  But, alas, that did not happen. The owl kept flying over the treetops, with Obi dangling in his sharp claws.

  If Obi hadn’t been so horribly frightened and if the owl’s claws hadn’t hurt quite so much, she might have enjoyed being up in the air, with a bird’s-eye view of her neighborhood. For another, it would have allowed Obi to search for Kenobi from high up in the air.

  But Obi was much too stressed out to enjoy her first flying experience. As for looking for Kenobi, the light was fading fast and the woods below were a gray smudge. A little puppy would be all but impossible to spot.

  Obi peered ahead and saw that the owl was flying toward an old, leafless, gnarled tree that stood rather spookily in the dark, shadow-filled forest. With Obi still clutched in her claws, the owl sailed into a small hole in the trunk of the tree, about twenty feet up from the ground. In the dimly lit hole, the owl released Obi. He then perched himself in front of the hole so Obi would be unable to escape.

  “What are you going to do with me?” cried Obi. She was hysterical, she was so frightened. “Why did you bring me here? Where are we? How long are you going to keep me? Is there anything I can do to persuade you to let me go?”

  “Lo
ok, I’ve had a really hard day, okay?” snapped the owl irritably. “I’m tired and I have no patience for a lot of idle chitchat!”

  “Oh, sorry!” said Obi. “I didn’t know.”

  “Yeah, well, now you know,” grumbled the owl.

  Obi decided that, since the owl didn’t want to hear any small talk, she should just get right to the point.

  “You’re not going to …”

  But Obi found that she was unable to say what she was terrified the owl was going to do to her. It was just too horrible to say out loud.

  “I’m not going to what?” demanded the owl in a very peevish voice, glaring at Obi. Even though it was dark as anything inside the hole, Obi could see the owl’s two green, piercing eyes focused upon her. The owl’s eyes almost glowed! It was very eerie!

  “You know …” said Obi, still unable to say the words.

  “No, I don’t know!” cried the owl impatiently. “What do I look like? A mind reader?”

  He certainly was an ill-tempered owl!

  But Obi tried once again to finish her question. “I was just wondering, if, well, you know, if you were going to … um … you know … um … eat me.” Obi said “eat me” in the tiniest of tiny voices.

  “Well, duh!” said the owl. “Why did you think I brought you here? To chat?”

  “Well, no,” said Obi, feeling a bit stupid.

  “Yes, of course, I’m going to—” The owl suddenly stopped talking and made a pained face. “Oh, no!” he groaned. “There he goes again!”

  “There who goes again?” asked Obi.

  “That dog!” exclaimed the owl. “That infuriating, idiotic, wretched, inconsiderate dog! All he does all day is bark, bark, bark!”

  Now that the owl mentioned it, Obi did hear a lot of barking off in the distance. It was coming from the direction of the brown house where the German shepherd lived.

  “Ugh!” cried the owl. “That incessant barking is driving me nuts! Nuts! Nuts! NUTS! Doesn’t that dog know owls sleep during the day and hunt at night!?”

  “I guess not,” said Obi.

  “How am I supposed to get any sleep during the day when he barks and barks and barks? I can’t! And I can’t sleep at night because I’m programmed to stay up and hunt!”