Gerbil on a Mission

by Michael Delaney

  “I can see where that could be a problem,” said Obi.

  “I haven’t had a decent sleep in two days!” cried the owl. “Every time I start to fall asleep, that infernal dog starts barking! Look at me! I’m a nervous wreck! My nerves are all shot!” The owl peered out his hole into the dark woods and said, “What on earth is that dog barking at now?”

  Obi had a pretty good idea what the German shepherd was barking at: her. Before running off into the woods, Obi had whipped the dog up into a frenzy. He was probably still standing at the edge of his backyard, barking into the shadowy woods. Obi decided it was best not to tell the owl this, though.

  “I have no idea what he could be barking at,” she said.

  “He’s been barking like this since yesterday morning!”

  “Oh, really?” said Obi, surprised. “Since yester day morning?”

  “What would cause a dog to bark for so long?” the owl asked.

  Obi thought she knew. And it wasn’t because of Obi. How could it be? The really mean dog hadn’t even known Obi existed until about a half hour ago. Kenobi had run away yesterday morning. Could it be the really mean dog was barking at Kenobi?

  “I can’t stand it, I tell you, I can’t stand it!” cried the owl, becoming more and more agitated. He was unraveling before Obi’s very eyes. “I need SLEEP!”

  And then the owl did a very unexpected thing. He spun around and, to Obi’s horror, stuck his head out the hole and began to bark like a crazy dog into the darkness.

  “Ruff! Ruff! Ruff!”

  The owl was making Obi very, very nervous. She didn’t know a lot about owls, but she was pretty sure that barking like a dog was not normal owl behavior. What little Obi did know about owls she had learned from the books that Mr. Armstrong read to Rachel at bedtime. Obi’s favorite owl book was Sam and the Firefly.

  The owl in the story was named Sam. He was a kind and understanding owl and he did not bark like a dog.

  “Gosh, you’re not at all like Sam!” Obi heard herself blurt out loud.

  The owl stopped barking and pulled his head back into the hole. He glowered at Obi and said, “Who’s Sam?”

  “You know,” said Obi. “From the story Sam and the Firefly.”

  “No, I don’t know!” said the owl. “Tell it to me!”

  “Oh! Okay! Sure, I’d be happy to!” said Obi.

  And so Obi told the story about Sam and the firefly to the owl. She found she rather enjoyed telling the story. It took her mind off her hopeless situation. While Obi told the story, she couldn’t help noticing the magical effect it seemed to have on the owl. His eyes softened and he looked totally engrossed. Better still, the story seemed to mollify him. He seemed less jittery, more gentle. When Obi finished the story, the owl said, “That was a good story! Know any others?”

  “Actually, I do!” said Obi excitedly. “I know lots of them!” Which, in fact, was true. Mr. Armstrong had read lots and lots of bedtime stories to Rachel. They were all in Obi’s head, like a huge library.

  “Well, then, tell me another!” ordered the owl.

  Obi wondered what story to tell next. Since the owl liked Sam and the Firefly so much, Obi thought he might also like A Fly Went By, since they were similar in that they were both short and had happy endings. So Obi began telling the story of A Fly Went By. She hadn’t gotten very far into the story, though, when the owl rather rudely interrupted her.

  “When do we get to the owl part?” he demanded.

  “The owl part?” said Obi. “There’s no owl in this story.”

  “What do you mean there’s no owl?!” cried the owl. He looked annoyed. “Why are you telling it to me, then?”

  “You said you wanted to hear a good story,” said Obi.

  “I said a good owl story,” said the owl.

  Obi shook her head. “No, you didn’t.”

  “Yes, I did!”

  “No, I’m sorry, but you didn’t,” said Obi. “You simply said you wanted to hear another good story. You didn’t say anything about an owl story.”

  “I most certainly did!” insisted the owl, becoming irritable again. “Don’t tell me what I did or didn’t say! I said I wanted a good owl story! Now tell me one!”

  “Okay, okay!” said Obi, holding up her front paws. Meanwhile, she was thinking, Geez, what a hothead!

  Obi quickly tried to think of an owl story. A couple came to mind: The Owl and the Pussycat and Winnie-the-Pooh. The thing was, though, you had to be in the right mood to tell a certain type of story. There were many times when Mr. Armstrong was going to read to Rachel and one of them would suggest a book, but the other one would say he or she wasn’t in the mood for that kind of a story that night. Obi felt the same way about these two stories. She wanted to tell a story that was a bit more exciting, something that would cause the owl’s heart to pound fast and that would keep him on the edge of his nest. Suddenly, Obi knew just what story to tell.

  “I’ll tell you about Harry Potter!”

  “Is he an owl?”

  “No,” said Obi, “but he has a pet owl named Hedwig.” Before the owl could ask another question, Obi jumped into telling the story of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

  She was halfway into what would have been the second chapter if she’d actually been reading the book aloud when Obi heard a snore. She stopped telling the story and stared at the owl. His eyes were closed, and his chin was resting on his feathery chest. The owl had fallen asleep! Obi couldn’t believe it! How could the owl fall asleep during a Harry Potter story?! It was unheard of!

  “Hey, what are you doing?” cried Obi, annoyed. “Wake up!” She reached over and poked the owl in the chest with her front paw.

  The owl’s eyes jerked open. For a moment, he seemed to be in a daze. He gaped at Obi like he wasn’t quite sure what this gerbil was doing in his nest.

  “You fell asleep!” said Obi. “Don’t fall asleep! This is a really good story!”

  “Sorry,” said the owl, yawning. “Just so … so … sleepy. Haven’t slept in days. Need sleep …”

  Obi saw the owl’s eyelids growing heavier and heavier.

  “Wake up!” exclaimed Obi, and poked the owl again.

  The owl opened his eyes wide and said, “I’m awake! Keep telling the story!”

  Obi picked up where she had left off. She was at the part where Harry arrives at Hogwarts when suddenly she heard another snore.

  The owl had fallen asleep again!

  Chapter Twenty-one Lions and Tigers and What’s That?!

  Obi stood on her hind legs and put her front paws on her hips. She frowned at the owl and gave him her most disdainful look. How could he fall asleep while listening to a story? Obi never fell asleep when Mr. Armstrong read stories aloud to Rachel! Nor, for that matter, did Rachel! And to think the owl had nodded off during a spellbinding Harry Potter story! What would J. K. Rowling say? She wouldn’t have been very happy, that was for sure.

  Obi sighed and leaned forward to wake the owl up again. Then she realized something and quickly pulled her paw back.

  What was she thinking!? This was a perfect opportunity for her to escape!

  Obi silently crept over to the sleeping owl. He was still blocking the entrance of the hole, so Obi had to be very quiet and cautious. Her heart pounded wildly as she moved close to the owl. Holding her breath, Obi squeezed past the owl and stuck her head out the hole. Glancing down, she saw how high up she was, and gasped. It scared her to be up so high. If only she were that goofy squirrel, she could just scamper down the side of the tree.

  C’mon, Obi, you can do this, Obi told herself. When the Armstrongs went on vacation, who was able to fend for herself and get food and water? Obi, of course! She was Obi, Jedi gerbil! If she had been able to do that, she could certainly do this! But how? As Obi studied the tree, she began to think she might have an idea of how she could get down to the ground without breaking her neck.

  Obi climbed out onto the rim of the tree hole. Gathering up al
l her courage, she leaped to the branch that was just below the hole. As she dropped down, she did a little somersault in midair. She didn’t need to do this, but she did. She couldn’t resist. It was a Jedi knight thing. From that branch, Obi jumped to the next lower branch. Then to the branch below that. And then the one below that. It wasn’t long before Obi was able to drop to the ground without hurting herself.

  The moment Obi was on the ground again, she was off. She blindly raced through the dark woods. Only when she had put a good distance between her and the old, dead tree where the owl lived did Obi allow herself to slow down to a walk.

  Having escaped from the owl, Obi now found she had another problem: she had no idea where to go. The woods were dark and creepy and filled with strange, spooky shadows and crickets chirping loudly. Obi remembered a movie on TV she had once watched with Rachel. At one point during the movie, a human girl, a scarecrow, a tin man, and a cowardly lion were walking through a dark, creepy forest just like this one. To comfort themselves, they began to say a little chant. Hoping it might comfort her, Obi began to say it, too.

  “Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!” Obi said softly to herself as she walked through the dark woods, glancing nervously about. “Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Lions and tigers and what’s that?!”

  Something was rushing up behind her! Obi didn’t need to look to see what it was. She knew. It was the owl! Obviously, he had woken up, found her gone, become furious, and flown in a rage out of his hole to find Obi and bring her back.

  Well, he had found her!

  Obi sprinted as fast as her legs would go. She heard the owl behind her, catching up. He was getting closer and closer. Sprinting faster, Obi closed her eyes and waited for the owl’s razor-sharp talons to dig into her furry back and lift her up into the air.

  Then it happened.

  But to Obi’s astonishment, the owl didn’t snatch Obi up in his claws.

  No—instead, he tackled her!

  The owl fell on top of Obi and practically smothered her. To Obi’s surprise and bewilderment, the owl did not feel soft and feathery, but soft and, well, furry. Obi felt something wet slap across her face.

  Did the owl just lick her?!

  Obi, confused, opened her eyes and found herself staring into the happy face of—

  “Kenobi!” cried Obi in surprise.

  The puppy was all over Obi. He wagged his tail and licked Obi over and over again. Obi laughed. She was absolutely delighted to see the lost puppy. “I am so happy to see you again, Kenobi!” she said. It surprised Obi that she should be so glad to see him, considering how miserable he had made her life, but it was the honest truth—she really was happy to see Kenobi again.

  Clearly, from all the licks Obi was receiving, the puppy was just as happy to see the gerbil.

  “Where have you been?” Obi asked.

  “I’ve been so scared!” replied the puppy.

  “Well, you don’t have to be scared anymore,” said Obi. “I’m here now!”

  “I want to go home, Obi! I want to see Rachel! I miss Rachel!”

  “I miss Rachel, too,” said Obi. “And don’t you worry, we’re going home. That’s why I’m here—to take you home.”

  “I don’t like these woods! They’re scary!” said Kenobi. “How do we get out of here?”

  It was a good question. How were they supposed to get out of these dark, creepy woods? Having been flown in, Obi had no idea. Obi decided it was probably best not to tell the puppy this, though. Not after she had told Kenobi he didn’t need to be scared because Obi was here now. Obi racked her brain trying to think how they were going to get out of these woods.

  “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do,” said Obi. “We’re going to sleep in the woods tonight and wait for morning, when it’ll be daylight and we’ll be able to see how to get out of the woods.”

  And so the two of them lay down on the ground, beside a log, to go to sleep.

  “Listen, Kenobi, there’s something I need to tell you,” said Obi. “I’m sorry you got lost. It was all my—”

  “What was that?” asked the puppy, jerking his head up in alarm.

  “What was what?” asked Obi.

  “I thought I heard something!”

  Obi glanced warily about the dark woods. “I didn’t hear anything. I mean, except for all the crickets. Are you sure you heard something?”

  “I thought I was sure,” said Kenobi. “But maybe I wasn’t so sure.”

  “Oh. Well, I’m sure it was nothing,” said Obi. “So, anyway, as I was saying, Kenobi, it’s all my fault that you got lost. I never should have—”

  “There! Hear it?”

  “Hear what?”

  “That!”

  “I don’t hear anything!”

  “I thought I heard something!” said the puppy. “You sure you didn’t hear anything?”

  “I’m pretty sure,” said Obi.

  “I thought I heard something!” said Kenobi. “But maybe I didn’t hear something!”

  Obi frowned at Kenobi’s shadowy form lying beside her. It was hard to apologize to a dog who kept interrupting you because he thought he was hearing things.

  “Well, anyway,” said Obi, “I never should have let you out of the house by yourself. I don’t know what I was think—”

  “Obi, I’m scared!” whimpered Kenobi. “I keep hearing noises! Scary noises!”

  Obi tried to think of what she could do. “Tell you what,” she said. “How about I tell you a bedtime story?”

  “Will it make me feel better?”

  “It might!”

  “Okay, then,” said Kenobi. “Tell me a bedtime story.”

  Obi tried to think of a good story to tell Kenobi. Harry Potter was definitely out—that would be too scary for a frightened puppy. Obi remembered how the owl had only wanted to hear an owl story. This made Obi think that maybe she should tell a dog story.

  “This story is called Go, Dog, Go!” said Obi.

  “That sounds like a good story!” said Kenobi.

  “It is a good story!” said Obi.

  And so, for the third time that evening, Obi started telling a story that Mr. Armstrong had once read aloud to Rachel. As Obi told the story, Kenobi cuddled up close to the little gerbil, just the way Rachel liked to cuddle up close to her father when he was reading. Obi found she rather liked the puppy cuddling up close to her—it gave her a nice, warm, cozy feeling. At one point, without thinking, Obi started to put her arm around the dog just the way Mr. Armstrong did sometimes to Rachel when he was reading. Realizing what she was doing, Obi stopped, with her paw in midair. Two days ago, she had been all set to throttle this puppy. Now here she was about to put a comforting paw on him! To her surprise, Kenobi moved in closer to her.

  Obi was nearly at the end of the story when, glancing into the puppy’s face, she saw that his eyes had closed and that he had dozed off.

  Obi did not mind that the puppy had drifted off to sleep the way she had been with the owl. It meant that Obi had the ability to tell a story that could comfort a terribly frightened puppy—comfort him where he felt safe enough to drift off to sleep.

  Obi lay back against the puppy’s soft, warm, furry body and peered up through the gaps in the tree branches and into the starry night. Obi couldn’t wait for tomorrow. She couldn’t wait to see Rachel’s startled but delighted face when she saw Kenobi and Obi return home. Obi wondered if her adoptive mother would realize that Obi had found the lost puppy and brought him home. She sure hoped so. Not that Obi was hoping to get the $50 reward money. No, Obi simply wanted Rachel to be as thrilled to see Obi again as she knew Rachel would be to see Kenobi.

  If such a thing were to happen, well, that, to Obi, would be the best reward of all.

  Chapter Twenty-two The Rubber Ball

  Obi had the worst time falling asleep. Which wasn’t surprising, really, considering how wound up she was from all the excitement of that day. It was also not surprising that, when Obi did finally dri
ft off to sleep, she fell into a deep slumber.

  Obi slept so soundly that, she might have slept late into the next morning if the bright morning sun hadn’t shone in her sleeping face—and had not someone licked her face.

  Obi woke up with a start. Her eyes flew open. Kenobi’s big, cheerful puppy face was hovering above the little gerbil, staring down at her.

  “Wake up!” the puppy said. “We need to go home! We need to go back to Rachel!”

  “Oh, yeah, right!” said Obi, still a bit groggy. She got to her feet and said, “Let’s go!”

  “Which way do we go?” asked Kenobi.

  Obi stood on her hind legs and glanced around the woods. Now that the sun was up and shining brightly, the woods didn’t look creepy the way they had the night before. They were just plain old harmless woods. Turning, Obi spotted the old, gnarled tree that the owl lived in. Obi remembered that when she was in the owl’s home, she had heard the German shepherd barking off in the distance.

  “We go this way,” said Obi, pointing a paw in the direction that she had heard the barking. She knew that once she got to the house where the German shepherd lived, she’d have no trouble finding the way back to the Armstrongs’ house.

  To Obi’s surprise, Kenobi took off in the opposite direction. He dashed over to a log and grabbed something in his mouth.

  It was a rubber ball.

  “Where did you get that ball?” asked Obi.

  “Nowhaaarrr!” Kenobi’s words came out all garbled on account of the rubber ball in his mouth.

  “You took it from that German shepherd, didn’t you?”

  Kenobi shook his head. “Naaaawww!”

  Obi placed her front paws on her hips. Fixing a stern gaze on the puppy, she said, “Tell the truth, Kenobi.”

  “Well … maybeeee!”

  “We have to return it to him.”

  The puppy’s face fell. “Whhhhyyyy?”

  “Because it’s his, that’s why!”