*****
Giggle Book One
The Nut House
Autumn had finally come to the little town of Flat Rock. The leaves were radiant in their beautiful colors of yellows, oranges, reds, greens and browns. The coolness of fall whipped its way through the giant trees as it stirred the leaves and caused them to fall. Everyone was getting ready for winter; it would soon be there. The animals hustled and bustled in Walnut Park; autumn was their most important time of year to gather food for winter.
Walnut Park was a big park located in the center of town. Everyone in Flat Rock loved the park and all the animals too. The park was filled with giant trees, bushes and a pond. There were flowers in the spring, summer and fall. Walnut Creek ran through the park; it was filled with all kinds of fish. The ducks, geese and swans also swam in Walnut Creek. The road that circled around the park was called Horseshoe Circle. It was filled with people talking and laughing while riding in horse-drawn carriages. It was a quiet, peaceful time until chatter, chatter, chatter echoed throughout the park.
“Where is it coming from?” someone asked.
“Shhh, listen; I believe it’s coming from up there,” shouted another.
The chatter, chatter noise continued; it had everyone puzzled.
“There it goes again. Look, high at the top of those two tall twin oaks.”
“What is it?”
“Oh, look, its Billy the gray squirrel playing around again.”
“That Billy is something else. All he has on his mind is playing and goofing off,” yelled another.
“Billy,” cried a voice from high up in the tall oak. “Get up here, right now, and help us gather some nuts.”
Chatter, chatter, chatter went Billy as he fluffed his tail and quickly jerked about.
“Okay, Dad,” he yelled back. “I’ll be there in a minute. Nuts!” mumbled Billy. “All they think about is a bunch of nuts. Why don’t they want to have fun and play?”
Quickly, Billy shot up the two giant twin oaks, hopping from one tree to the other, and disappeared. High atop the giant oaks lived six different families of squirrels. At the very tip-top was the Tenennepe family nest, a family of flying squirrels. There was the Tuzzolino family nest of fox squirrels that lived beneath them to the left. The Ouisenberry family nest of gray squirrels, where Billy lived, was to the right. Across from them, in the fork of the oak, was the Protita family nest of fox squirrels. The Seingenthaler family nest of albino squirrels lived out on a limb. Down at the foot of the trees was the Klinstiver family burrow of ground squirrels. It was a crazy neighborhood. High up in the giant oaks, there were hollow sections that ran down through the trees. Those hollow sections were where the squirrels kept, processed and stored their nuts for winter. The hollow chambers of the oaks were called the nut house.
Everyone at the twin oaks worked hard to gather, process and store nuts in the nut house. Well, everyone except Billy. He was always off doing something else. Billy, at times, could be a nut case. A real cracked nut, if you know what I mean. How else can I put it? Oh, I know, he gets squirrelly sometimes.
“Chatter, chatter, chatter,” yelled Billy as the cool winds of autumn blew through the trees.
Let me tell you, there have been some crazy things to go on in that nut house. Every fall the families worked together in the park. They gathered acorns, walnuts, hickory nuts and pinecones for the long, hard winter ahead.
“Billy!” shouted his dad. “I want you to get out there in that park and help us gather nuts. I am tired of you running around everywhere playing while the rest of us work.”
“But, but, Dad,” he replied.
“But, Dad, nothing,” said Mr. Ouisenberry. “This horseplay has to stop.”
“But, Dad,” he said, “it’s no fun gathering nuts.”
“Well, you heard what I said,” replied his dad.
As Billy eased down the tree he mumbled, “I don’t want to gather nuts. I want to play. Besides, how does he even know it’s going to be a bad winter anyway? We have plenty of nuts left over from last year.”
“Hey, Billy,” yelled a little chattering voice, “over here.”
“Huh! What is it?” he replied.
When he turned around, he saw Chip and Charlie, two ground squirrels, with an acorn.
“Do you want to help us?” they asked.
“No, I don’t!” he yelled. “Leave me alone!”
Then he dashed across the yard and disappeared out of sight. As Billy played around the park, he found a patch of walnut trees.
“Huh! Walnuts,” he said. “Who cares about these hard green things? They’re just big, old and round. Phooey!” he said with disgust as he reached down to pick one up.
“Ugh!” he cried as he fell to the ground. “That’s heavy; I better try to roll it instead. Hey, this ain’t bad,” he said.
All of a sudden the walnut started rolling too fast. He wrapped himself around it and held on for his life. He rolled over and over until he crashed into some more walnuts. Quickly, he jumped up; he hoped no one saw him. It was a little embarrassing, but fun, too, he thought. It just so happened, that right beside the patch of walnut trees was a small golf course. Billy stood beside the walnuts and tried to figure out how he was going to get them back to the nut house.
As he thought, he heard someone yell from across the way, “Fore!”
He looked up but didn’t see a soul. About that time, a small, round, white walnut fell down through the walnut trees. It hit Billy right on the top of his head.
Kuthump it went when it hit him and bounced to the ground.
Immediately, Billy fell to the ground; he was knocked out cold. In a few minutes, Billy awoke and looked around with a dazed look on his face.
“What on earth happened?” he asked. “What hit me?”
He continued to look around when he noticed something laying beside him.
“What’s this?” he asked. “I’ve never seen a white walnut before. You know, I bet Dad hasn’t either.”
He leaped to his feet, only to stop suddenly in his tracks.
“Oh, oh, oh, my head hurts,” he said as he rubbed it.
Carefully, he eased across the park with the albino walnut in his mouth.
“Wait till Dad sees this,” he mumbled.
As he approached the giant twin oak, the other squirrels were at the base of the tree waiting to take up some nuts.
“Hey, look, it’s Billy,” they cried. “What on earth does he have?”
Billy eased up to them and laid the white walnut down.
“Look, Dad,” he said, “it’s an albino walnut.”
“A what?” his dad questioned.
“I found a white walnut. I bet you haven’t seen one of these before.”
Cautiously, all the squirrels eased over to take a look at it.
“There’s no such thing,” stated his dad. “You’re crazy, Billy.”
“No, Dad,” he cried. “Really, I was standing under the walnut tree when it fell and hit me on the head.”
“Oh, I see,” said his dad. “Billy, is this another one of your pranks?”
“No, Dad,” he replied. “You have to believe me. Why, look; look here at this knot on top of my head.”
His dad looked at his head and replied, “Ooh wee, son, you do have a knot on your head. Why, come here and let me feel it.”
“Wow!” they all said. “Look at the size of that thing.”
“Well, gang,” boasted his dad as he stuck his chest out and threw his head back. “Look what my son has brought in for all of us to enjoy in the nut house.”
“Hurray!” they all shouted. “Good job, Billy. Keep up the good work.”
Billy sure was proud of himself. For once, he had done a good thing and he felt good about it too.
“Okay, Billy,” said his dad. “You can bring that white walnut up to the top of the oaks and store it in the nut house.”
> “Thanks, Dad,” he replied. “I’ll be glad to.”
All the squirrels gathered their harvest and climbed high up to the top of the tall oaks to store their walnuts.
“Okay, son,” said Mr. Ouisenberry, “you can drop it in the nut house now. But, before you do, I want you to know that I am really proud of you. Okay, Billy, go ahead.”
When Billy dropped the white walnut, it hit on the edge of a limb and shot out like a beam of light instead of going into the hollow of the tree.
“Watch out!” screamed Mr. Ouisenberry. “Get it before it hurts somebody!”
Quickly, everyone started chasing the white walnut. Those twin oaks turned into a mad house. Some of the squirrels ran up, down and sided to side as some jumped and leaped. They did everything they could to catch that white walnut. It bounced from here to there, rolled down limbs and fell onto others. It fell inside the hollow of the tree and rolled down the hollow limbs before it disappeared in the hollow knotholes. It was the craziest thing they had ever seen. No one could catch it. As quickly as one grabbed it, it would shoot out from under them and head another way.
“I’ve got it,” cried one.
“No, I got it,” cried another.
“Here it is,” one would say.
“No, there it goes,” cried another.
“What are we going to do?” cried Mr. Ouisenberry. “Billy, think of something!” he screamed.
“Okay, Dad, okay,” replied Billy.
Billy watched the walnut get closer and closer to him; he shot out and caught it. Billy and the walnut fell down through the trees, limb by limb. Everyone stopped and watched in amazement.
“Oh, no!” screamed Mr. Ouisenberry. “Billy Augusta!” he screamed when Billy hit the ground at the base of the tall oaks.
He landed with a big kuthump.
As he lay there on the ground, the white walnut rolled over into Chip and Charlie’s burrow.
“Billy, Billy,” cried his dad, “are you alright?”
“Dad, Dad,” Billy cried as he rose up and opened his eyes.
“Are you alright, son?” he asked.
“I think so,” replied Billy. “What happened?”
“Fore,” shouted someone from across the way.
“A hole in one,” cried another voice.
Billy looked down; it was another white walnut.
“Look, Dad, here’s another one.”
“That’s not a white walnut, Billy, that’s a golf ball.”
Everyone started laughing, even Billy.
“There’s no such thing as a white walnut, son,” laughed Mr. Ouisenberry. “Billy, we might need to put you in the nut house.”