“Vr-vr-vr-VRRROOOOM!” Revver screamed. The coyotes stopped walking toward Mama and looked up, confused by the sound.
“Farty, jump!” Revver ordered. Farty leapt HARD on a giant, thick limb, just away from the V place that the squirrels had cut loose by scratching and cutting with the sharp rock.
Revver roared again, keeping the coyotes’ attention so they didn’t move away. “Vr-vr-vr-VRRROOOOM!”
Now even more confused, they sat back to look—and Farty jumped once more and then jumped back just in time. The giant limb fell and crashed, right on top of the coyotes!
The two coyotes fell flat and whimpered in pain.
A thought struck Revver as quickly as the branch struck the coyotes. Just like Mama had warned them, those coyotes WERE sorry! Mama was always true to her word. Then a thought made him shiver: Mama does not bluff. He forced himself to shake off the what-ifs of that idea and get back to work.
The coyotes were hurt. But they stumbled back to their place on top of the grate. The squirrels still could not get to Sprite, and Sprite had no way to get out.
“Now!” Revver commanded. Aiming for the coyotes’ faces, all four squirrels began pummeling the coyotes with nuts, throwing them as hard as they could. They all aimed well, but Revver’s aim was perfect. All that practice with the lug nuts had paid off.
Revver gave a final warning, with his loudest “Vr-vr-vr-VRRROOOOM!” and the defeated coyotes pulled themselves up and limped far away—as quickly as they could stumble.
“Part two!” Revver shouted.
Sprite could fit through the holes in the grate, but none of the others could. They needed to move that heavy iron lid to help her.
The four squirrels got right to work. Revver ran down to the base of the tree and tied one end of the braided vines through the holes in the iron grate and knotted it. He studied the knot. It looked like the chain on the hoist that held the engine. He hoped he had done it right. He hoped it would hold.
“Sprite, we’re coming!” he yelled into the hole. He heard nothing back. This scared him, but he forced himself to focus on the plan.
The other end of the vine went up into the tree, hung over a high branch, and then dangled back to the ground, just like the engine hoist in the garage. Revver had made a pulley system to help them lift the heavy grate.
Now on the ground, all four squirrels pulled as hard as they could. Nothing budged.
Revver remembered how he was finally able to start up the white machine in the garage. “Farty, go up higher, then jump and hang on the vine,” he ordered.
Farty jumped and hung, and the grate lifted. “Stay there! Hold on!” Revver yelled. He ran over to the hole and guided the grate away from the hole, remembering how the crew had guided the engine into the car from the hoist. “Perfect,” he said. “Lower it down very slowly.” Revver continued to guide the grate away from the hole, leaving a Bounce-sized gap. Farty scooted off the vine, back onto the ground with the rest of them.
“Bounce, are you ready?” Revver asked. Bounce stood at attention on his back paws with his arms out wide, not moving a muscle. Revver twisted vines around him, tight and secure, trying to remember exactly how the five-point harness worked. Finally, it looked right. “It makes sense for you to go,” Revver told him. “Farty is too heavy, and I need his help on the ground. Plus, you have the strongest arms and legs. Are you sure you’re ready?”
Only then did Bounce start bouncing. He was ready.
Bounce dangled from the end of a vine, and Mama, Farty, and Revver held the other end, lowering Bounce slowly into the hole. Bounce disappeared into the dark well. The other three kept slowly feeding vine—more, and more, and more, taking Bounce lower and lower into the black hole.
Revver looked back and watched the pile of braided vine disappear. He panicked. They were running out! Maybe he hadn’t tied enough?! Now there were only a few yards left . . . then one yard . . . then a foot . . . then a few inches. Revver tried to remain calm and think. He felt sure he had estimated correctly! Sprite had been down there for so long already; he couldn’t stand the idea of having to start over. And what if the coyotes came back?!
“Got her!” Bounce’s voice finally echoed in the hole. Revver and Mama sighed with relief, and Farty let out a looong, serious stinker that was so alarming Revver’s grip almost slipped off the vine.
“Hold her tight,” Mama pleaded to Bounce as Mama, Farty, and Revver all began to pull up on the vine. They pulled with every ounce of strength they had. Their arms were already tired from lifting the metal grate and lowering Bounce. And pulling up was SO MUCH harder than lowering down. Plus, now they were lifting Bounce’s AND Sprite’s weight. But they kept pulling, inch by inch, slowly, s-l-o-w-l-y . . . until, finally, Bounce and Sprite lifted out of the hole. Revver jumped over and gently pulled Bounce’s tail to guide Bounce and Sprite away from the hole. The others lowered them safely onto the grass. Revver looped the rope around the tree and made a tight knot. He removed Bounce’s harness.
As the whole rescue unfolded, Mama kept watching Revver. Somehow, he had learned the Essential Squirrel Skills after all. But it was clear that living at the track had taught him so much more. Somehow—all the things that he had learned—connected to everything else.
32
Sprite looked awful. She was weak, shivering—and filthy. Her fur was flattened because she was soaking wet, so she looked even tinier than usual. Revver would not have recognized her.
Everyone spent the rest of the night taking care of her: fetching small bites of food, filling nutshells with water for Sprite to sip, and wrapping her in large leaves for warmth. Revver mostly stayed back to keep Sprite warm and keep her company.
Revver and Sprite chatted quietly about all that had happened the last few days. Sprite had been happy and enjoying life in the walnut tree, but she always made a point of checking on Revver. The coyotes had surprised her when she was on her way to the track earlier. Mama had gotten worried when Sprite didn’t return to her new home in the walnut tree. When Mama discovered what had happened, she’d gathered Revver’s brothers for help, and they found Revver.
Revver told Sprite his stories about the garage and the team owner and all the trouble that had happened before he’d come back. “Oh, BROTHER! You DIDN’T!” she squealed and laughed weakly when Revver told her about the accident with the creeper. “Oh NOOO!” she gasped when Revver told her about being ACTUALLY kicked out of the garage by the team owner. They both giggled when Revver showed her his bruised tail to prove it. Sprite noticed the sparkle in Revver’s eyes when he talked about the car and helping the crew and watching the practice runs and the pit stops—and especially when he spoke about Bill.
They talked and talked. After some time, Sprite seemed to get back to her old self.
Once Mama was sure that all was well, she hugged the others and headed back to the old tree. “Do try to be careful, dears,” she said. “I’m getting too old for all this action.” Then she hugged Revver. “I’m proud of you,” she whispered in his ear. It was the first time that Mama had ever said that. As Mama said her goodbyes, Revver and Sprite both noticed something: Mama was wearing a braided chain around her neck—a very fancy design with a little acorn attached to it. Sprite clutched Revver’s paw, and they smiled at each other.
Bounce, practically bouncing out of his paws, was eager to run off as well. But he felt dutiful and wanted to be polite. “How much longer should I stay?” he asked. “I mean, I can stay. I will stay.” Boing-boing! He bounced with each word. “Should I stay?” Boing! “Sprite, do you need me to stay? I mean, I will . . .” Boing-boing-boing!
Sprite looked at Bounce, bouncing. “Oh, brother,” Sprite said. “I’m fine now, Bounce. Thank you for, you know, everything. I’m so grateful. I’ll see you around the tr—”
She had not even gotten the last word out before Bounce had disappeared into the darkness in a brown flash. Revver, Farty, and Sprite all laughed as they watched him take off.
After a bit of silence, Farty looked at Revver and Sprite. “I am getting a little bit hungry,” he said hopefully.
“Go ahead,” Revver and Sprite said together. Sprite stood and hugged Farty hard. “Thank you so much, sweet, sweet brother,” she whispered. Pffft! She had accidentally pushed a bit of air out of him, and she held her breath. Farty hugged her back for a moment and then walked away, sniffing the ground for treats as he went.
“Oh, brothers,” Sprite whispered, nothing but thankful for them.
“I’ll walk you back to your tree,” Revver said once Farty was out of sight.
It had been a big night, and a long one. Revver had not slept since the dream about Sprite woke him up. Once they arrived at Sprite’s walnut tree, they cozied into a deep burrow—and fell sound asleep.
33
Even before he was completely awake, Revver started sniffing the air. He began to feel tingly and jittery. It was still dark. The sun was just barely peeking up, but he could just SENSE it. He knew: it was race day.
Sprite was still sleeping when Revver climbed to the top of the tree, hoping that he might be able to see something at the track. The view was not as good from here as from their old tree. He could see a few lights, but not much else. Nothing else, in fact.
He sighed and went back down to sit with Sprite.
She was awake. “You’re still here?” she asked.
“Of course I’m still here. Where else would I be?”
“What do you mean where else? The track, of course.”
“I can’t go back there.”
“Don’t be silly. Why not?”
“Well, I can’t leave you, for one. And two, I don’t have any place there.”
“Revver, of course you can leave me. I’m fine! And you DO have a place there—with Bill and the team. It’s what you always wanted.”
“You need me.”
Sprite let out a big laugh. “Not!” she said.
“Oh, right. What about yesterday?”
Sprite rolled her eyes. “Okay. Well, I’m pretty sure THAT won’t happen again.”
“Sprite, I’m serious.”
“Little brother, I will be just fine. I promise you.”
For some reason, little brother didn’t bother him this time.
“Am I right?”
“I guess,” he admitted. He knew his sister. He somehow just knew she would be okay. He knew Sprite better than anyone. She was a lot stronger than she looked.
“Plus, you HAVE to go. It’s your dream. You can’t give up your dream. You just can’t.”
“It’s not really my dream.”
“Stop it, Revver. I SAW you. After you went for the ride in the car. And at the track, with the human—Bill.”
“You SAW me?”
“Of course.”
Silence.
“But you know what I really saw, Revver? I saw you HAPPY. I saw you the kind of happy that I feel when I’m making things or playing on my swings. Or how Farty feels when he has a delicious meal or Bounce feels when he’s jumping around. I saw you HAPPY. And you know what else?”
“What else?”
“When I saw you there, Revver, I understood.”
Revver felt his heart jump a beat. “I messed everything up.”
“Yep, you made a HUGE mess!” She laughed.
“It’s not funny.”
“Revver, you can’t give up just because it’s hard or because you made a mistake.”
Revver heard Bill’s voice in his memory: learn from mistakes, learn from mistakes, learn from mistakes . . . But how would the team ever want him back? He’d made such a mess of things. At last, Revver sighed. “I don’t know.”
“Sometimes things are just hard, but you can’t give up. You have to be brave.”
“Sprite,” Revver whispered, “I really, really messed up.”
Sprite thought for a few seconds. “Well, at least you could go back over to watch the race today, right?”
“How did you know there’s a race?”
Sprite sighed. “Oh, brother. Because I know you.”
34
Revver slowly started to make his way back to the track, toward the infield, toward the garage. With every step, ouch! His butt really hurt! He rubbed it, remembering Jack’s boot kick. He remembered the zap! of the bee sting that had come before the boot kick.
Wait. Revver stopped cold.
WAIT. WAIT. WAIT! The zap! The zap! THE ZAP! Revver’s mind started racing. He started to run. He ran faster and faster. If Bounce had been running with him, Revver would have left him miles behind. Revver had never run faster, EVER. He was panicking . . . How would he get in? Would they even let him near the car? How would he get them to understand? Would he be on time? What if Jack saw him?
All the pieces started to come together: Mama’s warning about power lines . . . the car’s wiring . . . the zap . . . ! Revver had felt it when he was sliding down the wheel well, right on top of where the battery sat and the wiring started. There was no bee sting! He had felt electricity! There was a short in the wiring! One of the wires either had a break or wasn’t connected just right. Maybe Revver had made a mistake when he installed it, or it could be the wire was just damaged. It didn’t matter in any case. What mattered was that Revver now knew—he KNEW!—THAT was the problem with the car!
Revver was small . . . He could get in there without anyone having to take anything apart! He could work fast. There was still time, and he knew what to do! He could fix it!
As he ran and ran, words and thoughts ran with him . . . All the way, he whispered to himself what Sprite had just told him. “Be brave. Be brave. Be brave.”
35
It was still barely light outside when Revver got to the garage. He peeked in. His mess had been cleaned up and all the tools were back in their place.
Susan and a few other crew members were looking over the car, exactly the way they had looked when Revver fell asleep last night. So much had happened since then!
Susan scratched her head. Still, no one looked happy. Revver could tell that they had not slept much.
Revver went in. No one noticed him.
Revver rushed over to Susan, who was bent over the engine. He tugged on Susan’s pant leg, but she didn’t pay attention. Revver tugged again, but she was too busy to notice.
Revver planted his feet and took a breath. “Vr-vr-vr-VRRROOOOM!” Someone dropped a wrench and it clanged to the floor. Everyone stood looking at Revver. Someone said, “Get him out of here. If Jack sees him in here, he’ll have a fit.” Susan picked Revver up by the scruff and started toward the door.
“No!” Revver yelled. “No! You don’t understand! Stop! Stop! I can help! I can fix it!” Revver wiggled and twisted to try to get free. Desperate, he reached up and gave Susan a good scratch on the hand.
“Ouch! Darn it!” she yelled as she dropped Revver. “Bill! Help me with your squirrel! I don’t have time to mess around this morning!”
Now Revver panicked.
Revver darted back to the car. Susan and Bill gave chase, but Revver was too quick. He ran under the car and jumped into the wheel well near the battery. Bill flattened himself onto his stomach and tried reaching for Revver, but the space was too tight. All Bill could do was strain to see. “Dude, whatcha doin’? Come outta there now, Revver. We gotta get out to the track this morning. There’s no time for playing.” Bill didn’t sound angry, but he sounded very tired.
Revver poked his head out to look at Bill for a second. Their eyes met again. Revver knew that he had no time to waste. He jumped back into the wheel well.
Revver closed his eyes so he could concentrate. Bill kept talking to him, asking him to come out, but Revver could not pay attention. He had to focus. He had to stop and think.
Revver carefully and slowly felt the length of the wire with his paw. Nothing. Concentrate! he told himself. He ran his paw along the wire again. Still nothing. Again, he ran his paw along the wire. There! He felt it
this time . . . the tiniest zap! He had found where the wire was broken! Now, how do I fix it? There was no time to run a whole new piece.
Revver tugged the wire. There was just enough slack that Revver could cut away the broken part and twist the wires back together. But he had to do it perfectly or the vibration of the car would make it come loose during the race. I can do this, he thought. Revver was an expert at twisting and braiding now!
Revver was so deep in thought that he did not notice that half the crew was on the floor watching him now. They were straining to see what he was doing under the car. Everyone watched. There were a few whispers, a few very quiet oohs and aahs. Revver did not hear them.
Revver unhooked the wire from the battery to stop the electricity. He bit away JUST the small piece that was broken. He twisted the wire back together. It has to be perfect, he knew. And it was perfect—even Sprite would have been impressed by his work. He reconnected the top of the wire to the battery. He checked his work. Everything is connected to everything else. At last, he was sure.
There! It’s done.
Revver came out from under the car. He did what he had to do. Now he prepared himself. He waited for someone to scream at him or grab him by the scruff or kick him out the door.
Instead, the whole crew started clapping.
36
There was no doubt that Revver was going to watch the race. Bill and the others hid him in the pit box, behind some tools. Revver felt the jostling as the pit box was moved from the garage and set in place on pit road. When the moving stopped, Revver remained very still until it felt safe. Finally, he poked his head out for a quick peek. Jack’s not looking this way! Revver jumped out.
Race day! From pit road! He was more nervous and excited than he’d ever felt in his life. All the work and practicing and testing that he’d seen the crew doing—that he’d helped with—came down to this day, to this race. But he was still scared. What if Jack sees me? What then?
Revver the Speedway Squirrel Page 8
