The next morning Jerry woke up excited about his day's plans. He knew his slippers were the best slippers in the world. There was no need to jump on his dresser, and he didn't have to step on the cold floor. Instead, he jumped out of bed and into the air, without his slippers on his feet. While in the air, he hollered out, "Slippers, warm my feet!"

Just before he landed on the ground, he felt the familiar warmth of his cozy footwear slide themselves neatly onto his feet. He landed in comfort, and within moments he was in the kitchen, having a nice breakfast of nuts he'd collected in days gone by.

This was going to be a good day! He would finish his breakfast, head to his desk and set to work on the hundreds of orders of slippers. He knew he could move fast on them. Building the first set took most of the day, but now that he knew how to build slippers, he could produce maybe ten or fifteen a day. This was going to be great.

BANG, BANG, BANG!

Jerry turned to the door. Who could be at his door this early in the morning? He commanded his slippers to take him to the door and as he arrived, one of his slippers, foot inside, kicked up, grabbed the door handle and swung the door open. Unfortunately for Jerry, the slipper held the door handle, and he had to stand there with his legs stretched out like he was doing the splits. He tried to make it look natural.

Standing outside his house was just about every Squirrel in Erry-ville. They all looked happy and excited. Jerry was relieved to see that. Typically when the Squirrels showed up at his house, it meant they were really upset with him. Today, however, they seemed pleased.

"May I help you?" Jerry asked the crowd.

Terry the Squirrel stepped forward, along with Larry. They looked at Jerry a little funny as if noticing for the first time that he was doing the splits. Terry spoke first. "We, um... are wondering if our slippers are ready."

"Yah," Larry piped in. "I have cold toes. I have poor circulation. I need something to keep them warm."

Everyone began to holler out, "Where are our slippers?" and "Are they ready yet?"

Jerry raised his hands, while still doing the splits with the one foot holding the door open. "People of Erry-Ville, hear me!" Jerry thought that sounded good. "I, Jerry the first, would like to..."

Mary hollered out from the crowd and cut him off. "Wait! Your dad and grandpa were both named Jerry. I think your great-grandpa was named Jerry too! Aren't you Jerry the fourth?"

Jerry felt he was losing control of the conversation. He decided to get to the point. "The slippers aren't ready yet! I should have some of them finished by tomorrow."

With that, the slipper slammed the door closed and returned to the floor. He was sweating. The Squirrels outside looked angry that their slippers weren't ready. He closed his eyes. He felt the stress of having to get all these orders finished.

He could feel a little bit of sweat build upon his forehead and reached up to wipe away the sweat. As his hand arrived at his forehead, it was pushed aside. He opened up his eyes to see one of his slippers with his left foot inside. It was there, with his leg stretched up. It wiped his forehead for him.

"Um, thanks. But I think I can wipe my own forehead," he said to the slippers.

The slipper pulled back and turned toward his face. It did not look happy. He felt it was not fair that a slipper should be able to look unhappy. He also felt it was not fair that the other slipper decided it also wanted to look him in the eye with an angry look. The second slipper shot up and looked him directly in the eye, beside the first slipper.

For a second, he hung suspended in mid-air, with both feet stuck in a slipper, staring him in the eyes. It wasn't long, however, before he came crashing down. He was about to tell them off for making him fall when he heard one of the slippers growl. He didn't like where this was going.

The slippers then dropped to the floor and, without waiting for him to stand up first, began to roll in the direction of his desk. Within moments, they had him seated on his chair. Both slippers sat on the desk, feet still inside, watching him.

It made him nervous to be watched by slippers, but he decided to ignore the weirdness of it all and set himself to work. He loved building new inventions. This was one of his favorite parts of his job. As he built, he quickly lost track of time and forgot that his slippers were staring at him, watching his every move.

After many hours, he leaned back in his chair and stared at the pile of slippers he had built. They were all different styles and sizes. They looked good.

He stretched and went back to work and kept at it till the sun set. He had finished about twenty sets of slippers. This was far more than he had expected to make all in one day. He was pleased with a job well done.

Jerry took the time to quickly test each one to make sure it worked just fine before turning back to his bed. He was tired and ready for a good night's sleep. He put his head down on the pillow and was out in seconds. He slept well but had strange dreams. He dreamed his slippers were angry with him, and they were telling him to work harder and faster. He didn't like it when his own inventions yelled at him. He also didn't like the idea of slippers that could speak. He didn't feel that was appropriate for slippers.

Nevertheless, Jerry woke up feeling refreshed. He pulled back the covers and swung his feet around. He was about to call out for his slippers when he gasped. He looked around the room, shocked to see what had happened. Sometime in the night, hundreds of slippers had been made. He knew he hadn't done this. There was no way he could have made so many in such a short amount of time!

He looked at his desk and saw the answer. His slippers sat there, on the desk. They were hard at work building more slippers. He was impressed, although a little disturbed.

"Slippers, come here!" he hollered.

The slippers stopped what they were doing and looked over at him. At the same moment, all the slippers in the room turned to him. He had a moment, just a moment, to cry out in fear as he realized what he had done. He had not told them which pair of slippers he had wanted to come to him.

Hundreds of slippers at that moment charged him, all hoping to be the slippers which had the privilege of warming his feet that particular morning. He crawled farther back on his bed as they came after him.

"No! No! Not all of you! I can't wear all of you!"

They didn't stop. They just kept coming. They arrived at his feet, all at the same time. Each pair began to battle for his feet. Most of the slippers felt the best way to claim a foot was to pull on a toe. Each of his five toes felt like they were being pulled in a different direction. His feet did not enjoy the experience.

"Oooooowww!!!" Jerry screamed. He remembered that he had to command them in a certain way. "Slippers, stop!" The slippers stopped what they were doing, but many each still had a grip on one of his toes. "Slippers, let go of my toes and back away!"

They backed away, and he looked down at his feet. He was shocked. He didn't think toes could bend that way. Clearly, he was wrong.

"Slippers! My slippers! The slippers that I made the other day and wore outside yesterday! Come here!"

One of the pairs of slippers came forward. He picked them up and held them for all to see. "Slippers! This pair of slippers in my hand will be called, 'My Slippers.' So when I call, 'My Slippers,' the rest of you just ignore it, okay?"

They all nodded in agreement. "My Slippers! Fix my toes and then get on my feet!"

He didn't think his toes could hurt more than they had when they were being pulled in ten different directions, but he was wrong about this as well. He yelled out in pain, but in no time his feet were back to normal.

He stepped down on the floor. This was not turning out quite the way he thought it would. His thoughts were interrupted by a loud knock on his front door.

"My Slippers, take me to the door." As he rolled to the door, he remembered he didn't want to do the splits again. He was about to holler out a command to stop the slippers from grabbing the handle, but he was too late. The door swung open with his slipper holding the handle and his foot still in the slipper. He was doing the splits again and not happy about it.

Outside Jerry's house, there was once again a large crowd of Squirrels assembled. Terry stepped forward as though he was the spokesperson for the town. "We have come for our slippers, Jerry. If you could stop doing the splits and get them for us, we would all appreciate it."

"They are ready!" Jerry said, quite happy that his slippers could be enjoyed by so many people. That'll be ten nuts a pair."

The people pulled out bags of various kinds of nuts. This would save Jerry having to collect as much next harvest time.

They each paid and Jerry began to hand out the slippers. The Squirrels immediately put them on. Jerry could hear them command their new slippers to take them various places around the village.

When he was all done handing out slippers, he said, "My Slippers, let's go for a slow trip around the village!"

His slippers began to roll out the door. One of them, at the last moment, swung up with his foot attached and grabbed the door. It pulled the door closed behind him. On the way back, the slipper swung over and kicked him in the butt. It then landed on the ground. He looked at it and yelled, "Why did you do that?" Jerry was sure the slipper shrugged back at him as if to say, "Dunno. But I might do it again."

Jerry decided to ignore it. He looked around and watched in amazement as Squirrels all through the village wore their slippers. No one had to walk anywhere anymore. The slippers just rolled them where they wanted to go. Some Squirrels wandered up and down the streets. Others worked in their gardens. Others rolled through trees, collecting nuts for the winter. Everyone seemed happy. Everyone was at peace.

He continued to roll around the village. Everyone was not only happy, but they seemed pleased with Jerry as well. This didn't happen often, and Jerry was glad. Some of the people invited him in for a cup of tea. Others invited him over for BBQ nuts on the weekend. Even Hat Squirrel, when he saw Jerry, tipped his hat in Jerry's direction. Life was good.

After a busy day of smiling and chatting with people, Jerry turned back toward home. What a day! He felt like he was finally starting to fit in with his village.

As he approached the door, he stopped and took one last look around before settling in for the night. Many Squirrels were still outside, enjoying an evening roll down the lane. This was a good day.

"Have a good night, my friends!" Jerry called out to the village. Everyone smiled back at him and waved.

He turned toward his door with the entire village watching. Before he could stop it, one of the slippers shot up and grabbed the door handle. This was bad enough as everyone watched, but what made it worse was that the other slipper decided to push the door open. He landed flat on his back and was dragged inside while everyone watched.

The slippers closed and locked the door, then dragged Jerry to bed. They tucked him in a little too tight for his comfort before rolling back to their spot by the desk.

Jerry quickly fell asleep. He was happy. As he lay there, sleeping peacefully, he was entirely unaware of what was about to happen. This happy day of slippers would be the only happy day the village would have with their slippers.

To be continued...

I hope you enjoyed this second part of this series of stories on Jerry the Squirrel. Keep your eye out for more.  

To support the author, to check out the Arestana Series, or to get all of the Jerry the Squirrel stories, head to http://shawnpbrobinson.com/books/ to purchase one of Shawn P. B. Robinson's books.