Jerry was a Squirrel. Jerry was also an inventor. Quite a good one, as a matter of fact. He could design and build just about anything. The problem was, Jerry's inventions rarely worked the way he wanted them to.

Jerry woke up to the normal sound of a trumpet playing. Gary played the trumpet every morning. It was nice in one sense because he was trying to play it for Jerry. It was like Gary was giving Jerry a gift. Unfortunately, Gary was not a good trumpet player. In fact, he was a terrible one. He only seemed to know three songs. The first one was a song with one note, played over and over again. The second song had two notes. Gary played these two notes over and over again. The third song had no notes and many notes. It was just Gary blowing on the trumpet. Whatever came out was his song.

All three songs were torture for Jerry to listen to.

This morning's song was the third kind. There were notes and squeaks with the occasional gurgle sound followed by a loud splash as Gary's drool built up inside the trumpet and then escaped. It was pretty gross.

The trumpet playing usually went on for quite a while, but this time it only lasted about an hour. When Gary had finally finished, Jerry took the time to calm himself down and wipe away some tears. He then stood up and moved to the kitchen. He found himself a nice breakfast of nuts and drank some water before heading outside for a late summer morning stroll.

It was a beautiful day and, now that Gary was finished with his blow and splash approach to the trumpet, Jerry could enjoy himself. He wandered about, smelling the fresh summer air and feeling at peace.

As he strolled down the path, a new sound caught his ear. It was a sound he had not heard quite like this for many years. It was a loud, buzzing sound.

In truth, he heard that sound every single year about this time. In late summer, the Nut Beetles would come. They were mostly harmless. They would burrow into the nuts and eat them, but since there were normally only a few here and there, no one really minded. No one noticed when they arrived because they were so quiet, but you could hear them buzzing around when you collected nuts at harvest time.

Unfortunately, every now and then, the Nut Beetles would come in the thousands. You could hear them arrive because thousands of Nut Beetles flying in a swarm made a huge amount of noise.

The noise of the Nut Beetles, however, was not the problem. A few Nut Beetles would eat a few nuts. Thousands of Nut Beetles could eat all the nuts. If they ate all the nuts, the Squirrels would starve.

Jerry ran straight for the village center. It was located on the far side of the village, a little way outside of town. Jerry had suggested many times that they change the name to something like, "village outside," but no one thought it was a good idea.

As he ran, he could see all the other Squirrels making their way to the village center as well. Everyone knew this was an emergency.

He arrived to find that most of the village Squirrels were already there. Everyone was in a panic. There was screaming and yelling and crying everywhere Jerry looked.

As soon as Hat Squirrel arrived, he jumped up on the center speaking rock which was on the north side of the village center which was a little way outside of town. The speaking rock was for speaking, and once Hat Squirrel stood on the rock, no one was allowed to speak without his permission.

A hush fell over the crowd, and Hat Squirrel opened his mouth. Jerry thought for sure he would tell them what to do, but instead, he looked at each of them and screamed. His face scrunched up, and he screamed again. This continued for far too long. This was clearly too much for Hat Squirrel.

When Hat Squirrel had calmed down a little bit, he spoke to the crowd in a shaky voice. "They have arrived. The Nut Beetles. They will eat all our nuts, and we will starve. It is all over. There is nothing that can be done."

With that, Hat Squirrel collapsed and rolled off the speaking rock. All the assembled Squirrels fell down as well and cried.

Hat Squirrel was off the rock so Jerry could speak up. "Wait! What if we do what we did last time this happened?"

Mary stood up and gave Jerry a scolding look. "Okay, wise guy. Tell us, what did we do last time this happened?"

"We went to the Beetle Birds and asked them for help. They came and ate most of the Nut Beetles and chased the rest away," Jerry said. He didn't know why no one else remembered. "If we leave now and travel fast, we can get to them before the nut harvest is lost."

Squirrels around the village center began to nod their heads as if they were remembering, but Jerry was pretty sure they weren't. They were just hoping someone would solve this problem for them.

Hat Squirrel pulled himself together and climbed up on the rock again. The crowd grew silent again and waited for their leader to speak.

"I have had an idea," Hat Squirrel began.

Jerry rolled his eyes. He knew where this was going.

"I can save us. I have a way to end this plague that has fallen upon us. We must turn to the Beetle Birds for help. Do we have any questions?"

"I don't have a question," Larry said. "I just want to say that I think you are so wise, Hat Squirrel. No one else could have come up with such a wonderful solution."

"Yes, it is true," Hat Squirrel agreed. "I am very wise. Much wiser than anyone else here, especially Jerry." With that, he looked over at Jerry and nodded to him. "You may approach the rock, young Squirrel."

Jerry was pretty sure he was older than Hat Squirrel. "Yes, Hat Squirrel. How may I help you?"

"You, young Squirrel, are to be our ambassador to go to the Beetle Birds. You must go with all haste and bring them here. It must be you as there are only two Squirrels in existence who know the way to the Beetle Birds. I, of course, am one of them, but no one can ask me to tell them the way because I won't tell them. You, Jerry, are the other Squirrel who knows the way, so you must go. Time is of the essence. There is no time to delay. You must go immediately. This very moment. You do not even have time for me to finish this sentence. Why have you not gone, yet?" Hat Squirrel looked annoyed.

Jerry found himself rolling his eyes again. "Okay, I'll go. I'm heading out now." The journey to the Beetle Birds would only take about a day, that is if he could keep his speed up the whole way. He was a Squirrel so he could move pretty fast when he needed to.

As he was about to run off to the southeast, in the direction of the Beetle Birds, he heard a voice. It was Sherry, the old lady Squirrel who lived in his upstairs apartment. She was Gary's mom. She slowly made her way toward the rock, using her cane to walk.

"I'm so sorry to speak without permission, Hat Squirrel. May I make a request?" she said in her sweet voice. She was carrying a plate of cookies and handed them to Hat Squirrel.

Hat Squirrel took the cookies. Jerry was about to warn Hat Squirrel about how she made them warm but decided to hold his tongue. Hat Squirrel gobbled them up. "Ooooh! They're still warm!"

Jerry had to look away. He found that kind of thing to be pretty gross.

Hat Squirrel nodded to Sherry to give her permission to speak, and she made her request. "Hat Squirrel, dear. You are such a lovely young man. I am so impressed with your hat wearing."

It never hurt to compliment Hat Squirrel. He always appreciated it and smiled back warmly.

"I would like to go with young Jerry. Would it be okay, dear, if I joined him as he travels to the Beetle Birds?" She smiled sweetly again.

Jerry turned to leave. He knew he didn't have much time and there was no way Hat Squirrel would let her come. She was far too slow with that cane and Jerry could move much faster by himself.

Hat Squirrel, however, was quite taken by her sweetness, her cookies and her compliments. "Ms. Sherry, of course you can join him." He then looked in Jerry's direction. "Jerry! Jerry! Ms. Sherry will be joining you!"

"Thanks, dear," she said to Hat Squirrel before turning to Jerry. "Jerry, dear, will you give me a hand with my knitting? I'll want to bring it with me for when we stop for breaks and for meals and for snacks and for nighttime and for rests and for naps and for looking at the beautiful scenery. Oh, and I would like to buy some cookies and warm them up for the trip."

"We don't have time for this..." Jerry began to say but was cut off by Hat Squirrel.

"Silence! Ms. Sherry will be joining you! Hat Squirrel has spoken. It has been decided." With that, he jumped down off the rock, and everyone left. They appeared happy. It was as if they thought the problem of the Nut Beetles had been solved.

Jerry knew at the speed Sherry traveled, they wouldn't get to the Beetle Birds till sometime after the end of harvest time. The nuts would be eaten, and all would be lost.

He had an idea. A good idea.

He ran back to his house and to his desk. It was time to invent.

He set out to make up the plans for the invention and then set to work on building it. He normally had all the parts he needed somewhere in his house as he regularly collected anything he saw that looked useful. He put it all together and smiled to himself. This could solve the problem.

He ran outside in time to see Sherry hobbling down the last few steps from the upstairs apartment. She slowly made her way over to him. Gary came down behind her. He was huge. He was also carrying a large pack.

"Jerry, dear, would you be so kind as to carry my luggage? Gary has it," she said as she smiled sweetly.

She really was a nice lady. She just didn't seem to notice that they needed to rush.

"Um, sure. I can carry that. But before I do, I want to show you my invention. Can I see your cane?" Jerry stretched out his hand so she could hand him the cane and he could install his invention.

"Of course, dear." She handed him her cane and then immediately fell over.

She hit the ground pretty hard but smiled sweetly up at him with a look of pain on her face. Jerry felt really bad. He had not expected her to just fall down like that.

He set to work on installing his invention. It didn't take long. When he was done, he handed it back to Sherry.

"Thank you, dear. It's nice to not fall over." She stood up and looked at the end of the cane. "What is it, dear?"

"It's a wheel attachment for your cane. Instead of having to walk at a slow speed, you can drive the cane really fast!" He pointed out the little spots for her feet and showed her how to power it so she could move forward.

When it appeared as though she understood everything, he turned toward her luggage. He grabbed her pack and threw it up over his shoulders. It was far heavier than he would have thought. He wondered how many cookies she had packed! At least with the powered cane, they could move at a faster speed.

He turned back to Sherry to tell her it was time to go only to see her lying on the ground again. Her cane was underneath Gary. He was trying to drive it himself. The invention was not meant to carry such weight, and Jerry yelled for him to get off of it, but he was too late. The cane began to smoke and putter and then ground to a halt.

"No! We needed that to be able to get to the Beetle Birds quickly!" Jerry yelled. Gary was nice, but he had just ruined the very thing that would help them save the nut harvest.

"It's okay, dear," Sherry said from her position on the ground. "We will be okay."

Garry handed her the cane, and she hopped up on it. It still moved with her tiny size, but just barely faster than she would have walked. Jerry lumbered after her as they made their way toward the Beetle Birds.

This was going to be a long trip. Jerry feared they would not make it to the Beetle Birds in time...

To be continued...

I hope you enjoyed the ninth part of this series of stories on Jerry the Squirrel. Keep your eye out for more (there are 10 stories in this series, plus a chapter from another book). Nut Beetles Part II is coming soon.

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