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 work.

Jerry was hungry. He didn't normally feel hungry, but he hadn't been eating much lately.

It was getting close to nut harvest time and he, unfortunately, had not saved up enough nuts to carry him through till the new nuts were ready. This often happened to Squirrels, but never before to Jerry. He had always been careful and planned so well, but this year he had just not been careful enough.

He had realized he didn't have enough nuts about two weeks earlier and had started to eat less in the hopes of making his supply last. It would be another month before the fresh nuts would be ready. This had left him very hungry, and he started to realize that even if he ate less, he would still run out before it was harvest time.

At first, he tried to get himself invited over to the houses of other Squirrels so they would feed him. He did this with Terry, but then Terry asked if he could come over to Jerry's house the next night. He didn't want to be rude, so he invited Terry and his family over. Terry ate a lot. His family ate more. Now Jerry didn't have many nuts left at all.

He looked down into his bin where he kept his food, and he realized he only had enough for two more days. Terry and his family sure did eat a lot.

He had to come up with a new idea. He didn't feel that he wanted to starve, so he figured he should find some way to get some food. He thought about selling some inventions, but few Squirrels ever really trusted his inventions enough to pay for them. He thought about doing some work for some other Squirrels. He thought maybe he could do some of Mary's gardening, but when he asked her, she chased him off her property. She didn't like people near her garden.

As he stared down into the bin of food and wondered how he could get some more food, he thought of something. He had a way to get some food! He could rent out his apartment upstairs!

He ran outside and to the stairs on the side of his house. They led up to the apartment, and he ran up the steps, opened the apartment door and ran inside. He hadn't been in the apartment for many weeks, and he took a good look around. It was in great shape, it looked really nice, and as he looked out the windows, he could see a wonderful view of Erry-Ville!

He thought it through and realized that he could rent out the apartment for enough nuts to feed him right through till harvest! This was his answer!

He ran back downstairs and grabbed a piece of paper. He quickly drew up a little poster to advertise his apartment and ran out with the poster, a hammer and a nail into the center of town. There was a small tree growing right in the middle of all the houses, and he used his hammer to nail up his poster.

Jerry walked back to his apartment with a big smile on his face. He thought to himself about all the nuts he would have as soon as someone came and rented his apartment! This was going to be tasty!

He ran back to his house and sat down at his desk. He knew he just needed to wait a little bit and someone would knock on his door.

He waited. He waited some more. He waited and waited and waited. Soon, the sun began to set, and he realized no one was coming that night.

Jerry wandered over to his bed and settled in for the night. He was hungry... so hungry... and hoped tomorrow would bring a renter to him.

The next morning Jerry rose out of bed and wandered into the kitchen. He drank a lot of water and ate some nuts. He wondered if maybe his poster had fallen off the tree and was about to head out to check on it when there was a knock on his door.

Jerry opened up the door to see not just one Squirrel standing outside, but a line-up of Squirrels! He was so excited, he could almost taste the nuts he was about to get!

The first one in line was Mary. He thought that was odd as Mary had a house—quite a nice one as a matter of fact—and he couldn't see why she would want to rent out his apartment. They sat down at his table in his kitchen.

"Hi, Mary." Jerry thought this was a great way to start a conversation.

"Let's skip the pleasantries, Jerry!" Mary replied. "I want to rent your upstairs apartment."

"Okay. That sounds good, Mary," Jerry said. He didn't mind skipping the pleasantries with Mary. She was always a hard one to talk to.

"I want to rent your apartment for my plants," Mary explained. "I will give you one nut a month, so I can store all my plants up in your apartment for the winter. They will require lots of dirt so we will have to fill your apartment with soil and I'll want to water it every day."

"Won't that ruin my apartment?" Jerry asked. "And to ruin my apartment for only one nut a month seems like a bad idea to me." Jerry didn't like where this was all going.

"It sounds like a great idea to me!" Mary said as she stood up and put her hands on her hips. She looked crossly at Jerry and said, "I don't think you're being very considerate. Think about how much this will help me and how much I want this."

"I can see that, but if you're watering it every day, where is the water going to go?" Jerry asked. He knew the plants would take some of it, but what if the extra water poured down on him in his house below?

"I would think that it would pour down on you in your house below!" she said. "That might be a bit of a sacrifice for you, but I think that's something you should be willing to do for me." Jerry wasn't sure how, but Mary managed to look even more crossly at him.

"Why don't you do this in your house?" Jerry asked.

"What?" Mary shouted. "That could ruin my house! Besides, it would make my house all musty, and there could be mold! I'm not doing that in my house! That's why I want to do it in yours. Since I'm offering a full nut a month, you'd think you would be grateful!" Once again, she managed to look yet even more crossly at Jerry. Mary's face was so scrunched up, Jerry began to wonder if her face was going to cave in on itself.

"I think I'm going to talk to the rest of the people outside before I make my decision," Jerry explained as he stood up and led her to the door.

The next Squirrel to come in was Larry. Jerry wondered why he would want to rent the upstairs apartment. Larry also didn't need a place to stay. He had quite a nice house, not too far from Mary's house.

They walked into Jerry's kitchen and sat down at the table. Jerry was just about to say, "Hi Larry," when Larry cut him off.

"Okay, now that the pleasantries are out of the way, here's the deal," Larry began. He looked really excited. "I'm offering you an opportunity of a lifetime. I will give you as many nuts as you want a month if I can rent your upstairs apartment for me and my friends."

Jerry wasn't sure what Larry was talking about. "What do you mean? Who are your friends? What are you thinking of using the apartment for?"

"Jerry," Larry began, "this is really exciting. You can't wait to hear what I have to tell you. Are you sitting down?"

"Yes, I would think you could see that. I'm sitting right in front of you," Jerry replied.

"Never mind that. This is important. You may not know this about me, but I'm the president of the local civil war re-enactment guild." Larry had a big smile on his face. "I don't tell people about it because I know they would all want my autograph, but I have to tell you if I'm to give you such a great opportunity."

"I can see how the fame would be a big worry of yours," Jerry replied, still a little unsure where this was going.

Larry leaned in close. "I'm about to blow your socks off!" He looked down at Jerry's feet. "Okay, I would, if you were wearing socks. Here's what I want to do for you. I'm going to rent your apartment so that my friends and I can hold our weekly meetings in your upstairs apartment. Not only that, we will actually be able to hold our re-enactments upstairs! This means you would be hosting re-enactments of the civil war every single week in your upstairs apartment! How awesome is that???"

"Did we even have a civil war?" Jerry asked.

"I know! That's exactly what I asked when I first heard of it, but then I decided not to ask too many questions, and I just went with it." Larry had a big grin on his face and looked so proud of himself.

"So, this civil war re-enactment that you want to do... tell me about it." Jerry was a little worried about what this would do to his apartment.

"Well, we have about eighty Squirrels that get together. We run around with some old guns and a few old canons and battle it out like they did back in the day!" Larry explained.

"I see," Jerry said, although he wasn't sure he actually did. "You know that my apartment's really small, right? And what's this about firing off canons in my apartment? Won't that blow a hole in the side of my house?"

"Oh, I expect that'll blow many holes in the side of your house, Jerry. They're pretty amazing canons!" Larry said.

"I think this might not be the best fit, Larry. I have some other people to talk to." With that, he led Larry to the front door and called in the next person.

Most of the people who followed didn't seem to be any better. Most of them wanted to do things with his apartment that would destroy it and his entire house. They all had houses of their own; they just preferred to do the damage to his house rather than their own. One guy wanted to use the house as storage for his collection of decomposing leaves. One lady wanted to use his apartment for aerobics classes every morning, afternoon and three times throughout the night. Hat Squirrel even wanted to use his apartment for his gymnastics club to use. At first, Jerry thought this was the best option of all, till he found out they only practiced their gymnastics at nighttime from midnight to seven.

Finally, there was only one last Squirrel.

She was old. She was very old. She walked with a little cane and wore spectacles on her face. She was a little hunched over and wore a shawl draped over her shoulders. As she came in, she looked up at Jerry with a sweet smile on her face.

She spoke to him with a gentle, kind, grandmotherly voice. "Hello, dear, my name is Sherry. It is good to meet you. You have a lovely home, here. Would you like some cookies?"

She handed a plate of freshly baked nut cookies to Jerry. They smelled delicious, and they were still warm! He raced back to the table and took a bite of one of them. He was so hungry, and they tasted so very good.

He looked up at the lady and smiled back at her as she sat down. "Hello, Sherry, my name is Jerry."

"Yes, dear, I saw that on the poster. It is so very good to finally meet you. You are such a nice, polite, young Squirrel." She smiled again. She looked just about as sweet as the cookies she had baked.

Jerry looked down at the empty plate. He still felt hungry, but it was so good to have his belly partly full.

"I can't pay you very much, I'm just a poor old Squirrel, but I think I can pay enough. I would like to rent your upstairs apartment. Would that be okay, dear?"

After eating the warm, freshly baked cookies, he almost yelled out, "Yes!" but knew that he needed to be careful. He had just met so many people who had so many weird things they wanted to do with his house! "Um, do you do gymnastics?"

"Dear, I haven't done gymnastics in a long, long time." She smiled sweetly again.

"Are you planning on doing civil war re-enactments in my house? Shooting canons? Storing plants and filling the apartment with dirt and pouring water on them?" Jerry asked.

"No, dear. I think maybe you hit your head or something, dear," she said sweetly. "Are you listening to yourself? Did we even have a civil war?" She smiled again. "I just want to rent the apartment to live there."

Jerry chuckled. "I guess those must seem like odd questions. Yes, you can rent the apartment."

The woman smiled again and took his hand. "You seem stressed, dear. Can I sing you a lullaby?"

"Um, sure," Jerry said. He had had a rough day, and this lady was the sweetest Squirrel he had ever met.

She pulled out some knitting needles and began to knit while she sang. He felt himself relax. Every muscle in his body seemed to turn to jelly. He felt so happy and at such peace.

When she finished, he looked at her and handed her a piece of paper. It was the rental agreement to say she could rent it for a year. He was so happy to have found someone as sweet as this Squirrel.

Once they had signed the agreement, the old lady Squirrel stood up to leave. She smiled again at him and said she would be back the next day.

Jerry walked her to the door, and as she was leaving, he thanked her again for the cookies. "They were very good," he said. A thought struck him. "Hey, if you were waiting out here all day to see me, how did you bring me freshly baked cookies?"

"Oh, dear, I just bought them down at the corner store and brought them up to you. They weren't freshly baked," she said.

"But they were still warm! How were they still warm?" Jerry asked, feeling quite confused.

"Oh, I was sitting on them, dear," she said as she turned and made her way down the path.

Jerry thought that was odd, but hoped that was the oddest thing that he had to face with her. He hoped she would still bring him cookies, although he found it gross that she was sitting on them. He thought maybe he could ask her not to do that.

The next day, she arrived with a small bag. Jerry took her upstairs and gave her a key to the apartment. She climbed the stairs slowly, using her cane for support. She didn't have much with her but told him the rest of her things would arrive soon.

After she had settled in, Jerry walked out the door, down the stairs and slammed into a wall of fur. Jerry fell backward onto the ground and looked up at the creature before him. It was a mountain of a Squirrel. The Squirrel standing before him was huge! He looked mean and cruel and like he could pick up Jerry's entire house with one hand. He also smelled. Not just a little bit, but like he had never had a single bath in his entire life. Ever. Jerry wasn't sure he had ever smelled anything quite like it in his life.

The mountain of a Squirrel leaned down till his face was only a short distance from Jerry's face. He opened his mouth and said in a deep, powerful and airy voice, "Hiiiiiiiii! I'm Gary."

Jerry now realized Gary's breath was far worse than the rest of his smell. He started to see spots and was afraid he would pass out, but managed to scoot back a little bit on his butt and get some fresh air.

"Hi, Gary, I'm Jerry," he said through coughs and gags. "Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Hi, Jerry. I don't think you can help me with anything. I live here," Gary said, smiling a huge smile.

"Um, no, I don't think you do. I live here. This is my house," Jerry said.

"No, Jerry. I mean I live with my mom. Her name is Sherry. She lives upstairs."

With that, he stepped around Jerry and started up the stairs. Jerry looked around at the stairs in fear. He listened to them creak and moan under the weight of the giant Squirrel and wondered if the stairs could hold him.

Jerry got to his feet and began to worry. He didn't know that Sherry had a son and that he would be living with her. Gary was huge. Jerry thought he would be able to hear every step that Squirrel took above his head.

He ran into his house to listen. He was right. He could hear every step. He could also hear Sherry's cane every time she used it on the floor. It was like a hammer hitting the floor each time.

After about fifteen minutes of hearing every step from Gary sounding like the beat of a drum and the sound of the cane beating on the floor as Sherry walked, he heard Sherry holler out loudly, "Gary! When I was talking with Jerry yesterday, he gave me an idea! I haven't done gymnastics in a long time! Let's practice!"

Jerry wasn't sure the ceiling would hold. He quickly ran around the house and braced the ceiling with boards and beams and anything he could find on short notice. He envisioned the entire house coming down.

He finished just in time to hear the crashes and bangs of Sherry and Gary's gymnastics.

To be continued...

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

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