From my kids’ book LittleTown (available as a Kindle eBook
for only 99 cents and as a printed book on Amazon):
It was only when you looked at little Vola's face that you saw the
difference.
There was no light in Vola's eyes: they were scarred and lifeless.
She had just been born when a bright flash of lightning had sizzled through the sky and hit the tree in which little Vola and her mother lay sleeping.
She had just been born when a bright flash of lightning had sizzled through the sky and hit the tree in which little Vola and her mother lay sleeping.
The lightning bolt had exploded among the branches with a terrible
crack, setting them alight from top to bottom.
Vola's mother had run from the flames, trying to find a place where the
flames did not burn.
But there was none.
Out into
space Vola's mother glided
The hot flames licked at her furry coat, setting it on fire. She knew
there was only one thing to do to save the little daughter clinging to her
back.
She had to jump, even though her fur was now burning.
So little Vola's mother had thrown herself off the top of the tall
tree.
Out into space she had glided, a little trail of smoke following her as
she swooped down towards the ground and to safety.
But it was too much for her small body.
The pain of the fire was too much for her small heart, and ten feet
above the ground life had fled away from Vola's mother, up into the sky, and
she had fallen.
Her little daughter had fallen with her, tiny hands holding onto fur
until they had struck the ground.
Vola had bounced away from her mother's body and rolled over and over
onto the hard rocks.
Her eyes struck a small rock, and from that day on the little flying
squirrel had never seen the world in which she lived.
She walked in the darkness of
blindness through the forests and woods, knowing the world by smell and touch
but not by sight.
And one day she had terrified the LittleTowners by not being where she
usually was in the early morning. She loved to walk, and was absolutely
fearless. Seeing no danger, she feared none, and would go anywhere her nose
pointed.
The LittleTowners usually watched over her, but that day she had slipped
away on her own and wandered onto the snowy riverbank to listen to the faraway
chuckle of the waters as they moved beneath the ice that had covered the
river.
Soon the snow had chilled her toes and forced her up the nearest tree,
into a warm little hole where she had drifted off to sleep.
It did not take the LittleTowners long to discover that she was
missing.
It was Timid Timmy who found her paw prints in the snow, leading to the
river.
Vola's tracks
led towards the river
They stood on the river bank and stared at her footprints which went
down the steep bank and onto the ice and ... disappeared.
They could not see the little tracks she had made as she climbed the
tall old tree searching for a warm spot for her cold toes.
All they saw were the little paw prints going onto the ice, and beyond
them, in the middle of the river, a hole in the ice.
Drowned, said
TammyQ softly
Inside the hole the cold waters moved swiftly past, chuckling.
For a long time nobody said anything, and then Uco spoke, the tears of
his love for his little sister choking his voice.
"She must have gone on the ice."
He sobbed, his little chest rising and falling.
"She's dead. Little Vola's dead."
"Drowned," said TammyQ softly. "Stolen by the
water."
"She has gone to join her dear mother in that great big forest in
the sky," whispered Ms Jackrabbit, sniffing into her paws.
Lots of seeds,
said Oliver the pocket mouse
"There's no lightning there in that forest," murmured Oliver
the pocket mouse. "Just trees and nuts and seeds. Lots of seeds," he repeated, his nose
quivering at the thought. "Millions and millions and millions of them. All
kinds. All shapes and sizes and flavors."
In the tree above them the little flying squirrel awoke and stretched.
She heard the noises below her and listened carefully.
"Vola was such a nice little animal," sniffed Grace the
Librarian, her delicate whiskers shaking with emotion. "So well mannered.
So keen. And such a lover of stories."
She is talking about me, thought Vola, amazed.
She really likes me.
Vola felt a large lump in her throat, and tears pricked her eyelids.
Dear Grace.
"Vola was a good student," Teacher said gruffly. "She
wanted to learn everything. I must say that I ..." he paused, his brow
knit as he struggled to put into words his feelings for the little squirrel
with the twisted scars on her face "... I loved her. That's what it was. I loved her."
He stopped, and around the circle heads nodded in agreement.
"I loved her, too."
"And me."
"Me, too," said He and Me together. "He loved her and I
loved her," they added.
Up in the tree Vola sat rocking herself, joy and love spreading through
her tiny heart as she listened to the animals down below telling each other how
much they loved her.
Her excitement rose inside her like a flood sweeping down the mighty
river after a terrible rainstorm; it swept through her veins and heart and
reached her perfect little voice box and she cried out: "I love you all,
too! All of you! I love you! I love you!"
She pushed her head out of the hole in the tree and her sightless eyes
stared blindly down at the LittleTowners around the tree trunk.
"It's Vola!" shrieked Ms Jackrabbit, her long ears almost
touching her tail as she stared up at the flying squirrel.
It's Vola,
shrieked Ms Jackrabbit
Uco helped his little sister down the tree, and everybody touched her
and stroked her to reassure themselves that she was indeed alive.
Then Don the Carpenter placed her on his broad flat tail and carried her
back to the town, where little Oliver arranged a Dance of Celebration.
Teacher danced once and then sat down next to Dr Raccoon, puffing a bit.
"That Vola," he said. "She really should not be allowed
to walk around like that."
"We cannot tell her to stop it," said Dr Raccoon. "She
loves walking. What will she do if we stop it?"
"She should be up in the trees with the other flying squirrels, not
down on the ground where she can be hurt," said Teacher sadly.
"I agree, but how can we help her to fly?" asked Dr Raccoon.
"She can't fly if she is blind. She can't see where she is
going."
The LittleTowners gathered around, thinking of the problem.
"I know!" Uco bubbled over with enthusiasm. "I will take
her. Vola, climb on my back and I will fly for both of us."
Vola hopped on his back, but she was almost as big as he was, and he
fell.
"We will drop like stones," he said from beneath her.
"I've got an idea," burst out Columbo.
"Let the two of us fly on either side of Vola while we hold her
hands to show her where to fly."
Uco jumped up and they helped Vola up a tree to a branch.
Columbo counted to three and they jumped out into space, holding her
hands.
Out they soared, the furry membrane joining their front and back legs
billowing in the air.
Down they swept to the branch they had chosen, and both Columbo and Uco
twisted their hind legs a bit and banked upwards, but little Vola just kept on
going.
They couldn't hold her hands and she went over the branch and then fell
down down down into the swimming pool below the tree.
Teacher dived in and lifted her onto his broad tail and swam to the
side.
She was helped out and they brushed her fur.
That didn't work. What if there wasn't a swimming pool the next time?
They sat around and thought about the problem a bit more.
"What about a rope?" asked Ms Jackrabbit, her large ears
dipping down.
"If we tied it to a branch then Vola could swing from one branch to
another?"
The deer mice scurried about picking up little bits of snow-white rabbit
fur, dark brown beaver fur and red and grey squirrel fur.
Grace even donated a few light brown hairs from her bushy little
tail.
The deer mice used all the fur to weave a long soft rope, silky to the
touch but very strong.
What about a
rope?
Columbo tied it to one branch and then swung over to the branch Vola sat
on and handed it to her.
"Off you go, Vola!"
Vola clutched the rope tightly and swung out into space, her little
tummy whacking into the branch she was aiming for before Eco could grab hold of
her and pull her onto the branch.
On the ground the LittleTowners cheered. Vola had flown again!
"Nets," snorted Mr Bulldozer through his dandelion root.
"We need some nets in the trees so that she can land in them and not whack
into branches with her tummy."
The voles dashed about cutting down grass stems and piling them up in
front of the deer mice who plaited long bouncy nets for Vola.
We need some
nets
This time Vola flew through the air and landed safely in the bouncy net.
"More nets!" shouted Teacher, and the voles sprang at the
grass stems again.
Within minutes a big pile of nets lay on the ground.
"More ropes!" shouted Teacher, and the deer mice collected
enough fur for dozens of long ropes.
Columbo and Uco sped up and down trees, tying ropes to the best branches
and fixing the nets below them.
They tied
little knots into the rope
They tied little knots into the ropes so that Vola could swing in any
direction she wanted to go, simply by feeling the knots in the ropes.
One knot meant the rope would swing to the west, where the sun set every
night.
Two knots meant she could fly
east, to greet the sun as it peeked over the horizon in the early morning
hours.
Let's play a
trick on little Vola
Three knots meant north, towards the cold winds, and four knots let her
fly in the direction the honking geese took before winter came each year.
It did not take Vola long to memorize the ways she had to take to get to
her friends, starting at the Big Tree that stood in the middle of LittleTown.
To get to Ms Jackrabbit she had to swing north, east, north, east and
then north again.
Coming back, she swung in the opposite direction.
Little Vola swung every day and most of the nights as well. The
LittleTowners grew used to the sight of the little squirrel climbing up the Big
Tree, reciting her map to herself.
Then, one day, a terrible thing happened!
Two Young Ones, Scia and Hudson, decided to play a trick on Vola.
They untied one of the ropes and tied it to another branch, then they
hid in the Big Tree and waited for Vola to arrive.
Up the tree she climbed, talking to herself.
"Today I will visit Ms Jackrabbit. She always has a lovely drop of
sticky maple syrup for me to drink, or a hickory nut, my favorite
nut!"
Her sensitive fingers counted the knots and she flew out and up, waiting
for the soft net to catch her, but there was nothing there!
Her back feet touched the emptiness of space and she cried out, afraid,
as she swung back towards the Big Tree.
She did not get as far as the Big Tree, and her swings grew shorter and
shorter until finally she hung motionless in the air.
She did not know how high she was, nor where she was, nor what to do.
Petula heard her screams and ran for the large rescue nets they had
made.
Timid Timmy and Timid Tania had grabbed the net between Teacher and Ms
Jackrabbit, and as the net rose up in the air, so too did they.
They shut their eyes and hung on, as frightened as Vola was, their
little tails coiled around the rope to stop them falling off.
"Let go, Vola!" bellowed Teacher.
She fell, twisting and turning just as her mother had when they leapt
from the burning tree when she was a tiny baby.
"She's moving to one side!" yelled Teacher.
"Everyone move sideways!"
They scuttled sideways and she fell into the centre of the net, bouncing
up and down as they cheered.
"Who changed the ropes?" demanded Teacher in his sternest
voice.
Hudson and Scia raised their paws.
Teacher glared at them.
"Back to the Town Hall! This is a case for the Lessons
Committee."
He gripped the squirrel's necks gently.
"Off we go!"
Solemnly all the LittleTowners marched to the Town Hall.
Teacher rose to his feet and cleared his throat, his face very
serious.
"We meet today to discuss a very serious thing, yes, a very serious
thing. A very serious thing indeed. Somebody changed the ropes that little Vola
uses for flying."
"Excuse me, Teacher," Grace said. "I don't think all the
members of the Lessons Committee are here."
"Not all here? Who
isn't?" demanded Teacher angrily. "This is important business and
they have to be here! Stand up all members!"
Ms Jackrabbit and Don the Carpenter stood up.
"Where is Pal? And Silver?" demanded Teacher crossly.
"I saw them at the creek, fishing," said Mrs Bulldozer.
"The Timid Twins, are you here?" asked Teacher, and when they
squeaked that they were, he went on: "Go and fetch Pal and Silver."
Off went the Twins to fetch the two American water shrews.
They had come visiting from California, but had liked LittleTown so much
that they had decided to stay.
"Just a wee bit more," explained Pal, "just a day or two
more."
And when the day or two had gone
past, Silver had said: "Maybe another day or two. Not much longer."
So he was
called Silver and I was called Pal
They had been here for months now, but were always on the point of
leaving. It gave a nice impermanence to
the permanence of their stay.
They spent most of their time on the banks of the creek, diving into the
water and splashing around for hours.
They loved water.
When they jumped in their soft fur would trap hundreds of little bubbles
and the bubbles changed their natural color to silver.
"We couldn't both be named Silver," Pal explained, his little
body shaking with laughter.
"So he was called Silver and I was called Pal. He was so full of air,
you see, while I was so friendly and helpful and pleasant ..."
"And modest ..." Silver broke in, grinning.
They were the best of friends, and lived with the Pygmie Shrews.
The Timid Twins found the shrews at their favorite spot, just below Ms
Jackrabbit's carrot patch.
The shrews, who were only about six inches long, were sitting on either
side of a small salmon, eating.
The Twins watched as their jaws opened and shut and opened and shut as
they ate steadily.
Gradually the fish disappeared into their stomachs.
"How do you manage to eat so many fish?" asked Timid Timmy.
"Oh, we do it slowly," answered Silver, rubbing his round
stomach. "No sense in rushing a good meal."
"Teacher wants you to come to the meeting of the Lessons
Committee," said Timid Tania.
"What is going on now?" asked Pal.
"Hudson and Scia have done something very naughty," said the
Twins. "You had better come quickly, everybody is waiting for you."
Back in the Town Hall, the two American shrews took their seats in the
centre of the Hall and listened as Hudson and Scia explained how they had
changed the ropes and watched as the small blind flying squirrel hung in the
air.
"We did not mean to hurt her," said Scia, looking nervously at
Teacher.
"We were bored and we wanted to have some fun."
"We were going to help her down," Hudson said softly, scared
of the look in the old beaver's eyes.
"But there was so much noise and so many LittleTowners running
around that we became scared and ran away until she jumped down."
"So!" snorted Teacher, tapping his tail on the ground.
"You did not mean to hurt her, did you?"
"No, sir," answered Scia.
"Oh, no sir," said Hudson.
"Oh, no, no, sir!" Scia interrupted.
"That's enough!" bellowed Teacher.
He turned to the Lessons Committee.
"You have heard the squirrels. They did not want to hurt her but
wanted to have some fun. Because they were bored. What should we do with
them?"
Ms Jackrabbit picked up Pal and Don picked up Silver and they held the
two shrews next to their own heads while they whispered.
Then Teacher shuffled across to join the whispered conference.
He turned to face the two little
squirrels.
"The Lessons Committee believes that you should be punished.
"You have displayed a total lack of regard for the feelings of one
of the LittleTowners and you did it when you were bored.
"You have eyes and can see the world, but you say you were bored
and so you decided to bully a little animal who cannot see.
"Shame on you! Look at these two," he commanded the
LittleTowners.
"See what boredom can do!"
The LittleTowners stared at the two ashamed flying squirrels.
"The Lessons Committee in their wisdom, have decided that you will
be forced to put yourselves in the position of Vola and live as she does. She
cannot see, so you will not see."
A gasp of horror swept over the crowd.
"Is he going to take out their eyes?" asked Timid Tania,
tugging at Grace's arm.
"Of course not!" she said.
"Silence!" roared Teacher.
Is he going to take out their eyes?
"You, Scia, and you, Hudson, will be taken from this Town Hall and
blindfolded for one whole week. You will be forced to use the ropes that little
Vola uses, and to go to your friends in the same way that she does.
"She does not see the sun come up in the morning, and so you will
not see it come up.
"She lives in a world of darkness, with only the love of her
friends to help her find her way; so, too, you will live in darkness with only
the love of your friends to help you!"
A buzz of conversation swept the room. Teacher held up his hand.
"That is not all.
“The Lessons Committee has decided that all the Young Ones also will
wear blindfolds for two days and use the ropes that Vola uses, if they travel through the trees, or walk on
the ground."
The next two days in LittleTown showed many strange sights.
The voles wove black blindfolds from the fur of the black squirrels for
the Young Ones.
Soon a small pile of blindfolds sat on the ground next to the busy
voles.
The Young Ones with blindfolds on whizzed through the air on Vola's
ropes.
Some screamed in fright as they swung, others laughed.
On the ground, the Young Ones crawled carefully along the ground,
complaining each time they crawled into a bush.
Those who hurried bumped their noses on trees and rocks and each other.
It was a busy time for the Old Ones, sorting out traffic jams in the air
and on the ground.
Once Scia and Hudson grew used to the darkness of the blindfolds, they
began to like it.
When the week was over, they often used blindfolds when swinging through
the trees with little Vola.
They played hide and seek with her, and follow-my-leader, and tag.
They were now her constant companions in her dark world.
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