It was another fabulously hot summer day in Elmwood. Everywhere people were feeling good, including B-Jay the red Beetle car, who enjoyed nothing more than driving around on hot summer days with his roof back, making the most of the fantastic weather.
Today he was more excited than normal. Today he was going to not only be driving about in the sun, but he was also going to be fulfilling his promise to his new friends. Today he was going to meet Zippo the ant, Aruna the owl, Cressida the cat, Maxwell the dog, and Digger Bo the tumbling badger for an adventure.
"Oh, I am so excited!" he exclaimed to himself as he turned out of the driveway and onto the road. "Today is going to be a fantastic day. A day to remember!"
Despite his overwhelming excitement, he didn’t allow himself to get too carried away. He still remembered how his excitement had caused him to crash a few days before, when he was speeding far too fast to avoid an accident. That was when he first met his new friends. They had come to his rescue when his accident had caused him to lose one of his wheels. They had helped retrieve the wheel, and he had promised them an adventure for helping him. Today he was going to fulfill that promise.
"Oh, I do hope that they have remembered," he said to himself as he drove down the hill, turning left towards the woods and the cottonwood tree where they first met.
As the bend rounded out, B-Jay caught sight of a badger tumbling at the roadside.
"Digger Bo!" he screamed, tooting his horn and flashing his lights. His excitement suddenly overwhelmed him as he caught sight of his friend.
"Careful, B-Jay," voiced the calming tone of Aruna the owl, who had perched himself unnoticed on the back of the passenger seat headrest. "Remember what happened the last time you got excited."
B-Jay swerved slightly, taken by surprise at the owl’s appearance, before tooting his horn over and over. Even though Aruna the owl had startled him, he was suddenly feeling wonderful and pleased that his friends had remembered. He pulled up sharply next to the cottonwood.
Everybody smiled and waved as B-Jay pulled up next to them at the roadside. Everyone, that was, except for Maxwell. He had just finished his breakfast and was fast asleep.
"Someone please wake the dog," pleaded Cressida incredulously, in her usual condescending tone.
"Don’t worry," said Zippo the ant. "I’ve got this." And with that, he climbed inside Maxwell’s ear, shouting, "Wakey-wakey, eggs and bakey! Time to give your tail a shakey!"
Zippo laughed so hard as he exited from Maxwell’s ear that his baseball cap spun around all on its own.
Maxwell stretched, yawning, and joined everyone as they took their positions in the car. Zippo positioned himself on the dashboard so that he could get a good view. Cressida climbed into the passenger seat so that she didn’t have to sit with a dog. Aruna perched himself on the headrest of the driver's seat, and Maxwell and Digger Bo seated themselves in the back. Digger Bo seemed happiest of all, as he had enough room to tumble over and over and over without seemingly going anywhere.
"I am sorry," said Maxwell, seating himself. "I get tired after I eat, but I am awake now."
"I know how you feel," said Aruna, who had one eye closed. "I normally sleep during the day. Maybe we could have a nighttime adventure next."
"Oh, yes!" exclaimed Digger Bo. "A nighttime adventure would be wonderful. I wish I had thought of that."
"Well," retorted Cressida, licking her paw, "if you stopped tumbling for one minute, you might be in a position to think. Your brain cannot work properly while you are spinning it round and round like that. And can we go now, please? If we wait much longer, it might actually turn into a nighttime adventure."
"Yes, let’s go," said B-Jay, who was overcome with anticipation. "Err... where exactly are we going?" he asked suddenly, realizing the one important aspect of the adventure that he had been too excited to consider.
Almost immediately, everyone began to laugh hysterically, realizing that not one of them had stopped to think of where their adventure might be. Once the laughter had abated, they remained seated, staring at the landscape around them, trying to think of an excellent idea.
Cressida, who had never found anything to laugh about—ever—eventually broke the silence with what seemed to her like an obvious idea. "How about we just drive and see where the road leads?"
What a splendid idea, thought B-Jay, and he accelerated away slowly. He was afraid that Zippo might get blown off the dashboard, not being certain how ants fared in the wind.
"I know a game we can play," said Maxwell. "My master plays it in the car when he takes the children to the cabin. It is perfect for our adventure, I think."
"I love games!" agreed Digger Bo. "Especially tumbling. Is it a tumbling game?"
"It is called the ‘Alphabet Game’ and, sorry, but it doesn’t involve tumbling—just letters of the alphabet."
Digger seemed upset and excited all in the same moment and wasn’t sure whether to tumble or not. So instead, he sat there perfectly still while Maxwell explained.
"That sounds like fun," said Zippo. "But what exactly are letters?"
"Do you not know the alphabet song, Zippo?" enquired Aruna the wise. And he began to sing:
'A-B-C-D-E-F-G
H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P
Q-R-S,
T-U-V
W-X,
Y, and Z'
Zippo shook his head, and it wasn’t to make his baseball cap spin for once. This was something new to him.
"Well, we will take it in turns and, when it is your go, Zippo, we will help you," Aruna explained. "You have to think of words that begin with the letters of the alphabet. There is one rule, though: you have to be able to see the object that the word begins with. So, if I say 'T is for Tree,' then I have to be able to see a tree. B-Jay can go first, and the first letter of the alphabet is A. As soon as B-Jay thinks of a word beginning with A, the next person has to use the letter that comes after A, and so on."
"A is for ANT!" cried B-Jay, looking right at Zippo. He was pleased to go first, even if it was an easy choice.
"Correct," said Aruna, which encouraged B-Jay to toot his horn so loudly that Zippo fell off the dashboard onto the driving seat, which thankfully was empty.
"I’m good!" shouted Zippo, who had bounced when he landed on the leather seat before ending up on the floor near the accelerator pedal. "Or I will be when I find where my baseball cap went."
"B is for BADGER," said Maxwell, going next. "And B is also for BUTTERFLY." He pointed his wet nose toward the meadow where a bright yellow butterfly was fluttering by.
"Excellent, Maxwell," said Aruna. "That is two words. Well played."
"However," he continued, "as a wise old owl, I believe that I can beat that. C is for CAT, CLOUD, and also CAR. That, I believe, is three words."
Zippo had regained his place on the dashboard and was so impressed with Aruna’s answers that he launched his cap into the air before expertly catching it on his head at an angle while striking a pose. "Nice!" he said, nodding.
"Well," interjected Cressida, unimpressed, "D is for DOG, DOOR, and DANDELIONS—which is also three words. Also, one of my words was a plural."
It was hard to tell if she was smirking at her last comment—having made a joke—or whether she actually felt that she had not only equaled Aruna's genius but beaten it, or whether she was merely pruning her whiskers with her tongue, forcing her into a half-grin. No one knew for sure, and no one felt comfortable trying to guess.
"I know!" hollered Digger Bo. "E is for ELEPHANT and also for EGG!" And with that, he began to tumble rather proudly, feeling that two words was quite good for a first attempt.
"What?" screamed Cressida incredulously. "You cannot see an elephant or an egg, so they do not count."
Digger Bo felt so silly all of a sudden that he stopped tumbling.
"Don’t worry, Digger," said Aruna, who was trying hard not to laugh and even harder to keep the composed demeanor expected of an impartial adjudicator. "Getting things wrong is all part of learning. I am sure if you had played this before, you would have thought of some excellent words. Next time we play, I expect you will do marvelously. It’s getting late now, anyhow, and it will take a while to make our way home. How about we teach you how to sing the alphabet song until we get there?"
Zippo thought this to be a fantastic idea and he turned his baseball cap around to help him find his singing voice. Maxwell agreed too, as it was getting rather late and he was feeling hungry. And with that, they all started to sing:
'A-B-C-D-E-F-G
H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P
Q-R-S,
T-U-V
W-X,
Y, and Z
Now you know your ABC, won't you come and sing with me?'
Digger cheered up when he realized that the melody was actually something that he could tumble to. They were still singing as B-Jay pulled up at the cottonwood tree.
"Well," exclaimed B-Jay as they all exited the car onto the grass. "Today was the best adventure yet. I am so pleased you all turned up today. It was a day to remember."
Everyone agreed as they said their goodbyes. Then, all of a sudden, Digger Bo shouted rather loudly:
"That is EXACTLY what I was going to say! It was EXCELLENT. A most wonderful EVENT. EVERYBODY ENJOYED it."
He wasn’t sure if he had ever laughed while tumbling, but once he had finished speaking, he tumbled over and over with so much hilarity that the others wondered if his tumbling had finally affected his brain!
All of a sudden, Aruna chuckled. Everyone else looked bemused until he explained that Digger Bo was still playing the Alphabet Game and had indeed used five words beginning with the letter E. They were no more within the rules than the elephant or the egg that he had thought of earlier, but they did provide an EXCELLENT END to the EVENING.
B-Jay wondered if the next adventure could be anywhere near as enjoyable as this one as he closed the garage door, happy and also unhappy to be home.