The summer heatwave continued throughout the land of Elmwood. The air around the small sections of farms that peppered the outskirts of town was thick and still, the sort of heat that promised a long, languid afternoon of doing very little. The early July sun had settled high over the valley, pushing down a heavy, golden light that threatened to bake the already dry earth to dust. The majestic peaks of the Rockies, usually a pristine white, melted under the heat, their snowy caps having receded significantly since June, leaving only stubborn patches of towering granite.
For now, all was calm. The only sound to disturb the slumbering landscape was the high-pitched drone of cicadas hidden in the parched grass, and the soft rustle of fully grown, flowering cornstalks praying for rain. It was a time for lounging around and reflecting on the majesty of life, the beauty of nature, and the blessing for having the time to appreciate both.
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. He had no time to lounge and no inclination to blend into that lazy haze of the day. He had made a promise, and today seemed a good day to live up to that promise. While the weather was on his side, he would make the most of it.
Today he would meet up with Zippo, the tiny ant, Aruna, the wise Great Horned Owl, Cressida, the proud black cat, Maxwell, the large St. Bernard dog, and Digger Bo, the tumbling badger, for an adventure. After all, a promise is a promise.
"Oh, I am so excited!" he exclaimed to himself as he exited his garage, his chrome bumper gleaming like a wide grin as he turned out of the driveway and onto the road. "Today is going to be a fantastic day. A day greater than wonderful. Today will be 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 weeks prior, when he was speeding far too fast, resulting in 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.
"Oh, I do hope that they have remembered," he said to himself as he drove down the hill, turning left toward the winding road that led to the woods and the cottonwood tree where they first met.
As the bend rounded out, B-Jay caught sight of Digger Bo the badger, tumbling at the roadside. "Digger Bo!" he screamed, tooting his horn loudly 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 Great Horned Owl, who had perched himself unnoticed on the back of the passenger seat headrest. "Remember what happened the last time you got excited." He clicked his beak twice as if to suggest his words were wise.
B-Jay swerved slightly, his tires squealing on the hot tarmac. He was taken by surprise at the owl’s appearance, but once he had straightened out the sudden swerve, he began honking his horn over and over. Even though Aruna had startled him, he was suddenly feeling wonderful and pleased that his friends had remembered. He pulled up sharply next to the cottonwood tree, his engine purring with delight.
Everybody smiled and waved as B-Jay pulled up next to them. Everyone, that was, except for Maxwell. Maxwell, the rather large St. Bernard dog, had just finished his breakfast and was fast asleep underneath the cottonwood tree, his heavy chest rising and falling with a low, whistling snore. His large, quivering lips whispering unintelligibly of some unknown dream.
"Someone please wake the dog," pleaded Cressida the proud black cat incredulously, with her usual condescending and rather abrupt tone, giving her tail a sharp, impatient lash against the grass.
"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. The world for him was a stage—a stage where he could perform, and he took much delight from every performance.
Maxwell stretched, yawning, gave his head a vigorous shake, then joined everyone as they took their positions in the car. Zippo positioned himself on the dashboard so that he could get a good view, leaning his tiny elbows on the edge of the windshield. Cressida climbed into the passenger seat so that she didn’t have to sit with a dog, carefully smoothing her whiskers so they didn't touch the upholstery. 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," voiced Maxwell, as he seated himself, scratching a floppy ear with a rhythmic thump-thump-thump of his back leg. "I get tired after I eat, but I am awake now." He arched his back and sat up on his haunches before adopting an expression to suggest he was ready, his long tongue lolling out in a goofy smile.
"I know exactly how you feel, Maxwell," echoed Aruna, who had one eye closed. "I normally sleep during the day. Maybe we could have a nighttime adventure next." When he finished speaking he twitched, then spread his wings as wide as he could, the feathers brushing against the car door, and gave them a shake, before folding them back into place.
"Oh, yes!" exclaimed Digger Bo in mid-tumble. "A nighttime adventure would be wonderful. I wish I had thought of that."
"Well," retorted Cressida, licking her paw over and over, "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." She twisted round on the seat as if trying to measure the best position in which to recline.
"Yes, let’s go," hollered B-Jay, his engine giving a little rev of 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 took up positions that would be the most comfortable for their journey, then began 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. And with a sharp, impatient tone, abruptly declared, "How about we just drive and see where the road leads?"
What a splendid idea, thought B-Jay, revving his engine in agreement. Once they all nodded in approval he accelerated away slowly. He was afraid that if he went too fast Zippo might get blown off the dashboard, not being certain how ants fared in the wind.
B-Jay decided to take them on the scenic route, the road that they had traveled to rescue his wheel. He remembered seeing the eagle and the squirrel and thought it might be a nice direction to take, offering so much for them to observe. He wondered if he might see them again, or whether something new might pop up along their travels. He wasn’t sure where the road led, or even if they should be heading towards an actual destination, but the day was pleasant enough to just meander along the winding roads, allowing life to just take its course.
As B-Jay reached the spot overlooking the fields, where his wheel had come off, he looked to the sky, but the eagle was unfortunately nowhere to be seen. The surrounding land was just a blur of bright green and dandelion yellow, washed in the glow of a warm afternoon sun that played hide-and-seek behind the gently swaying aspen.
B-Jay continued along the road slowly and the minutes passed by with the sauntering of clouds. For a while no one spoke. Each of them seemed content with just enjoying the sight of nature unfolding before them. Occasionally, Aruna would readjust his footing with a shuffle on the headrest and a twitch from his talons, and Zippo would run along the dashboard, looking at the land to the left with his nose pressed tightly against the windshield, before running back to look at the land on the right, each time leaving a new smear on the glass.
Digger Bo didn’t seem to notice much, preoccupied with his tumbling disposition, and Maxwell seemed to be happy with the feel of the wind as it slammed into his face, sending his wobbly jowls in all directions. Cressida remained reclined on the seat attending to the occasional ruffle of her fur, unaware and uncaring of what any of the others were doing.
As they rounded a particularly tight bend, a family of white-tailed deer paused their snacking to watch them pass, their velvety ears twitching in the breeze. To the left of them a carpet of wild daisies danced along the roadside as if waving hello. Every turn brought a new secret from the landscape—the sparkle of a hidden creek, the sweet scent of sun-warmed elder, and the feeling that the whole mountain was smiling back at them from beyond.
"I know a game we can play," suggested Maxwell suddenly, his tail hitting the back seat with a loud "whap-whap" of excitement as he broke the silence. "My master plays it in the car when he takes his children to the cabin. It is perfect for our adventure, I think."
"I love games!" shouted Digger Bo. "Especially tumbling. Is it a tumbling game?" He did a tiny somersault, his fuzzy tail disappearing into the footwell.
"It is called the ‘Alphabet Game’ and, sorry, but it doesn’t involve tumbling—just letters of the alphabet," Maxwell replied.
Digger Bo 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, his nose wiggling with anticipation.
"That sounds like fun," said Zippo, adjusting his tiny cap to the front. "But what exactly are letters?"
“Allow me,” interjected Aruna, rotating his head to look directly at the tiny ant. “The alphabet is a family of 26 letters. There are 21 letters known as consonants and five, which are known as vowels. Some are tall and straight like trees. The letters L and T, for instance. Others are round and wiggly like the letters S and O. They are arranged in a sequence so that we do not forget them, and on their own they are just different shapes. It is only when we put them together that they become powerful, creating words. Powerful words that, when joined, are called sentences. When you put enough words and sentences together, they become a story, and stories paint magical pictures in our minds.”
As soon as he finished the explanation he lifted a foot and clawed a spot between his talons with a gentle snap from his pointy beak, hooting at the itch as he tackled it.
“So when you know your alphabet you become a magician?” questioned Zippo, who loved the idea of being one. It was something he hadn’t yet tried.
“I am going to guess you become a painter,” reasoned Digger Bo, thinking he understood and leaning forward as he said it, until his whiskers touched Maxwell's fur.
“Maybe,” said Maxwell, taking his turn in the debate. “Maybe you become a magician that paints using magic.” His ears drooped forward as he spoke, sitting upright so that everyone could hear him.
Cressida gave them an inquisitive look, her ears flattening slightly in disbelief, wondering where the conversation was heading. It lasted all of two seconds before she resumed her hourly grooming.
"Do you not know the alphabet song, Zippo?" inquired Aruna, puffing out his chest and clearing his throat with a dignified huff. “It is the best way to learn the alphabet.” 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. He sat down on the dashboard to listen.
"Well, we will let Maxwell explain the rules for his game and, when it is your go, Zippo, we will help you," Aruna explained.
Maxwell continued eagerly, sucking up a slight drool from the side of his lip before starting. "You take it in turns 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 'A is for Apple,' which is the first letter of the alphabet, then I have to be able to see an apple. After that, the next person has a go using the next letter of the alphabet, which is B. B-Jay can go first, and if you can’t remember what letter comes next when it is your turn, we will help you."
"A is for ANT!" cried B-Jay not wasting a second, looking right at Zippo. He was pleased to go first, even if it was an easy choice. He gave a slight honk of his horn, congratulating himself once he had finished.
"Correct," said Aruna, which encouraged B-Jay to toot his horn again, this time a little louder.
Zippo, who was still wondering what it would be like to be a magical painter, wasn’t paying attention, and the sudden sound of the loud horn caused him to fall off the dashboard onto the driver's seat, which thankfully was empty.
"I’m good!" shouted Zippo, having bounced from the leather seat to end up on the floor near the gas pedal. "Or I will be when I find where my baseball cap went."
"B is for BADGER," exclaimed 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, his ears picking up as he watched it flutter.
"Excellent, Maxwell," said Aruna, his large yellow eyes blinking quickly. "That is two words. Well played. However," he continued, "as a wise old owl, I think 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 a game show host might use. "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 is 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 surpassed it, or whether she was merely pruning her whiskers with her tongue, forcing her expression 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, bumping softly against the car door, feeling that two words were quite good for a first attempt.
"What?" screamed Cressida incredulously, her fur fluffing up along her spine. "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, remaining stationary with his ears drooping low.
"Don’t worry, Digger Bo," 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 very good words. Next time we play, I expect you will do marvelously. It’s getting late now, anyway, 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?" As soon as he finished his head quickly spun around, checking the surroundings behind him.
Zippo thought this to be a fantastic idea, and he turned his baseball cap around to a more serious position, before finding his singing voice. Maxwell agreed too, as it was getting rather late and he was feeling hungry. As soon as Zippo had finished practicing his chords, 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 Bo 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, his engine giving a happy, warm shudder. "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 had a thoroughly ENJOYABLE time."
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 EXCEPTIONAL 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, his tail-lights glowing red in the dark before fading away. He was feeling happy for fulfilling his promise to his friends, but at the same time, he was also unhappy that it had ended. He spent the rest of the evening thinking about the next time he would meet his friends.