The Cricket-Car

Tim was playing in the woods when he heard a squeaky sound. He followed the sound until he saw a girl pushing a squeaky toy car back and forth. It was his best friend, Thistle, who was four years older than him. Now Tim heard another sound. It was a cricket.

Thistle looked up. “Hi, Tim!” she said. “I found out that my favorite car can talk to crickets!” She seemed very excited; crickets were her favorite animals, and that was her favorite toy car because its squeaking reminded her of a cricket’s song.

Thistle had stopped pushing the car when she was talking to Tim, but now several crickets sang out, as if they were quite upset. Thistle made her car squeak again, and the crickets chirped along happily.

Tim listened in silence for a few minutes.

“Do you think they are going to be upset when you go do something else?” he asked.

“I think they’ll get used to quiet again,” Thistle said, not feeling very worried.

“That’s good,” said Tim, “because I think it’s time for lunch.”

Just then, Thistle’s sister Mary came outside and said, “It’s time for lunch!”

Tim was surprised, but Thistle wasn’t. Tim was good at knowing what time it was, even though he never wore a watch.

“Oh, hi, Tim!” said Mary. “Are you having lunch with us today?”

“Yes,” said Thistle and Tim, at the same time. They had already arranged that, but it sounded like Thistle had forgotten to tell Mary. Thistle often forgot to tell Mary things like this, but Mary was always prepared for Tim to stay for meals. (It was Mary who took care of Thistle and who lived with her. She was a grown-up.)

Thistle left her car outside when they went inside for lunch. When they came back outside, it was gone.

Thistle looked around carefully. “Do you think that the crickets took it?” she asked. “They are being suspiciously quiet.”

“Are they strong enough to take a toy car?” asked Tim, curiously.

Thistle thought about this for a while. “Maybe if several of them worked together,” she said, but she sounded like she wasn’t quite sure of that.

Tim and Thistle sat quietly and thought.

And that was when they heard the squeaking sound again. They exchanged glances, and then very quietly and carefully moved towards the squeak.

To Tim’s surprise, it wasn’t the crickets that had the car, but a squirrel, which seemed to be pleased about the admiring group of crickets that were watching it move the car back and forth like Thistle had been earlier.

“Let’s watch for a while,” whispered Thistle, and Tim nodded.

By and by, the crickets began to wander away, having lost interest in the squeaky car. The squirrel looked around, found that its audience was gone, and decided to go climb a tree. It left the car, and Thistle picked it up.

“Let’s wash it,” she said. “In case the squirrel got it dirty.”

“Okay,” said Tim, “but it will probably squeak more after that.”

“Okay!” said Thistle. So, they asked Mary for help, and she helped them wash and dry the car, so that it barely squeaked more than it used to.

After that, the crickets would often respond when Thistle was playing with her squeaky car, but they only liked to listen to it for a few minutes at a time before they continued with whatever crickety things they had been doing.

The squirrel would come and watch Thistle and her car for a long time, though. It never took her car again, but Tim and Thistle sometimes saw it pretending that a pebble was a toy car. It made squeaky sounds with its voice while it moved the pebble back and forth. The crickets sometimes watched it play with its pebble.

“Maybe it doesn’t know that not all toy cars squeak,” Thistle said to Tim.

Tim nodded.