Nuts!
We Laughed. We Fumed. We Contemplated.
At the feed store, Nia selects a bag of raw shelled peanuts.
If all of life is an experiment, it’s surely worth eight dollars to see if the garden squirrels will fill their tummies with legumes.
Will they leave the birdseed for the birds now?
Within a minute of parking, Thalia tears through the plastic bag with her thumb and runs to scatter a handful at the base of the shepherd’s hook. In a flash of oh-how-the-worm-has-turned, blue jays descend from the treetops and take every shelled gem.
Next morning. New day. New experiment.
Calliope places a couple dozen peanuts on the red brick wall near the bird feeders. The trio watches from the window as a chipmunk approaches, nibbles, and proceeds to stuff three wholes (3!) into its expandable cheeks. A gray squirrel ambles up the stone staircase and stops cold. What’s this! Tail a-twitching, it eats one peanut and shell with the discernment of a critic at a five-star restaurant. Meanwhile, our new chippy character, who has a distinctive black ring on its tail, dashes between the peanuts and plants until the wall is bare.
What at first was funny turns toward fury.
“How rude!” Thalia yells out the window.
“Deplorable.” Nią mutters into her coffee.
“People… and chipmunks,” Calliope considers, “are always showing us who they are… and what they are afraid of.”