Phillip

Phillip was a grey. All the squirels in the nearby trees were greys too. There were a few Browns and Reds around but they kept to their trees. They didn't bother Philip. He was strangely interested in them though. They looked so different and they way they played together was just wierd. He would climb over the house and along the fence to where he could see across Chrurch street sometimes just to watch them. They raced around in the small lot, chasing and jumping around, stopping to eat the fruit from berries tree at the corner.

"Philip, come on back! Why do you want to watch them all the time. That dog will get you if you don't get out of there!" Ben called to Philip one afternoon. They didn't know it but they were in no danger from the dog. She was noisy and from where they sat, looking down at her from on top of the fences in and the branches, she looked like a terrifying monster. If she ever did get ahold of them she wouldn't have a clue what to do. But the way she barked and ran back and forth frantically trying to get ahold of one of them could frighten even the bravest grey, except for Charlie. Charlie derived an intense pleasure in driving the grounded dog frantic. He would get as low as he could on the vines draping over the old wooden planking keeping the dog in the small space behind the house. When the dog raced over and jumped up to get him he would race back to safety.

"Ok, I'm coming" Philip turned back and followed the path he had take a hundred times this summer back to the roof of the house; along the low chain link fence, up the hand railing, around the dogs yard on the vine covered fence, up onto the garage, through the bush, onto the deck, up the down-spout, and onto the hot grey shingled roof.

When he and Ben made it to the ridge line they could see the inviting sight of the girls resting in the gutter eating the seeds that had fallen from the tree. "Look there's Beth" whispered Ben "watch this." Ben slipped back over the ridge to where the girls couldn't see him. Philip stayed at the roof top to see what his friend would do. A few seconds later Ben came running from behind the chimney bounding straight for the girls. He lept right over Kim and as he scampered over Beth he gave her a bite on the neck. The two of them jumped into the tree, throwing themselves from branch to brach biting and squawking as they moved. The eventually quieted as ascended toward the cluster of branches where they had build a nest.

Phillip hopped down the roof line toward Kim. "Hi Kim."

"Hi Phillip. Have you seen Charlie today?" Kim always started her conversations with Phillip with some sort of reference to Charlie, just to remind Phillip that she had no interest in him.

"No. I have no idea where he is today."

As they sat there eating the little seeds from the pyromithus tree canopying over the corner of the house. Two of the humans gathered near the base of the tree and began discussing in earnest something about what was in the tree or something about the tree. They were pointing at branches, walking around the base, tapping on the trunk, making strange gestures and all the time growling and whistling at each other.

"I wonder what they're doing."

"They always cause trouble. My dad told be about the time when he was a kid he almost got stuck inside the walls of the house. He had made a nice door way over here under the eves into the warm space. He found a really nice tunnel with lots of white fluffy for the nest and plenty of room. It was the driest nest he ever had. One of the humans came out one day for no reason, put up a big stick against the house and started tearing apart all the wood around the doorway and before my mom and dad could get out, he had boarded the thing up again. They were stuck inside. Well it turned out not to be so bad, it was getting cold out and they had a good supply of seeds in there. But eventually they ran out of stuff to eat and they had to get out. Way down at the other end of the tunnel they could see some light through a small hole. My dad started chewing away at it until he broke through to the outside, clear on the other side of the house from where they were boarded in. In all the commotion of digging and chewing, my dad could tell he sturred up the nest of people. He could hear them walking around on top of them and growling down below. What he didn't expect was when he stuck his head through the hole he made one of the big ones was right there hanging out one of the big holes in the house staring him straight in the face. Well my dad didn't waste any time. He climbed right out the hole and past the human. He scared the human so much that it smashed its head against the side of the hole trying to get away. No one else has been able to get into the walls since then. I guess its really nice in there."

"Charlie could probably do it"

Eventually the humans went away and the squirrels went back to their normal day to day squirrel things. Things were pretty normal.

One morning a strange rolling nest came up in front of the house. It was big and white with a small trailer on top. There was a picture of a tree on the side with some other strange markings. Phillip could watch all this from his perch way up on top of the roof. None of the other squirrels were with him. They were scattered around the area looking for good food.