The talking squirrels

There lived a girl named Nia in a village, who was about 10 years old. Although there were very few kids in the neighborhood, she enjoyed living in the village, exploring the woods, gazing at the trees, animals and birds that surrounded her farm. Her best pastime was with the animals who lived in her farm. She would constantly look for them who frequently visited her house too.

A white little kitty with eyes as green as a radium. The kitty never intruded into her kitchen or stole any food to eat. The kitty would always go to the store room and look at only one thing - A woolen badminton ball! The kitty would return almost every day to play with the ball which looked just the color of his eyes. The woolen ball used for badminton is bouncy in nature and the kitty was so intrigued by this phenomena.The kitty would punch the ball on the ground, and eternally chase as it bounced away. Nia used to ensure that the ball was there in the store room for the kitty to return and always stood at a distance and watched the show.

Flock of chattering parrots who visited every time the guava tree was loaded with fruits. It's usual for birds to flock together and at dusk settle down on one of their favorite trees. They literally change their trees every now and then, just like a hotel. It would be an amusement for her to plot the parrots amidst the leaves and fruits that shared the same color of a parrot skin.

Tracking the chameleon was another pass time for Nia as the chameleon changed its skin color while landing on differently colored tree barks, leafs, soil and what not!
Amongst all these returning guests, was a Gang of innocent squirrels. They loved playing around her house, on the trees, on the grill gate, and everywhere. They were highly capable of sneaking into her house and also escaping at jet speed. There were a lot of fruit and flowering trees in Nia’s garden but the squirrels attacked the pomegranate the most!

A squirrel training school, the pomegranate tree would be loaded with flowers and fruits throughout winter and early summers. The squirrels lacked the skill to identify a ripe fruit most of the time and ended up digging into many unripe pomegranates. They were using that one tree literally like a training school to learn to identify a fruit that is ripe enough to binge! Nia watched these squirrels for quite some time. Everyday there will be loads of shredded pomegranate skin on the ground. The squirrels dug into almost every ripe and unripe fruit on the tree. Hardly any fruit left untouched for her, she was very disappointed. She pulled a lot of tricks like covering up fruits in plastic covers, shooing away the squirrels etc. But the squirrels were too smart and the season passed.

That year post the summer, Squirrels as usual started finding more resorts for their food. This gave the time to Nia to think about how to save the pomegranate in the coming winter season. She asked her friends but no luck. One day she went to her mom with feeble hopes. Her mom was busy in the kitchen and was grating coconut to make lunch. She discussed the plight of the pomegranate tree and also considered cutting down the tree itself. Instead of giving her an answer, her mom gave her an almost empty coconut shell, which had some coconut flesh left on it. Her mom asked her to keep those coconut shells in front of their house on the ground. Nia followed her mothers suggestion.

In a few minutes, Nia noticed that some birds and squirrels came to those coconut shells and were hesitantly looking at Nia. Squirrels were initially scared to advance towards this new food that they had just discovered. Nia was lying in a cot in the portico of her house and could easily shoo away these folks. But this time she lied on the cot lazily and just kept staring at those squirrels. This cycle repeated for a few times with the squirrels coming and going back empty handed. After a long period of staring at each other, both got some vibes of peace in life. The squirrels finally advanced and tasted this new meal.

Nia now started keeping these unfinished coconut shells in front of her house every day, and waited for her new friends. These squirrels now kind of made a lunch schedule for themselves and enjoyed this meal and the new friendship. Squirrels got more birds as well along with them. Nia and squirrels were now officially friends and they started understanding each other's actions. The bond grew stronger through the seasons.

Then comes winter again! The pomegranate tree was all set for fruiting. Although friends with squirrels now, she did have a bit of worry in a corner of her heart. When the new flowers and fruits showed up, the squirrel gang did attack the pomegranate tree again, as expected! But she noticed that something had changed. The squirrels were being careful now and left fruits deliberately on the tree, while they still tried training to identify ripe fruits. Nia was taken aback with this generosity of the squirrels. The squirrels also made chitter noises when the birds attacked the tree. But all in all they ensured that there were fruits left untouched for Nia baby. The squirrels had started talking now not only to the birds, but for Nia.

Nia realized how the coconut remains given by her mom opened up a new way of sharing with the birds and squirrels. In return to the care shown by Nia, squirrels gave her a good share of pomegranates now. Thus they shared their meals and a bond happily ever after!