Boy Meets Squirrels Read online

  The Dead Sea Squirrels Series

  Squirreled Away

  Boy Meets Squirrels

  Coming Soon:

  Nutty Study Buddies

  Squirrelnapped!

  Visit Tyndale’s website for kids at www.tyndale.com/kids.

  Visit the author’s website at www.mikenawrocki.com.

  TYNDALE is a registered trademark of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. The Tyndale Kids logo is a trademark of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

  The Dead Sea Squirrels is a registered trademark of Michael L. Nawrocki.

  Boy Meets Squirrels

  Copyright © 2019 by Mike Nawrocki. All rights reserved.

  Illustrations by Luke Séguin-Magee. Copyright © Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.

  Designed by Libby Dykstra

  Edited by Sarah Rubio

  Published in association with the literary agency of Brentwood Studios, 1550 McEwen, Suite 300 PNB 17, Franklin, TN 37067.

  Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

  Boy Meets Squirrels is a work of fiction. Where real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales appear, they are used fictitiously. All other elements of the novel are drawn from the author’s imagination.

  For manufacturing information regarding this product, please call 1-800-323-9400.

  For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Tyndale House Publishers at [email protected], or call 1-800-323-9400.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Nawrocki, Michael, author.

  Title: Boy meets squirrels / Mike Nawrocki.

  Description: Carol Stream, Illinois : Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., [2019] | Series: Dead sea squirrels | Summary: Will Michael heed the advice of his 2,000-year-old squirrel souvenirs from the Dead Sea, or, in his attempt to get revenge, will he become a bully himself?

  Identifiers: LCCN 2018037428 | ISBN 9781496435026 (sc)

  Subjects: | CYAC: Bullies—Fiction. | Revenge—Fiction. | Schools—Fiction. | Squirrels—Fiction. | Christian life—Fiction.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.N185 Bo 2019 | DDC [Fic]—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018037428

  ISBN 978-1-4964-3504-0 (ePub); ISBN 978-1-4964-3503-3 (Kindle); ISBN 978-1-4964-3505-7 (Apple)

  Build: 2019-04-24 09:22:17 EPUB 3.0

  To my wife, Lisa—

  Thank you for not letting me not pursue this idea. Your persistent encouragement kept the squirrels preserved for many years.

  I love you.

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Character Profiles

  Dr. Gomez’s Historical Handbook

  About the Author

  CHAPTER 1

  The bell sounded, and so ended the first day of fifth grade.

  “One down, 179 to go!” Michael Gomez said as he closed his history textbook and packed it into his homeroom desk.

  “Don’t rush it!” Michael’s best friend, Justin, said, standing up from his desk and slinging on his backpack. “We’re fifth graders for a whole year. Elementary school royalty! Enjoy it!”

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Michael replied as they headed into the hallway. “Next year, we’ll be back down at the bottom of the pile again in middle school.”

  Justin stopped an unsuspecting second grader in the hall. “You there, young one. Would you like some wise advice from an older and much, much wiser fifth grader?”

  “Um . . . I gotta go.” The kid hurried away.

  “He’s obviously intimidated by our greatness,” Michael said. “Have you seen Sadie today? I want to tell her about the squirrels.”

  “Nope. Haven’t seen her.”

  “You gotta come check them out. I set them up in cool poses on my dresser. They look like crusty action figures.”

  “Gross,” Justin replied. He was not a fan of the two petrified squirrels Michael had brought home from their summer trip. The friends had spent the whole summer in a tent near the Dead Sea in the Middle East with Michael’s dad, who was a professor of ancient civilizations. On the last day of their trip, Michael nearly got lost forever when he disappeared into a cave, all by himself, to retrieve the disgusting little creatures.

  “Gross is just the word that came to mind when I saw you coming!” a voice called out as Michael and Justin exited the school to cut through the playground on their walk home. Edgar, by far the biggest kid at school, leaned against the jungle gym with two smaller fourth-grade friends who seemed to think Edgar’s comment was hilarious.

  “Hey, Edgar,” Justin answered nervously. One of the reasons Edgar was the biggest kid in school was that he was most likely the oldest. No one had ever dared to ask him how old he was, but Michael and Justin were pretty sure he had to be at least 12. Even though he was only in fourth grade, everyone knew rule number one at Walnut Creek Elementary School was Don’t Mess with Edgar.

  But now Michael was elementary school royalty. He stuck out his chest. “Don’t mess with us, Edgar. We’re fifth graders!”

  Terrified, Justin whispered to Michael, “What did you say?”

  Not terrified in the least, Edgar stepped forward and yelled, “WHAT DID YOU SAY?!”

  CHAPTER 2

  At first glance, you might have thought two huge, goofy-looking birds were flapping around in a giant cage. In fact, it was Michael and Justin, suspended by their tighty-whities inside the playground dome climber. Everyone at Walnut Creek Elementary knew that Edgar’s favorite bully go-to was the wedgie, but he always made a point of finding creative ways to use it.

  “Edgar, you are a wedgie artist!” commented Pete, one of the smaller fourth graders.

  “Let’s get out of here!” Edgar said to his two minions. “Hope you two don’t mind if we don’t HANG OUT with you!” He laughed. His buddies laughed even louder.

  “HAHAHA!” they belted out as they walked away proudly.

  “Help!” Justin shouted as he and Michael dangled helplessly above the wood chips. “Get us out of here!”

  Michael hung in midair, arms folded. “We are fifth graders now,” he fumed. “This can’t be happening.”

  “It obviously is,” Justin replied. “Edgar is still bigger, even though he’s a grade behind us.”

  “Yeah, but we’re smarter!” Michael shouted.

  “Are we?” Justin asked. “Are we?!”

  “If we don’t make Edgar pay for this, it’s going to ruin everything for fifth graders everywhere forever.”

  “What do you mean, ‘make Edgar pay for this’?” Justin asked. “Also, what do you mean, ‘we’?”

  “I mean revenge.” Michael twisted around, trying to unhook himself from the climber. “Remember when we built that water balloon launcher out of rubber tubes and a funnel? Imagine Edgar getting off the bus in the morning and, WHAM! A water balloon right in the face! He’s soaked all day!”

  Justin shook his head. “We’d get suspended, or Edgar would kill us, or both.”

  “There’s got to be something we can do with bees,” Michael pondered.

&nb
sp; “The flying, stinging kind?” Justin asked.

  “Yes. Bees.” Michael tapped his fingertips together like a supervillain.

  “You’re nuts.” Justin turned his back on Michael and called out again, “HEEEEELLLP!”

  CHAPTER 3

  “Oh hey, guys. How was your summer?”

  Michael and Justin turned to see their friend Sadie exiting the school. The three of them had been friends since kindergarten and were almost always together. Sadie was still a little hurt that she hadn’t been invited to go with Michael and Justin on their summer adventure, so while she hadn’t exactly been trying to avoid them all day, she hadn’t been trying too hard to find them either.

  “Aren’t you going to ask us why we’re hanging from the monkey bars by our underwear?” Michael asked.

  “That’s clearly Edgar’s work.” Sadie tilted her head to the side. “I’ve got to say, the kid’s a wedgie artist.”

  “Yeah, well, we’ll see what kind of artist he is when he finds his backpack filled with earthworms,” Michael said.

  “Huh?” Sadie frowned.

  “He’s plotting revenge,” Justin said. He turned to Michael. “What happened to the bees?”

  “I remembered that I’m afraid of bees.”

  “Revenge is never a good idea,” Sadie said. “Well, nice seeing you guys.”

  “What?! Where are you going?” Michael yelled. “Aren’t you going to help us?!”

  Sadie put her hands on her hips. “Oh, so I’m good enough to help you but not good enough to invite on your trip?”

  “I explained to you like a million times I could only invite one friend, and I needed to share a tent. I wish you could have gone too,” Michael said.

  Hearing this made Sadie feel a little better.

  Michael squirmed. “Help us down, and we’ll tell you all about it! Plus, I’ve got something super cool to show both of you guys.”

  “All right.” Sadie climbed to the top of the monkey bar dome and untied the two white elastic bows that held the boys in place.

  “UGH!”

  “OOF!”

  Michael and Justin hit the wood chips in a cloud of splinters.

  CHAPTER 4

  “You went back into the cave by yourself in the middle of the night? What is wrong with you?” Sadie exclaimed as the friends headed toward Michael’s house. All three lived close enough to school to walk on nice days, and this was a beautiful day. However, Michael and Justin had long since made the decision to walk to and from school even on not-so-nice days, even on horrible days when the rain blew sideways or giant icicles fell from the sky. Walking to school meant you didn’t have to take the bus, and not taking the bus meant steering clear of Edgar.

  “I know, I know—it wasn’t the best idea I’ve ever had,” Michael admitted. “But wait until you see what I found.”

  “It’s pretty disgusting,” Justin said.

  “Shhhhh! Don’t say anything, Justin!” Michael said. “You both have to promise not to tell anyone what you’re about to see.”

  “I know what I’m about to see, so threatening to not show me if I don’t promise doesn’t make any sense,” Justin pointed out.

  “Will you just promise already?” Michael demanded.

  Justin thought for a moment, then shrugged and said, “All right. I promise.”

  “I’m not interested in seeing something disgusting,” Sadie said.

  “That’s just Justin’s opinion. You’re gonna think it’s the coolest thing ever.” The trio arrived at Michael’s house. He paused before opening the door and looked at Sadie. “So do you promise?”

  “Okay, okay, I promise,” Sadie replied. Michael pushed open the door, and they went inside.

  CHAPTER 5

  Michael stood in his doorway, shocked. “Where did they go?!” He rushed over to his dresser, where he had last seen the squirrels. “Maybe they fell on the floor? Or out the window?” He frantically searched the area around the dresser and leaned out the window to check the ground below. Nothing. “Mom! Did you clean my room?” he shouted at the top of his lungs. In some families, when you want to talk to a family member, you go to the room where they are. Other families have fancy intercom systems that broadcast your voice across the house at the touch of a button. The preferred method of long-distance communication in the Gomez household was to yell. Loudly.

  “No!” Mrs. Gomez’s muffled yell came through the wall.

  “You lost them already?” Justin asked.

  “Lost what?” said Sadie.

  “Mr. Nemesis!” Michael ran out of his room.

  Sadie looked confused. “He lost his cat?”

  “No, not his cat,” Justin replied, following Michael out.

  “Would somebody please tell me what is going on?” Sadie followed her friends out of the room. “Michael!” she shouted.

  “I think he lost something,” said a small voice from inside the room next to Michael’s. Sadie popped her head into the room. Jane, Michael’s four-year-old sister, was sitting on her bed, tying a bonnet onto the head of Mr. Nemesis, the family cat.

  “Oh hi, Jane. Do you know what he’s looking for?” Sadie asked.

  “Nope. Do you like Mr. Nemesis’s hat?” Jane said.

  “Meow,” said Mr. Nemesis, in a very annoyed tone of cat voice.

  “It’s so cute!” Sadie said. “Well, it’s definitely not the cat that’s lost.” She continued down the hall and into the living room. “Michael!” she called out again.

  “In the basement!” she heard Michael yell through the floor.

  As Sadie headed toward the basement stairs, a quick movement caught her eye from the direction of the couch. She turned her head toward it but saw nothing. What was that? She walked over to the couch and knelt down to look underneath. Suddenly, she noticed another quick motion to her right and heard the distinct pitter-patter of little paws. She turned quickly to see the door to the laundry room moving ever so slightly. Did something just run into the laundry room?

  “Come down and help us look!” Justin’s voice said through the floor.

  “Hold on a second!” Sadie crept slowly toward the laundry room, her eyes fixed on the door opening. Cautiously, she cracked the door open just enough to fit her head through. For a moment, everything was perfectly still. Then she noticed the slightest bit of motion on a towel hanging out of a laundry hamper. She tiptoed toward the basket.

  “Sometimes Mr. Nemesis likes to hide things,” Sadie heard Michael say as he opened the door to the laundry room.

  “Shhhhh!” Sadie put her finger over her lips. With the same finger, she then pointed toward the laundry hamper.

  Justin entered the laundry room. “What are—?”

  “Shhhhh!” Sadie shushed louder. “There’s something in the hamper,” she whispered.

  “Why are you whispering?” Michael whispered as the three friends huddled around the laundry hamper. Sadie lifted the lid slowly. As light poured into the basket, the three friends peeked inside.

  “AHHHHH!” screamed two tiny voices from within the hamper.

  “AHHHHH!” screamed Sadie, Michael, and Justin.

  CHAPTER 6

  “So, you brought these cute little guys back home with you from the Dead Sea?” Sadie asked. The three had managed to smuggle the squirrels from the laundry room past Michael’s mom, Jane, and Mr. Nemesis. The squirrels, Merle and Pearl, sat on the bed looking disoriented and frightened as Michael, Justin, and Sadie stood huddled around them.

  “Yeah, but they were . . . dead,” Justin said.

  “These are definitely not dead squirrels,” Sadie responded.

  Merle nodded slightly, but he got a quick elbow jab and a “shush” look from Pearl.

  “They were . . . crusty,” Michael said. “I don’t get it. I set them up like squirrel-jerky action figures.” He posed just like he had posed Merle.

  “What do you mean, ‘crusty’?” Sadie asked.

  “Crusty, like crusty,” Michael answered
. “They were stiff as boards, and their fur was covered in salt.” He walked over to his dresser. “I put them right here, all dead and stiff, and now this. I don’t get it!”

  “They didn’t move at all when you found them in the cave?” Justin asked.

  At the word cave, Merle brightened as his memory of getting lost in the cave came back to him. He looked to Pearl, who nodded slightly at him. She remembered too.

  “Nope. Not an inch. Not in the cave, not in my backpack, not on the plane,” Michael said.

  “That’s so weird,” Sadie said.

  “Yep. I never saw them move either.” Justin frowned at the squirrels.

  Merle, who was not much for staying quiet, said, “Maybe it was the rain?”

  The three kids turned their heads slowly toward Merle, who shrugged.

  “AHHHHH!” they screamed.

  “Merle!” Pearl whisper-yelled. “I told you to keep quiet!”

  “AHHHHH!” the kids screamed again.

  CHAPTER 7

  “I have no idea where we are, but wherever it is, the people here sure do like to yell,” Merle said to Pearl.

  He turned to the kids. “What’s wrong? Never heard a squirrel talk before?”

  The kids all slowly shook their heads in response.

  “Merle, you’re scaring the children. They’ve obviously never heard a squirrel talk,” Pearl said. “It’s okay,” she told the three friends. “Don’t be afraid. We don’t bite. Well, we do bite, but not children. Mostly just nuts.”

  “And the occasional insect,” added Merle. “Not my favorite, but when nuts are scarce, what are you gonna do?” He shrugged.

  The kids stared at the squirrels, not believing their own ears. “Um,” Michael finally said, “we’ve never heard a squirrel talk.”