Silly Scripts, Stories and Scenarios: Charlie the Chipmunk meets a Talking Worm

I wrote this about problem solving and how older kids can help younger kids.

I’m tired of all the media about bullies. Children in families and groups of different ages have varied skills. I love programs in schools where they have the older children helping the younger ones to read – unlike the British system where the older children were in charge of disciplining the younger children. I see that as enforced bullying. I think that kindness is important to our survival.

Carnival Tent by Sue Proctor

Charlie the Chipmunk meets a Talking Worm

Once upon a time there was a family of chipmunks living in a hollow Oak tree. There was a mother and father, a teenager Maria, as well as Charlie and his sister Abby, and two little ones named Tim and Pam. They had the run of the inside of the tree. Because they could climb, they had cupboards and shelves on many levels inside the tree. In fact, they had so many cupboards and shelves that they forgot where they put things. One winter there was lots of snow and their supply of acorns, was running low. They searched in all the cupboards but they could just find a few nuts.

One day Charlie found an acorn, he bit into it and he found a worm. “Yuck!”
he exclaimed.

“Don’t eat me,” begged Wiggly the worm who lived inside the nut. “This is my house. I’ve chewed all the rooms and it’s very nice inside.”

Charlie was shocked. “Abby!” he called. “I’ve found a talking worm.” 

Abby came scrabbling down the inside of the tree.

“A talking worm?”

“Yes, listen to him.”

“My name is Wiggly and this acorn is my house. Please don’t eat it.”

“What!” exclaimed Abby and she grabbed the acorn but he wiggled and it rolled out of her paw all the way to the bottom of the tree and under a root. The two chipmunks scurried after it. They managed to dig and scratch until they pulled it out again.

“Please don’t eat my house!” exclaimed Wiggly. “I can tell you where more nuts are. At the back of the cupboard where you found me there’s a big crack and many nuts have rolled down there. Maybe you can reach down and get them.”

Charlie and Abby were so hungry that they didn’t want one acorn to escape but they felt badly about the idea of eating Wiggly’s house. They certainly did not want to eat Wiggly. So, they climbed up the trunk to see if what he said was true. Sure enough, there was a crack at the back of the cupboard. Charlie stretched his paw down as far as it could go and he could just touch the nuts. “Oh phooey,” he said. “Just out of my reach.”

“Let me try,” said Abby. But her paws didn’t reach any further. “We need something long to reach them. Maybe something with a scoop….. like a spoon.”

“Yes, maybe a spoon” answered Charlie. “But where could we find a spoon in the middle of winter?”

“The picnic area, it’s not so far away.”

“But it’s covered with snow.”

“We can burrow under it like the mice.”

“Well let’s try.” Charlie was doubtful but it seemed like anything was possible that day. He had certainly never met a talking worm before.

The two chipmunks scrambled through the hole in the oak tree out onto the sparkling snow. It was so bright they could hardly see. They scurried along the top of the crusty snow bank until they came to the picnic bench and garbage can that were half covered in snow.  

“Straight down there,” pointed Abby. “At the bottom of the garbage can I bet there’s a thrown away spoon. Let’s start digging.” They burrowed through the snow. It felt very cold and wet but they were still so hungry that they were glad to think about the cold snow instead of their stomachs. When they came to the ground, there was a bit of space. They searched along the bottom of the garbage container and there it was, a plastic spoon.

“Oh yikey,” said Charlie, “You were right. There it is. But how do we get it up?”

“I’ll pull and you push,” answered Abby. “We have to get it up this hole first. I think I can climb backwards but you push hard.”

Abby started to climb backwards. The snow was cold on her feet but it was crusty enough to grip. Charlie pushed as he climbed. The spoon didn’t seem so heavy. Finally, they were on top of the snow. Abby climbed onto the spoon and Charlie pushed. The spoon was like a toboggan. It slid across the hardened snow all the way to the tree.

“Whew,” said Charlie, who needed a rest. “Now how do we get it up to the cupboard?”

“Let me think,” said Abby. “You rest and I’ll go search for something.” A few minutes later she came back with a piece of rope-like vine. “If we can tie this to the spoon, then I will be able to climb with it in my teeth while you push.”

“Maybe you should climb up to the cupboard with the vine,” answered Charlie, who had been thinking while he was resting, “and then I’ll tie it to the spoon and you can pull the spoon up.”

“Oh yes,” answered Abby. She scooted through the opening in the tree and pulled the vine behind her. Charlie jumped up and ran after her. When his eyes adjusted to the light, he could see that she was almost at the cupboard with the vine trailing behind her. Oh no. He realized he had left the spoon outside. Charlie went out into the bright light and pushed the spoon through the hole in the tree. That wasn’t too difficult.  Then Charlie remembered that he didn’t know how to tie knots yet. Maybe his older sister Maria would help.

Maria was relaxing in a knothole on her bed of old leaves when Charlie found her. She was half asleep. “Go away,” she told Charlie when he came in.

“But we need you,” pleaded Charlie. “You know how to tie knots.”

“Tie knots?”

“Yes,” exclaimed Charlie. “We found a talking worm and…” Charlie told his sister the whole story. By this time, she was awake.

“So, you need me to tie the vine to the spoon so you can get the nuts that have fallen down the crack in the cupboard?”

“Yes,” nodded Charlie.

Maria was quite hungry so she decided to see if this was true. She grumbled as she followed Charlie into the hollow of the tree where she could see the vine hanging down and the spoon lying on the ground. Abby was calling, “Charlie, I can smell the nuts! What’s taking you so long?”

Maria tied the vine to the spoon and tugged it a little to let Abby know it was attached. As Abby pulled the spoon up, Maria and Charlie run up behind it. Soon all three chipmunks were together in the cupboard. Maria insisted on trying to reach the nuts with her paw, but she couldn’t quite reach. She was the first one to use the spoon and she pulled up an acorn! She ran into the corner to eat it. Then Charlie and finally Abby pulled up nuts and ate them. They were feeling much better. Maria ran off to tell their mother and father and the little ones. Charlie and his sister ran down to thank Wiggly.

“We got the nuts! Thank you!” exclaimed Charlie.

“That was awfully nice of you to let us know,” said Abby.

“Well,” answered Wiggly. “If you ate my house, it would take me a long time to chew another one. I am glad that you don’t like to eat worms.” Wiggly wiggled his nut back under the root where he felt much safer. 

The chipmunks scampered up the wall of the tree to get more nuts. The chipmunk family was very careful not to eat nuts with worms in them, just in case they were one of Wiggly’s relatives. 

END