When the Bushes Talk

An original story by Lime Green Giraffe staff member, Katie H.


July 13th, 2020. It started off as a normal day, and it was supposed to stay that way. But leave it to the universe to go and ruin Quinn’s plans.

Mid-July in Bronters City - that meant it was the peak of summer right now and almost every face in the crowd was either sweating bullets or equipped with some sort of hat to protect against the sun. The face masks that people were required to wear were no longer a major priority to some people in moments like these. Though most sensible people were at least wearing it below their noses to breathe better. That still isn’t good enough, she thought to herself. No matter what the temperature is you should still cover your entire face! The nerve of some people! She audibly scoffed when she saw a man walking past with his mask below his chin. But it was no lie that it was hot. Very hot. Thanks to Coronavirus the parks filled with lush green trees weren’t nearly as crowded as they’d usually be, but a few people were taking shelter under the shade of the trees. Which was exactly what Quinn was doing right now — eating a mint chocolate chip sundae she got from a small stand on the street. She too had her mask off while licking the delicious treat, but she knew better than to get within six feet of anyone. In fact, she was all the way on the other side of the park sheltered by a nice grove covering most of the benches in that area. The birds were singing above her, and the squirrels were chattering to each other like always.

Quinn recalled a time when she and her friends had gone to this exact same park for her birthday party. She was turning seven years old at the time — or maybe it was eight? All she could remember were the Dora The Explorer themed balloons and chocolate birthday cake with only 3 candles. Those were fun times, she thought to herself. She had just turned twelve less than a month ago and she already felt old. Her mother let her walk around the parts of the city near their house all by herself most of the time while she was out at work. “This is one of the safest cities in the country and I think you’re responsible enough to handle yourself,” her mother said before giving her her own set of house keys. She now had a limited number of reasons to use them, thanks to the pandemic, but she didn’t mind as she didn’t go out as much anyway. She looked down at her melting ice cream and sighed. I spent all this time thinking and now my ice cream’s starting to melt, she thought with a pout on her face. She quickly licked up the dripping liquid and sighed. Why didn’t I just stay inside today? she thought. I should have just-

But she never got to finish her thought, as a rustling in the bushes interrupted her. Her body stiffened as she strained her ears to listen. And then all of a sudden…

“Hello!”

 A strange but small voice called from somewhere in the undergrowth. 

“H-Hello?” she called out hesitantly. She was just about to leave, coming to the conclusion that she’d just been hearing things, when she saw a tiny chipmunk pop out of the low branches. They stared at each other for a few moments, Quinn not knowing what to do. But she stiffened up when it started taking a few steps closer. “W-What do you want?” she asked, as if she expected it to answer. 


… “Do you have any trail mix?”   

…What? She definitely saw its mouth moving that time. “Maybe I’m just hearing AND seeing things,” she thought out loud. Finally deciding to take her leave, she started to get up and gather her things. This is way too weird, she thought. 

W-Wait, but what about my trail mix? I’m hungry!” said the very strange chipmunk. What was happening today? She sighed before looking around to see if anyone was nearby to witness this.

“I… don’t have any trail… mix. Sorry,” she responded. She continued to stare at the chipmunk for a few seconds, kind of nervous to turn her back to it. Judging by how intently it’s staring at me it just might attack, she thought.

Then I’ll just have to follow you until you get some trail mix for me!” The striped rodent declared.

“What do you mean follow me?! I can’t go home with a chipmunk!” she all but yelled. 

Of course you can, people do it all the time! Now time to go to the store.” 

The chipmunk now had a very intense look on its face, like it was quite serious about getting the trail mix. …What choice do I have? she pondered to herself. This was probably some sort of crazy dream anyway. 

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But what Quinn didn’t realize was that this was just the beginning of one of the craziest and weirdest days she’d ever had. 

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The end.


This story was a part of Gigi Presents: Storytime with the Lime Green Giraffe. Click here to check out the reading on our YouTube channel. 

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