Cricket Waits for Giggles — Under the snippy green arch of the vine maze, Cricket pressed one paw to each cheek and began his grand challenge: no laughing until the sundial’s shadow touched the third stone. Read the full story →
Under the snippy green arch of the vine maze, Cricket pressed one paw to each cheek and began his grand challenge: no laughing until the sundial’s shadow touched the third stone. The leaves smelled like rain and pepper. A beetle clicked past. A daisy bobbed as if it had hiccups. Cricket kept his mouth flat, though his whiskers twitched like broom bristles.
The shadow crept. A curled leaf unrolled beside his ear with a papery whisper. On it, in berry juice, someone had written: Why did the mushroom bring a ladder? Cricket squeezed his eyes narrow. Another leaf flipped open. Because it wanted to be a high-cap! “That is terrible,” he muttered, which made his cheeks puff.
Then every leaf around him rustled at once, and Cricket realized the maze had not been trying to make him lose. It had been saving its silliest jokes until he had waited long enough to hear them all together. He laughed so hard the daisies shook pollen on his nose. If you study the leaves around his grin, you might catch the next awful punch line waiting there, quiet as the snippy green arch.
