Wandering Through WorldWonder: Mac & Mica's Adventure

Wandering Through WorldWonder

Mac & Mica’s Adventure

Wandering Through WorldWonder

Mac & Mica’s Adventure

here is a place, at the dead end of 152nd St. and 67th Ave., which is very much alive. In fact, if you happened to be walking by you might hear noises that would cause you to stop and look. Peacocks and parrots calling down from tropical trees or baby goats’ bleats carried over the wall by the ocean breeze. You might feel that you are near to an incredibly special place; that’s because you are!

Standing by this special place may create a desire to climb to the top of the high wall and look over. That would not be safe, at least not unless you are one of the squirrels or lizards that spend a lot of time up there.

But let’s say you did get to the top of the wall to look in. You might see a tortoise or a little pond with water swirling around frogs and swimming fishes, neat paths wandering through exotic plants and trees, or hanging ferns, climbing vines, and funny little thatched roofed houses. You would decide, and you would be right, that this is a world filled with wonders and wild things. I suppose that is how this special place came to be called “WorldWonder.”

Maybe this place seems fun and exciting and now you’re wondering how to get in. The good news is, getting in is easy. The bad news is choosing to go in isn’t easy at all. To get in you just enter through the narrow gate at the front. It’s never locked or guarded, and the path is easy to find. But to go in you must leave the busy road, and it’s a lot easier to drive by than stop in and stay.

“But that doesn’t make any sense at all,” you might be thinking. “If it is as wonderful as you say, and if the gate is always open, why wouldn’t everyone want to get in?” I think that is a very good question, perhaps we might learn a little bit more about WorldWonder and see if we might discover the answer to that question.

Now, we say that it isn’t easy to choose to go in, and that’s true, but only for people who are not children. Children don’t seem quite so interested in all the business of the road. Children seem to know how to spot a good adventure when it arrives. In fact, children seem to be very good at making adventures out of the simplest things. Of course, there isn’t any such thing as magic in WorldWonder, but if you happen to catch the sparkle in the eyes of children when they find the path and come in for the first time, you might accidentally think there is.

Besides the children, there is one other person who seems to love and appreciate the wonder of this special place, that’s Mr. Heetderks, of course. Mr. Heetderks is the wise and kind-hearted caretaker of WorldWonder. In fact, everything that is now called WorldWonder, all the swimming fishes and towering trees, the huge tropical leaves and delicate orchids, the splashing fish, and squatting stones, came from Mr. Heetderks’ mind.

“Now, wait a minute! I thought there wasn’t any magic in WorldWonder? That sounds magical to me,” you’re thinking. And, yes, I know how it sounds. I guess it does sound magical when you think about it like that, but here’s what we do know. For a long time, there was nothing like WorldWonder and now it’s there. And so is Mr. Heetderks. And even though we don’t know exactly how it got there, we shouldn’t let that keep us from enjoying it very much. The gate is open and there are adventures waiting to be experienced and Mr. Heetderks loves having visitors.

So, now that you’re standing at the gate of WorldWonder, are you going to come in? I think you’d really enjoy the time you get to spend inside. It’s not exactly a safe place, but when have you ever heard of a good adventure that was safe? Oh, and there’s lots of work to do. But we all know that the very best experiences in life come when we work hard. There are mysteries too. Things might happen and you won’t know what to do.

You might make mistakes or even hurt yourself and others too. Mr. Heetderks is there, and he is very helpful, but not all the time. Sometimes he will leave you to explore and learn things on your own. “The adventure is better that way,” he likes to say. Well, I guess you don’t have to choose quite yet anyway. When you’re ready, the gate will be open. For now, just keep listening. I’d like to tell you about some friends of mine who came to WorldWonder. Maybe after hearing their experience, you can know more and decide for yourself.

Chapter 1 The Beginning

ac and his little sister Mica have just arrived at WorldWonder with their parents. They are kangaroos. They came all the way from down under to spend a year in WorldWonder, and they are going to learn a lot this year. Lots of interesting things seem to happen in WorldWonder, whether you are a high energy adventure seeker like Mac, a quiet observer like Mica, or something in between.

“Whoa! Did you see that bird, Mica? It’s huge.” Mac yells as he bounds down the path toward the corner of the Nature Center in pursuit of a peacock who is trying very hard to get away from him. Mica, who is a few years younger than her brother, hangs back peering out suspiciously at their new surroundings from the safety of her mother’s pouch.

Her Momma is standing beside the crate they have arrived in and right next to her is Dad and Mac’s crate. Just behind the crates there is an open gate and a path leading back toward the road where a delivery truck is pulling away from the curb.

“Come on, Mica!” Mac shouts as he disappears around the corner. “Momma? Do you think it’s safe?” Mica asks as she looks up questioningly. “What, dear?” she asks, “Did you say something?”

Mica slowly inches out of the pouch deciding that she doesn’t want to ask her question again. Just as she gets both feet on the ground, a shadow falls across the path. Instinct seizes her with fear as she turns to flee back to the safety of her mother’s pouch. Just as she does, however, a huge hand grabs hold of her, and she’s swept into the air. After a moment she turns to see a man with a white beard looking back at her. Something in his face leaves her feeling less nervous, and she calms down a little.

Just then the man says, “Hey there Mica,” and he pulls her in to hold her more securely against his chest, “I’m Mr. Heetderks. We’ve been so excited to meet you. Welcome to WorldWonder. Let’s go find out where your brother is off to.”

And just like that, he turns and follows Mac, deeper into this strange new place. With each step Mica’s fear seems to fade away. This man is very big and very powerful, but he seems kind. Being

carried by him is not like being carried in her mother’s pouch. For one thing, she is much further up in the air. And from this height Mica can see all around her. As Mr. Heetderks turns around the corner of the Nature Center, Mica dares to look around a little. When she does, she sees just how spectacular a place this WorldWonder is.

Her mom and dad had been telling her about it back in Australia for months, but Mica, not really caring for adventures like her brother, was content to hear, but not really listen. Sure, she understood that they were leaving their home and would be going to a new place for a year, but she didn’t really think about what that meant. She had her momma’s pouch and that was enough. But she isn’t in her mother’s pouch in Australia anymore. Now, five feet in the air, bouncing along to the rhythm of this strange man’s huge steps she understands, “I’m on an adventure!” and, for the first time, Mica dares to wonder, “Where am I?”

Before she can think much more about it, however, she hears a yelp from a little way down the winding path that disappears through huge leaves. Mica knows from the sound of the yelp that it must be her brother Mac. “He’s probably found some sharp edge or fallen into a patch of thorns,” Mica thinks, knowing her brother well. Just then Mr. Heetderks lowers her to the ground and says, almost as if he had read her thoughts, “I’m sure he’s fine, but you better check on him just in case.”

For a fleeting second, Mica wonders how Mr. Heetderks knows exactly what she is thinking. Before she can really wonder too much, however, a second yelp comes from around the corner, and this one sounds a bit more urgent. And with only one slight hesitation to briefly glance back over her shoulder in the direction of her momma, Mica bounds toward the sound in search of her troublesome brother.

Cane and Kangaroo-Toads

eacocks really think very highly of themselves, and do not like to be chased. But since Mac has never really seen a peacock and he is chasing one currently, and the experience is quite amusing to him, he is not concerned about what peacocks think.

However, since peacocks can fly and Mac cannot, the chase does not last very long. Only long enough for Mac to find himself in a place he does not recognize standing beside a firepit that to Mac, being only ten and a half inches tall, just looks like a wall.

The peacock flies into its favorite tree and finds a perch where it can yell down at this new creature who has dared to chase him. The peacock continues to generously instruct him in proper peacock treatment, “SQUAWWWK!!”

Mac is no longer concerned about the peacock, however, because it is now occurring to him that it might have been a mistake to dart into an unknown place. Of course, he is just down the path from where Mr. Heetderks and Mica are standing under the awning of the Nature Center, but Mac is too small, and this place is too new, and he is lost.

While he is looking around, he hears a voice coming out from under a fern leaning out over the brick pavers a few feet away.

The voice says, “WWWWelllllll, you know you really shouldn’t chase peacocks. They don’t like that.”

“Oh!” he says. Not sure of what peacocks are, and certainly not sure whose voice is telling him about them. “What’s a peacock?” he asks, as he moves a few steps toward the fern and leans forward a little to look under it. Just at that moment two things happen; the voice begins to speak again, and the owner of the voice appears suddenly.

“WWWWelllllll, A peacock is a kind of chicken, but with a bigger tail, and…” the voice is saying just as he hops out from under the fern.

“WHOA!!” Mac yells, as he leaps wildly into the air, trying to get out of the way of a rather large toad that has just appeared at his feet. “You scared me!” he says, panting a little as he lands. The toad, appearing annoyed that he has been cut off mid-sentence, waits a second for Mac to settle down and then responds, “And WWWWelllllll, maybe so,” He says, “but it is for the better. You shouldn’t interrupt people when they’re speaking.”

The toad waits, expecting an apology, but with none coming decides to make the best of the situation and continues, “WWWWelllllll, at least now I have gotten to see you leap. Seeing someone leap is the most important thing you can learn about them when you’re meeting them for the first time.” says the toad. “I have never seen a toad quite as strange as you, but I’ve never met anyone who can leap that good who isn’t also a toad. So, what kind of toad are you?”

Mac is shocked and confused by this question, and he does not like being called a toad. “A toad?!” he objects, “I’m not a toad. I’m a kangaroo and I’m the biggest and fastest kangaroo my age, that’s why I can leap the best.”

“WWWWelllllll, I’ve never heard of a kangaroo before, but I know leapers when I see one and, WWWWelllllll, you’re one for sure. And since all toads are leapers that means all leapers must be toads. So, WWWWelllllll, I guess kangaroos are toads after all. Quite right!”

Mac is dumbstruck by this silly idea, and he does not like being called a toad.

Cane, for that is this toad’s name, is a toad. I know that is obvious and you probably think it doesn’t need to be said, but trust me, it needs to be said. Because Cane does not see himself the way everyone else does. Absolutely everyone else sees a plumpy, unimpressive toad. They see he has a huge mouth, which looks very much like he is about to say something condescending, and they see he is lumpy and warty and altogether toad-like.

But, in Cane’s mind, he is nothing like any of that. Instead, he believes himself to be much more sophisticated than that. Cane imagines that he has a fancy, thin mustache that curls up at the ends and wiggles whenever he is saying wise things (which is always). He has a golden chain connected

to a monocle perched on his right eye that helps him seem wiser. He imagines he’s wearing a long, sleek, burgundy dinner jacket with shoes to match and a brightly colored pocket square. In his mind, he even has a tall black hat perched on his formidable brow and, of course, he carries a cane. In all of this he imagines his movements to be graceful and elegant, his voice to be smooth and compelling, and his mind to be sharp and penetrating.

Of course, Cane is nothing more than a regular toad. But sometimes we believe things that just aren’t true, even about ourselves, and that is Cane’s situation. And now you have a better idea why Cane really loves hearing his own voice, and why Mac is not able to comment on Cane’s ridiculous conclusions about his being a toad.

And so, Cane, swelling to his full prideful height of nearly four inches, launches into his investigation of this newly discovered species of kangaroo-toad, and leaves Mac silently gaping as he asks, “WWWWelllllll, how high can kangaroo-toads jump?”

Mac, looking down at a very squishy, puffy mass of flubbery toadiness, cannot resist the pull of this question, because he is a very good leaper, and he loves telling people about it. And so, confused as he is by this curious toad, he is suddenly overcome by a temptation to show off his jumping skills. He gathers his strength and leaps high into the air, he yells out loudly, “THIS HIGH!!!!” kangaroos have very powerful legs, and they can jump very high generally. And Mac, as we know, is an exceptionally good leaper, even for kangaroos. So, when he leaps, often without looking where he’s leaping to, he leaps very high.

Cane is very impressed, though he doesn’t want Mac to know it. Instead, he says, “WWWWelllllll, that is a decent leap, to be sure, but I’ve seen better. We will need to get a good solid measurement to know whether it is passable. So, WWWWelllllll, you’ll need to do it again. And this time it will need to be to a place that we can measure.”

Mac, who loves this challenge, quickly agrees, and says, “That’s a great idea. I’ll leap onto this wall, right here.” And as he says it, he bounds up again in the direction of the wall.

From Cane’s view, Mac clears the wall with an objectively impressive leap, confirming that he is right about Mac, “He is indeed a toad just as I thought. At least that is settled,” he thinks triumphantly. But then as Cane is watching Mac leap, expecting him to land on the top of the wall, he sees Mac continue falling through the top of it; this is very surprising to Cane who is learning all sorts of amazing things about kangaroo-toads.

Mac, on the other hand, is not surprised because the moment he leaps up expecting to land on top of the wall, he sees that it is not a wall, but a pit. In the bottom of the pit there are sharp jagged rocks. Mac falls to the bottom of the pit, and, landing hard on his heel, lets out a second yelp that is much more urgent than his first.

Your Brother’s Keeper

A few moments later, Mica bounds around the corner and stops short seeing a large, unsophisticated toad staring up at a wall with a surprised look on his face.

Cane is overwhelmed. Only a minute ago he didn’t know that kangaroo-toads existed and now the only one he’s ever met has disappeared into a wall and a second one has appeared out of nowhere. So, Cane attempting to maintain his ere of calmness, turns toward this new guest and says, “WWWWelllllll, I see I’m going to need to speak with Mr. Heetderks about some new guests he’s invited to WorldWonder. I have been very clear on many occasions that he is to run his invitations by me. Why, I’ve heard that he’s invited a snake into WorldWonder. No, this is too much. And another thing…”

Mica, forgetting her manners in her desire to find her brother, interrupts the toad’s speech and says, “I’m trying to find my brother, Mac, who came this way. Have you seen him?”

“Your brother?” Cane questions indignantly. “WWWWelllllll, shouldn’t you keep up with your brother rather than expecting me to do it? I am not your brother’s keeper. But, as it were, I was just speaking with a rather large toad who looks like you and, in fact, he just leapt straight over this wall and disappeared. I was about to leap up after him to see what’s become of him, but WWWWelllllll, since he’s your brother perhaps you’d like to do it. You seem eager to find him and, for my part, I would like to see if all kangaroo-toads have impressive leaping abilities. I, of course, could easily

leap up to the top of this wall if I wanted, because I’m a toad and we are great leapers, but WWWWelllllll, I only just met the two of you and it doesn’t seem proper to...”

“But what’s up there?” Mica interrupts, feeling confused and annoyed by the strange toad’s ramblings.

“WWWWelllllll, I expect you’ll find your brother,” Cane responds in a huff.

Mica, unlike her brother does not leap without looking, so she wisely turns away from the toad and yells up at the top of the wall, “Mac, are you up there?”

From over the wall, she hears Mac’s voice, “Yeah, I’m down in this pit.”

Somewhat relieved, Mica asks, “Are you okay?”

“I hurt my foot. I don’t think I can get out,” he says with a little strain in his voice.

Mica rapidly hops around the wall hoping to find an easy way up, only to discover that this wall is perfectly round with no steps. So, having learned what she needs to know, she gathers her strength and leaps to the top of the wall being careful to keep toward the edge.

Out of the Ashes

Just then, she hears the toad’s feet slapping the stones as he retreats to the cover of the ferns saying, “CRRRRROAKKK!!” She hardly has time to wonder why the toad is leaving when she is distracted by Mr. Heetderks appearing on the path.

Mr. Heetderks walks over and peers into the firepit and says, “Well, Mac, I might have done a better job of introducing you to all the different exciting spaces in WorldWonder if you hadn’t been so fast bolting out of that crate.” And at that he burst into a big, huge laugh. Mica notices for the first time how Mac is covered in ashes and looks quite silly down in the pit.

“But I guess,” Mr. Heetderks continues, “The peacocks are quite popular with our guests so it doesn’t surprise me that you would want to chase them. I should have thought through that before I let you out of your crate.”

As he is speaking, he reaches down to pick up Mac who is actively trying to get away. Mr. Heetderks notices Mac favoring his right foot and comments compassionately, “I see you’ve hurt your foot. WorldWonder can be a dangerous place if you don’t know the right ways to go.” He eyes Mac with a look that isn’t quite a rebuke, it is more of a knowing look. Finally, he says, “Well, let’s get you inside. I don’t think you’ll be able to use that foot for a few days.” Just then he catches hold of Mac, and, drawing him out of the pit he turns and begins walking back toward the Nature Center with Mac pressed tightly to his chest. He murmurs under his breath, “I think I may need to keep a closer on eye on you, little Mac.”

Moments later, Mr. Heetderks stops and turns back to Mica who is still standing on the firepit wall and says, “Come on Mica, you don’t need to stay up there, I think. You can come back with me. After we get your brother settled, I can give you the tour around WorldWonder.”

Mica hesitates. So much has happened in just a few minutes of being in WorldWonder and her heart is still racing a little from all the excitement. Still, there is something about Mr. Heetderks’ request that draws her down off the wall to follow him. From behind her she hears a croaky voice say from out of the shadows, “WWWWelllllll, I’ll need to catch Mr. Heetderks later, he’ll want to hear what I’ve got to say about these new toads he’s brought in here. If he…” Mica passes just out of hearing of that toad’s speech, and she is relieved. He doesn’t seem particularly dangerous, but he isn’t the kind of creature Mica likes to be around.

Mica is beginning to think that maybe WorldWonder is going to be a very different kind of place. She hasn’t been here for fifteen minutes and already she is meeting strange new animals and rescuing her brother from a pit. She doesn’t quite know what to think of this place. Her mind wanders back to what Mr. Heetderks had just said, “WorldWonder can be a dangerous place if you don’t know the right ways to go.”

Mica falls behind Mr. Heetderks’ large steps. Noticing this, she picks up her speed and from way up in the tree behind her hears a startling voice say, “SQUAAAWCK!” She risks a quick glance back over her shoulder and sees the large scary bird peering down at her and thinks, “It certainly is dangerous.”

Bruised Heel and a Suspicious Request

ooking out from under the hollowed-out tree stump, Doc, a large Burmese python, watches. Mr. Heetderks carries a strange animal into the Nature Center. A second one that looks similar follows behind.

“Ssso, you’ve brought me new friendsss,” he whispers to himself as he slithers out from under the stump. Curving around a branch he ascends to the top, getting a better look.

“What are thessse?” Doc wonders. The smaller one is half hopping, half walking behind Mr. Heetderks and looking quite overwhelmed. The other one is being held in Mr. Heetderks arms and seems to be hurt in some way and is also covered in, “What is that, ash?” Doc thinks. He continues to watch closely as Mr. Heetderks moves across the room in his direction.

“Oh, hey there Doc!” Mr. Heetderks says, noticing the snake is out of his hiding place. “I’ve brought some new friends to WorldWonder and this one was kind enough to find the bottom of the firepit. I think he’s got a bruised heel and will need a few days to recover. Would you mind keeping an eye on him for me until he’s fully recovered?”

Mr. Heetderks places Mac gently into a crate sitting beside Doc’s tank and moves toward the back of the room where he grabs a bag of wood shavings.

Just then, Mac looks up from where he’s been placed in the crate and sees Doc, curling himself against the glass. Startled, he jumps back, and lands on his injured foot, whimpering.

“Be careful there, little guy,” Doc suggests distractedly, his long, forked tongue tasting the air. “You’ll need to be exssstra careful with that foot if you expect to get better soon.” A look of genuine surprise comes on Mac’s face, replacing the look of fear and disgust he’d been wearing from the shock of seeing the large snake so close.

Doc’s voice, being very smooth, has a strange effect on impressionable creatures. If you don’t really listen closely to what he’s saying or think very clearly about what he might be meaning, he can seem very wise and persuasive.

This is how Doc has gotten so big. He uses his subtle gift of persuasion to get others (most especially small rodents, frogs and, his favorite, toads) to do things he wants them to do (i.e., come close enough for him to eat them).

Before he was brought to WorldWonder by Mr. Heetderks, he was living in the Everglades. He would lie concealed near a pool of water and lazily wait. Eventually, a mouse, mole, or a naïve frog or toad would come by.

“Excuse me?” Doc would say from his hiding place, being careful not to reveal himself. “Could you help me with sssomething?”

Of course, most mice, moles, frogs, and toads are very eager to be helpful. So, Doc discovered, this was an excellent way to capture their attention. They would always pause, trying to decide whether this silky-smooth voice was dangerous. They would usually hang back at first. That’s when Doc’s cunning would really reveal itself, “I wasss just thinking that I needed someone very ssssmall to help me retrieve my favorite pebble from inside this hole, but there are so many sssnakes around I didn’t think anyone small would come by today. I was very sssad because this is my favorite pebble. Do you think you could help me?” He would ask.

Most unwary passersby would never think that a snake would warn them about snakes. But Doc is a liar. He says whatever he feels he needs to say to get what he wants, which is always food. He’s always hungry! And his only desire is to catch his next meal. So, to Doc, every creature he meets is either food or a means to get food. And this is the snake that Mac is now trapped beside even as Mr. Heetderks reappears with wood shavings in hand.

Missing Momma

“There you go, Mac,” Mr. Heetderks says dumping wood shavings into the crate as Mac awkwardly tries to avoid getting covered by them. “You won’t need to be here long, but while you’re here, let’s make you as comfortable as possible. I’ll make sure you have everything you need, food, water, and…” he continues with a knowing grin spreading across his face, “a bath! That heel of yours will be good for stomping again in a few days.”

At that, Mr. Heetderks walks over and throws open a side door and heads outside.

Mica, who feels largely unnoticed, finds a spot on the floor beside Mac’s crate. She huddles very close to the wood trying to make the very large and foreign space she’s in feel a little smaller. She sees Mac through the gap between the wooden slats, and calls quietly to him, “Mac, what is this place?”

Mac jumps again. And then howls as he lands on his heel, “Owwww!” Then turning to Mica says, “You scared me!”

“Sorry.” She says, “I thought you knew I was here.” She responds sulkily. “Where are we anyway?” she asks after a few seconds.

“I don’t know, but I don’t like this place,” he says, looking towards Doc, whose tongue is very actively tasting the air, like a sticky antenna capturing each of their words as they drift by. Mac turns back to Mica seemingly satisfied that the snake is not paying attention and says in a whisper, “I don’t want to stay here.”

The snake shifts slightly. His head is now just a bit closer to them, though his eyes are still perfectly disinterested. There is a long pause as Mac works his way around his crate trying to see through the slats and finally, he whispers, “I can’t see anything from in here, look around and see where we are?” A second later he adds, “and where’s Dad & Momma?”

Mica, who was still suspiciously staring at the snake is shocked back to the present at the mention of her Momma. Though it has only been 20 minutes since she was carried away from her pouch, she has never been this far away from her Momma for so long and the mention of her floods Mica with fear and emotion. Looking like she is about to cry she says, “I don’t know where they are.”

“Oh, none of that Mica,” Mac says reproachfully, even though he feels the same way. “Go look around and see where we are,” he adds quickly, so as not to be too affected by Mica’s emotions. Mica, still feeling sad, turns away from the crate and looks out at the big space. And almost as if the whole thing comes into focus for the first time, sees that she is in a huge room with very large windows that go from the floor to the ceiling. There are cages and glass tanks all around the room filled with strange and exotic animals. There are even strange animals sticking through the walls and hanging from the ceiling on strings. It is all very overwhelming and strange. She slowly moves across the floor toward…nowhere in particular. And, as she moves away from Mac, she hears a quiet, “hisssss.” She doesn’t bother to look back knowing exactly what made that sound and not wanting to look at it again!

The Suspicious Request

Doc watches as Mica tentatively moves away from the crate, and just as he feels she is out of earshot slides through his knotty body releasing a breathy hiss. As he comes around to face Mac, he says, “Mac, is it? Niccce to meet you, sir.”

Mac does not answer at once but instead eyes the snake suspiciously.

“When someone says nice to meet you, the polite thing to sssay in response is, ‘nice to meet you too.’ I sssee that in addition to keeping an eye on you as Mr. Heetderks has asked, I will also need to tutor you in common decency. No worries, it will be my pleasure. Let’s try it again, shall we? Mac, is it? Nice to meet you sssir.”

At this, Mac says, “N, nice to meet you too, Mr., uh…”

“Doc. You may call me Doc. Or Mister Doc if you prefer,” he says with a sinister chuckle. “I do enjoy young and polite,” he pauses and looks at Mac questioningly. “What are you exactly? You leap well if you jumped into the firepit, but you’re not a toad, for I am very familiar with toads.”

Feeling a bit flattered by Doc noticing his leaping abilities, Mac forgets, rather unwisely, to be a little nervous and says, “I’m a kangaroo, not a toad! We are much better leapers than toads. In fact, I just met a toad out there,” he continues, waving his hand in the direction of WorldWonder, “and, that’s how I ended up in the pit. I was showing that toad how high I can leap, and I didn’t see the hole in that wall, and I fell and hurt my foot, see.” He holds his foot up for Doc to inspect.

Doc’s eyes flash with interest as he sizes up Mac’s foot and then disappointedly adds, “Yes, let me sssee that foot,” gliding to be closer to Mac. “That will be Cane.” Doc begins, as he does his best to appear interested in inspecting Mac’s foot. “He isss a very good friend of mine. Well, he was, that is, until Mr. Heetderks put me in this tank. Don’t get me wrong, it is a very nice home, but it keeps me from seeing my good friends, like Cane, as often as I would prefer.” He pauses, and looks off longingly toward WorldWonder, and then starts again as if he’s just remembering something exciting, “Oh! ssspeaking of that, perhaps you can help me. When you get better, of course?” he adds, swinging his head in a way that suggests Mac can put his foot down.

“Why don’t you just go see him?” Mac asks innocently.

“Well, that would be niccce,” Doc says mournfully. “But,” he continues, “I am quite fond of my home. And besides, WorldWonder is ssso large it is quite hard to find someone you’re looking for when you’re in it. No, it will be much better if Cane comes to visit me here. Perhapsss, you can mention it to him?”

“Oh, sure! I guess?”

“Yesss, but now that I’m thinking of it, maybe it should be a surprissse, since he’s such a great friend. Don’t tell him it’s me who wants to see him, tell him…” at this point Doc pauses ever so slightly thinking what he might say, then continues confidently, “…tell him Mr. Heetderks needs his help with sssomething. Cane is very helpful; he will come to help Mr. Heetderksss.” He says almost to himself.

“Oh, that sounds great! I love surprises. I’ll tell him.” Mac says. Just then Mr. Heetderks comes in through the side door singing to himself. Doc slides away from the glass as Mr. Heetderks walks up. “Thanks for keeping an eye on him Doc.” Mr. Heetderks says, as he looks down at Mac. “At least he’s still where I left him, that’s progress. Okay, let’s get you cleaned up,” he continues as he reaches in to grab Mac. This time, Mac doesn’t try to get away. As he is being swooped up, he catches a glimpse of Doc’s tail disappearing into his hollowed-out log. He shudders a little seeing the size of the snake but shakes it off quickly thinking, “He was really nice to me.”

“I’ve got some warm water in a basin outside.” Mr. Heetderks says interrupting Mac’s thoughts. “We’ll get you scrubbed up and dried off and then I’ll get you some food and water.”

Moments later they disappeared through the side door Mr. Heetderks had just entered. And as they pass through it, Mac thinks he hears birds outside saying, “Watch out! watch out!” Then he remembers suddenly, even as the door shuts behind him, that Mica is still inside.

Chapter 4

Cautiously Discovering Courage T

wump!” The door closes behind Mr. Heetderks and Mac as they disappear out into WorldWonder.

When she’d cautiously stepped away from the crate a few moments ago, Mica had noticed a glowing warm light on the opposite end of the room and absent-mindedly started moving toward it. She isn’t paying much attention to the details of what she is seeing and isn’t even really listening to the things around her. She is not used to figuring things out for herself.

It is in this state that she wanders by a table that has several very interesting cactuses on it. She curves back around and passes by a cabinet with glass jars filled with rare shells and coral rocks. Presently, she is standing under a skull of some large animal with huge horns, and now she is beside an aquarium with a gigantic caiman lizard. Mica is looking at these things, but she’s not really seeing them.

In Mica’s world she always just goes wherever her Momma must be. Her brother is always doing stuff and she sometimes gets caught up in it. But Mica doesn’t usually cause the activity. So, in this sea of strange things in a place she’s never been, she’s feeling very lost, a bit confused, and a lot overwhelmed, and she thinks nervously, almost in a panic, “I’m alone!”

Getting a Bird’s Eye View

Mica, as she is starting to panic a little says out loud, “What should I do now?”

But she thought she had said it in her head so, imagine her surprise when she hears this answer, “That depends on what you’ve already tried.” The unidentified voice answers.

Cautiously, Mica turns around only to discover a huge parrot sitting way up on a perch.

Parrots are much like peacocks in that they are rather aware of how beautiful they are, but parrots, unlike peacocks, are smart. If fact, if you want to get a bird’s eye view on some interesting thing, a parrot would be a great bird to ask. They do not let the fact that they are beautiful go to their heads and are often very humble creatures.

On the other hand, most parrots are rather concrete in their thinking, and they prefer to get right to the point of things. So, you’ll want to ask exactly what you want to know and not waste a lot of time going on and on. Mica, of course, does not know any of this about parrots.

The parrot continues as parrots often will when being asked for advice, by saying, “if you have just tried climbing around with your beak, for example, and that is not accomplishing all that you were hoping, then perhaps you can consider sitting and thinking for a moment. Or taking off and flying.”

At this he cocked his head to the side and kind of leaned over a bit to stare directly at Mica with his blue eye. “What you should do now always comes after what you’ve already tried. So, ‘what have you tried?’” He repeats.

“What do you mean?” Mica asks, still trying to catch up to the fact that she is somehow in the middle of a conversation with a parrot she doesn’t know.

“Mean?” it repeats. “One question at a time, please.” The parrot responds curtly. “You will weigh down the situation before it gets off the perch if you ask a second question before you answer the first. First, let’s figure out, what have you tried already?”

Mica, being thoroughly confused, doesn’t know how to respond but manages to say, “I’ve just come from my brother’s crate, but…”

“Good!” the parrot interrupts enthusiastically. “From his crate.” He repeats. “And how is that?” he asks.

“Uhhh?” Mica questions, “I don’t know what you want me to say?”

“What I want…” he repeats. “But that seems to be the problem then doesn’t it. I know what I want, but that’s not what you were asking. Do you want to know what I want, or do you want to know what you should do?” He pauses to see if Mica wants to choose one or the other. Seeing that she is not sure he proceeds, “If you want to know what I want, I’ll tell you. I want to help you know what to do. But that doesn’t help you know what to do, it only helps you know what I want. To help you know what you should do, you will have to know what you want.”

Mica has no idea what this bird is talking about, and she starts panicking and trying to find an excuse to end the conversation when she blurts out, “I don’t know what I want to do.”

“Don’t know. Don’t know.” He says, “but who does know then?” he asks. Not in a mean way, he seems genuinely curious.

“I don’t know.” Mica says, but then realizing that this is just going to trap her back in the same place she’s been stuck with this parrot already she quickly says, “I mean, I should know, but I guess I need to think about it.”

“Think about it.” He repeats, “But, that’s your answer.” He continues. “The next thing you should do is think about what you want.”

“Think about what I want…” Mica repeats, not realizing that she is starting to speak very much like a parrot, repeating things all the time. “Yes, that’s true.” Mica says, pronouncing each word slowly, realizing that this is the answer to her question.

She is on the other side of this room because Mac told her she needed to look around. She didn’t want to look around, she wanted to stay close to him; to stay safe. But she often feels she needs to do what he asks and now here she is, alone, and uncertain of what to do next.

Thinking through all of this, it occurs to Mica to ask the parrot another question, only this time she asks with a little more confidence, “I would like to know more about where I am. What is this place?”

“This place,” the parrot begins, “…is the Nature Center.”

“Oh!” Mica says, feeling unsatisfied with that answer. Knowing what this place is called isn’t really what she wants to know, she realizes. Then she wonders, “What do I want to know about this place? It is a big place with lots of things I’ve never seen before.” She stops to look around and consider what she’s looking at.

At first, she sees mostly table and chair legs since she’s not very big. Then, as she looks a little longer, she sees jars filled with strange things on bookshelves nearby. She turns slowly around and sees, way across the room, the tank where Doc is now hiding and then she sees how close it is to the crate where Mac is staying.

She sees several other tanks and cages with other creatures in them. There are lots of decorations on the walls, and interesting things all over the counters. Finally, she turns back around to face the Parrot’s perch and realizes that the whole back wall is windows. As she looks past her reflection, she sees that she is standing only a few feet from where Mr. Heetderks had put her down to find her brother. Suddenly, this room, even though it is very large to her, is not so large as she thought, and she decides not to be afraid. Being emboldened a little by this realization she looks up at the parrot and asks, “What do people normally do in the Nature Center?”

“Do in the Nature Center?” He says, “mostly, they discover things, just like you’re doing now.” And then he winked at her.

After being momentarily distracted by this winking parrot, Mica feels excitement welling up inside. Looking around the room again she thinks, “I don’t know anything about this place, where do I start?” As she begins to feel overwhelmed a thought pops into her head. It’s Mr. Heetderks’ voice from when she was standing on the firepit wall. He says, “Come on Mica, you don’t need to stay on

that firepit wall anymore, I think. You can come back with me. After we get your brother settled, I can give you that tour around WorldWonder.”

Mica realizes that Mr. Heetderks already promised to help her discover this place. “How did he know she would want that?” she wonders. It seems almost magical that his words come to her just when she needs them. Especially since, when he’d said them to her the first time, she hadn’t even understood what he meant.

At the time, stressed as she was over her brother’s fall and worried about being separated from her Momma, getting a tour around this big, unknown place was the last thing she wanted. But now things are different. Now, she does want to discover more about this place. Suddenly, instead of being overwhelmed, she’s excited for Mr. Heetderks to come back. She takes another quick look around and realizes that this place is a very exciting place to discover when you want to begin discovering things.

Resolving to be ready when he does return, she begins planning where she’ll be waiting for him.

As she turns to make her way back across the room to where Mac’s crate is, she remembers she never thanked the parrot. So, she looks up and says, “Thank you, you have been very helpful.”

“Very helpful.” He repeats. “Yes, very helpful,” he says, thoughtfully, “He tells all of us when we come here to be helpful. Most of us do. Not all, but most.” Then, without warning, he leaps from the perch and flies across the room and lands on top of a cage next to another parrot. They begin chattering to each other and forget all about Mica.

Mica watches the parrots for a second and then thinks to herself, “I will place myself right inside the door where Mr. Heetderks will come in so I can’t miss him.”

With that she begins moving much less cautiously back toward the door on the other side of the room. And as she walks across the room this time, she sees all the interesting and strange things in the Nature Center. Leaving her more curious and courageous than ever.

Chapter 5

Rubber Boots and Bubbles

Mac can hardly remember a time when he was less happy than he is right now. Wet, covered in a strange smell (he thought it was strange anyway, the rest of us call it soap), and unable to hop on his bruised heel. Mr. Heetderks, on the other hand seems pleased as he hoists Mac out of the basin, towel in hand, and says, “There we go! Finally got all that soot out. Had to scrub you good, didn’t we?” he asks, seeming to notice Mac’s distress.

In a comforting tone, Mr. Heetderks says, “Now, let’s get you dried off and back inside. I promised you a chance to rest your foot, and so far, we’ve just been leaping from one thing to the next.”

He finishes drying Mac off with the towel and turns to walk toward the Nature Center. Reaching toward the door handle he says, “You’ll be up and running in no time.”

Mica had positioned herself just inside the door. To pass the time while she waits, she looks at all the interesting things in the room, like the gigantic skull on the bookshelf beside her. She doesn’t have any idea what it is, otherwise, she might be more nervous than she is. Instead, she is only very interested to hear from Mr. Heetderks about all the strange things.

And just as she is thinking this, she sees him approaching the door, carrying Mac swaddled in a towel. She can’t help hopping in excitement as the door swings open.

“Well, hello there, Mica.” He says with a joy-filled chuckle. “It’s good to see you, too.”

She’s a little embarrassed at the attention, but it quickly fades as Mr. Heetderks walks past her back toward the crate by Doc’s tank and begins lowering Mac into place on the sawdust.

She follows them for a few hops and then pauses and waits, expecting for Mr. Heetderks to turn to her any second.

She hears him say quietly to Mac, “There you go. Stay here and rest, we should be able to get you out of here in a couple days.” Mica realizes Mac must have fallen asleep, which is exactly what happened. In all the stress of the past forty minutes he had finally felt calm and comfortable wrapped in a warm towel and swaying in Mr. Heetderks steps and drifted off to sleep.

Mr. Heetderks places Mac quietly in the bottom of the crate and then, without turning around, began walking toward the far end of the room. Mica feels a sudden shock thinking for a second that Mr. Heetderks has forgotten her, but she hardly has any time to be disappointed before he looks back mid-stride and says with a quiet smile, “The tour starts this way.” And gestures with his hand for her to follow.

Flooded with relief and joy, she follows him without a hint of hesitation.

Back to the Gate

Mr. Heetderks sits on a nearby chair and unlaces his shoes. Sitting beside him are two brown boots that to Mica, who only stands about 9 inches off the ground, are positively humongous. She nervously hops out of the way as the first boot swoops past her and is pulled on by Mr. Heetderks. Now the second one is on, and Mr. Heetderks stands to move toward the door.

He says quietly, “It’s always a good idea to put your boots on when you’re heading out on a tour, you never know when you’ll need to step into the pond or get in with the goats. Things can get a little messy in WorldWonder if you’re not wearing a good pair of boots. But don’t let me get ahead of myself, let’s start at the beginning.”

And with that he sweeps open the door and waves for Mica to follow him. They step outside and Mica discovers they are right back where the whole adventure started an hour ago. Seeing the crates they came in, she looks around with anticipation expecting to see her momma standing nearby. But her momma is nowhere to be seen. The second crate that her dad and Mac arrived in is also empty. Mica begins to feel a little homesick. She’s never been away from her Momma for more than a few minutes, and she has always been able to see her even while she was exploring before. But this is different, she doesn’t even know where her momma is.

Mr. Heetderks breaks the silence, “Don’t worry Mica, I’ll take you to Momma and Dad at the end of the tour. We’ve got them set up in a nice spot at the back of WorldWonder and they’re excited to see you. But we better get going, it’s almost 2:00 p.m. and I think we can expect a heavy rain soon.”

Mica feels comforted and it doesn’t even register with her this time that Mr. Heetderks knows exactly what she’s thinking about.

“Now,” he continues as he walks past the empty crates toward the entrance gate, “This is the front gate of WorldWonder,” he says. “We always leave it open because we love to have guests come in, but that means you could easily go out. That road out there,” He says, pointing to a road ten feet away, “is very close and can be very dangerous for someone as small as you.” He finishes his thought and then turns and walks back into WorldWonder.

“SQUAWKKK!” Mica hears from just behind her. She turns back and sees a peacock sitting in her nest on top of a large stone just outside the gate. The peacock is peering down at her suspiciously. She turns and hops after Mr. Heetderks, leaving this large, suspicious peacock in peace, and decides that she is not interested in going out of the gate.

Back to the Beginning

By the time Mica catches up to Mr. Heetderks he has rounded the corner and is standing right where they had been standing when he let her down to run after her brother. He looks down at her to say something, but then seems to change his mind mid-thought and says, “Why, Mica, you’re not the same, cautious little kangaroo I set down here an hour ago. You’ve grown!” He pauses and smiles down at her with a kind and genuine face. Mica straightens her back, standing a little taller.

Mr. Heetderks begins again shortly, “This seems like the perfect place to start our tour, or rather a perfect place to restart it, only this time, we’ll skip the firepit, you’ve already discovered that part.” At this he steps out from under the awning and starts making his way toward the pond.

For the next hour, Mr. Heetderks walks with Mica through WorldWonder teaching her about the things they come across. There is so much to learn and so many things to see and do that Mica hardly notices the time passing. Sometimes she is nearly running to keep up, and other times she is being held by Mr. Heetderks. Some things he describes as they are walking by, and Mica doesn’t even see what he is describing before they have passed it. Other times they stop and watch together for several minutes as some mysterious and wonderful thing happens; like beautiful fish as big as Mica eating pellets Mr. Heetderks has just produced from his pocket, or a plant smaller than Mica’s toe with lots of tiny leaves like a fern that collapse on themselves after they have been brushed by Mr. Heetderks finger. They tour through huge wooden structures with towering poles and around and over stumps and logs that swing and tip as they walk across them.

Kids, Bubbles and Mosquitos

At one point, Mica sits on a platform under the slanted grass roof of a hut, while Mr. Heetderks talks with a large group of children who are walking through the Nature Center with their teacher.

“Well, we use the bubbles to scare the mosquitos away.” He says in response to a small, excitable young boy’s question.

“But why do mosquitos even exist?” one particularly insightful girl shouts above the din.

“It’s a good question,” he says, swatting mosquitos away from his face, “They can be very difficult to deal with. But lots of things we don’t understand or even like have important purposes to play in WorldWonder.” He concludes. The girl seems skeptical as she squishes a mosquito that has landed on the back of her hand.

Of course, Mica isn’t bothered by the mosquitos because she has long fur, so she doesn’t see what the fuss is all about. And she also doesn’t know what bubbles are. Just then a bubble drifts down to where she is sitting and pops right in front of her nose. She leaps back in fright causing the crowd of children to squeal with delight. Many of the children press in to get closer to Mica, several of them ask at the same time, “Can we pet her?”

They are all very interested in Mica, but Mr. Heetderks explains that Mica is still young and not ready to be petted yet. Many of the kids look disappointed at his news even though some continue inching toward her with outstretched squiggly fingers.

Mica is feeling much bolder now than she had when she stepped out of her momma’s pouch this morning. However, she is grateful for Mr. Heetderks’ protection. “These kids are so huge,” she thinks as she positions herself, so Mr. Heetderks is standing between her and the small group of kids trying to sneak by him. She is only about nine inches tall after all.

Eventually the kids disperse and disappear around a corner with their teacher who leads them down the path and out of WorldWonder. “Well,” Mr. Heetderks says breathlessly, “we have just one more stop before I take you to your parents.” And with that he picked Mica up and started down the path.

Tommy, Stanley, and the Goats

As they round the corner Mica sees the firepit off to her right but, as promised, Mr. Heetderks walks right past it and doesn’t even mention it. Up ahead, Mica sees a bunch of wooden pillars sticking up out of the ground. Then suddenly she feels herself going up steps. She refocuses her attention back to the path in front of her only to discover that Mr. Heetderks is carrying her across the top of the pillars. On either side of her, there is a drop down into an enclosure. She scans the area and sees a bunch of rocks, at least she thinks they are rocks until one of them moves. It extends its head and long neck up in their direction. It takes her a moment to realize that this “rock” is a turtle.

“That’s Tommy. I think you’d really enjoy spending time with him. He went on a big adventure of his own last year and I’m sure he’d tell you all about it.” Mr. Heetderks says without pausing. They cross the pillars and start down the other side. Mica looks back at Tommy as he returns to nibbling on some lettuce in his bowl.

Suddenly Mica sees a small red animal with a fluffy tail leap from the far wall into the enclosure. It runs across the open space to Tommy’s bowl, grabs a large piece of lettuce right out of Tommy’s mouth, and takes off running back in the opposite direction. It leaps up onto the wall and disappears over it. Mica thinks she hears the tortoise say, “Stanley!” but she isn’t sure.

Just then Mr. Heetderks turns the corner, and the scene is hidden from view. Mica doesn’t know what to make of the whole thing, but something about it doesn’t seem right to her. She can’t quite put her finger on why, but she feels very bad for that turtle and decides she needs to investigate this situation as soon as possible.

Chapter 6

Samuel, King, and a Happy Reunion M

ica, still recovering from the shock of seeing a squirrel steal a piece of lettuce right out of the mouth of a tortoise named Tommy, is being carried by Mr. Heetderks as they round a corner and move away from the tortoise enclosure. They are almost at the end of their tour and the clouds are getting heavy in the sky. It appears it will rain soon.

Mica turns as she hears in a very high pitched, whiny voice say, “Mwaaaahh!!” There is a very large goat leaning up against the fence where Mr. Heetderks finally stops.

“Yes, yes, that’s why I’m here. I know it’s time for you to eat,” he says, answering the goat. He reaches out with his free hand and unlatches a gate and then, making sure he doesn’t allow the excited goat to get out, steps through the gate into the fenced area.

He sets Mica down saying, “Why don’t you spend some time with Samuel while I get his food.” Before Mica can object, she’s on the ground beside a very large and hairy animal who is now looking down at her through slightly crossed eyes. Mr. Heetderks is already five steps away.

“We’ve been waiting for you,” Samuel says.

His voice is not at all what Mica expects. Unlike his “Mwaaaahh” from earlier, this voice is very low and soothing. It almost sounds like singing.

“Mr. Heetderks has been excited to have you here, he’s been planning it for a while.” He continues, “How has your time been so far? If I believe the reports I’m hearing, you’ve had an exciting first day,” he looks at Mica expectantly.

Mica doesn’t know how to respond and sits with her mouth open waiting for something to come out. Nothing does. Samuel politely continues not wanting to put too much pressure on her.

“I would be overwhelmed too, coming to a new place so far from home,” he says, his beard wiggling back and forth. “Have you made new friends yet?” he asks, trying to help Mica along in the conversation.

The wise old goat waits while Mica squirms a little and then after a few beats continues. “Well, don’t worry, there are lots of friends to be made in WorldWonder. And look, here comes my son, King. I think you may get along nicely with him.”

As he says this a small white goat with a round belly waddles up and flops down beside Mica, but not too close. He flicks his eyes in her direction and then back quickly. Then he turns his head a little, but only enough so he is still able to see her out of the corner of his eye.

“King, this is our new friend, Mica,” his dad says casually. “She’s the one that Cane says can leap all the way to the top of the firepit wall without falling into the pit. Can you believe someone so small can jump so high?” as he is saying this, he nudges King with his hoof a little.

“Yeah, that’s really cool!” King says wagging his tail slightly.

Mica is embarrassed by the attention and isn’t sure how they know about the firepit. “Who is Cane?” she is wondering to herself, “and how does he know about the firepit?” Cane, of course, is the toad that she was talking with just before she leaped onto the firepit wall. But Mica never knew his name, only that he was a long-winded toad causing delays while she was trying to find her brother.

“I can jump pretty good too,” King says shyly, interrupting Mica’s thoughts. As he says this, he shifts a little more in her direction. “I can jump all the way to the shelf now, wanna see?” he says with a hint of eagerness in his voice.

Mica hesitates and then remembering her manners says, “Yes, please.”

Samuel laughs, apparently finding Mica’s politeness amusing, and says, “Well, that settles it King, now you must show her. The lady said ‘please.’” He pushes King again with his hoof and says, “Go ahead, you can show her around.”

King is very pleased with this suggestion so, wobbling to his feet, he starts trotting over to the structure in the back of the fenced area. Mica looks up at Samuel whose beard is swinging back and forth from his chuckling, and then turns and reluctantly follows behind King.

The High Door

Mica watches as King trots into his house. The door of the house faces in such a way that, for a second, he disappears around a corner. As she turns the corner herself, she sees a large opening in the wall. Even though it’s cloudy and about to rain, the inside of the house still seems very dark. She hops forward one step, then another until she’s standing in the shadow of the doorway. At first, she doesn’t see King anywhere and then, from her left, King says, “I couldn’t get up here until two days ago.”

Mica looks and as her eyes adjust to the darker room begins to see the outline of the little goat about a foot off the ground on a platform that is sticking out of the wall. She notices there are several other platforms going up to the right. They are positioned to be steps going up to a small door exiting to the outside at the top of the wall. The soft, inviting light is streaming in from outside.

“Can you jump up here too?” King asks, invitingly, bringing Mica’s attention back to him.

Mica hesitates and says after a second, “Yeah, I think so.” Then after staring at the platform for a moment adds, “Is it safe?”

King responds by jumping up and down on the platform, in quite an uncoordinated and silly way, stomping his hoofs and making hollow thunk, thunk, thunk sounds on the boards. He says, “Yeah, my dad comes up here too. It’s the only way he can get to the roof to see WorldWonder. He likes to go up there to keep watch. I can’t get up there yet, but dad says if I keep practicing, I’ll be able to soon.”

“Okay,” Mica says, half convinced and starts moving toward the first platform.

“There’s plenty of room,” King adds as she gets closer. “If you can jump to the top of the firepit, you can definitely get up here,” he offers encouragingly.

Mica wrinkles up her face a little and says, “How do you know about that?”

“Know about what?”

“The firepit,” Mica says. “How do you know that I jumped to the top of the firepit?”

“Cane told my dad,” King offers curtly.

“Whose Cane?” Mica asks as she positions herself at the base of the platform, preparing to leap up.

“He’s a toad,” King says.

“Oh,” Mica thinks as she remembers the toad by the firepit that was going on-and-on while she was trying to find Mac. She gathers herself for a leap.

THWUMP!

Mica lands effortlessly beside King on the first platform.

“WHOA!”King exclaims with wide eyes, “How’d you do that?”

Mica is shocked and looks around for a second, not sure what King is talking about. Mica is a very humble kangaroo, and she doesn’t really think about how good of a leaper she is. When she needs to leap, she just leaps. But to small goats who are learning to leap like King, she leaps very well.

“You just jumped high. How do you do that?” King asks.

“I don’t know, I just…” Mica says shyly, not finishing her sentence.

King doesn’t mind that she doesn’t finish her sentence and says after a second, “Do you think you can get all the way to the door?” as he looks up in that direction. “My dad says he loves it up there.”

“I don’t know…” Mica says, reluctantly as she struggles with the idea. She is curious and would love to see where that door goes. But she’s a very young kangaroo and it has already been a very exciting day.

King looks like he is about to convince her to try, when they both turn toward the sound of Mr. Heetderks voice calling in from outside. He is just arriving back with food for the goats and is calling King and Mica to come.

King doesn’t hesitate. He jumps down and trots with his large belly swinging back and forth out the door, pausing briefly to look back and call to Mica, “Come on, Mica, it’s time to eat.” King turns and disappears back out the door.

Mica looks after him for a second smiling. Then she turns and looks up at the high door. It appears for a second like she is about to leap all the way to the top of the steps and out. Then, she drops her shoulders, relaxes her muscles, and turns back and hops to the ground. A second later she is back outside squinting in the relative brightness and making her way back to the entrance of the goat enclosure.

Momma

As Mica’s eyes adjust to being outside again, she notices that there are more animals with Mr. Heetderks than she expects. She sees King closest to her and just beyond him she sees Samuel standing by a food bowl waiting patiently. Beyond that she sees Mr. Heetderks standing with a big bag in his hand. He’s leaning on the front gate but to his left there are two other animals.

She looks and blinks but doesn’t do anything at first. Finally, her Momma breaks the silence and says, “Hello Mica.”

Mica’s shock at seeing her parents breaks and she yells as she leaps over to her, “MOMMA!”

All the craziness of the past couple hours floods back to her in a wave of emotion. Arriving in a strange place, being picked up for the first time by Mr. Heetderks, losing her brother, finding him only to discover that he is hurt, being forgotten inside the Nature Center, seeing a big scary snake, getting lost, having a conversation with a parrot, discovering that she is curious, finding the courage to explore, going on tour with Mr. Heetderks, the crowds of loud, excited kids, meeting Samuel and King, seeing the high door and all of it. She’s overwhelmed and realizes in a second how much she has missed her momma and dad.

“Yes, it’s been a long time hasn’t it,” Momma says as she hugs Mica close.

Mica’s dad says, “Samuel has been telling us all about your adventures, you’ve been very brave.” As he is saying this, he thumps his tail on the sawdust; something he does when he’s happy. Mica hops over and nuzzles her nose against his leg.

Just then, Mica’s momma leans toward her in the way she always leans when she is expecting Mica to leap into her pouch. Mica instinctively starts toward her but then stops.

She looks up at Momma who is looking back expectantly. Momma seems to understand and leans away ever so slightly and says with a knowing smile, “Mr. Heetderks has set us up with a nice place to stay while we’re here. Would you like to see it?”

Mica straightens up and looks at Momma and Dad feeling very big. “Yeah!” she says. And the three of them make their way to the far side of the fenced in area toward their new home just as the first huge drops of afternoon rain begin to fall.

Having a Good Belly Laugh and Losing more Lettuce

Mica was very happy to be back with her momma and dad. It had been a very busy and difficult first day in WorldWonder. So, reuniting with them and getting settled in their new home, on the back side of the goat enclosure, was a welcome change of pace. For the next couple of days nothing exciting happened. It was quiet and relaxing. Even though they were together, Mica spent very little time in her momma’s pouch, she was too busy playing with her new friend, King. Her momma and dad noticed and smiled about it but didn’t say anything.

It’s been three days since they arrived. Mac’s foot is better, and he is rejoining Mica, Momma, and Dad in their new home. Mica and King have become good friends.

Mac bounds around the corner of King’s house and bursts into the relative serenity of Mica’s comfortable new space, “MICA!”

Mica has already gotten up and eaten, but she prefers to take her time waking up, so she is not quite ready for all Mac’s energy.

“Mica, Mica, there are goats over there,” Mac says as he barrels into her. This is Mac’s usual way of showing affection.

Mica is annoyed, but also glad to see him. Still, she doesn’t like being rammed early in the morning and she says, “Owww, that hurt!”

Mac has already moved away and is currently getting attention from Momma and Dad.

King comes around the corner tentatively as Mac breaks free from Momma’s lingering affection. As King slowly approaches Mica from one side, Mac swoops in from the other and launches into a description of his abbreviated tour around WorldWonder.

“There is a huge pond with fish and Mr. Heetderks says we can’t jump across the stones, but I almost made it…but there are HUGE fish…and that toad is there just like Doc says. He says I should bring him to visit so I was jumping over to tell him, but I got wet…and Mr. Heetderks says we need to be careful climbing through the tree roots and the logs, but my foot is feeling a lot better... and did you see the tortoises?” Mac pauses to take a breath and stares at Mica with huge,

expectant eyes and then continues, “They’re not dangerous but Mr. Heetderks says they like peace and quiet…and they can’t jump at all…and did you know there are goats in here…Oh!” Mac stops as he finally notices King standing beside Mica. Finally, he says conclusively, “You’re a goat.” And then looks back and forth between King and Mica.

“I’m King,” King offers politely, after a second, and then adds, “I’m glad your foot is feeling better.”

Mac is about to say several things but each time reconsiders, “Uhhh…do you…but how…” Finally, he says, “It’s, uh, it still hurts, but I can walk and jump. I just can’t land too hard.” And then with another pause he adds, “Why is your belly so big?”

King is very surprised and doesn’t know what to say but manages to twist his face into a very funny expression. Mica, who knows Mac well, is less surprised, and when she sees King’s face, she bursts out laughing. Then she turns to Mac and says, “That’s rude Mac, you shouldn’t say things like that.”

“But it’s huge!” Mac protests, unphased by Mica’s rebuke.

Instinctively, Mica turns to investigate King’s belly and is about to defend him, when she notices that it is actually very big. She starts smiling but then sees King watching her and, embarrassed, she looks away quickly. Then King shifts his weight, apparently trying to investigate his own belly, and as he does, it pokes way out to the side.

This is too much for Mac and Mica and they both start laughing.

“What are you guys laughing about?” he asks. He looks back and forth causing his belly to flop from side to side. This only makes the situation more ridiculous and Mac and Mica double over with laughter.

King is truly confused about what they think is funny. Because King is a normally shaped goat as far as he’s concerned, and he doesn’t see anything funny about his belly. It’s just a normal goat belly.

Animals are shaped differently because they are shaped for different reasons. Goats, for example, have big bellies because they need them to be able to digest all the things they eat. Kangaroos, on the other hand, have big feet and tails because that’s what they need for leaping.

But these facts are completely lost on Mac and Mica who can hardly breathe from laughing so hard. Eventually, King starts laughing too. Unfortunately for this situation, when King laughs, he makes a funny honking noise and rocks back and forth on his legs making his belly slosh around like water in a tub and all three of them fall into a fit of laughter.

A few minutes later they are lying on the ground gasping for air. “My stomach hurts,” Mac says as he clutches his stomach.

“Me too,” King and Mica say in unison.

“I never really noticed how my belly looks,” King says as he chuckles a little to himself. “It does stick out a little, just like your feet,” he adds nonchalantly tilting his head in the direction of Mac’s feet.

Mac is not offended by this, because to kangaroos, having big feet is a source of great pride. And in celebration of King noticing, Mac rocks back onto his tail and pushes them up in the air to show them off. Normally, this would be a sign of aggression but, since King is not a kangaroo and Mac is very young, no one takes it that way.

“Why are they so big?” King asks genuinely curious.

Mac thinks for a second and then says, “For jumping, I guess.”

“Oh,” King accepts without argument. Then as he looks down at his own feet he says, “But I have small feet and I can jump all the way to the first shelf. My dad says goats are good at jumping. Why don’t I have big feet?”

None of them have a good answer for this question and the conversation moves on as Mac asks, “What shelf?” Mica speaks up, “King has steps in his house that lead to a high door. He showed me the first time

I met him. But it’s too far up for us to get to it.”

“Yeah,” King adds, “You want to see it?”

“Sure,” Mac answers, seeming very interested. And at that the three of them head off in the direction of King’s house.

It’s Not Right to Steal Lettuce

“I can get to the first shelf,” King says as they stand looking at the high door, “But I can’t get any further up.”

Of course, Mac often leaps without thinking so without any hesitation he hops to the base of the first platform. Before King can say anything else about how difficult it is, Mac gathers himself and leaps up to the first shelf. “That’s easy,” he says as he approaches the edge of the first platform and prepares to leap to the second and then does so very easily.

“WHOA!” King gasps. “That’s awesome!”

Mac moves to the edge of the second step and jumps to the third, and then the fourth and now he is on the top step. The light from the small, high door shines around him as he leans forward and looks through. He turns back to King and Mica and yells, “There’s a way out up here... come on!” And then without waiting for a response or offering to help King or Mica, he slips through the door and out into the light.

King and Mica look at each other and then back up at the door. Then King, who clearly does not like how easy Mac made it look puts a look on his face that can only mean one thing: if he can do it, I can!

And without saying a single word he waddles over to the first step and jumps up easily. Then, turning to Mica, says with a steely determination, “Come on!”

Without hesitating, King gathers himself and jumps on to the second platform. He lands squarely in the middle with ease. Ecstatic, he turns back to Mica who is about to jump to the first step and says with surprise, “It’s easy.” And then turns and bounces up the remaining steps effortlessly. Mica, who is filled with confidence from seeing her brother and friend get to the top, follows quickly behind and quietly agrees that it is easy. She meets up with King on the top step and they stand for a second looking into the light. There is a well-worn path leading through the door and around to the right. They hear Mac yell in from outside, “This is cool! You can see everything from up here.”

That is enough to get them moving, and King and Mica walk through the door together.

Once outside, the whole of WorldWonder is visible to them. Down below they can see Momma and Dad Kangaroo to the left, and Samuel on the right. Out a little further they see the aviary and to the right of that they can see the tortoises and way off in the distance in that direction is the Nature Center and the place where Mac got his bath. Straight in front of them is tall bamboo so they can’t see much beyond the tortoise enclosure but to a baby goat and two tiny kangaroos, getting to see from this vantage point is quite overwhelming.

They stand gawking at the expanse of WorldWonder for a minute, all three of them taken in by the scene. Finally, King says quietly under his breath, “Wow, no wonder my dad likes to come up here. You can see everything.”

They all quietly agree as they take in the view. And for several, still moments no one moves or speaks. Then, over by the tortoise enclosure there is some movement that captures their attention.

“What is that?” Mac says, seeming to speak for all three of them at once.

“I’m not sure,” Mica answers. As they watch, a small reddish colored squirrel, disappears behind the posts near where Mica remembers seeing Tommy. A second later the red squirrel emerges as it jumps onto the posts nearest to them. It has a huge piece of lettuce in its mouth. From behind the posts, they hear someone yell, “Give it back Stanley!”

The squirrel chuckles to himself and jumps down from the post. He lands on the mulch darting toward where Mac, Mica, and King are watching him. Just before he gets to the goat enclosure the squirrel turns sharply to its right and disappears under the giant philodendron leaves.

Mac, Mica, and King continue watching for a second and are rewarded for their patience a moment later when they see the squirrel reappear on the other side of the plants and run toward the exterior wall. It leaps onto a tree and spirals up the trunk effortlessly. The lettuce trails from his mouth like a pirate flag, as he soars from a low branch of the tree over to the exterior wall. There is a huge iguana sunning itself inches from where the squirrel lands on the wall. The sleeping iguana is startled awake and promptly falls off the wall. Then the squirrel leaps across to a branch on a tree outside WorldWonder, laughing the entire way and is gone.

“STAAAAANLEEEY!” comes a voice calling from inside the tortoise enclosure causing the three of them to turn back in that direction. “GIVE IT BAAACK!”

The scene becomes quiet as the three listen and wait. Mac looks back at the wall expecting to see the red squirrel reappear, but it doesn’t.

Then, Mica breaks the silence, “Who is that?”

“That’s Stanley!” King says, with obvious frustration in his voice. “He doesn’t live in WorldWonder, but he comes in a lot. He knows Tommy somehow.”

“I think I saw him taking lettuce from Tommy before, does he do that a lot?” Mica asks.

“Yeah, he likes to cause trouble,” King says.

Finally, Mac blurts out, “That’s not right! He shouldn’t do that!”

King and Mica, who agree that Stanley shouldn’t do that, are nevertheless startled by the strength of Mac’s conviction about it.

“Just because he can climb and leap and run so fast doesn’t give him the right to take that guy’s lettuce. We need to teach him a lesson!” Mac continues, obviously very upset by the injustice of the situation.

“But what can we do about it?” Mica asks, as she feels rather small in the face of so many uncertain things.

“I don’t know! Something!” Mac says stomping his foot. “Owww!” he yelps, having accidentally stomped his bruised heel in his frustration.

“I agree,” King says, quietly.

Mica looks at Mac and then over at King. She turns her head over to the wall where Stanley had just escaped with his stolen lettuce and then decides that Mac and King are right. She turns back, looks at both of them and then says, “I have a plan.”

Chapter 8

The Stanley Trap and Tommy’s Tales T

he three friends sit on the roof for a long time talking and planning. They discuss all the different ways they can try to put a stop to Stanley and the more they talk the more they realize how difficult it will be to catch him.

Stanley is very sneaky and fast. He can climb better than any of them and is also a very good leaper. There is one other major issue, there doesn’t seem to be any pattern to how Stanley comes and goes.

“If he always came by the same entrance or left by the same path,” Mac complains, “We could catch him that way.”

King confirms how he has never seen Stanley come and go the same way twice. “It’s like he is trying to be tricky,” King suggests. “The only thing I can think of that is the same every time is lettuce,” King says feeling discouraged and frustrated.

After a moment Mica leaps up and says very excitedly, “That’s it! Lettuce!”

Mac and King straighten up and look at Mica expectantly. When she does not continue Mac finally says, “What about the lettuce, Mica?”

“The lettuce.” she says with a look of resolve on her face. “He always takes the lettuce.”

“So, what? Of course he takes the lettuce. I’m sure he eats it!” Mac says grumpily.

“But don’t you see, that means we can use the lettuce as bait,” Mica says triumphantly.

Mac and King finally get it and agree wholeheartedly. “We can use the lettuce as bait,” Mac says. With this important fact now discovered they set about developing their plans. Mica takes the lead. “When Mr. Heetderks was giving me a tour, I noticed that there are a lot of holes in Tommy’s area.”

“Yeah,” King affirms. “Tommy is really good at digging holes.”

“Okay, great,” Mica continues. “I hoped so. When we have the chance to talk with tommy, we’ll ask him to dig a good hole under one of his rocks. Then we’ll need one of those big leaves.” She says as she nods her head toward a gigantic philodendron leaf down below.

King jumps in and says, “That’s no problem for me, I can bite through the stem easily enough. But what do we need a big leaf for?”

“It will be the door to our trap,” Mica answers as she turns to Mac. “Mac, does your foot feel good enough to jump?”

“Yeah, but where am I jumping?” He asks.

“Okay, here’s what we’re going to do,” Mica says as they all huddle together. A few short moments pass as Mica explains her plan.

“Perfect!” King exclaims as Mica finishes.

“WHOOO HOOO!!” Mac yelps as he leaps up. “Let’s do it!” he says turning to the exit.

“Wait,” Mica interrupts, “How do we get over to Tommy’s place?” she asks.

King says, “don’t worry about that, I’ve got a secret exit.”

And with that they turn and walk back through the high door and down the steps.

Talking bushes

At the bottom, King leads them out the front door of his house. Instead of turning left, however, they follow King to the right toward the back side of his house.

King walks directly toward a little depression in the ground. It’s a tight squeeze for King but they are all able to get out easily enough. Before long they are making their way around the back of WorldWonder along the inside of the exterior wall toward the tree where Stanley had climbed out with the lettuce. They turn at the tree and follow the same path Stanley had taken only they are going toward the tortoise enclosure rather than away from it.

About halfway between the exterior wall and Tommy’s place Mica, who was in the back of the group, hears something to her left. “What’s that?” she says in a harsh whisper as she investigates the underbrush. Mac and King stop and look back at her and all three wait expectantly. After a few seconds of staring into the tangled green plants, Mica thinks she sees a plant stem shift a little. At the very same moment she hears someone say in a thin, sad voice, “It’s not polite to stare.”

All three of them jump back, startled, and confused about where the voice has come from. Mica’s eyes drift over to where the moving stem had been to study it for a second. She sees that it tapers down to a very fine point but there’s no leaf at the end. She follows it back in the other direction until she sees a branch that grows down and away from it. This second branch separates into five narrower stems that look almost like, “Wait, are those toes?” she is thinking when suddenly they grip the stem they’re clinging to. All in an instant, Mica realizes she has been staring at a gigantic iguana, perfectly blended into its surroundings.

The site of the huge lizard is so startling to Mica that she yells and jumps backward tripping over a stone and tumbling into the bushes behind her.

The lizard turns its huge head toward the commotion and says, “That’s the way it always goes with me, if there’s a rock to trip over, you’ll fall over it for sure when you meet me. Why just a little bit ago I was minding my own business in the sun on top of the wall, and something knocked me right off it. But that’s the way it always is for me.”

“Oh, Lizzy, it’s just you. You scared us!” King says, relieved.

“Hey King, nice to see you,” the huge lizard responds.

King continues as he makes his way over to help Mica up, “Yeah, we saw you fall. It was Stanley who knocked you off the wall. He was stealing lettuce from Tommy again and used your tree as an escape route. We’re on our way to talk with Tommy now. We’re going to catch Stanley and teach him a lesson.” King finishes his monologue and then seems to tense up and looks at Mac and Mica and then back at Lizzy, “do…you…want to help us?” he says hesitantly.

For a second Lizzy looks honored and appears like she will say yes, then her face falls back into a defeated, sad expression and she says, “I better not. If I was helping it would all go wrong. That’s the way it always happens with me, the thing you don’t want is exactly what you get. No, it’ll be better if I don’t help.”

King exhales as if he’s been holding his breath. After helping Mica to her feet, he says, “Okay, well, let us know if you change your mind.” And then without pausing to wait for a response and without even saying goodbye he quickly walks off down the path toward Tommy’s place adamantly encouraging Mac and Mica to follow right away.

Mica feels rude leaving the lizard behind without even saying goodbye, so she turns and says, “Nice to meet you.” And just as Lizzy is about to respond there’s a snap and a swoosh and a flop as the branch and Lizzy with it fall to the ground with a crash.

King turns back to Mac and Mica and urges them to follow, “Come on guys, she’s fine,” he says insensitively.

And despite the guilt Mica feels, she walks away toward Tommy’s. As she walks away, she hears Lizzy saying, “No surprise there. A perfectly good branch breaking for no reason. That’s the way it always is with me.”

Setting the trap

Moments later they are standing beside Tommy’s enclosure and King calls in a loud whisper, “Hey Tommy, you there?” He turns back to Mac and Mica and says, “Don’t worry about Lizzy, she’s fine!”

There is a slight shuffling and scraping sound inside the enclosure and a slow, deep voice says, “Is that you, King?”

“Yeah, I wanted to introduce you to my new friends, can we come in?”

“Yeah, sure,” Tommy says.

“Okay, see you in a second,” King replies and then turns toward the left and follows the wall of the enclosure around until they come to the very same steps Mr. Heetderks had used while carrying Mica on the tour. They climbed the steps and hopped down into the enclosure, finding themselves face to face with a huge tortoise.

“Tommy, this is Mac and Mica,” King says, breathlessly.

Tommy looks at them both and smiles, “Hello, it’s good to meet you, I’m Tommy,” he says, warmly. Mac, blurts out, “Tommy, we’re here to put a stop to Stanley stealing your lettuce.”

This catches Tommy off guard, and he doesn’t know exactly how to respond so he stutters a bit and then says nothing.

Mica sees Tommy’s confusion and jumps in, “What my brother means, Tommy,” she pauses remembering her manners, “I mean, it’s good to meet you. My name is Mica.”

“Hello Mica, it’s nice to meet you too,” Tommy says with a smile returning to his face.

“What my brother means to say,” Mica starts again, “is, when we were standing on the roof, we saw Stanley steal your lettuce. I saw him do it a few days ago too. We heard you yelling at him to bring it back and we saw him take it right over the wall and out of WorldWonder. King says he’s been doing this for a while, and we don’t think it’s right. So, we’ve made a plan to stop him. But to make our plan work, we need your help.”

Tommy does not respond right away, and Mac, Mica, and King begin to doubt their plan. They’re wondering if they misread the situation. Just as Mac is about to break the silence, Tommy starts slowly nodding his huge head up and down like he’s coming to an important decision and finally says, “It started as a joke after I met him last year on my adventures to Lighthouse in Chap Hall. At first, I thought it was funny. But it’s not funny anymore. I have asked him to stop but he doesn’t. He’s way too fast for me to catch him or stop him, and, well…” Tommy trails off and looks very

sad for a second before he adds, “And, well, I like Stanley, but I really wish he would stop picking on me like this.” Then looking up at his new friends with his huge eyes he says resolutely, “Yes, I will help.”

“Good!” Mica says confidently. “Then here’s what we’re going to do.”

For the next few minutes, they describe their plan to Tommy. In a matter of minutes, they are ready and each of them heads in a different direction to do their part.

Mac and King go off to get the Philodendron leaf while Tommy moves toward the big rock and his food bowl. They had all decided to place their trap near the food bowl since that’s where Mr. Heetderks puts the lettuce every morning.

Tommy has his instructions on how he should dig out the hole, but Mica follows him just in case. She instantly regrets this decision, however, because turtles move very slowly compared to kangaroos. Even though they only have a short distance to travel, it becomes very clear to Mica that it will take them a long time to get there.

After about a minute, Mica asks, “What’s Chap Hall?”

Tommy, who is concentrating very hard on putting one huge foot in front of the other and dragging his heavy shell, stops and turns his huge head toward Mica. “Huh?”

“What’s Chap Hall?” Mica repeats patiently.

“Oh,” Tommy says, “That’s where Lighthouse is.”

“What’s lighthouse?” Mica asks.

Tommy opens his mouth to answer Mica’s question but then seems like he doesn’t know exactly what to say. Finally, he says, “It’s a place I went to last year. There’s lots of kids there.”

Mica wonders about this. Because when she was on the tour with Mr. Heetderks there were a lot of kids, and they were very big and intimidating. So, she asks, “Was it scary?”

“No, not scary.” He laughs, “Well at first it was a little scary, but I got used to it. The kids sing and dance and have a lot of fun. I got to sit in the front. I learned a lot there and I also talked with Eli, before he flew away, because he had gone too.”

“What kind of things did you learn?” Mica asks curiously.

“Well, one time I was hungry, and I got some food in a way I wasn’t supposed to. I learned that I shouldn’t take things that aren’t mine. I learned that I should give to others to be helpful. The kids really like to give.” Tommy looks thoughtfully at Mica and then continues, “I guess that’s how everything started with Stanley. I met him in Chap Hall, and I had just learned about generosity, and I wanted to practice sharing. So, I told him that Mr. Heetderks makes sure I have lots of lettuce and that he could have some if he wanted. He came the next day and it felt good to share. We laughed and had a great time. He likes to pick on me because he says I’m slow.”

They finally arrive at the food bowl and continue talking and sharing stories while they work on the hole together. Tommy shares all about the things he’d learned at Lighthouse in Chap Hall the previous year. When Mac and King eventually get back with the leaf, they join in with the work and conversation. Finally, the trap is finished.

They all stand back and inspect their work and Mica says, “The only thing left to do is wait.”

Tommy suggests, “Mr. Heetderks usually brings the lettuce by in the morning. If Stanley’s gonna come, he usually shows up then.”

So, with the trap set, they decide to say goodbye and meet first thing in the morning.

Chapter 9

The Trap is Sprung

The next morning Mac, Mica and King meet by the door that goes under the fence behind King’s house and slip through. As they approach Tommy’s enclosure, they hear the footsteps and voice of Mr. Heetderks, “That should be plenty of lettuce for you Tommy, you sure seem to go through it quickly. You must have help with your lettuce to eat it so fast. But don’t worry about that, I have more lettuce than you and a host of creatures could ever eat, and I’ll make sure you have everything you need.”

Mac, Mica, and King wait quietly as they hear Mr. Heetderks’ footsteps retreat. Then, when they’re sure he’s gone, they make their way around and into the enclosure. Meeting up with Tommy, they review their plans and go to their assigned places to wait.

They don’t have to wait long, because almost immediately after Tommy begins eating his lettuce, they all hear the quiet, tell-tale sound of small, swift feet scratching along the ground just outside of the tortoise enclosure.

“Stanley!” Mac thinks to himself.

Being drawn by the delicious smell of fresh lettuce, Stanley leaps to the top of the enclosure walland sees, just as he expects, Tommy, with his back to him, chomping away on his lettuce.

“It is so funny,” Stanley thinks, “pulling the lettuce right out of his mouth.” As he’s thinking about it and chuckling to himself, he sees what he’s waiting for. Tommy has just

bitten into a huge leaf of lettuce and is slowly chomping his way through it. Stanley screws himself up to leap from the wall and rush across the enclosure to steal Tommy’s lettuce. But just then, Stanley sees something move out of the corner of his eye behind the rock just to the left of where Tommy is standing.

King, who is hiding behind the rock waits as long as he can, then decides it’s safe to look. He leans out slowly from his hiding place to take a look at what’s going on and sees Stanley on the wall about to leap down. He quickly jerks back into his hiding place hoping Stanley didn’t see him. He hears Stanley land on the dirt and scuttle across the ground toward them.

Moments later King hears Mica yell, “NOW!!” and he jumps out from behind the rock in time to see Mac landing on the ground right behind Stanley who has a huge leaf of lettuce in his mouth. Stanley, startled by the arrival of this unfamiliar creature, stumbles back into the hole that had been prepared for him. And, just at that moment, Mica and Mac kick up the leaf that is buried at the entrance of the hole and pin it against the rock with their feet. King rushes over and begins kicking dirt against the leaf to keep it in place, just like they’d planned.

Clouds of dust are billowing around covering everyone and everything in a layer of brown dirt. Mica and Mac are panting, Tommy has knocked over his bowl in the excitement and King is laying in the dirt exhausted from his effort, but the plan worked perfectly.

A few seconds later Mac asks, “Did we get him?”

From inside the trap, they hear scuffling and scratching. King, who had the best view of the whole thing, says triumphantly, “Yep, we got him!” and they all erupt into a raucous celebration.

Mac gets up and moves to the door of their trap to gloat and taunt Stanley, but just then they hear a high-pitched, mocking laugh. All four of them turn their heads in the direction of the sound and see Stanley on the wall on the other side of the enclosure with a huge piece of lettuce in his mouth. Before any of them can do or say anything, Stanley waves at them mockingly, leaps down onto the path and runs off, laughing the whole way.

Paralyzed with confusion, the four of them stand dumbfounded, staring at the spot Stanley has just vacated with gaping mouths. They listen as Stanley’s laughter fades and eventually dies out with his disappearance over the exterior wall off in the distance. No one knows what to do or say until, from behind them, they hear a scuffling scratching sound coming from inside their trap. In unison, they all wheel around not sure what they’ll find.

“If Stanley is out here,” Mica finally says, “then who is in there?”

And from inside the trap, the captive responds to Mica’s question, “It’s to be expected,” the voice complains in a thin, sad way, “If there’s a hole to be trapped in, of course it would be me who’s trapped in it!”

And all four of the conspirators’ protest in unison, “LIZZY?!”

The End of the Matter

You can only imagine the surprise and confusion Mac, Mica, King, and Tommy experience as they remove the door to their sprung trap and find Lizzy inside.

They discuss this mystery for several minutes, recounting all that they had seen and done multiple times. And Lizzy, who is standing nearby feeling quite sorry for herself for having been trapped in a trap, finally starts to grumble about all the injustices.

“I should have expected that my day was going to go like this. This is always the way it is with me. If there’s a trap to be caught in, I’ll be in it for sure,” she says to no one in particular. “I have been coming in through that entrance every day and there’s never been a squirrel before. But today as

soon as I got in a squirrel came out. ‘Great’ I thought, now my private way has become a highway. But since the squirrel stopped up my way with dirt and rocks, now there’s no way through. But how am I going to get lettuce now? I guess I’ll have to go all the way around. But that is always the way it is with me; my shortcut ends up being the longest way. No doubt when I go the long way, I’ll find my trip cut short too…”

The group is all standing by listening as Lizzy goes through this monologue. Finally, King, who knows that Lizzy will go on like this indefinitely, interrupts her and asks, “Lizzy, are you saying that you had some other way of getting into our hole?”

Lizzy is confused by the question, because to her it is not a hole at all, it is a tunnel. She comes in from one end between two rocks and then around the corner and up a little to a bowl of lettuce. She has been coming in this way regularly, though not usually this early, and she’s never really thought of it as a hole. Finally, she says, “I didn’t know that it was your hole, but then that’s not surprising at all. I knew it must be too good to be true to stumble on to a path that leads straight to a bowl of lettuce. I’ve been coming here regularly, and it’s been nice, but I knew the day was bound to come that something bad would happen, it always does with me.”

Tommy says, “I have noticed you coming in to get lettuce, Lizzy. And I’ve never really minded because I always have more than I need. Mr. Heetderks always brings more than I need every morning. It’s never bothered me that you eat this lettuce, I think I might be overreacting to Stanley eating it. The next time Stanley comes to take lettuce, I think I might just give it to him. He can’t steal something that I give away freely,” he says very wisely.

They all decide Tommy is right. Mac is not completely convinced they shouldn’t try a different trap, but after some discussion he agrees with the group.

The next morning, Stanley jumps onto the ledge with a cunning plan to steal his lettuce. But he is surprised to see Mac, Mica, Tommy, King and even Lizzy all standing near two bowls filled with lettuce. When they see him jump onto the wall, they all cheer and wave calling him over. He’s a little suspicious after yesterday’s experience but decides to check it out anyway; trusting his speed and cunning to help him spring the trap if there is one waiting for him.

As he gets closer, however, he hears Tommy say, “Hey Stanley. Sorry about trying to trap you yesterday. We have plenty of lettuce for everyone and you don’t need to steal it. We put a second bowl here and you can come anytime you want to get as much as you need. Lizzy even dug the tunnel back out again so you can come in that way too.”

Stanley stands stunned like his feet are cemented to the dirt staring at the group not sure what to do. Tommy laughs out loud and says, “We went to all that trouble to trap you and we barely slowed you down, now we’re giving you what you want, and you can’t move.”

They all laugh together, including Stanley, and everyone eats as much lettuce as they want with quite a bit left over. When their feast is finished, Mac, Mica, and King head back to their homes. As they are walking away, Mica hears Tommy talking with Stanley and it seems to her that they are friends once again.

Mica glances back with a smile on her face and just as she does, Lizzy, who had fallen asleep in the sun on top of the rock, rolls and fall straight off the edge of the rock. She hears a splash and then Tommy yelling, “Lizzy!”

Seconds later, Stanley leaps up on top of the wall with a huge leaf of lettuce hanging from his mouth. He and the lettuce are soaking wet. He bursts into laughter and bounds off the wall, running toward her. When he gets close, she asks, “What happened to Lizzy?”

“She fell into Tommy’s water bowl,” he says through a mouth full of lettuce and a muffled laugh. Then, he bounced away disappearing under the foliage on his way to the exterior wall.

From Tommy’s enclosure, Mica hears Lizzy’s voice, “Of course, that’s the way it is with me, if there’s a bowl of water to fall in, I’m going to end up in it eventually…”

Mica turns and catches up with Mac and King, chuckling to herself and filled with gratitude over having made so many new friends.

Chapter 10 A Close Call

And that is how Mac and Mica’s adventures began in WorldWonder. For several months, things unfolded in a comfortable way. They got together with their new friends as often as they could. They explored every corner of their new home and got into fun little adventures like the time King got his hoof stuck in the tree roots and had to stay out all night until Mr. Heetderks got back in the morning. There was also the time that it rained so hard and so long that the pond overflowed, and Mr. Heetderks had to rescue two small fish who were found swimming in a pool of water by the turtles. Lizzy was the heroine of that story, and she loved to retell about the time she nearly drowned.

Mac and Mica started going to Lighthouse in Chap Hall and would come back and talk with Tommy about all the things they were learning. They were growing fast and learning a lot and WorldWonder started to feel very much like home to them.

Even Stanley spent more time in WorldWonder. He and Tommy had rekindled their old friendship, leading to Stanley moving into the tree that overhung Tommy’s enclosure. Everyone, especially Tommy, loved having Stanley around more. He was very funny and was occasionally kind and helpful. He could still be annoying sometimes, especially to the peacocks who often perched in the tree he took up residence in. He liked to sneak up on them while they were resting in the tree and scare them.

Peacocks think very highly of themselves and do not like being treated in this way and the whole thing created quite the controversy.

And then there was Cane, just as toad-like as always and constantly in everyone’s business. Mica and Mac had not spent much time around him since their first day in WorldWonder, but they had seen him around and were always annoyed by how he would lecture them on the things he felt they were doing poorly.

Each time they did see Cane, Mac thought about the conversations he had with Doc in The Nature Center. He had tried to make good on his promise to Doc on several occasions, but something always seemed to keep him from following through. Mac had almost forgotten all about it, in part, because he had a hard time imagining how Doc and Cane could be friends. Cane didn’t really seem to have any friends in WorldWonder.

But it just so happened one day that a string of circumstances unfolded, and everything became perfectly aligned to bring Cane very close to a very deadly situation. And this is how Mac learned a very valuable lesson about not trusting a snake.

It is one of those perfect days in WorldWonder where Mr. Heetderks prefers to have the garage doors open. He had arrived early that morning and thrown them up with the plan to leave them up that morning.

There is a light breeze and it’s not too hot. And it’s early in the morning when Mac stirs, feeling full of energy and ready to tackle the day. Mica isn’t up yet, but that’s nothing new, she likes to sleep in. Momma and Dad see Mac get up and say good morning, but they are busy with their own things and soon Mac is on his own again. He walks quietly around to see if King is already up, but he is still snuggled up beside Samuel and they’re both sleeping soundly.

So, like he has done many times before, Mac walks quietly to the opening in the gate and slips through with some struggle, given that he is so much bigger than he was when they first arrived several months earlier. Before long, however, he is wandering around WorldWonder and finds himself in front of the pond near the path that leads into the Nature Center.

Caught by Cane

He sees that the garage doors are wide open and is about to start up the path toward the open doors when he hears a now familiar voice, causing him to droop his shoulders in startled disappointment, “WWWWelllllll, it’s no surprise to find you out wandering around alone. I’ve been doing my morning inspections and half expected to find you out here. I told Mr. Heetderks that we needed to do something about the lawlessness of you lot who seem to come and go as you please, but I see nothing has been done yet. WWWWelllllll, I told him to plug up that hole you guys keep slipping through behind Samuel’s place, but I see that hasn’t been done yet either. I would do it myself,” he continues breathlessly, drawing himself up to his full height of four inches, as he often does when he is feeling full of self-importance, “but with all the other responsibilities I carry to keep this place running, I just haven’t gotten to it yet.”

“Good morning, Cane,” Mac says, reluctantly. “It’s good to see you this morning.” Mac does not actually feel that it’s good to see Cane, but he’s endured so many lectures from Cane on the “importance of being polite to his elders” that he is in the habit of addressing him this way.

Cane, noticing that his “pupil” has provided the correct greeting comments on it, “And, WWWWelllllll, it is good to see you this fine morning as well, though I would think that it would be much better to see you in your enclosure where you are supposed to be rather than wandering around WorldWonder alone. However, I see that you are teachable and that is one positive influence I’ve had on you in your short stay here. Why, I think that there may be hope for you after all. WWWWelllllll, I guess I will let you off this time, seeing as how you have been so polite, but you need to hurry right back to your enclosure immediately.”

Mac realizes with disappointment that with Cane around nothing interesting will be likely to occur and is about to go back to wait on Mica and King to get up when he suddenly remembers his promise to Doc. And, almost like the words come from somewhere else, Mac says, “Actually Cane, Mr. Heetderks was looking for help and he asked me to come find you. See he left the garage doors open so that we could go in together, I’m so glad I found you.”

Cane, who is not used to being ‘looked for’ by others pauses to consider this invitation. “Mr. Heetderks requested my help, you say?” he asks skeptically.

Mac feels a flush of guilt hearing his lie spoken back to him so directly, but he ignores the check on his conscience because, “after all,” he thinks, “I’m only tricking him so that he can see his friend, it will be a nice surprise in the end…” In this way Mac dives fully into his little fib and says, “Yes, he said he wants your advice on something very important and asked me to come find you. I told him I thought you might be here and came looking for you, but you need to come with me now because I think Mr. Heetderks is about to leave.”

Cane is very much taken in by this story and does not hesitate to say, “WWWWelllllll, we do not want to keep Mr. Heetderks waiting, hop to it young man. There are quite a few things I need to talk with him about as well, so we should need as much time as possible to discuss these matters in addition to whatever advice he should like from me.”

Cane hops off in the direction of open garage doors with Mac following just behind him.

In Danger in the Nature Center

The parrot is sitting on his perch dreamily looking out from under his half-raised wing when he sees a strange sight. Cane, the toad that is often looking in at the windows croaking on and on, is hopping into the Nature Center at the far end of the room. He is being followed by the kangaroo who was brought here a few months back.

The parrot remembers having a conversation with this kangaroo’s sister but hasn’t spoken with this kangaroo at all. The only thing he remembers about this kangaroo is how he spent a few days in the crate over by Doc’s tank. He is about to fly over to see what Cane and this kangaroo are doing. “Mate, no Mike! No, her name is Mica, I think…Oh yes, Mac, that’s it, Mac…” he is thinking when his eyes lazily drift over to where Mac’s crate had been. Like he’s done a thousand times before he instinctively investigates Doc’s tank (he often feels a certain responsibility to keep an eye on that snake.)

The parrot suddenly jolts fully awake. A gripping fear causes him to flatten his wings sharply against his sides as he franticly searches the room, sweeping his head from side to side preparing to leap into flight the moment he finds what he’s seeking.

Mac and Cane are halfway across the room with Cane blabbering on and on about all the things he is going to tell Mr. Heetderks. Mac is pretending to listen but not doing a good job of it. Instead, he is looking around at all the interesting things in the room. He had spent three days here before, but he’d been in the crate the whole time. Other than Doc’s tank and a few things on the walls and shelves near his crate, he hadn’t seen much of the inside of The Nature Center.

So, while Cane is focused on his monologue and feeling very important for having been summoned by Mr. Heetderks, Mac is distractedly looking around the room at all the interesting artifacts. Neither one of them is aware that they are walking rapidly toward imminent danger.

The parrot tenses with every step Cane and Mac take and is nearly in a panic as he notices that they are heading straight for Doc’s tank. His eyes dart quickly back to the thing that caused his initial fear as if hoping that he had just been imagining things a moment ago. His heart sinks and his fears are redoubled as he confirms that the lid of Doc’s tank is open, and the snake is not in his tank.

While Mac is absent-mindedly looking around the room, he remembers how boring it was being stuck here for three days. There was nothing to do but listen to Doc. He never really liked talking with him, there was always something that left him feeling a little uncomfortable. But, he thought, “I’m new and I don’t want to offend him.” So, he would listen politely. “Make sure you talk with Cane about coming to visit. Tell him Mr. Heetderks needs his help with something important…” he heard Doc’s smooth voice say in his head.

Mac’s eyes drifted back to Cane who was hopping along just in front of him. As they rounded the corner, Mac was able to see Doc’s tank above them and a couple yards ahead. He tuned back into Cane’s monologue.

“…WWWWelllllll, and I should like to warn him about letting just any old creatures into WorldWonder. like you, for instance,” he said, gesturing toward Mac with his bulbous head, “You’re not a dangerous creature, but you’re young and you make mistakes. But I’ve heard rumors that Mr. Heetderks has a big snake in here. Of course, I don’t believe everything I hear and since I’ve never been inside before now to confirm it, I don’t believe it. But if I find out that Mr. Heetderks has let snakes into WorldWonder…”

“WAIT,” Mac yells, much louder than he means to, startling himself and Cane, “you’ve never been in here before?” he says, feeling suddenly very uneasy. Mac sees, or rather feels something moving under a cart off to his right.

The parrot, who has been searching around the room, sees a huge shadow shift under the cart a few feet away from Cane. Leaping into the air, the parrot dives toward the helpless toad hoping against hope that he can get there in time.

Cane, oblivious to the danger, in mid-sentence answers, “Only because I’ve been too busy…” when out-of-nowhere, “SQUAWK…SWOOSH…SNAP!”

Mac sees a huge bird swoop down out of the air and grip Cane around his fleshy shoulders and yank him into the air with its talons.

Cane shouts in protest at this treatment and looks up to see the underside of a bird. Then the movement of some huge shadow draws his attention downward. He looks just as the open mouth of a massive snake snaps closed inches from his dangling toes.

Mac is paralyzed by the commotion. Doc is gathering himself up in a tight knot of coils a mere yard away, staring up at the toad as it is carried out the raised garage door by the Parrot. Then, aware that he is being watched, Doc turns his head slowly toward Mac and moves to speak. But before he can say anything at all Mac’s paralysis is broken and he yells, “YOU’RE A LIAR!” and turns and rushes out the garage door.

Doc takes a deep breath and smiles broadly and is about to slither out into WorldWonder with an ere of delayed satisfaction when he hears the very last, and very worst thing he could ever hope to hear, Mr. Heetderks’ voice.

“Doc, what are you doing out of your tank?” A few short seconds later, Mr. Heetderks is bending down to catch Doc and put him away. “Someone must have forgotten to seal the lid yesterday; I’ll need to address this. We can’t have you wandering around WorldWonder, now, can we?”

Mr. Heetderks places Doc back in his tank and closes and secures the lid.

With that, he walks toward the garage doors saying to himself, “Let me go find out where Mac has gotten off to and how he came to be in here to begin with.”

Doc looks on as Mr. Heetderks walks out the doors. He’s disappointed to be sure, but all he needs to do is wait. He thinks, “There will be another naïve creature placed within my influence and I’ll catch my prey soon enough.” Then he slithers back into his log.

— The End —

he parrot flies back into the room and finds its perch. It looks over at Doc’s tank and is relieved to see the lid returned to its appropriate position. He scans the inside of the tank and sees the quick motion of Doc’s forked tongue flicking in and out of the shadow of the hollowed-out log. He’s relieved but resolves to keep a much closer eye on that snake from now on.

It was some weeks before the parrot relaxed its sentinel-like watch over Doc’s tank. The close call had left him on edge, and he marked every move of that slippery snake. About a month later, for reasons that Mr. Heetderks did not disclose, he replaced Doc with a much smaller Boa. The danger from snakes was not eliminated entirely, as Boa’s can still be very dangerous, especially if you are a mouse or small frog, but it was significantly lessened.

The parrot was not the only one who was shaken up by the incident with Doc. Cane, for one, was different after that day. You certainly wouldn’t call him humbler, as he is still the same old toad, but perhaps you might call him a little more tolerable. Even Mac, who never liked talking with Cane before the event with Doc, found himself drawn to him in some way. Going through difficult things tends to do that for creatures, it gives them a common story to share. So, Mica and King were surprised occasionally, to see Mac sitting with Cane by the pond listening to his stories.

“You have to filter most of what he says, and he still thinks that I’m some kind of species of toad, but I don’t know, he’s alright, I guess,” Mac said when Mica questioned him about it one day while they lay awake talking.

Seeing this kind of transformation in her brother reminded Mica of something she’d heard Mr. Heetderks say on her first day in WorldWonder to a smart little girl who wanted to know about mosquitos, “Many of the things we don’t understand or even like have important purposes to play in WorldWonder.”

She had never considered this thought before, but as she lay there thinking about what Mac had told her about all Doc had said and of the parrot saving Cane’s life, she concluded (and she was right) that Doc was the evilest creature in WorldWonder. And yet, somehow, without Doc, Cane would be just as intolerable as ever. And her brother, well, maybe he is somehow just a little wiser too. There is certainly nothing good about Doc, but in WorldWonder, even the bad things Doc tried to do somehow produced good things when Mr. Heetderks got involved.

Mica is lying in the straw at the dead end of 152nd street and 67th avenue, feeling very much alive. Just then, a peacock squawks above her, and she hears King stir somewhere over in his area. She feels an overwhelming sense of being at home. She turns to her brother and says, “Mac, this is a really special place.”

“Huh?” he grunts, having already drifted off to sleep. She turns to her side and smiles, deciding she doesn’t need to say it again. WorldWonder is a very special place, and she knows it! A few moments later she is sound asleep.

Wandering Through WorldWonder

Wandering Through WorldWonder Mac & Mica’s Adventure

WorldWonder is not just the imaginary home of the characters in this book, it is a real place. The children of Westminster Christian School in Palmetto Bay, FL, enter through WorldWonder’s gate each day and are filled with the wonder that this story attempts to capture. It is a beautifully designed natural space tucked into the corner of the school’s property, and Mr. Heetderks is the science teacher who runs it. He uses this space to teach kids how to know and love God more by finding and appreciating Him in nature. The joy and excitement experienced by children who enter WorldWonder is the inspiration for this book, and I hope these stories, along with the illustrations created by Sophia Michelle Irías will go far to spread the contagious joy of looking up to discover the wonder of God who reveals Himself in all He has created.

John Bishop Director of Spiritual Formation Westminster Christian School

John Bishop, Westminster’s director of spiritual formation, is the author of “Wandering Through WorldWonder: Mac & Mica’s Adventure.” Mac, Mica and the many other characters found in this story were created to share the lessons found in Psalm 86:11, the central focus of Westminster’s spiritual formation plan for the 2023-24 school year.

Mac & Mica’s Adventure

“Teach me your way, LORD, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.”

PSALM 86:11