2 - NUTTINGTON
Located
in the Appalachian Mountains, Nuttington, capital of the Sciurus States, was
literally a shining city upon a hill.
The gray squirrels’ main burrow was
a state-of-the-art compound. Tunneled below a 250-year-old oak tree, it offered
amenities unheard of in the world of squirrels. Ever since the discovery of the
smartboxes eliminated the need to relocate, the tribe invested in creating the
infrastructure to support their society’s ambitious way of living.
Most remarkable was the Nuttateria,
where squirrels could dine on nuts, fungi, seeds, dried insects, and
caterpillars, and even small bird eggs. Located at the center of the burrow,
the Nuttateria served as a living monument of the squirrel nation’s greatest
accomplishment – overcoming the hardships of the past, the famines that killed
more than three million squirrels nationwide. There was also a government
center where the president and The Council worked, a business center where
squirrel industrialists discussed new ideas and deals, a scroll library with a
scriptorium, two dozen community warehouses that stored nuts and other edibles,
and more than one hundred suites for influential squirrel families and
important guests. At the backside of the burrow, next to a lake with a pine
chips beach, Nuttington Bowl hosted
concerts and plays. On event days, the adjoining beach bar even served artisan
pecan liquor.
A pleasant walk away, in the valley
to the north, next to a human-made cell tower, the burrow’s tech hub had been
established. The campus included the Smartbox Center, the school, the academy,
a training center, and a burrow with suites for teachers and visiting squirrel
lecturers. To the east of this subdivision with the lofty name “Brainhub,” half
a dozen sweet potato fields stretched through the valley, also serving as an
outdoor lab for the school’s agriculture program. North of the Squirrel Academy entrepreneurial
squirrels had set up artisan workshop-burrows. There, they produced maize
scroll sheets, woven nut baskets, straw pillows and mattresses, gourd water
containers, and other luxury items their grandparents had not even dreamed
about.
v
Returning
to the main burrow’s Biz Center, Harry noted the exact location of the
raspberry bush on a map made from maize husks.
At Nuttington’s Biz Center, every
food gatherer had their own file. Without a doubt, this feature made the
Sciurus States’ food gathering operations so successful. Mapping out their
secret hunting grounds helped the squirrels in streamlining the
harvest-to-storage process.
While Harry made annotations,
Cassandra Keela Allsquirrel lined up behind him. Cassandra Keela, a
geeky-looking Northern Flying Squirrel, had moved here from Virginia. Most
everybody called her Cee-Kee.
“Hey Harry, good to see you,” she
said. “Did you already visit your Great-Grandpa? I heard he was looking for
you.”
“Thanks, Cee-Kee.” Harry dropped the
pen and rushed through the tunnel system to the back of the burrow. Because
Great-Grandpa was the tribe’s oldest member, he lived in a suite deep
underground where it was warmer during the winter.
~~
Excerpt from "Are We Nuts?"
ISBN 978-1-7324211-1-0 (paperback)
ISBN 978-1-7324211-2-7 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-7324211-0-3 (ebook)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018906505
© 2018 by Gisela Hausmann
