Daily Flash Fiction Challenge

Here Comes Trouble

If there was one rule in Mapleberry Hollow, it was this:

Never trust a raccoon with ideas.

Especially not Buttons.

Buttons considered himself an inventor. Everyone else considered him… a situation. His latest experiment involved a slingshot, three acorns, and a mysterious jar labeled “Absolutely Not For Launching.”

On the porch, curled like a cloud-puff, napped Twinkle the kitten. Precious. Delicate. A purring angel wrapped in fur.

Buttons nudged her paw.
“Wake up, tiny fluff. Adventure.”

Twinkle blinked. “Is it snack-related?”

“Better. Heroics.”

Five squirrels froze on the fence like a furry chorus. The blue jays cleared the branches. Somebody whispered, “Oh no. It’s happening again.”

Buttons puffed out his chest. “Behold. The Acorn Accelerator!”

Twinkle squinted. “That looks like a fork taped to a rubber band.”

“A visionary’s work is often misunderstood.”

Buttons pulled back the band. The fork trembled. The acorn trembled. The universe trembled.

“Here comes trouble,” sighed a wise old toad from his lily pad.

Buttons let go.

The acorn flew.

Then the jar flew.

Then Buttons flew.

Twinkle watched as he cartwheeled through the air with the grace of a slightly confused laundry sock.

He landed in a bush. The bush grunted. Bushes should not be able to grunt.

Twinkle trotted over, tail high. “Are you alive?”

A leaf flopped. “Yes,” Buttons groaned. “And I regret nothing.”

Twinkle patted his head. “Next time, we start with snacks.”

Across the yard, the squirrels nodded in solemn agreement. A jay muttered, “We should really form a safety committee.”

Buttons popped up, eyes sparkling with new disaster. “Snack-powered rocket boots!”

Twinkle sighed. “The toad was right. Trouble really does come in raccoon.”

Word count -274