Timko and the Littlest One

Once upon a time, in Oak Grove, there lived a little hedgehog named Timko. He had a mom, he had a dad, he had a red scarf, and in a hollow of the old oak tree lived Granny Owl. And soon someone else was going to join the little house. Someone very small.

Every morning Timko pressed his nose to Mom’s tummy and huffed:

“Huff-huff! Hello!”

And something inside the tummy gave a gentle wiggle.

“Do you hear that?” Mom smiled. “She’s answering you.”

One summer morning Mom tied on her sky-blue apron and said:

“I’ll bake a pie, just in case.”

Dad was busy making a cradle. Shhh-shhh went the wood shavings. Dad looked all around:

“Now where’s my pencil?”

“Behind your ear!” Timko laughed.

Some time after lunch, a squeak rang out in the house: “Pee-pee-pee!” And that is how Lily was born.

She was tiny and pink, with soft white spines. Her little eyes were shut tight.

“She’s so small…” Timko whispered.

Mom held Lily in her arms. Dad rocked the new cradle. Everybody whispered, everybody smiled, and everybody looked only at Lily.

And suddenly Timko wished that Mom were only his. He got angry, puffed up his cheeks and huffed:

“Huff! Let her go back!”

Mom did not scold. She held out her free paw to him.

“I can see you’re angry. Do you know what I do when my heart is grumbling? Breathe in, breathe out, and off we go!”

But Timko did not feel like breathing in or out. He ran outside and sat down under the oak.

“Hoo!” called Granny Owl from a branch. “Who is huffing so crossly down there?”

“Me,” Timko grumbled. “We have Lily now. And everybody looks only at her.”

The owl straightened her glasses.

“Hoo! Here’s a riddle for you. Hasn’t seen you yet, but already knows you. Can’t talk yet, but already answers. Who is it?”

Timko thought and thought, wrinkling his nose… Who could it be?

Just then, from the house came: “Waaah! Waaah!” Lily was crying. Mom sang a lullaby, and it did not help. Dad rocked the cradle, and it did not help.

Timko walked to the door and stopped. He huffed through his little nose.

“Breathe in, breathe out, and off we go!”

And he took a step.

He leaned over the cradle and softly, the way he did every morning, huffed:

“Huff-huff. Hello.”

Lily went quiet. She wiggled her pink nose. And answered, barely audible:

“Huff!”

“She knows me!” Timko gasped. “She hasn’t even seen me yet, and she already knows me!”

“That’s because you talked to her longer than anyone,” Mom smiled.

Now Timko knew: he was the one who could calm Lily down. After all, he was her big brother.

Dad led Timko to the plank on the kitchen door frame. Timko stood up as straight as he could.

“Now where’s my pencil?” Dad wondered.

Without turning around, Timko pointed to Dad’s ear. Dad drew a line and drew a tiny heart beside it. And down low, right by the floor, he made a teeny dot. Lily’s.

Of course, there were far too many pies, and half of them went to the neighbors. Mom took one slice to Granny Owl.

And Timko sat by the cradle, huffing softly. And the smallest one in the house already knew: that is how her big brother huffs.