After Midnight
By Rain Crow

Gadget mumbled happily to herself as she worked on her latest invention. The Tech-Drive Transmission she'd salvaged from a trashed vacuum cleaner was in near perfect condition, but she wasn't yet sure how to incorporate it into the new Ranger Skate.

"Maybe if I lift the fan an inch higher on the chassis... the extra weight of the transmission should keep it from tipping us backwards, maybe that'll-"

gurgle

Gadget stopped, glancing down at her tummy, which again announced that it was after midnight and she hadn't fed it since lunch.

gurgle-gurgle-Growwwwl...

"Hm, okay," she said with a laugh, "You're right. Time for a snack!"

Taking just a moment to put her tools back in their proper resting places and to make sure all the loose parts were secured, the mechanic jumped on the slide that ran down to the main room of her home and enjoyed the swift ride down. She hopped off and strode boldly into the darkened kitchen not even bothering to turn on the light. The bright light of a full moon streaming through the windows was enough for her to navigate to the refrigerator.

Grabbing some left over corn, a bit of lettuce, and some sunflower seeds from a dry food cabinet, Gadget settled down at the kitchen table to eat her dinner and enjoy the quiet noises of a midsummer night. The crickets chirped a soothing tune, and were accompanied by a chorus of frogs from the nearby pond.. She smiled, thinking that the neighborhood was in rare form this evening.

Her ears caught different sound. Gadget stopped nibbling on one of the seeds and listened. There it was again!

She stood up, her meal temporarily forgotten, and hurried to the front door, opening it just a crack so as to peep outside, looking up through moonlit leaves towards the main branch that served as their landing pad just outside of the hanger. What she saw brought a smile to her lips.

Foxglove, who was hanging upside down from the branch that was above and to the right of the landing pad, giggled again. It was the same pleasant sound that had first caught Gadget's attention. Dale, from what the spying mouse could tell, was busy looking embarrassed as Chip used his hands to illustrate the climax of a story he'd been telling the pink bat. Gadget thought, noting the way he held his hands apart, that she'd heard this particular fishing story.

Feeling suddenly as though she was being watched, Gadget focused on Foxglove, and sure enough the bat was looking right at her... well, her ears were pointed right at her; right now Foxglove only had eyes for Dale. Gadget giggled, and whispered, "Hi, Foxy!"

That was all it took. Foxglove, still giggling at Dale's blushing embarrassment and Chip's obvious enthusiasm, let go of her upside down perch and flapped down to the front door, embracing her mouse friend when Gadget opened the door and walked outside. "Hi, Gadget!" the bat said warmly, "Did you know that Dale once caught a fish this big?"

Gadget laughed outright as her friend stretched her wings out, trembling, as far as they would go. She glanced up at Chip and Dale, remembering how the story had gone when they'd told it to her. Chip was frowning down at Foxy, but only to keep from laughing, while Dale seemed unsure whether he should be relieved or concerned at how Foxy had interpreted the story.

"Well," Gadget said, stepping back and smiling at Foxglove, "I'd heard that the fish was very big."

Foxy giggled, imagining her favorite chipmunk's fishing prowess. "You should come up and visit," she said, "The boys have the best stories!"

Gadget opened her mouth, ready to protest that she was in the middle of a project, when a paperclip tied to a string of fishing line chinked down at her feet. She looked up, seeing Chip and Dale anchoring the line and smiling at her, inviting her to join. She looked back at Foxy. The bat just smiled at her, and winked.

"Yeah," she said as she took hold of the line and began to climb, "Yeah, they do."

fin