PREMIUM PREVIEW: Mr. Opossum Goes On A Search
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This is Ria. Welcome to Little Stories for Tiny People. Our story today is a sweet one. It's about appreciation. And it's also a bit lengthy, so we're going to jump right in. It's called Mr. Opossum Goes on a Search.

Take it away, Eleanor. Remember, there are no pictures. You have to imagine the pictures in your mind. You can imagine them however you want. Okay, here we go. It was a cool day in mid-fall, and Mr. Opossum could not stop yawning. ♪

This happened a lot because he forced himself to be a day animal, even though it was in his nature to be asleep at that time. His customers were awake, and therefore, so was he. There was a line of them out the door of his shop. The squirrels were in sour moods. Where's the holder? I've been waiting for an hour.

And Mr. Opossum was reaching his limit. All he wanted to do was vanish into the forest to do his real work. The work he did alone.

But his assistant, Gregor, who Mr. Opossum had discovered was sleeping with his eyes open when he was supposed to be helping customers, had not worked out. And there had been no bites at the employment ad Mr. Opossum had placed in the Forest News Weekly. In a word, Mr. Opossum was overwhelmed.

"'Can you hide them in trees? Because I was thinking—' "'I do not hide anything in trees,' Mr. Opossum said curtly to a bespectacled squirrel leaning over the counter. He was too exhausted for niceties. "'Never? I mean, my sister loves to climb—' "'Never. Excuse me.' "'Excuse me?' Mr. Opossum plucked up the phone—'

Hello? Uh-huh. I see. You say, 17 are rotten? Then there came the sound of acorns scattering on the hard ground outside. It had to have been someone's entire stash, a whole barrel of them.

Dread settled in Mr. Opossum's tummy. Not for the first time, he imagined walking out the door of his shop and never coming back. But this time, he thought he might actually do it.

But before we get to the scattered acorns, we should go back to the beginnings of Mr. Opossum's peculiar business. I say peculiar because no one, especially not an opossum, had ever thought to create such a business. This is how it all began.

As a very young opossum, Mr. Opossum befriended a similarly quiet and studious squirrel named Ohalahan, or was it Ohulahan? It doesn't really matter.

In the middle of winter, O'Hallahan ventured into the frigid forest to find a snack before returning to his nest. But he couldn't find his little stash. He ran into young Mr. Opossum a full hour into his search. The young Opossum asked several questions about the stash. "What do the acorns smell like?"

Nutty, I suppose? A bit barkish, perhaps? He absorbed the answers and, without having the faintest idea how astonishing this was, pointed to a spot on the ground. There, he'd said, like it was nothing.

Ohulahan dug beneath the top layer of leaves, and there was his cache. After that, he insisted on taking his friend with him on every single outing. This ability reasserted itself over time. Mr. Opossum could find many things, not only acorns, with startling precision.

But in the end, it was the acorns that seemed like the best business opportunity. Mr. Opossum opened an acorn storage company. He set up shop in a tree hollow. Every fall, squirrels lined up at his shop to drop off their acorns. Mr. Opossum hid them all over the forest.

In winter, his customers trickled in to collect their stashes, and Mr. Opossum went into the forest to find them. By mid-spring, every last acorn was retrieved and delivered to its owner's expectant paws.

You might wonder why this business would be necessary. Squirrels hide their acorns. Can't they find them later on?

But squirrels have other things to worry about. They have their checklists and calendars and chores. You'd be amazed at how many squirrels spend hours scattering their nuts and seeds all over the place, only to come back in the dead of winter and forget the location of nearly all of them. Many trees you've admired...

likely sprouted from such forgotten stashes. So yes, squirrels flocked to Mr. Opossum's shop.

And he soon learned a startling lesson that many young business opossums and squirrels and people must confront. Entrepreneurs often fear failure, but success can present just as much of a challenge. As Mr. Opossum's business grew, it became complicated.

There were many tasks to be dealt with beyond disappearing by himself into the forest to store and locate acorns. There were phone calls with unhappy customers, paperwork, spreadsheets, accounting, marketing...

So he began looking, not for acorns, but for an employee. He searched everywhere, putting ads in the paper, even putting up a billboard at the forest market. With no luck.

Which brings us back to that cool day in fall when Mr. Opossum heard an avalanche of scattered acorns outside and felt quite ready to close his business for good. My acorns! These took me weeks to accrue!

There had been incidents like this in the past, times when wayward squirrels had snatched up spilled acorns, leading to ugly scenes filled with barbed accusations. Mr. Opossum quickly ended his phone call regarding a rotten acorn stash. Come to the shop and we'll get it all sorted.

and ran outside to deal with yet another crisis. But there was no incident.

There was no scene. There was simply the squirrel who'd scattered her winter hoard. I can't believe it. I'm so clumsy. My mother always said so. And she was right. Come to think of it, she was right about everything. And a chipmunk organizing a dozen others who stooped to the ground to retrieve the nuts. There we go. Oh, thank you. Just drop them in here.

See dear, we'll have them all back in no time. Thank you everyone for being so helpful. Oh, I see a few over that way. Sir, would you mind? There we go. See? Nothing to fret over. Thank you. Just thank you so much. Mr. Opossum watched as this cheerful, almost grandmotherly chipmunk led the retrieval efforts with an unwavering smile.

It was chilly outside, but she radiated warmth. Thank you for stepping in. Well, Mr. Opossum said awkwardly. He'd always been terrible at speaking. I could, well, I could move you up in line if you'd... Oh, I wasn't in line. Just passing by and saw what happened. Did my best to help.

It turned out that this sweet, senior chipmunk was on her way to a job interview at a sock-darning facility. She had no experience with acorn storage. It didn't matter. Mr. Opossum hired her on the spot before even getting her name.

"My name?" she said later, after he finally thought to ask. "My name is Beverly." That was three years ago, which is a very long time in the lives of an opossum and a chipmunk. In that time, Mr. Opossum and Beverly worked side by side. He, managing the acorn's storage and retrieval,

She managing everything else. Early on, Beverly transformed the shop, adding details here and there to spruce things up. What do you think? Now everyone will know just where the drop-off line starts and the pickup area begins.

I think it enhances our customer experience. He didn't understand half the things Beverly did, but what they all amounted to was an increase in business and a pleasant environment in the store. And most importantly to Mr. Opossum,

He could spend his time alone in the peaceful forest, with Beverly serving as a cheerful buffer between him and his customers. She became the very heart of the business, and Mr. Opossum peered at her in wonder as she made conversation with the customers in a way he never seemed able to do.

"'And how's your son doing? Did his rash clear up?' "'It did with that ointment you gave me. I can't thank you enough.' "'A simple thought flitted through Mr. Opossum's mind often in those early days. "'She could work anywhere, but she chooses to work here.'

I would love to tell you that Mr. Opossum continued to feel a swell of gratitude every single day for three years, that he continued to keep in mind that he had been on the verge of closing his business, scampering away from his livelihood before Beverly came along. But the truth is...

Slowly, over time, without even noticing it, Mr. Opossum came to take Beverly for granted.

Oh, that sounds awful, doesn't it? It's just... She was there every day. And she arrived early every day. Tasks were completed before Mr. Opossum could even think about them needing to be done. She acted as a perfect wall between Mr. Opossum and his customers. So much so that he nearly forgot they existed.

He spent his time in the forest, stopping at the shop only to pick up or drop off bags of acorns. So that, after three years, Mr. Opossum expected Beverly to be there, and she was. And things went humming along, until one fateful midwinter day...

when everything changed. There is so much more to this story. You can hear the full episode by becoming a Little Stories Premium subscriber. Visit littlestoriespremium.com to join. And thank you, as always, for listening in.