Alarmed and instantly awake Connell jumped out of bed, finding big sister Vonee standing over him "What is going on? I didn't wet the bed" he said.
Then he saw Deloy and April awake, rubbing their eyes. Momma was waking up the little girls too. He was afraid but none of the other kids seem frightened.

Momma whispered "Hurry Connell be really quiet". All The kids wondered what was going on.

Once they were awakened in the night when daddy brought home ice cream. They had to eat it before it melted, it was strawberry and really good.

Oh yeah! Another time they were woken up because it was raining; the rain was coming through the roof onto their bed, so all the kids slept on the floor by the heater it was cold and not very fun.

Connell saw that dad was not there and it wasn't raining.
Besides mom didn't seem upset.

Crash Bam! Bang! "What are those noises?" He whispered.
Mom Said "Hurry!, But be quiet or you will scare him!" He thought- Who is he? We are the ones that are scared.

Mom and the kids were sneaking towards the kitchen where the sounds were coming from.
"What the heck! It sounds like pans crashing" April said.
Sure enough pans were flying out of the cupboard. Suddenly a black head popped out, it had a white stripe and beady eyes "Skunk" they all whispered.

Mom Said "Be quiet or we will all get sprayed. Watch what he does next".

The skunk climbed out of the cupboard over the scattered pans on the floor. With his little black nose wiggling he sniffed around then he spotted the pan of chowder on the cupboard.
"Oh No! Its the tuna chowder mom made for supper! We were going to eat the rest tomorrow!" Whispered Connell. "It's Ok!, There is a lid on it." Whispered April.
The skunk jumped up on the cupboard, circling the pan sticking his nose under the lid, squeezing his head in; (now maybe mom will stop him the kids thought). Nope! Mom just smiled and motioned for them to be quiet.

Mister skunk slurped the milk off the chowder, he made it sound so good. Finally he stopped, his tummy looked very full. He waddled over to the cupboard edge jumped down. Slowly climbed over the scattered pots and pans back into the cupboard.
The kids waited holding their breath, but the skunk did not come out again.
Then mom said "Okay he is gone, come see how he got in".
Cautiously the kids gathered around the cupboard on hands and knees peeking in.
"Wow! Look at that! The hole is in the back but it is so tiny how did the skunk fit through?" Connell asked.
Mom said "They have so much fur they look bigger than they really are".

"Tomorrow we are going to fill that hole, it costs too much to feed a skunk tuna every day".

The kids watched while mom put the pans back in the cupboard when she was done she said "Now you kids need to go back to bed". Be quiet so you don't wake the baby".

But the kids were not sleepy anymore, "can we play some games and have some bread and butter" the kids asked.

"You can have some bread but no games", mom said. "Remember we have lots to do tomorrow".

Finally they got into bed still whispering about the skunk. It's was hard for them to go to sleep.

The next morning Vonee Said "I dreamed about a skunk"
"Ha! Ha! We all did", said April and the kids started laughing.