Polly's Puzzle of the Talking Peanuts

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Polly the parrot was practicing her human words. She could say "Squawk!" and "More crackers, please!" with great enthusiasm. One day, she was sitting on her perch, contemplating the philosophical differences between a biscuit and a cracker, when she heard a tiny, muffled voice say, "A bit to the left, please. No, my left!"

Polly swiveled her head. It was coming from the bowl of peanuts her owner had left out. She peered into the bowl. One peanut was wiggling slightly.

"Did you just... speak?" Polly squawked.

"Yes! And for goodness sake, stop staring," said the peanut. "It's terribly rude. We're trying to escape."

Polly was amazed. The peanut explained that he and his friend, who was stuck next to a rogue almond, were an adventurous pair of talking peanuts named Chester and Chatty. They were trying to stage a daring escape to the jungle.

"Why escape?" asked Polly. "This is a lovely bowl!"

"It's predictable!" cried Chatty the peanut. "We want excitement! We want to ride a wild jungle squirrel!"

Polly, being a good host, couldn't just let her snacks run away. She carefully picked up Chester the talking peanut. "A wild jungle squirrel is hard to find," she said. "But I know a very gentle, very fluffy house cat named Whiskers who is an excellent ride."

Chester and Chatty conferred. "A house cat is acceptable," they agreed.

Polly gently placed the two peanuts on the windowsill. The next morning, Whiskers the cat came by. Polly explained the situation to Whiskers, who, being a very good sport, lay down patiently. Chester and Chatty climbed onto Whiskers' back and had the wildest, most exciting ten-minute journey they could imagine, mostly because Whiskers kept trying to scratch a mysterious itch. They returned to the bowl exhausted but happy, deciding that the occasional short-distance ride on a fuzzy house cat was much safer than a life of high-stakes jungle adventuring.