Together we can!!Because I’m happy! Clap along along if you feel like happiness is the truth! Because I’m happy! Clap along if you know what happiness is to you! Because I’m happy! Clap along if thats what you want to do!

!Oh! Hello dear reader! Let me introduce myself. I’m Smowl the Owl. I am 80 years old and I sit here on this branch and watch everything that is happening around me. Some people call me the wise one or the story teller, because I know all the stories that have ever happened! But today I will tell you a story which is very close to my heart. !Its the story of Maya and her friends. Maya is 10 years old. She loves climbing trees, swimming, doing the crazy dance, eating mangoes and rolling down small hills! She lives in a beautiful little village called Pinetree Villa. In Pinetree Villa, everybody lives together as one big happy community. There is music in the air and the day always ends with a dance. !But it was not always like this. If you had come here a few months ago, you would see a completely different world! This is the story of Pinetree Villa and how it went from bad to worse and back to awesome! Do you want to know what happened? So put on your imagination hats and follow me! Oh, and did I mention that Maya is a squirrel? !

Once upon a time, not very long ago, there was a tiny village tucked

away cozily in the heart of a forest. It was called Pinetree Villa.Many different squirrels lived in this village. White squirrels, black squirrels, thin squirrels, fat ones, tall squirrels and short ones! But everybody was living together in one big happy community. They had a system that they called society. In this society all squirrels had a specific job to do. Some squirrels collected nuts while some squirrels guarded them. Once they grew up, young squirrels could either join this line of work or choose to do something completely different like teach, be a medicine squirrel or entertain the community. Mommies and daddies shared all the work in the house while little girl squirrels and boy squirrels ran around the village playing games all day. Maya climbed trees and ran around with her friends all day! She had the same group of friends ever since she was a baby. There was Matty, the silly but strong one, there was Zara the pretty punk rockstar in the making. Then there was Raman, the tall intelligent one, who came up the best escape plans and Amy his annoying little sister, who always insisted on tagging along everywhere. And of course there was Maya, our smart- talking, little brown squirrel with huge eyes that sparkled in the sun! In the summers they would sneak away to the orchards nearby and enjoy eating juicy mangoes. After they had eaten to their hearts content they would laze around on the huge leaves of the shady trees. When they were bored they would dive into the nearby pond and splash around till the bright orange sun painted the sky pink and said it’s goodbyes for the day. In the evening all the squirrels would gather around a bonfire and eat a delicious meal while talking about their day. After which, the children would put up a talent show ending each day with dance and music.

!

Maya and her friends !!!!Zara Amy !

Maya !!!!!Matty Raman !!

*** !

One day a stranger came to the village. He was K-lar, a thin, long, green snake. He had left his home in Hisstown after a fight with his dad and wandered into the forest. He wandered for many many days, and when he finally found this village he was so happy, he jumped for joy! However, his happiness was short lived. A few squirrels saw him approaching and ran away as far as they could. He was very confused. Now you see dear reader, K-lar was from a family of vegetarian snakes, he had never eaten another living being in his life. But the squirrels didn't know that! They just saw a snake and ran for their lives! This happened every time he tried to say hello to someone, so he just sat down resignedly at the village square. K-lar Soon a horde of big, strong squirrels came running towards him with sticks and stones and asked why he was here. He explained to them that he came in peace and wanted to be friends. The squirrels were perplexed. They decided it was best to take him to ‘the wise ones’ and let the elders of the community declare his fate. Now the ‘wise ones’ were a group of five elders from the community who were in charge of making big decisions in the community. They would discuss problems and then let the village vote in favour or against their suggestions and that is how the final decision would be made. !

On the way to the court this entourage attracted quite a big crowd of squirrels, so much so, that when they finally reached their destination the whole squirrel community had gathered around! The village elders were wary of this strange looking vegetarian snake. They refused to accept him into the community. ‘ You are too different, you will not be able to live in harmony with us. And we have never had an outsider live with us. God knows what you will want to change?’ said one grey squirrel. ‘Please give me chance. I have been wandering around the forest for days looking for a community like yours, that I can be a part of. I will adjust and fit in given a chance.’ pleaded the snake to no avail. ‘We are a community of squirrels. We have a perfect society in which everybody has a role to play. We don't want to disturb that. Plus, you look so different,what role will you play?’ said another.Finally they decided to take a village vote - ‘How many squirrels want this outsider to leave? Raise your hands!’ 90 out of 100 tiny hands went up in the air, while a tear rolled down poor K-lar’s face. K-lar was banished and sent back into the forest with all his bags and baggages. !

*** !

Heartbroken and embarrassed K-lar trudged along back into the forest. ‘Why did the squirrels not understand that I mean well?’ he asked out loud to no one in particular, as tears descended heavily onto his bony face. His father had always taught him that nothing or no one is ever perfect and yet the squirrels insisted that they had a perfect society! Was this possible? Was everything as hunky dory in their world, as it looked from outside? If it was what were they so scared of? Questions tormented his mind and threatened to stay there, until they were answered. ‘I have to break into their system, and find answers to my questions!’ he thought. But how?!

The skies were turning grey and the wind started to get colder. K-lar opened his bag to get a sweater out and something caught his eye!Just then,when the first ray of lightening struck the the tallest tree in the forest, K-lar had an idea and the night was filled with the sound of his evil laughter.

*** A few days later, Maya and her friends were playing hide n seek. It was Matty’s turn to seek so everyone ran and hid. He counted till 100 and set out looking for his friends! ‘Maya! Raman! Zara! I am going to get you!’ he warned! He looked under the big mushrooms,behind tiny rocks, amongst the flower beds and in the old smelly shoe box. But they were nowhere to be found. ‘They always hide in difficult places when its my turn to seek’, he complained to himself!Just then, he saw a brown bushy tail pop up from behind a tree. ‘Aha!’ he said, ‘Maya Stop!’ He ran towards the tree and jumped onto his friend only to realise, that the squirrel he had jumped on was not his friend at all! Layla ‘Uhh.. I am so sorry ma’am, I thought you were my friend Maya.’ apologised a red faced Matty. ‘ Its okay, I’m fine. My name is Layla and you are?’ ‘I’m Matty.’ he managed. Now Layla was what the squirrel fashion magazines called ‘attractive’. She was tall, thin, had a long bushy tail and big green eyes. She told Matty that she was a student of photography from the city. She was wandering around the forest to take a few pictures for her project and was looking for a village where she could stay for a few days. Matty was

so struck by her beauty that he forgot all about his game and offered to escort her to his village community. !Layla’s superficial beauty and sweet words led everyone in the village to accept her easily. It was decided that she would live in the community for as long as she liked. In return for their goodness she offered the squirrels of Pinetree Villa something the city dwellers called ‘candy.’It was shiny and colourful and tasted like little drops of heaven!The squirrels were very happy and sang songs in praise of Layla and the candy. Now, dear reader, brace yourself, as I am going to reveal a secret to you. One that the squirrels didn't know yet ; Layla, the beauty queen, was none other than Kaylar, our bony green snake friend, in a squirrel costume that he bought from a costume shop in his town!

*** Soon the candy Layla had bought with her started to get over but the squirrels were now in love with it. They called a meeting in the court. ‘ What are we going to do? We are all out of candy!’ said one white squirrel. ‘ Yes, we love candy, it tastes delicious.’ said a black squirrel. ‘We definitely need some more!’ said another one! ‘ We want candy! We want candy!’ yelled the children. And 200 searching eyes looked towards Layla. ‘Umm.. well I know how you can get more candy but it is dangerous.’ ‘Go on’, prodded Matty. ‘ There is this factory on the edge of the forest, called Marley’s Chocolate Factory. Behind it there is a pit where they leave sacks of discarded candy every evening. You can go there and get it.’ ‘But wouldn't that be stealing?’ asked a tiny voice from the corner. ‘No Amy.’ replied Raman. ‘They are discarded sacks of candy, nobody uses them.’ ‘Raman is right’ encouraged Layla, ‘these candies are those that

are not for sale because of some small defect in their shape, size or colour. But if we clean them a little, they’re as good as new! That is where we city dwellers get our candy from!.’

*** And thus, began a new era in Pinetree Villa… There was only a limited amount of candy available at the pit everyday.So the squirrels became selfish. They started hiding candy from each other. No longer did a squirrel share his/her candy with the community. Rather they ate it all alone at the most sharing some with their own children. Squirrels started asking each other for candy in return for work that they did before for free. They even started pressurising the community for candy in return for collecting nuts or guarding them. There were constant squabbles between the ones who collected nuts and the ones who guarded them. The collectors said that they should get more candy for their work as they did the more dangerous work. While the guards said that they should get more candy because if they didn't guard the nuts all the collection would be useless. Finally it was decided that the guarders were doing more important work and so they would be paid more candy for their work. Because of this, the white squirrels became arrogant and started to treat the black squirrels rudely. As if this wasn't enough, the young squirrels were no longer allowed to choose any other job but were forced to do the jobs that their fathers did. In this dark time there were no bonfires in the evenings. The squirrels were no longer one big happy community but were instead divided into small units of mommy, daddy and their children that they called family. The children were not used to this kind of atmosphere they missed their friends and others from the community. Especially the smaller children started to fall ill because of this.

Now the family had to make a choice, one parent could go outside the house and collect candy while one parent had to stay home and take care of the children. As children needed mommies more when they were ill, the mommies had to stay home and take care of the children while the daddies when out to work. They did their jobs collecting or guarding nuts all day and then went to the pit to collect candy in the evenings. Once the candy had been collected, it had to be cleaned, polished and preserved. And as the mommies were at home, it was their job to do this. The mommies had to be clean and pure themselves for this job and so they were no longer allowed to go out of the house. And now that the mommies had extra work and the daddies weren’t home to share it, the children were not allowed to play outside all day. Instead they had to get home soon and help with the work in the house.The young male squirrels were forced to join the work force outside while the young female squirrels were taken in to be trained do the work in the house. All the squirrels went around mechanically doing their assigned tasks.Gone was the time when there was music in the air and dance? They had forgotten how to dance! !

*** !K-lar was sitting in his room, sadly reminiscing about the past few months… Though he was secretly happy and he would never admit this to his father. But his father was right, the squirrels were not perfect after all. No one was. They were as easily fooled by looks as anyone else is. They were as greedy for candy as anyone else living anywhere else is. They did not have a perfect

community. He had his answers and his questions were put to rest. But he was also very sad. He knew this scenario a little too well. This is exactly what had happened to his town after they found candy and it was also the reason he had left it, to look for another community. Candy was like a virus that had spread its deadly disease and everyone was getting infected fast. What would it take to make everyone happy? Everybody now had more than enough candy for themselves and their family and yet they were so sad. Just as the snakes, the squirrels didn't want to face this fact that they deemed as ‘too philosophical’ for squirrels and refused to think about it. But there was one squirrel who didn't stop thinking about this. Can you guess who it was? Yes! It was our heroine, Maya! !

*** Maya was bored of sitting at home all the time. It the long summer holiday and schools were shut so she could not even meet her friends everyday. ‘It was fun being with mom all day in the beginning but not so much anymore’ she thought. Her mom seemed angry all the time and would scold her for the smallest of mistakes. Gone were the days when her mom was a carefree, fun loving squirrel, now she was complaining all the time and was obsessed with cleaning the candy. She had even started reading those squirrel fashion magazines that she ridiculed before and was obsessed with being clean and pure! Maya’s dad was almost never there at home. He worked at the nut factory all day and went out to collect candy in the evenings. By the time he came home, he was almost always too tired to play with Maya or even talk to them properly. And if this was not enough, her parents fought almost everyday about things that were absolutely silly. Maya missed her old life. And her friends. They rarely saw each other

anymore. Matty was obsessed with Layla and followed her around like a tail. Raman and Amy were busy video games in their house all day. Zara’s mom wanted her to clean the candy and polish it as well. So she wasn't allowed to go out, so that she din’t get dirty. Maya was disgusted at the thought of not be allowed to go out. She had never heard her parents talk about it, but she wasn't so sure if her fate would be any different in a few years. She had so many plans for her future. She did not want spend her life cleaning and polishing candy! She wanted to become a painter! She wanted to get out of the village and explore the world beyond the forest! She’d always imagined herself as a free soul, a flower child who could never be tamed - much like her mother actually. But seeing what had happened to her mom lately, she was stating to get scared. Something had to be done. But what? She had no idea. All she knew was that candy had something to do with the problem. She decided to pack her bags and head into the local library. She wouldsurely find some answers there. !

***

!‘Oh Maya, Thank God you called me! My mother was just about to make me polish our candy collection for 20th time today! I sneaked out of the

house when she was in her bath. Here are some snacks and lemonade. But why are we going to the library?’ asked a confused Zara. Maya poured her heart out to her childhood friend and when she was finally done, Zara was in tears. She completely agreed with Maya, everything seemed wrong and everyone was sad and this started ever since candy came onto the scene. Now that everyone had so much, it didn't even taste so delicious anymore. They feverishly hoped that the library would have some answers. They entered the vacant library and were lazily greeted by a stout grey squirrel who was busy playing a game called Candy Crush on her phone(they were so crazy about candy that they even had games that involved collecting as much as candy as you can!)and didn't even look up! ‘Good afternoon ma’am, we are looking for a book on the ill effects of candy for a class project.’ The librarian raised an eyebrow and said ‘ Books about candy - second aisle to the left.’The two friends scurried away to the aisle, giggling and giving each other high fives because the librarian never suspected a thing! !The second aisle to the left was overflowing with books about candy. There were hundred of tales about candy, some had written poems and songs about it. Some had even gone ahead and written biographies of candy! Amongst this huge collection, tucked away in a dusty corner was a small pile of books about the disadvantages of candy. Coughing and sneezing, our two young seekers, pulled these books off the shelf and got to work. In these books there were stories about candy that didn't end happily. Most of the books were by squirrels who were called ‘the social scientists’. Maya had seen a few of these squirrels in her village, they would come by once in a while to collect some information about ‘life in the village’.

There was one book by a squirrel called Squarx, he wrote in very difficult language but his book had a lot of information about the origin of candy and how it ‘enslaved’ anyone who let it into their society. After reading this book Maya and Zara were sure that candy was the root of all the bad things that were happening in their lives!!

***!

On their way back home they made a plan of action. ‘We cannot keep all this information to ourselves. We need to tell everybody’ said Maya. ‘You are right. But will they listen? They all seem charmed by candy’ replied Zara. ‘ No. I’m sure there are more squirrels who are unhappy with the way things are going. Let’s start by taking to our friends and then they can tell their friends and we’ll continue that way. We must organise and come together in large numbers, only then will we be able to make a difference in the society’ enthused Maya.So they called an urgent meeting of their friends the next day. All five of them were present. Maya and Zara recounted all that had happened the previous day and their friends were awestruck. ‘Wow girls, I’m impressed with how much much research you did in just one day! Your argument does seem logical. Ever since we got introduced to candy, everyone has become greedy. Our community got divided and everybody is sad’ said Raman. ‘Yes, and I have to do so much work in house! complained Amy. But Matty disagreed ‘ Oh relax all of you! You are just complaining because you don't have enough candy! Everybody loves candy, don't blame your sadness on it!’ he scoffed. ‘We are not blaming our sadness on candy Matty. All we are saying is that ever since your precious little Layla brought candy into the picture, Pinetree Villa changed for the worse.’ snapped Zara. ‘Don’t pull Layla

into this. She is a good squirrel. She has been very upset herself for the past few weeks.’ responded Matty. ‘Yes Matty. That is what we are saying. Everybody is sad, including Layla. Something must be wrong. All we want to do is to stop all the fighting and bring back the happiness to Pinetree Villa.’ interjected Maya. ‘Okay. That I can agree with’ said Matty. !The five little excited squirrels decided to call their group ‘ The Happiness Collective’ as that was their goal and the thread that would bind all the different squirrels together.

‘Go tell everyone you meet that we are coming together to bring back the lost happiness and joy. We will have a meeting in 10 days on the 7th of October, at 9 am, outside the court to discuss everybody’s issues and look for a solution. Go on my friends and spread the word’

quipped Maya. And thus they ran in all directions and went around telling everyone about the Happiness Collective! The five squirrels went around the village telling anybody they could find about their ingenious plans. But they had not anticipated what happened next. Most squirrels they went and spoke too shooed them away. Some squirrels made fun of them and teased that they had gone crazy. There were a few squirrels who agreed with them and promised to join in the meeting and also tell their friends about it. Maya and her entourage was got busy in arranging banners and flyers about the Happiness Collective. They made a poster, arranged for

snacks and read about organising people and building solidarities.!

***

On the 7th of October, the day of the meeting the five excited friends were outside the court at 7 in the morning! They began putting up the posters and arranging the snacks on colourful trays. By 9 ‘o’ clock all the arrangements were done and now all they had to do is wait for all the squirrels to arrive. At 9.30, only two more squirrels had joined in for the meeting. Maya started to get worried. ‘ I hope they all know the correct venue and timing. Did you all tell them it was here?’ she asked her friends. ‘Relax Maya, they’ll be here. You know, we squirrels aren’t known for our punctuality’ consoled Raman. He was partly right.By 10 o clock, Maya’s mom and some more mommies joined in to support their children. Finally at 10.30, they decided to begin the meeting, after all 20 squirrels were present. Maya welcomed everyone and thanked them coming. ‘We have a problem,’ she began ‘everyone is unhappy and we cannot solve this problem unless we join hands and come together as one.’‘Yes. Maya is right’ continued Zara. ‘We are all squirrels and we must fight together if we want..’ ‘No! We are not one’ said one black squirrel suddenly, interrupting Zara mid sentence ,’ we are different. Black

squirrels and white squirrels are not the same, we have always been treated differently. How can we just forget all that and come together.’ An awkward silence filled the room. Finally Maya’s mom spoke up. ‘Yes you are right my friend. But as female squirrel we are all facing a similar problem, we all have to stay at home all the time, cleaning and preserving the candy. We have to be clean and pure all the time. We are not allowed to go out or have fun.’ She is right pitched in Matty’s mom ‘ plus we are all mommies. We want good things for our children. Is this the future we want to give them?’ ‘But how can we join hands when are husbands are fighting with each other’ demanded a white squirrel. ‘This fighting has to stop, somebody has to take the first step. The daddies will surely follow our example.’ said another. They all nodded in agreement. ‘Together we can!’ cheered Maya. ‘Wohoooo! Together we can!’ quipped the others. With this, the meeting ended for the day. They decided to have another meeting in a month at the same spot.!

*** Over the next weeks, the mommies did amazing things. They named their group ‘Madres of

Pinetree Villa’ and went around the village with their children protesting all day! They shouted slogans and held out banners that said ‘Let us out!’ ‘We don't want to preserve candy!’ ‘Rolling in mud makes us happy!’ ‘We want a better future for our

kids’ and many more. Some squirrels even rolled in mud during the protests to emphasise their point.

Seeing the vibrant protests, many young squirrels who wanted a better future joined in. Soon the word spread all around the village and many more squirrels followed.!

*** !The elders of the village were very angry ‘ How can the mommies behave like this? they asked each other. ‘What example are they setting for the rest of the society? And what about their children?’ ‘Our perfect society is falling apart’ lamented a few others. But they didn’t realise that their society was never perfect. They had always had these divisions - divisions between white squirrels and black squirrels, differences between male squirrels and female squirrels. It was never an equal society. In the beginning these differences were invisible. All candy did was to enhance these differences and make them visible.Anyway, thankfully the mommies paid no heed to theirs critics and continued their strikes and protests. !

*** A month later, at the next meeting of the Happiness Collective, there were 50 squirrels in attendance. Everyone was enthusiastic and fired up to speak about their issues. There were many male squirrels who wanted to speak about their problems too. They were tired of working relentless all day and night without any joy. Plus, the constant fighting was making everyone sick. ‘All this fighting is driving us crazy. We need to stop it otherwise the village will have more candy than squirrels!’ said one white squirrel. ‘ Candy has given us a chance to think about society. It has showed us how unequal our system was. Candy is not the problem, our society is’ said a black one. ‘How can we give our children the message of equality when it is half baked? If we want female and male squirrels to be equal, we have to make white and black squirrels equal too.’ said another squirrel.

‘Yes! Yes!’ They all nodded. ‘Together we can’ cheered Maya and her friends. These fifty squirrels went all over town organising protest marches and seminars about how to make their society a more equal one. They had a few problems amongst themselves which they solved through discussion and healthy debate.Slowly but steadily the Happiness Collective grew bigger as more squirrels were convinced and joined the cause. However there were still some squirrels who were not convinced. These squirrels refused to see that their society was not equal! In their next meeting the Happiness collective discussed this problem. ‘ We must do something, these squirrels just don't see that something is wrong’ said Matty. ‘ I have an idea’ said Maya ‘ For one month, all those who do not see the inequality in our society must switch roles with those that see it. So if previously a squirrel was guarding the nuts they should now start collecting them. Similarly if a squirrel was doing the daddy job before, now he should fulfil all of mommy responsibilities.’ ‘This is awesome! That way they will definitely see whats wrong!’ cheered Zara, ‘Let’s call a village vote and implement this.’ So a village vote was arranged and by now the squirrels who saw what was wrong with society were more in number than the ones that did not, so the ‘role switch’ idea was easily passed and the squirrels had to switch roles with other squirrels. It was decided that a month later there would be a big meeting to finally decide what should be done in Pinetree villa. !

***!

When the day day of the meeting finally arrived all the squirrels in Pinetree villa had gathered outside the court. Some of them were there

to support the Happiness Collective, some were there to oppose it and some were there just out of curiosity. In any case, young, old, fat, thin, tall, short, black squirrels and white ones - all the squirrels were there alright. Maya welcomed them and thanked them for coming. ‘We have all gathered here today, because we have a problem. And the problem is that Pinetree Villa is overflowing with candy but it is all out of happiness.We know that all of us have different problems that we would like to discuss and debate about, but we have one common interest and that is that we all want to be happy.’ Many squirrels were nodding in agreement. Some emotional ones had even begun to cry. ‘ We are all different. We look different, we speak differently, we even dance in our own specific ways but at the end of the day we all want to be happy. Everything we do is with that goal. Candy made us happy in the very beginning but it does not anymore.’ she continued. ‘She is right’, encouraged Zara ‘ but thanks to candy we have now been able to see the different inequalities in our society. Most of us agree now that this is wrong and we have to change for the better.’‘Yes’ said Matty ‘ we can live together happily without all these divisions. Even though we all look different we are all equal squirrels.’ ‘We should all be do what work we like and contribute to our society in our own ways.’ added Raman. ‘Together we can!’ squeaked little Amy. ‘Hurray! Hurray! Together we can!’ cheered the crowd. !

*** !Finally almost everyone agreed that their society was not perfect and that they had to change. They also realised that happiness was more important than candy. Thus, it was decided that nobody would use candy as a way to sell or buy anything anymore. They would go back to their old community ways and exchange goods and services for other

goods and services. The common pool of nuts would be back and everyone could once again choose whether they wanted to work in collection, guarding or distribution. If someone didn't want to do that, they could choose another profession and contribute to the community in their own way. Further it was declared that candy was not all evil, because after all it had helped them realise important things. But it would be used only for edible purposes and all the candy that had been collected would go into a common community pool, just like the nuts. Every squirrel would get one candy after dinner, that is all. In any case the squirrels had now collected enough candy to last a few decades at least so nobody would have to go back to Marley’s pit for a long time. All children were free to play outside as much as they wished and the community system of caring and sharing of responsibilities would be returned. And games that encouraged greed for candy(like candy crush) would be banned! All this would be put into effect starting that very day! The squirrels rejoiced. Even though some of them were unhappy to part with their candy collection and others were sad to part with their games, they understood that this was for the highest common good of all involved and agreed to give it up. Eventhough the process of change would be slow and require a conscious effort from the squirrels, they were ready to do it. They decided that they would have weekly meetings of the Happiness Collective to make sure that they the discussion and teamwork continued as that was the best way to bring about equality. Above all, there was music in the air and squirrels began to dance again.

!***

In order to celebrate this, the squirrels organised a huge party. At this party they felicitated Maya and her friends for their successful efforts in bring the lost happiness back to Pinetree Villa. Seeing all of this K-lar was overjoyed, but he missed his home. (You guys remember K-lar don't you?)He decided to attend this party and then sneak away in the dark of the night. Nobody would have to know anything, they would probably just assume that Layla went back to the city.!However during the party, he got so carried away while dancing that he grabbed his own tail and shook it vigourously. It was in his hand with a plop and suddenly all eyes in the room were on him. Try as he may, he

could not hid the truth anymore. So he just came out of his costume ashamedly, explained everything and waited for the scoldings to begin. There room was so silent, he could hear his own heart beat. After what seemed like forever, one squirrel spoke up ‘ We are sorry K-lar. We shouldn't have judged you on your looks.’ ‘Yes, we were wrong. We are not perfect after all. We know that now. But we are working on it’ said another. ‘ You are welcome to stay as long as you wish’ said a third. K-lar was touched. ‘ Thank you for the offer. I am very tempted, but I cant stay. Maya is right, happiness was more important than candy. I

must go back to Hisstown and remind everyone of this simple fact. Hopefully I can start a Happiness collective for snakes. May be you all can help.’ ‘Yes we will! Together we can’ they all cheered. And so K-lar went back to Hisstown and as a result of weekly debates and discussions about themselves and their society, the squirrels of Pinetree Villa lived happily ever after!

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