"Vroom! Vroom! Vroom!" Zorro was sitting in his chair with John's video game steering wheel clutched tightly in his paws. If his actions were any indication, he was in an imaginary Indy 500 race.

Kyle stuck his head in the room. "Yo, Zorro, my man, wassup? What's with the 'vroom vroom' noises?"

"Hey, Kyle, my orangy dude! I'm gettin' ready!"

"Ready? Ready for what?"

"The Dude's getting a Hummer!! He's finally getting rid of that little toy car he drives and getting a MAN'S vehicle."

"Man, no way! The Dude won't get rid of his little car. He LOVES that car! What makes you think he's getting a Hummer?"

"I heard him—clear as day. He and Mary were fiddling with those red things hanging on the porch and I heard him say, 'Those hummers should be here any time now!' It sounds to me like he's getting TWO of them—one for him and one for Mary. I'm really hoping he's getting one for ME, too!"

"Dude, I don't think so! Those things cost a ton of money. Not to mention, they weigh a ton, too! Are you sure that's what he was talking about?"

"Of course I'm sure. What else would it be. We're getting Hummers! I can't wait to go on our first road trip! We'll rule the road!"

"If you say so, Dude, but I'm not gonna hold my breath waiting for this to happen. I think I'll just…

visit with Vinky and Vobble, maybe they'll be talking sense.

Zorro shrugged, "Fine, go. But you may not get to ride in my Hummer!"

"Vroom Vroom" Zorro went back to making car noises.

Vinky and Vobble welcomed Kyle into the Owlbox and Kyle was chuckling.
"What's up?" they asked in unison.

"That crazy Zorro! He thinks he, Dude and Mary are all getting Hummers!!"

"OOOooo," said Vinky and Vobble in unison. "But what's a Hummer?" asked Vobble.

"It's a huge gas guzzling vehicle that takes up to much space on the road, as far as I'm concerned," said Kyle!

Vobble replied "Yeah! Why would they need that when they have the steam punk rocket anyway?"

Vinky, Vobble and Kyle all laughed.

Meanwhile Zorro…

was anxious about making it through the flags in the video game. His heart was pounding, his head was throbbing when all of a sudden everything went dark. Power Outage! "No Way!!! Just as I was getting to the finish line!"

With that Zorro threw himself on the floor in the kitchen sobbing. And sobbing. And sobbing a bit more. He saw he was in reach of the refrigerator handle. "HMMMM" "I think I'll have me some cheeze!"

As he refiled through the cheeze bin he slipped inside when Mary entered the room and seeing the fridge door open, slammed it. "Say VacaDude - Stop leaving the fridge door open. And let's go, I think those hummers have arrived"

From inside the fridge Zorro could hear Mary and with his little paws he pounded and pounded on the cheeze bin to no avail. Then ...

everything went very quiet. Zorro realized that he was in a heap o' trouble. But then again, maybe not…

"It's a good thing I always wear my winter coat, cuz it's chilly in here. But it's not so bad, there's a whole pound of Velveeta right here beside me. Those hummer rides can wait."

Zorro starting eating Velveeta, wondering how long the test drive would take. He noticed the light in the fridge went out with the door closed. He was glad he had a pen light with him. Just then…

He heard the muffled voice of the Dude from outside the fridge. "I'll be there in just a minute," he was saying. "I want to try to fix this power outage, we don't want the food in the fridge to go bad!"

"You don't want the mouse in the fridge to go bad either! Let me out!" Zorro shouted. But his squeaky voice was too quiet and nobody heard him.

"But you're going to miss them!" Mary said. Zorro tilted a head in confusion. How would that work?

"No I won't, they'll be coming back here to eat all summer." The Dude reassured her.

Now Zorro was really confused. It didn't sound like the Dude was talking about cars anymore.

He kept yelling but no one heard him. The Dude went to the breaker box trying to see if he could fix the power and in a flash the power came back on.

Mary decided to go ahead and fix a snack for her and the Dude. She opened the fridge and noticed the Velveeta was half gone. She started to yell at the Dude for tapping into the cheeze when Zorro yelled, "Finally! Let me outa here!"

Mary heard Zorro and was scared and slammed the door shut. She yelled for the Dude. Zorro wept and said, "Oh no! Not again!

The Dude ran into the kitchen and…

met Mary running out.

"Oops!" he said. "What's wrong?"

"The refrigerator spoke to me!" Mary responded. She was clearly upset, so Vaca said soothingly "I'm sure the voice must have been coming from somewhere else. Let's have another look."

Vaca opened the refrigerator, and a small voice said clearly, "Did I miss the hummers?" The voice seemed to be coming from the cheese drawer and sounded familiar, so Vaca opened it and said, "Well, hello, Zorro. How did you get in there?"

"Never mind that now! said Zorro. "Are the hummers still here?"

"No. I'm afraid they've flown away. I'm sure they'll be back tomorrow" said Vaca soothingly, though wondering why Zorro cared so much. By now Zorro was even more confused, and…

Tomorrow?! Tomorrow?! Zorro hopped out of the cheese drawer and onto the kitchen floor, trailing cheese crumbs after him. "I can't wait until tomorrow! I want to see the Hummers now! And what color did you get for me!?"

"Color? For you? What do you mean Zorro?" asked the Dude. And once again Zorro was very kerfuzzled and bewildered and well, just plain confused.

"Why, I thought you and Mary and I were getting our own hummers and I wanted to know what color mine was."

The Dude was now very kerfuzzled and bewildered and well, just plain… Knock knock knock! The Dude looked up. Zorro looked up. Mary came running. "Who can that be?"

It was Kyle, just checking to see whether the hummers had arrived. He was also curious to what color the Dude and Dudette had gotten.

But before Vaca could get to the door, there was a tweet and a buzzzz and Kyle saw the most beautiful hummingbird on Vaca's front porch. The hummer was having a wonderful lunch on the red flowers in the hanging pot. When the Dude got to the door, the light bulb in his brain cell came on!

The dude laughed and thought he could have some fun. He invited Kyle in to talk to Zorro for a while while he went to his computer. After a bit he found what he was lookng for. He pulled out his Visa card and entered some numbers. Then he giggled. Then he called CC and put in an order for her famous Hummingbird Cake. He thought, "This is gonna be fun."

Then he called Zorro over. "Zorro, why not invite everyone over? It is a special occasion, after all."

Zorro nodded and scurried out the door, shouting up at Vinky and Vobble's box. "Hey guys, get the gang together, the Dude is going to show us the Hummers!"

The owlets popped their heads out of the door to the box and stared at Zorro. They turned to each other and shrugged, both still thinking Zorro must be wrong about something. Then they saw the Dude standing behind Zorro, winking at them. They grinned owly grins and flew off in different directions to gather as many friends as possible.

Before you knew it Tauntz and everyone was in the Dude's front yard. The neighbors starting coming over, then CC showed up with a ton of goodies. Just then Mary started…

to tell them all that it was very important for them to be very quiet and very still, because they had something special to show everyone. Almost as soon as they were all quiet and still…

Zorro stepped out on the front porch. "All right, Dude. This has gone on long enough. Where are our hummers?"

The Dude and Dudette both laughed. The crowd began giggling. The Dude said, "Zorro, just look up."

Zorro looked up. All he saw were some big gnats or bugs or something flitting around. Just then one of them flew right at him. He ducked and heard it humming as it flew by his head.

He swatted at it and said, "Dude, you gotta do something about these giant bugs. One of them looked like he wanted me for lunch. He was humming like he was getting ready to party—on ME!"

Then Zorro realized what he'd just said. "Humming… Hummers… Hmmmmmm… AWWWWW, DUDE!!!!! I'm not getting a hummer, am I?"

Everyone laughed some more. Zorro's cheeks were burning with embarrassment. He turned to go back inside when all of a sudden they all heard tires screeching. A UPS truck screeched to a sudden stop in front of the house. The driver grabbed a small package and ran to the door with it.

"I made it!" he panted. My boss said you paid extra for RUSH RUSH RUSH delivery and said I had to have it here by 5:00. I made it with 3 minutes to spare!"

The Dude grinned and handed the package to Zorro. Here, Buddy, I think this is for you."

Zorro tore off the wrapping and tore into the box to find… … …

A remote control Hummer! Just his size! He climbed in. The Dude took the controls and soon Zorro was zipping all over the yard in his very own bright red Hummer. The hummingbirds thought this looked like great fun and were soon chasing after him looking for something to eat.

Zorro hollered. "I knew it! I knew I was getting a hummer! Y'all can keep those overgrown bumblebees. I'll take my car any day!"


The End