The Mesa Where Footsteps Played Music

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20 pages, approximately 7 minutes while listening. Enter the child’s name in the reader above so the narrator can call the child’s name correctly.

1. 1

   At sunrise, the red-rock mesa stretched wide and warm, striped like a giant sleeping drum. When Milo hopped down from the dusty path, the stone answered bong-bing-bong, so bright and round that Ember’s ears popped straight up.

2. 2

   Ember gave the tiniest pounce. Plink! Plunk! Plinka-plunk! The little fox laughed and bounced again, making cactus bells shiver silver notes while two green lizards on a warm rock hummed along with their eyes half closed.

3. 3

   Beyond the first stones, a narrow trail crossed a deep crack in the mesa and curved toward an arch shaped like a listening ear. The trail was dotted with flat red slabs, each one quietly pulsing. Milo whispered, “Do you think it wants us to play?”

4. 4

   Milo felt fizzy with excitement. Before Ember could sniff the first slab, Milo skipped onto three stones at once. Clang-a-bang-bong! The mesa’s cheerful tune tangled into a wobble, and the humming lizards blinked as if someone had tickled the wrong whisker.

5. 5

   The last clank faded into the big quiet. Ember sat down, tail curled over his paws, and tipped one ear toward the trail. Under the silence came a soft pattern—dum, da-dum, dum—and Milo’s cheeks warmed as he listened too.

6. 6

   Milo crouched beside a scatter of ruby pebbles and tapped one with his sneaker toe. Plink! Ember’s ears sprang up as three nearby stones answered, softer and sweeter. “They’re saying hello,” Milo whispered, grinning so wide his cheeks felt sunny.

7. 7

   Ahead, flat stones curved across a shallow canyon like stepping-stones in a river of air. Each one pulsed with a different wooden note, low, high, low again. Milo took one careful breath, but Ember’s paws were already dancing at the edge.

8. 8

   “Wait—” Milo began. Ember sprang onto the first three stones, tail flashing like a little flame. Bonk-plink-BONG! The mesa’s song wobbled, and a flock of dust-puff moths fluttered up in a startled, sparkly cloud.

9. 9

   The stones did not break or fall; they simply lost their glow and hummed in a muddle. One stepping-stone slid sideways, leaving a gap too wide for Milo’s legs. Ember froze, ears low. “I made it messy,” he said in a very small voice.

10. 10

    Milo sat down at the canyon’s edge instead of scolding. He patted the stone beside him, and Ember crept close until their shoulders touched. Beneath the muddle, a quiet beat still thumped—dum, da-dum, dum—like the mesa was patiently clearing its throat.