Inklings // December 2025 (Harold’s Tail)

The prompt for December’s Inklings link-up (check out the rules to link up here!) is a party scene in book or film. There are numerous lovely party scenes I could highlight, of course, but I decided to choose something from a book I don’t believe I’ve ever mentioned on my blog before: Harold’s Tail by John Bemelmans Marciano.

It’s a delightful little book about a squirrel who spends some time living on the streets of New York with a couple of rats when he loses his home after ‘switching tails’ with a rat. In this scene, Harold is about to go to his first party at Black Rock.

King drifted off to sleep, but I was too excited. I had never been to a party before. I watched the light from the window move across the floor as the sun passed over Manhattan, dust flickering brilliantly in its path. It slowly walked up the staircase, step by step, turning yellow, gold, orange, fading all the while, and as it was about to reach the door, it burned out.
I shook King awake. “It’s sundown, let’s go. Are you ready?” I said.
King rolled onto his back, yawned, and stretched. “We’ll go in an hour or so,” he said.
“But you said the party started when it got dark.”
“Yeah, yeah, it does, but in New York you never want to be on time to a party.” He wrinkled his nose. “It’s rude. You have to be at least an hour late. Two is better.”
That didn’t sound right, so I woke up Amelia. “Oh yes, it’s very rude to show up on time to a party,” she said. I was disappointed that I had to wait, but I didn’t want to be rude.
We finally left, but the trip lasted forever because of Omar. It took all three of us to shove him up the wall, and then he walked slowly and kept bumping into things.

…

We had climbed almost to Broadway and I didn’t see anything that looked like a big black rock. Could it be much smaller than I was expecting? There was just a row of town houses and a big apartment builing on the corner.
And then, there it was.
Between the buildings, behind a tall iron fence was a rock bigger than any I could have imagined. It reached up over two stories and was so black it seemed to absorb the light of the street lamps. The surface stabbed out in all directions. Discarded old cans, bottles, coffee cups, flyers, and delivery menus had collected in the crevices. Scrub trees hung precariously to the rock and swayed in the breeze. Black Rock stood horrible and desolate. It was the exact opposite of my golden island.
“Ain’t it great!” King said enthusiastically.

…

As we wound our way up, I started to hear the murmur of voices, and then, at the very top, everything came into view.
I felt uneasy, a little sick. There were whole turkeys and chickens scattered about, cans of every kind of soup and vegetable and gravy imaginable, plus pizzas, potato chips, Jell-O, french fries, cupcakes – everything. And all around, rats. Hundreds of them, laughing, joking, and eating. King, Amelia, and Omar were immediately swallowed up by the crowd. Everyone was their best friend.
Someone bumped into me and said, “Excuse me, friend. I didn’t see you back there.” He turned to face me, a small rat with a nice white smile. Then he looked me over and the corners of his mouth turned down. “You’re not from around here, are you? Are you from the Bronx or something? Westchester?” He squinted suspiciously. “You have an exotic look to you.”
“Actually, I’m a squirrel. My name’s Harold.”
The rat’s eyes bobbled in his head with surprise, and he burst into laughter. “Huh-huh-ho! Squirrels at Black Rock! I thought I’d seen everything. Hey, Two! Three! Come over here! You’ve got to meet this one!”

There’s more, but one has to stop somewhere. Now you just have to read the book to see what happens next.

Have you read Harold’s Tail? What’s the best party you ever attended? What’s your favorite type of rodent?

(Call me crazy, but I do have a great fondness for rats. This one here is my spirit animal.)