That Sunday, when Mom opened the window, in came a chilly breeze that smelled of dry leaves. “The real cold is here,” said Mom. “Time for your new coat.” The coat was red, with a hood and two enormous pockets.
Ivy looked it up and down and crossed her arms. “I'm not wearing it. It's itchy, it's heavy, and it looks like a sleeping bag.” “Then wear your thick sweater,” said Mom. “The coat can come in the bag, just in case.”
Ivy grabbed Spike, her stuffed hedgehog, and off they went to the park. At the park, the wind made the yellow leaves dance across the ground. Ivy chased them for a good long while.
But soon her hands got cold and her nose turned pink. “I'm a little bit cold,” she admitted, very quietly. “Want your coat?” Mom asked, opening the bag.
“No!” said Ivy. “It's itchy.” She sat down on a bench and hugged Spike against her sweater. Then she noticed a pile of dry leaves at the foot of a tree.
She remembered something Grandpa had told her. Real hedgehogs make a bed of leaves to get through the winter. A warm, cozy burrow, where they sleep until spring.
Ivy looked at Spike. His spikes were stiff, as if he were shivering. “You need a burrow too,” she told him.
She took the coat out of the bag and looked at it for a while. Then she tucked Spike into the big pocket, with his nose peeking out. And so Spike wouldn't get cold, she put the coat on herself.
One arm, the other arm, and the zipper all the way up to her chin. Mom raised her eyebrows, but she didn't say a word. “It's a burrow,” Ivy explained. “And on the inside, it isn't itchy.”
At the edge of the park was a roasted chestnut stand, smoky and smelling like fall. The chestnut seller handed them a paper cone full of hot chestnuts. Ivy slipped one into her other pocket to warm her hands.
“Now Spike has heating,” she said, and Mom burst out laughing.
That night, Ivy hung the red coat on the chair next to her bed. “We'll wear it tomorrow too,” she whispered to Spike. Spike stayed on the pillow, and the coat, on the chair, seemed to stand guard.
Outside, the wind was blowing, but in her room everything was calm. Ivy pulled the covers up to her ears, yawned and closed her eyes. Goodnight, Ivy…
