Jacko The World Penguin

• Maddison Farmer, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2020

I started off like any other penguin (in an egg). However my egg was blue with white speckled dots. Everyone else’s egg was white, like normal. From that moment on I know I was different. I had a different future from the rest. Every other penguin wanted to hunt for fish and spend time with their family. But not me, I was going to travel to see the world and other ways people live. From a young age I left the nest trying to get to the water, but my mother would stop me she warned me of the dangers of the water. I paid no attention to the dangers. I left our home at night to leave and travel. I touched the water to swim away and travel and I felt like a whole new penguin. I was ready to face any challenges (but maybe not the sea lions).
I got I couple of kilometres away from shore. And I large red tin object floated in front of me, then a net emerged from the water scooping up fish and even me. I tried to jump off but the fish were too slippery. A thing stared at me for a second and pulled me into the boat. My heart was racing. This person showed me to other people and they called me Jacko. I never thought I would have had a name. But I was known as Jacko for now. We got to the mainland and there were more and more boats, and shipping containers everywhere. The people put me in a box and sooner or later I was on a back of a truck. I could hear the sirens bellowing down streets and car horn beeping continuously at each other. Then someone opened the lid, and put their hand in to grab me. Me not knowing what to do I bit them with a large amount of force and made a run for it. I got to the dock and turned to the city and saw the name “new York”. I leaped into the making a massive splash and I was off.
I got to a beach it was very humid there were people swimming and using these devices to take pictures of me. A girl put some sunglasses on me and got someone else to take a picture. I was the new attraction at Hawaii. I lived like a king there. I was cleaned and fed, but after a couple of weeks people left. Their vacation was over.so I decided to leave too. I got to the end of the shallows and swam deep. I got a snack on the way
Then I was caught in a fishing. A broken fishing net underwater, and I needed to take a breath. I pulled and pulled. I eventually go my leg out. But it felt like I had a broken foot. I couldn’t swim any further so I rested for a bit on a deserted island. I kept my distance from the water just in case the tide came in a bit. In the morning my foot was worse but I wasn’t on the island I was on a boat to japan. The people on the boat took me too a vet and I was all fixed up after a couple of weeks. I learnt a lot of words in Japan. I don’t know what the words mean. In japan they put me in a zoo, but obviously they couldn’t keep me in forever.
I was getting old and it was hard for me to travel so I passed my travelling to my grand kids. They will be able to travel wherever and they can go to places I have never been. They can travel when I’m there and when I’m not.