A Busy Day At The Zoo

• Chani Geldenhuys, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2010

Shannon was playing zoos with her friends Bella and Tim. They chose a pink elephant, a blue giraffe, an orange crocodile, a red panda and a very cuddly teddy bear from Shannon’s big purple toy box to use as the animals for the zoo.

To make cages for the animals, Shannon put some blankets from her wardrobe in the bottom of cardboard boxes. Tim put one animal in each box with some of the fake food from Shannon’s play kitchen. Bella wrote an information sign for each animal and stuck it on the front of the cardboard box. After everything was set-up for the game, Shannon, Bella and Tim all went to the dress-up box in the corner of Shannon’s bedroom. They agreed that Tim would be the zookeeper and that the girls are the guests. They all dressed up in suitable clothing. Then they started the game.

The girls began at the elephant cage. Bella took pictures of the elephant while Shannon read the information sign. Next, the girls went to the panda cage. This time Shannon talked to zookeeper Tim, who said that there will be a free patting and cuddling hour later that afternoon. Bella was really happy when she heard the news and asked Shannon if they could come back that afternoon. Shannon said yes.

It was now time for lunch, so Bella, Tim and Shannon all had a picnic in the backyard. They had tuna sandwiches with a delicious fruit salad. As dessert they each had their own, mini Pavlova with chocolate muffins covered in warm custard. It was so yummy! After their picnic, the children went back to their game. This time they wanted to start with the giraffe cage, but the giraffe was gone!!

So was the crocodile AND the teddy bear.

Where were they?

Shannon checked under the bed, but they weren’t there. Bella checked in the cupboard, they weren’t there either.

Where could they be?

Tim looked under the pillows and blankets inside the cardboard boxes. Shannon checked outside to see if they brought them out with them. Bella checked the dress-up box.

They weren’t there.

When it felt like they had looked everywhere, they heard a scream of happiness and delight. It came from the toy box in the corner of the room.

Bella had found them covered with gold dust. They wondered where that came from. Everybody was so thrilled. They were extremely happy. So happy that they forgot what time it was. It had been a really fun day, but it was time for Tim and Bella to go home. With them they each carried one of Shannon’s toys. They were borrowing them for the week-end. Shannon hoped that Bella and Tim could come over and play zoos again, or something else, maybe.