Garden Gnomes

• Penelope Chan, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2013

Going down the pebble path with mischief in his hand stood a Gnome called Jolly. Jolly was off to set fire to the garden of friendship since he had no friends. Jolly wanted friends but everyone knew he was mischief. Then out of nowhere appeared a little girl and her name was Polly. Polly had never seen a gnome before so she screamed Jolly froze then Polly froze and said with a quivering voice,” Who are you and what are you doing in my garden?” Jolly tried to speak but there was no use he was speechless. Jolly fainted. Next thing he knew he was in an unknown place, Jolly sat up and said,” Where am I and what am I doing here?” Polly came in and said,” Oh you are awake so what is your name and where do you come from?” Jolly replied,” my name is Jolly and I came from Gnome land and I don’t have any friends at gnome land so I wanted to run away.” Jolly felt bad that he was lying but he knew he wanted a friend and he thought he would be good friends with the girl called Polly. Jolly started crying he didn’t want to lie to Polly anymore he had to tell her. Jolly yelled out,” I am sorry about lying to you I just wanted to actually have a friend but I didn’t want to tell you that I came to burn down your garden because it is the friendship garden in Gnome land. But since I don’t have any friends I thought I would burn it down and no one would then be friends and then they would feel the same as me and then they will actually want to be friends with me and then everyone could be friends with everyone not just certain people the king tried to help me but he just made things worse. Even my family won’t talk to me, I just talk to my self and no one else I feel so lonely. I always hide in corners I am never invited to town meetings, parties and family gatherings.”Polly felt so bad for Jolly that she started crying in sadness and at that moment her Mum started knocking on the door. Jolly got so scared he fell off the bed and froze. Polly’s Mum walked in and said,” What are you crying for and why do you have a garden Gnome in your room when you know it belongs in the garden?” Polly screamed and tried to take the gnome but there was a consequence for that and that was a spanking and a five minute warning to stay in her room until she had settled down a bit and then she could have dinner. Polly settled down and was brought dinner. Polly felt sad for a bit but she soon cheered up with an excellent plan to save Jolly. After her parents went to sleep she sneaked outside to find Jolly at that moment Jolly was trying to get into the house to see Polly.On the way out Polly hit Jolly with the door.Jolly got up from the floor and hugged Polly with all his might. Jolly and Polly got mysteriously swished off to gnome land the king wanted to see them and congratulate Jolly form finding a friend, Polly turned into a gnome she often visited her worried parents they often didn’t recognize her. Polly felt so happy that she just wanted to kiss Jolly. Jolly had a lot more friends now.

Thanks a lot to POLLY!