Kookaburra's Ball

• Ellen Gittins, Grade 4
• Short Story
• 2014

When Hedgehog was outside checking his mail, he saw all the other animals excited about something.When he opened the letter box he saw something, it was an invitation. It read
‘Dear animals of the bush, I am inviting you all to my ball. Please come in pairs today at 4pm. From Kookaburra’
Then Hedgehog realised what all the animals were doing, they were asking each other to be their partner for the ball. He also realised that he should be doing that too. So off he went.
First he asked Possum, but she said “I am already going with Flying Fox”. Then he asked Kangaroo, but she said “Sorry, I’m going with Wallaby.” Finally, he asked Rabbit, but she was going with Hare.
So poor little hedgehog shuffled to a lonely corner of the forest floor, curled up and started to cry. Big tears fell from his cheeks and dripped down in puddles all around him. The sky suddenly turned black and it began to rain.
The rain pelted down harder and harder as little hedgehog cried louder and louder.
A fox walked by, but did not ask what was wrong. A turtle walked by, but did not even glance at him. Then just as little hedgehog had given up all hope, he heard a voice “Hello, my name is Echidna. What is yours?”
Hedgehog sniffed noisily and answered “My name is Hedgehog”.
“Why are you crying?“ asked Echidna.
“Because no one will take me to Kookaburra’s ball. All the other animals have partners.” He replied downheartedly.
“Well I don’t have a partner” said Echidna brightly “Perhaps I could be your partner?” As soon as Echidna said this the sky lit up and Hedgehog leapt to his feet.
“Really, you mean it? You want to go with me?” said Hedgehog in a surprised voice. “Yes”said Echidna
“Do you think we should give her a present?” asked Echidna.
So as they were walking along they started thinking. They were thinking so hard that they didn’t notice that that their spines were tangled in spider web, until Dingo came along and told them. After they had untangled themselves from the sticky web, Hedgehog had a great idea. “Why don’t we take out some of our pickles and knit her a scarf out of this web? “
“Great idea!” said Echidna, so they did just that. Then on the night of the ball they presented it to Kookaburra, who said that it was the best gift ever.
With a joyful feeling inside of them they boogied the whole night long.
But that is not the end of our little tale that we are telling. Little hedgehog went home to bed very late that night and the next morning when he went to check his mail he saw hundreds of ball invitations, his mail box was over flowing with them. But all he did was smile and set off to find his good friend Echidna.