Jenny And The Babysitting

• Catherine Mackie, Grade 4
• Short Story
• 2016

It started out like an ordinary day. Jenny’s little sister was annoying her silly by jumping on the bed while doing the chicken dance. Jenny was still half asleep, but as soon as she heard her Mum’s big footsteps clattering along the corridor, she knew Mum wasn’t happy, from past experience.
“Jenny get up, I have a job for you,” said Mum.
"But it’s Saturday,” said Jenny.
“I don’t care. Just get down stairs now!” Thump! Thump! Thump! Down the stairs she goes.
“Jenny, you need to babysit your sister because I’m going out for the day.”
“But it’s Saturday,” said Jenny.
“I already said I don’t care!” screeched Mum. Jenny was now really annoyed.
“Bye Jenny. Bye Annie. See you tonight.” Jenny asked Annie to eat her breakfast.
“But I want to go to the park in the forest.”
“Fine, but don’t tell Mum.”
“Okay,” said Annie, “Let’s go.” They walked to the park, but they had no idea what was coming in the forest. While Annie was playing, Jenny heard something. It definitely wasn’t a cat or dog. It sounded like a monkey, but not just any monkey. It was a talking monkey! At least she thought it was.
“Annie, stay here for a minute. I’ll be back.” At this point Jenny didn’t remember her mum’s number one rule. Never leave her sister alone outside in public! But she didn’t remember that right now so she walked on. She followed the noise and it led her to a big cave, a really big cave. She decided to go inside! It was creepy, wet and cold. There were lots of spider webs. When she got to the end of the cave, she saw where the sound was coming from all along. It was the talking monkey.
The monkey said, “Who are you?” Jenny was still dealing with the fact that he was a talking monkey.
“I said, who, are you?” said the monkey.
“I-I-I-I-I am Jenny,” she said in a nervous voice. “Wh-wh-wh who are you?”
“I am the Monkey of Awesomeness, and you are an intruder. Apes get her.”
“Wait,” said Jenny. “I haven’t done anything to you so why would you do anything to me?”
“Well you do have a point. Okay. You are free to leave.”
“Thanks but I don’t know the way back to the park. Could you help me?”
“Fine, but I only work until 12.00pm and I start at 9.00am.”
“Sounds good to me. Let’s go.”
The Monkey and Jenny set off, but by the time they got there, Annie was gone. At this point, Jenny knew what to do. She needed to look for Annie. They looked everywhere. But then Jenny thought about Annie’s favourite place to go, her friend’s house. She said goodbye to the monkey and headed off. Jenny found Annie and her friends playing together. She hated to ruin the magic but they needed to get home. They arrived home and lived happily ever after.