Once upon a
time, in a land not so far away, lived a four year old boy called Tom. He lived
with his Mama and Baba in a beautiful cottage, next to a big jungle. Tom’s Baba
worked in the cheese factory in town, which was a very good thing for Tom as he
could eat as many cheese slices as he wanted.
Tom loved to peel off the plastic and break the cheese into small pieces
and eat them. He had them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Tom loved cheese.
Every morning,
Tom’s Baba would get into his shiny new red car and drive to work and every
morning he told Tom not to go into the jungle on his own: “It’s a very big
jungle and is full of creepers, bushes and trees and you will lose your way and
never will be able to return home”. That worried Tom as he loved his Mama and
Baba and if he got lost he would not be able to be with them. Also, he would
miss having cheese.
During the
day, while Tom’s mama did her cooking and housework, Tom played in the garden.
Their garden had a swing, a sand pit and lots of flowers. Tom loved running
about in the garden, making sand castles and playing on the swing. He would
swing himself very fast and then hold his head back and look up at the blue sky
and observe the white clouds that looked like big cotton balls to him. He could
usually see Mickey Mouse floating by and once he even saw Barney!
One day,
Tom was watching the clouds when suddenly a big blue butterfly came over his
head. The wings were as blue as the sky and the edge of the wings were dark as
the night.
Suddenly,
the butterfly spoke: “Hello Tom, I am the king of the butterflies and wanted to
talk to you”. The voice was velvety with a nice flutter.
Tom
recovered from his surprise and asked: “How do you know my name and what do
want to talk to me about?”
The king
butterfly replied: “I have been watching you for a few days now and have heard
your Mama call your name. I think you are a very intelligent boy and I wanted
to ask your help for a matter of grave importance.”
Tom didn’t really
know what grave was but he could make out from the king butterfly’s fluttery
voice that it was important: “Sure I will help you if I can, what is the
problem?”
“Thank you so much, Tom” said the king butterfly and continued, “For you to understand
our problem, you will have to come with me into the jungle and meet all the
butterflies and talk to us. Shall we go?”
Tom’s heart
sank. He really wanted to help the butterflies but go into the jungle? He did
not want to get lost and miss his cheese for lunch. He got off from the swing
and sat down on the ground with his chin in his hands. What should he do?
Seeing that
Tom was worried, the king butterfly said “Don’t worry Tom, I will guide you
inside the jungle and I promise to bring you back home before lunch”
Tom smiled
and said “C’mon then, we must go quickly”
They set
off into the jungle with the kind butterfly flying near the top of the trees
and Tom following on the tiny path below. On both sides of the path there were
thick bushes and wide trunks of the tall trees that towered into the sky.
Suddenly
Tom heard a rustling sound to his right. He was startled to see a small brown
smiling face with two big ears starting at him. It was a monkey! “Where are you
going, Tom” asked the monkey. “I am going with the king butterfly to help him
with a problem” said Tom. The monkey stopped smiling and with a worried
expression said “You must be very careful, the butterflies are very dangerous”.
And the monkey disappeared into the bush.
Tom was most amused, thinking to himself as he skipped along the path
behind the king butterfly “Butterflies and dangerous? What nonsense”
Tom had
barely gone a few yards, when he heard another noise, this time to his left.
Over the bushes, he could see two long ears sticking out. It was a rabbit! And
next to the rabbit was a sad looking donkey. And as he moved the bushes aside,
he could see a bear, a baby kangaroo, a striped creature, a small pig and a
baby elephant. And suddenly he noticed up on a tree a bird like creature with
big round eyes.
They all
reminded Tom of something he had seen somewhere. Do you know who they were?
Suddenly
Tom remembered “They all look like my friends from Winnie the Pooh” he said to
himself “Rabbit, Eyore, Pooh, Roo, Tigger, Piglet, Lumpy and Owl!” But what
were they doing here?
Suddenly,
they all started speaking “Tom, what are you doing here?”
“I am going with the king butterfly to help
him with a problem” said Tom.
All of them
went silent and then Rabbit said “Tom that is not very clever of you, the
butterflies are verrrrry dangerous. And we are very scared of them”. All the
other animals nodded in agreement.
Tom noticed
that the king butterfly was getting ahead so he waved at the animals and ran
after the butterfly thinking to himself “There is something strange going on
here and I am going to find out what” Tom was a very brave boy.
After a few
minutes, the path abruptly ended and Tom found himself in a clearing in the
middle of the jungle. And what did he see? There were hundred and hundreds of
butterflies floating around. They were of every colour possible-brown, red,
yellow, green, violet, and of all possible combinations-some were blue with red
spots, others were green with red stripes..there were so many..
The king
butterfly took Tom to the centre of the clearing and said “Tom is here to help
us”. All the butterflies started twittering at the same time. “Shh” said the
king butterfly loudly and there was silence.
“Tom” said
the king butterfly “We are all very worried about these dangerous creatures
that live next to the jungle.”
“What
creatures?” asked Tom.
The king
butterfly said “Strange ones, one has long ears, there is one with round large
eyes that keeps looking at us, one has strange stripes and keeps jumping up and
down, then there is one with a looong nose,,”
And all the
other butterflies said in one voice “They are verrrrry dangerous!”
Tom started
smiling. His face broke into a wide grin. This upset the butterflies. “You are
laughing at our troubles” said one orange butterfly.
“No, no”
said Tom “I was smiling because I can solve your problem. You wait here and I
will be back in a minute.
Tom ran
back down the path to where the animals were waiting. He explained to them how
both the butterflies and the animals were afraid of each other and asked them
to come with him.
“No no”
said the piglet “it is too dangerous.” “Could be a trap” said the donkey. They
were not convinced, till owl and rabbit had a discussion and then owl said “We
trust Tom, we will go with him” So, off they trooped behind Tom and entered the
clearing.
On seeing
the animals all the butterflies went into a tizzy and started flying here and
there. The animals also got alarmed and piglet ran back down the path.
“What is
this, Tom? You have brought our enemies here” said the king butterfly.
“No, no,
listen to me all of you.” said Tom “You are both scared of each other, when
there is nothing to be afraid about. All of you are very nice and should be
friends.”
“Friends?”
said the donkey.
“Friends?”
said the yellow butterfly.
“Friends?”
said the baby elephant.
“Yes,
friends” said Tom.
The king
butterfly flew over to where the owl and rabbit were standing and asked “Can we
be friends?”
“Why not?”
said the owl
Everyone
broke into laughter and started dancing with happiness. “Friends, friends” was
what you heard all over.
The king
butterfly flew over to Tom, who was standing in the corner smiling broadly and
said “Tom, thank you so much, we will be grateful to you forever”
“Now, let
me take you back home, it’s almost lunchtime.”
Tom ran
behind the butterfly through the jungle. He didn’t want to be late for lunch.
His Mama would be very worried.
As he burst
into his garden, he could hear his Mama’s voice “Tom, lunch is ready”
He turned
around, waved at the king butterfly and ran into the kitchen all excited “Mama,
you won’t believe what I did!”
“Yes, yes,
I will listen. First go wash your hands and eat your cheese.” said Mama.
Tom sat
down with a smile to eat his cheese.
And
everyone lived happily ever after.
