Wednesday, July 24, 2013

The Tale of the Missing Waterlily


Illustration by Summer  Age:  8  Paris, TN
           Audra the duck sat on Polliwog Pond in the early morning sun.  She was admiring the waterlily that had bloomed recently before she started looking for her breakfast.  Yesterday her three friends, Emerson the dragonfly, Xavier the frog, and Hayden the turtle, and she had talked about how beautiful this particular waterlily was.  They all believed it was the prettiest flower any of them had ever seen.
            After a few minutes she ducked her head under the water looking for fat, juicy waterbugs.  They were her favorite breakfast.  Suddenly she spied the fattest waterbug she had ever seen.  She snapped at it, but missed.  This waterbug was fast, but she kept after it.  The waterbug swam over close to the stem of the water lily with Audra hot on its trail.  She snapped at the bug, but instead of the bug she snapped the stem of the waterlily completely in two.  Not realizing what she had just done, she continued to chase the bug until she finally caught it a few minutes later.  She came to the surface to enjoy the bug and saw the waterlily drifting out into the deep water.
            “Oh no!!” exclaimed Audra, “what have I done?”
            Just then, Xavier the frog landed on a lily pad not far from where Audra was swimming.
            “Good morning, Audra,” said Xavier.
            Not wanting anyone to know what she had just done, she gulped down her bug and said in a small voice, “Good morning, Xavier.”
            Xavier began to look around and asked, “Where is that waterlily we saw yesterday?  Wasn’t it right here?”
            Before Audra could say anything, Hayden the turtle walked up to the nearby shore.  Xavier called out to Hayden, “Good morning, Hayden.  Hey, do you know what happened to the waterlily that was here yesterday?”
            “I don’t know,” said Hayden.  “I hope nothing happened to it.  Are you sure it was here?”
            At this point Audra was on the verge of crying.  She didn’t want to lie to her friends, but she thought they would get mad at her if they knew what she had done.
            Audra opened her mouth to say something just as Emerson the dragonfly flew up to the friends.  “Hey guys,” called Emerson, “I just saw a waterlily floating out into the deep water that looks just like the one we saw here yesterday.  Wait, where is the waterlily?”
            Audra couldn’t stand it any longer.  She began to wail and cry trying to explain to her friends what happened to the beautiful waterlily.  It took several minutes for them to finally understand what she was talking about because she was crying so hard.
            “It’s okay, Audra,” said Xavier.  “It was an accident.  You didn’t mean to snap the waterlily’s stem.”
            “ I feel awful that we have lost such a beautiful waterlily,” cried Audra.
            “Maybe there is another one somewhere on the pond, “ said Emerson hopefully. 
            Emerson flew off to see if he could find another waterlily.  He really wanted to make Audra feel better about what happened to the other one.  After a few minutes he returned to his friends.
            “Hey guys, follow me,” said Emerson.  “I want to show you something.”
            The three friends followed Emerson as he led them to the other side of the pond.  Sure enough, Emerson had found another waterlily just as beautiful as the one that floated away.
            Audra dried her tears and smiled at Emerson.  “Oh, it’s just like the other one,” she exclaimed.  “Thank you, Emerson.  Now I don’t feel so bad about the other one.”
            “You're welcome,” said Emerson.
            The four friends sat for a while admiring and talking about the new waterlily.  Then they returned to the other side of the pond.  Audra swore to herself that she would not hunt for her breakfast anywhere near the new waterlily.  She never wanted to accidently do that again.

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