The Tale of the Bad Tale

Illustration by Emerson  Age:  4 Paris, TN
Mrs. Natalie's Childcare

Hayden the turtle sat in the clearing all alone.  His friends Audra the duck, Emerson the dragonfly, and Xavier the frog had not yet come to the clearing as usual.  Hayden had set out for the clearing an hour ago because it takes him so long to get there.  Now all he could do was wait.

He sighed, “My life is so slow and boring.  I wish my life was more exciting.”

Just then Audra the duck came into the clearing.  “Good morning, Hayden,” she said.  “Where is everyone?”

“I don’t know,” Hayden replied. 

“Maybe they will be here in a minute,” Audra said.  “I want to tell them about the rock I found in the pond this morning.”

Hayden was tired of all his friends having stories to tell about things that happened to them.  He felt left out. 

“Hey, you know, Audra,” started Hayden, “once I found a diamond on the bottom of the pond.”

“Really!” exclaimed Audra.  “What did you do with it?”

Before he could answer, Emerson the dragonfly flew into the clearing and landed beside them.  “Hey guys,” Emerson said, “what you doing?”

“Hayden’s telling about when he found a diamond in the pond,” said Audra.

Emerson leaned in close to Audra to listen. 

Illustration by Talan  Age:  3  Paris, TN
Mrs. Natalie's Childcare

“Well, as I was saying,” Hayden began again, “once I found a diamond on the bottom of the pond.  I picked it up and took it to my home.  I hid it in my bedroom, but someone stole in the night!”

At this point Xavier the frog hopped into the clearing.  “What you doing?” he asked.

“Hayden’s telling us about his stolen diamond that he found in the pond,” explained Emerson.

With big eyes, Xavier settled in next to his friends to listen.

Now Hayden was not an experienced storyteller.  He had done okay up until this point, but he was running out of ideas of what could happen next.

“When they stole it they made a horrible mess in my room,” Hayden continued starting to squirm a little, “and I cried because they stole my diamond.”

At this point Audra became suspicious because Hayden was starting to act a little funny.  “Did you really find a diamond or are you just making that up?” asked Audra.

Illustration by Hayden  Age:  2  McKenzie, TN
Mrs. Natalie's Childcare

Hayden face turned red as a beet.  “No, it really happened,” said Hayden defiantly.  “I swear.”

Now his other two friends were getting suspicious.  “Hayden, it’s not cool to lie to your friends,” said Emerson.

Hayden could tell that his friends did not believe him, and that made his face get even redder.  Finally, he broke down in tears and confessed, “Okay, I didn’t find a diamond in the pond.  Happy?”

“Why would you tell us that?” asked Audra.  “You’ve never told us stories before.”

“I’m tired of always being the boring one,” said Hayden.

“We don’t think you’re boring,” said Xavier.  “You do lots of things.”

“You really don’t think I’m boring?” Hayden asked as he looked at his friends.

Illustration by Audra  Age:  Almost 2  Paris, TN
Mrs. Natalie's Childcare

“No,” said all three friends together. 

“You are our friend and we’ve done lots of cool things together,” added Audra.

“Sorry I lied to you,” said Hayden as he hung his head.

“It’s okay,” Emerson replied.  “Just don’t do it again.”

For the rest of the afternoon the four friends pretended to be pirates.  The rock Audra had found became a valuable diamond.  They buried it and drew a treasure map intending to find their way back to it on another afternoon.