The Tale of the One-Upper

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

         Hayden the turtle sat in the clearing waiting for his friends to arrive.  He was trying hard to come up with a decent story to tell his friends.  They always seemed to have the most interesting stories, and he felt like he never had anything interesting to say.  Today he was bond and determined to have stories that were better than his friends’ stories.

            Before long Xavier the frog, Emerson the dragonfly, and Summer and Madison the butterfly twins all arrived in the clearing.  Xavier was all excited because he had just seen the most enormous fly on his way to meet his friends.

            “Hey guys, I just saw the biggest fly I have ever seen!” exclaimed Xavier.  “It was sitting on a rock on the side of the path.  It had to be the size of Emerson’s head and abdomen put together.  I was so shocked that I forgot to try to catch it before it flew away.”

            “Oh, that’s nothing,” said Hayden trying to be big and bold.  “I once saw a fly that was as big as one of the butterfly twin’s wings.  It was sitting on a blackberry bush and was almost as big as my head.  It scared the life out of me when it flew close to me.”

Illustration by Audra  Age:  2
Mrs. Natalie's Childcare

            “Really,” said the twins together.  “What did you do?” asked Summer.

            “I pulled into my shell until I was sure it was gone,” said Hayden.  “I didn’t want to have anything to do with monster.”

            His friends laughed, and Hayden felt big and important.  He was finally the center of attention.  Xavier, however, seemed a little upset that his story had been ignored.

            Then the twins started telling a story about a flower they had seen yesterday.  “We saw this flower yesterday over by the fence between the tall grass and the people yard,” started Summer.  “It was like a rose, but it was blue with just a hint of purple in it,” finished Madison.

            “You think that’s cool?” asked Hayden as he tried to turn the attention back on himself.  “Once I saw a flower that was six different colors.  It had red, yellow, orange, brown, black, and pink in it.  It was like a zinnia that couldn’t decide which color it wanted to be.”

            Emerson laughed and Xavier laughed a little, but Summer just looked at Hayden with a hurt look on her face.  Madison gave Hayden a nasty look.

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

            Then Emerson started a story about this toy he found over by the fence between the tall grass and the people yard.  “Hey guys, yesterday when I was flying around, I saw this thing lying in the grass next to the big fence.  It was shiny and red with wheels.  I just wished it was big enough for us to fit inside so we could play with it.”

            “Well last week,” started Hayden, “when I was over by the blackberry bushes, I saw this great big toy with wheels.  It would have been perfect for us to play in.”

            “Well, why didn’t you tell us about it last week?” asked Madison glaring at Hayden.

            Hayden was caught off guard by Madison’s question.  All of a sudden he felt put on the spot instead of being the center of attention.  He stuttered and stammered for a moment, and then fell silent.

            “I’ll tell you why you didn’t tell us about it because it didn’t happen,” accused Madison.  “Did it, Hayden?”

            Hayden started to defend his story, but Madison jumped back in, “None of those stories were true.  Were they, Hayden?”

            Hayden faced turned red as a beet.  Madison was right.  None of the stories he had told were true.  However, he really didn’t want to admit that at the moment.

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

            “They were true,” said Hayden becoming less sure of himself with every passing moment.

            “Really,” said Madison.  “Then show us the flower with the six different colors.  I want to see that.”

            Hayden tried to think of a response quickly, but instead he crumbled under the pressure.  “Okay, okay,” said Hayden desperately.  “You’re right, Madison.  I made up all those stories.”

            “Why in the world would you do that?” asked Summer. 

            “I wanted you guys to listen to my stories for a change,” said Hayden as he looked down at the ground.  “I just wanted to be interesting for once.”

            “Well, nobody likes being lied to,” said Madison.  “And nobody likes someone who has to always have a better story.”

            “Yeah,” said Xavier.  “You made us all feel bad when you tried to make our stories seem less interesting than yours.”

            “Sorry, guys,” said Hayden as he looked up from the ground.  “It felt good at first to be the center of attention, but now I feel awful.”

            “Just don’t do it again,” said Madison and the others agreed.

            Hayden promised not to try that again, and the others forgave him.  Hayden let everyone retell their stories without interrupting, and for the rest of the afternoon they took turns making up imaginary stories together.  They even let Hayden make up big parts of the story since he had shown such a knack for coming up with wild tales.