The Tale of the Great Whine

Illustration by Leyex  Age:  5
Ms. Jana Bruce's Kindergarten class

          Emerson the dragonfly sat on a cattail next to Polliwog Pond.  He was not happy.  He had wanted a certain fly for breakfast, but it got away, and he had to settle for a much smaller fly.  Then we he went to find his friends, no one was out yet.  This just had not been his day.

            Finally, Xavier the frog came hopping down the path toward the pond.  “Good morning, Emerson,” said Xavier.  “Where is everyone?”

            “I don’t know,” said Emerson.  “Seems like no one wants to play with me today.”

            “Well, I’m here,” said Xavier.

            “Yeah, but what can just two do,” whined Emerson.  “I wanted to play tag, and that’s no fun with just two people.”

            “Well, why don’t we play something else until everyone else gets here,” suggested Xavier.

            “I don’t want to play if we can’t play tag,” said Emerson.

Illustration by Morrigin  Age:  5
Ms. Jana Bruce's Kindergarten class

            Xavier was just about to get angry with Emerson when Summer and Madison, the butterfly twins, flew up.  “Hey guys,” the twins said together.  “What are you doing?”

            “I’m trying to suggest something to play,” said Xavier, “and Emerson is whining about everything.”

            “I am not,” stated Emerson.

            Xavier just ignored him and said to the twins, “What do you guys want to play?”

            “Let’s play hide and seek,” suggested the twins.

            “But I want to play tag!” exclaimed Emerson.  “I’ve been waiting all morning for enough people to get here so we could play tag.”

            “Maybe we don’t want to play tag,” said Madison giving Emerson a stern look.

            “You guys never want to do what I want to do,” whined Emerson.  “I hate hide and seek.  If you don’t want to play tag then I don’t want to play with you.”

            “Fine!” exclaimed the three friends, and then they all took off for the clearing leaving Emerson sitting on the cattail.

            For a while, Emerson sat on the cattail complaining to himself about how his friends always mistreat him.  Then Hayden the turtle lumbered up to the pond and said, “Good morning, Emerson.  Where is everybody?”

            “My so-called friends left me here to go play hide and seek in the clearing,” complained Emerson.

            Hayden very quickly realized Emerson was in one of “those” moods and tried to figure out how he could go find his other friends without making Emerson even worse.

            “Okay,” said Hayden cautiously.  Then he said nothing for a little while.

            “Fine!” exclaimed Emerson all of a sudden.  “I guess you want to go play with them, too.  Go ahead!  Nobody loves me anyway!”

            Hayden didn’t know how to deal with Emerson when he got like this so he decided to just start heading for clearing.  When he arrived at the clearing Xavier and the twins were happily playing hide and seek.  Hayden joined them as they started a new round.

            For a good long while Emerson sat on that cattail telling himself about all the horrible things his friends had ever done to him.  He had just about convinced himself that he had no friends at all when he suddenly looked around.  He realized he was all alone.  He listened and heard his friends’ laughter from the clearing.  All at once, he felt very lonely and wanted more than anything to be with his friends.

            Slowly, he flew in the direction of the clearing.  He landed on a piece of tall grass on the edge of the clearing and watched his friends play for a few minutes.  Then he got up enough courage to speak to them.  “Hey guys, can I play, too?” he asked.

            “Do you want to play hide and seek?” asked Madison.  “Or are you going to whine at us until we play tag?”

            “I’ll play hide and seek,” said Emerson in a small voice.

            “Then you can play,” said Xavier.

            Emerson joined his friends, and before long his mood improved greatly.  He forgot all the horrible things he had thought and said about his friends while sitting on the cattail.  He was having way too much fun now.