Found this childrens story, Id written a while back. :) SALLY SALTOPUS STOPS BEING SILLY ABOUT HER SIZE The saltopus was an undersized dinosaur living in an age of giants. Being the size of a cat when everybody else around was thirty and forty feet (at least) was a ‘big’ hitch. No wonder then that Sally Saltopus, used to feel like a complete rotter because of her minute mass. Being tiny in a world of giant, soaring dinosaurs made her all iffy and whiny. “Why me?” she complained countless times to Deep, a gentle gigantic Diplodocus who was her best friend. Deep was so tall that he had to look through a pair of dino-culars to see his little friend clearly. “Why me? Why should I be so tiny? So Nano? Why? Kano? Everything around me is so oversized that I feel like a louse in giant’s hair, like…like a mole in a mammoth’s lair. Trapped, rapped! Oh why is life so unfair?” Deep gently tells her that life always seems unfair for those who think it is so. He tries to sell Sally the idea that size does matter, but in some cases being tiny and trim is better than being big and bloated. “Look at me.” he says. “Look at my make. Can you imagine the kind of backache I take from lugging this bulging bulk? Can you imagine the effort I have to make just to bend down and drink water from the stream? And all that juicy grass on the ground, dear Sally sis, I have to entirely miss, cos there’s no way that I can reach it. Sometimes, I wish I was small and compact like you. Really I do.” They were entering through the school gates talking like this. Sally was beginning to feel a bit better. But just then, the ‘terrible two’ of her class, Raja and Tex, (the former a dino from India and the latter the son of the terrifying T- Wrecks) piped up together: “Can you think of anything worse than being a Silly Salty Purse? On her two little legs, those skinny tiny pegs, she bends and begs, night after night, for higher height. Oh what a bally curse, it is to be Silly Salty Purse. Two little arms, soft as lily farms…” “Her name is Sally Saltopus, not Silly whatever you called her, you brutes.” For once, gentle Deep’s eyes shown with real anger. “Say sorry to Sally, or…or…” Raja and Tex just roared with laughter. Raja pointed to the razor sharp, meat eating teeth inside his maw and said, “See Saw, heehaw”. That’s how silly he was. The situation could have turned really ugly if Pater Petradon, their teacher had not swooped by that very moment screeching, “The last one into class will fill flowers in the vase.” As they trooped in hurriedly, Sally heard Tex whispering something like, “Saved by Pater? We’ll get you later!” The day dragged on. Sally dreamed that she was as tall as Deep. Deep made funny faces to try and cheer her up. Raja got punished for not trimming his nails and had to wear claw catchers for the rest of the day. Tex growled and bubbled, bullied and troubled the class whenever the teacher was not looking. At last the gong struck and it was time to go home. Walking back Deep made his steps as snug and slow as he could. Still Sally had to scamper to keep up. He crawled, she cantered, but as always their friendship kept perfect pace. Crawl-careen, shuffle-huff, crawl-shuffle, careen-huff. Moving in this fashion, Deep and Sally rounded on ‘cave-cave’ hill so named because it was dotted with caves of all shapes and sizes, some of whom tended to cave in without warning. “Hey! What’s that crowd doing? Oh no! I can see Raja and Tex there. Are they waiting for us?” But the crowd had its back to them. And all the dinosaurs there were staring at the opening of one of the caves. Tex was shouting, “Hex, Hex! Are you all right sis?” A thin reedy voice, a baby voice really came from inside the cave, “Help. My leg hurts! Ouch.” ‘Hex the explorer’ (Heth the ethplorer in her own words) was poking and nosing around everywhere, toddling and tumbling, rolling and bowling along like a bubble of mischief. Everybody loved her and her slightly goofy smile, but her elder brother Text just adored her. Today her exploration had taken her inside one of the caves. In the darkness, she had stumbled and fallen and injured her leg. Tex was pouring out this news to anyone who would listen. “And the opening of the cave is too small for anybody to get inside and save her.” Raja added waving his claw catchers. “Small?” wondered Sally as she moved in between the feet of the crowd to reach the front. “It may be small for these soaring dinosaurs. But a skitter like me can move inside without any difficulty. But… but… it looks so scary dark.” As she hesitated, a call for help came from inside once again. Sally found herself moving, crossing the entrance of her fears. As her eyes adjusted to the lack of light, she found that she was inside a hollow with an uneven rough floor. There were rocks of different sizes strewn around. Hex must have stumbled and hurt herself on one of them. But there was no sign of the little one. Then one of the round mounded shapes moved. “Thally? Thave me. I am here.” And suddenly Sally was face to face with Hex the little T-Rex. Her leg looked twisted and swollen. She would have to be carried out. But how? Though Hex was still a tot, she was already twice the size of the tiny saltopus. There was no way that Sally could carry her. She thought and thought, then went back to the opening of the cave. “Hey Tex.” She called, “Your sister has injured her leg. I cannot move her. But you sit with your back to the cave and let your tail inside. I will ask Hex to catch it in her mouth and then you can pull her outside.” There was commotion outside, the sound of movement and a huge scaly tail slithered inside. Sally caught the end and took it to Hex who took a firm grip of it with her teeth. “Now pull. Yes that’s it. Wait. Wait. It’s caught between two rocks. Here let me move it. Yes. That’s better. Go.” In this manner, slowly and carefully ‘Heth the ethplorer’ was pulled out of the pit. Her leg was examined and it turned out to be no more than a bad sprain. “Thally thaved me. Three cheerth for Thally.” shouted the cheerful explorer. There was a load of cheering and shouting and congratulating. Sally found herself being lifted and carried high by Tex in a victory procession. For once Sally was taller than the tallest dinosaur in her class. And she thought, “Hmm…So that’s what the earth looks like from up there! The trees look like shrubs. The shrubs look like grass. And … and I can hardly make out the blades of grass at all. Ooh! It’s so high that I feel quite giddy.” She spoke aloud, “Ahoy. I say please put me down. I feel like an airy fairy up here. That may be good for some, but I don’t like it.” Sally was never again sorry about being small. Bharat Shekhar
Posted on: Fri, 18 Jul 2014 07:00:59 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015