Caught in the Act

Deep in the heart of Africa in a small valley between the mountains lived all sorts of animals. You could say that these animals were part of a big family.  They all took very good care of each other.  There were giraffes, lions, monkeys, birds, and elephants.  Each played their own role in this part of the jungle.  The giraffes gathered food from the tall trees, the lions went hunting on the other side of the valley, and the elephants gathered water from the stream.  The birds and monkeys usually helped out as well with cleaning and other work that needed to be done.  There were two little animals in particular though that didn’t help with a darn thing.  Dora the monkey and Billy the Elephant always seemed to be goofing around.  Sure they were only 10 years old, but they definitely needed to learn a little responsibility.  The other animal children always helped out their parents, did their homework, and had good manners, but not Dora and Billy; they were quite the mischievous pair.

            It was coming close to the end of the fall, and all the animals were getting ready for the big harvest.  Now Dora and Billy had been told for weeks that no matter what, they would need to help out with the harvest because the snow was coming earlier than normal this year.  Their teacher, Mrs. Chimp, had been explaining this fall about the proper way to harvest the berry bushes.  You see in this part of the jungle only the children could harvest the berry bushes because they grew in lighted parts of the forest. If you went any further than the purple berry bushes you could get lost or even stolen by the mysterious animals in the trees such as warthogs, pythons, and tigers.  The adults were the only ones allowed in the dark parts because they could fight and ward off these creatures.

 Day after day went by, and finally the time came.  Everyone woke up very early so they could get a good start and be done with the days work by dinnertime.  The giraffes, lions, and elephants headed off into the dark parts of the forest with their baskets.  The children all headed to school to see Mrs. Chimp and get further instructions for their berry bushes.  Dora and Billy walked in the back of all the children, very unhappy that they had to do this today because they would have rather played in the banana trees.  Dora suddenly had a brilliant idea to get out of the harvesting.  She simply told Billy that they would go to school like normal, but then while everyone else was picking and gathering, they would run off to the other side of the jungle towards the banana trees.  Billy also thought this was a brilliant plan because Mrs. Chimp and the other adults would be busy harvesting, and no one would be around the banana trees. 

They went to class as planned and grabbed their baskets and followed the other children to the berry bush area.  They waited for a while until Mrs. Chimp answered another child’s question, then they both took off as quickly as possible.  Mrs. Chimp had turned and saw them scurrying off into the trees.  She didn’t say anything but had a brilliant plan to catch Billy and Dora and even give them a little scare. 

Billy and Dora ran as fast as they could for what seemed like miles.  They finally stopped to rest and laugh about their getaway.  They realized they were in the depth of the dark forest.  It was very quiet and they didn’t see anyone.  Billy told Dora in a scared voice that they should definitely try and find a way out of here.  Dora stood around looking in each direction and then realized that the adults were picking, so if they walked around a little bit, they would find one who could help them out.  Billy immediately shot that idea down and explained to Dora that if they did that they would be in big trouble.  Dora ignored Billy, and they began to walk.  They suddenly heard something in the bushes behind them.  They looked at each other and hurried into a clearing.  Billy reminded Dora that there were dangerous animals out in this part of the forest that might do them harm.  Dora was a little shaky but told Billy they should continue to move on and find someone.  Just then Billy had a little tap on his shoulder from something big and black behind him.  He didn’t even bother to turn around; he and Dora just started running until they heard a voice behind them say, “I got you!”  It was their teacher Mrs. Chimp.  She explained to them that she had seen them run off, and she came up with a plan to catch them in their own act.

She guided the children back to the berry bushes and explained to them they would have a week’s detention picking the berry bushes after class had ended.  They weren’t thrilled, but they were happy Mrs. Chimp wasn’t going to tell their parents.

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