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Like most mornings, the sun shone brightly on Sunnyside pond. Everyone was waking
up -
Squirrel was the first one down. He washed his face and took a long and very satisfying drink. AAAAAAH!!
WEEEEEEEE!!. Appearing from nowhere, Rat raced down the bank and with an almighty leap, flew over squirrel and splashed head first into the pond.
SPASH!
"WATCH OUT WILL YOU" shouted squirrel.
"Come in, the waters lovely"
Rat lay on his back paddling madly as he swam round in circles.
"Coming" squeaked a little voice. Mouse slowly and carefully lowered himself off the bank and into the pond with a gentle plop!.
"What shall we do today then?" Asked Squirrel as he lay on the bank looking at his reflection in the water.
The truth was Sunnyside Pond was such a lovely peaceful place that the animals mostly loved to sit around and chat or just sit around and not do anything in particular.
"SWIM, SWIM THEN SWIM AGAIN" shouted rat. "I'm in a swimming mood today. What about you mouse, what would you like to do?"
"Well I think I would.......
Before mouse could even answer, there was an almighty...
CRASH! BANG! WALLOP! BANG! CRASH! DOOF! DOOF! A dreadful noise filled the air.
Squirrel raced up the bank at top speed and raced even faster up the nearest tree.
Rat shot out of the pond and down a hole, except he went down mouse’s hole instead and got his head stuck. HELLLP! He shouted as he scrambled and pulled and stretched.
Mouse eventually managed to swim to the bank but was too tired to go any further so he sat shivering as he hid behind a rock. He stuck grass in his ears to try to keep the dreadful noise out and muttered "Oh dear" to himself.
As Rat's head popped free, he fell back and went head first into the pond. SPLASH!
Quickly he scrambled onto the bank and down his hole.
Eventually the noise stopped. Squirrel climbed down the tree, but only half way down.
"Has it stopped do you think?"
There was no sign of anyone else, until Rat popped his head out and peered up at Squirrel.
"Yes, Yes I think so........I mean I hope so" said rat as he sniffed the air nervously.
Mouse slowly dragged himself towards rat and sat himself down behind another small rock next to Rat's hole.
"What might that have been?" Asked Mouse
"Whatever it was, it was quite awful" said Rat
"Yes, I would certainly never like to hear that noise again" said Squirrel.
But the next morning and at around the same time, it all started again.
CRASH! BANK! WALLOP! BANG! THUMP! CRASH!
In fact the same horrible noise filled the air the next day and then the next day and then the day after that.
It was getting so bad that some of the animals left Sunnyside Pond altogether.
"We must call a meeting with all the animals and see if we can do something about the noise. Otherwise we may ALL end up leaving Sunnyside Pond" Said Squirrel with a very sad expression on his face.
The thought of leaving Sunnyside Pond left everyone feeling very unhappy indeed.
That evening, everyone gathered round.
"Okay, we need to do something about the dreadful noise" said Squirrel loudly.
Everyone cheered "YEAHHHH!"
"Now has anyone got any ideas?"
Nobody said a word. That is until mouse pointed towards the scary path at the foot of the pond and said in a very quiet voice.
"I think it's coming from that direction"
Everyone looked round and gasped
"I'm not going down there, it's too scary" someone said
"Yep, you won't catch me going down there" said someone else.
"QUIET, QUIET" Shouted Squirrel as all the animals started muttering loudly to one another.
"If we don't get to the bottom of this then we will all end up leaving Sunnyside pond and I'm sure no one wants to do that. Squirrel continued. "There is no need to be frightened. We will all go down the path together. No one will hurt us if we all go together".
"Yes I agree" said Rat
"Me too" said Mouse
"Yes and me too" said someone else until they ALL agreed.
They all marched down the path two by two until they reached the big house at the bottom.
"It must be coming from there" said Mouse.
"What shall we do?" Asked Rat
"We need to knock on the door and ask if they know anything about the noise" Said squirrel.
"Who's going to knock on the door?" asked Squirrel
No one said a word.
"It looks like it will have to be me" Sighed Rat.
He ran up to the house and climbed up onto the window ledge.
"What is he doing?" asked mouse.
"I think he is looking to see if anyone is home" replied Squirrel.
"JUST KNOCK ON THE DOOR" a voice shouted from the back of the crowd.
"SHHHHHHH!" said rat nervously as he climbed down from the window ledge and up to the door.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
Rat sat nervously as he waited for someone to answer.
"Try knocking again" Said a voice from the crowd.
"Yes LOUDER THIS TIME" shouted another.
"KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK"
Rat knocked louder this time but before he could step back,
CREEEK!
© H Marrocco 2009
By Helen Marrocco
The huge door opened to reveal a huge bright green frog standing proudly in the doorway.
"Job here, can I be of any help?"
Rat opened his mouth but no sound came out. He was far too frightened to speak.
"Speak up" said Job with a smile on his face.
"We were eh just wondering if you knew anything about the noise" Said a voice from the crowd.
"Yes" said Rat who eventually found his tongue. "It is a terrible noise coming from around here somewhere and we were wondering if..........
Job let out a huge laugh "YES OF COURSE..THE NOISE..YES INDEED"
He let the animals into his house and showed them his new drum kit he had recently bought.
“You must be talking about my drumming practice”.
"Will you be doing drumming practice for long?" asked mouse nervously.
"Not at all" said Job smiling. “In fact I think my drumming practice was giving me a bit of a headache”.
As the animals had complained and Job felt he was not at all good on the drums, he decided to pack them away at the bottom of his garage and not bother playing them again.
Sunnyside Pond was a much more peaceful place after that day. No one was ever again scared of the path and everyone was especially happy as they had all found a new friend.
The End