Ahmed helps Out, Susan H Trought [classic books for 7th graders txt] 📗

Once upon a time not so very long ago, a little boy called Ahmed was walking through the forest neat to his home.
Suddenly he heard a faint noise in the undergrowth. He looked down and saw a tiny, pink, baby flamingo.
Ahmed picked him up. ‘Hello,’ he said.
‘Hello,’ replied the flamingo.
‘What are you doing here?’ asked Ahmed. ‘Where is your Mummy?’
‘I wandered away from the nest while my Mummy was away fetching food,’ sniffed the little bird miserably.
‘Never mind,’ said Ahmed kindly. ‘I’ll look after you until she finds you again.’
‘Would you?’ said the flamingo chick. ‘Are you going to be my friend? I’ve never had a friend before.’
Ahmed smiled and nodded. ‘What shall we play?’ he asked.
‘I’m too young to have learnt any games,’ said the little bird sadly.
‘Well, that’s all right,’ said Ahmed. ‘I’ll show you how to play hide and seek. You fly over there into that tree and cover your eyes and count to ten while I hide and then you try and find me.’
‘But...’ began the baby flamingo and a big tear slowly ran down his face and onto his beak.
‘Whatever is the matter?’ asked Ahmed.
‘I can’t fly,’ sniffed the flamingo unhappily.
‘But all birds can fly!’ cried Ahmed.
‘Not me, I’m too little,’ replied the baby bird shaking his head. ‘But if you’re my friend you can teach me, can’t you?’
‘People can’t fly!’ laughed Ahmed.
‘No, but you could show me how to, couldn’t you?’ pleaded the funny looking little bird.
‘Well, I’ll try,’ said Ahmed and he flapped his arms up and down and jumped up in the air.
‘What are you doing?’ asked the flamingo.
‘I’m showing you how to fly,’ puffed Ahmed.
‘Oh I see,’ said the little bird. ‘But I haven’t got any arms to wave about like that.’
‘No of course you haven’t,’ said Ahmed. ‘But you’ve got wings.’
‘Oh yes!’ said the flamingo and spread his little wings out as far as they would go.
‘Would you show me again, please?’ he asked.
Ahmed ran up and down the forest path, flapping his arms and jumping up and down as high as he could in the air.
All at once he heard laughing sounds coming from above him.
‘Ha! Ha! Ha! Look at him!’ hooted one voice.
‘Whatever is he doing? Ho! Ho! Ho!’ screeched another.
Ahmed shaded his eyes against the bright sunlight and looked upwards. Two monkeys were holding on to each other and laughing so much that Ahmed thought they would fall off the branch.
‘What are you laughing at?’ he asked.
‘You...! Hoo! Hoo! Hoo! That’s whoooooo!’ they screamed.
More monkeys swung towards them on the lianas and came to watch the funny boy who thought he could fly. They all laughed and screeched and screamed at the top of their voices, pointing their fingers at Ahmed.
‘You can’t fly...! Hi! Hi! Hi!’ they chortled.
One monkey was holding onto his sides because they ached with all the laughing and he only just managed to grab onto the branch with his tail when he suddenly fell off backwards.
‘I know I can’t fly!’ shouted Ahmed crossly. ‘But I’m showing this little bird here how to do it.’
All at once the earth began to tremble beneath Ahmed’s feet and he could hear crashing sounds coming nearer and nearer through the dense forest.
The monkeys began to quieten down as a huge booming voice shouted, ‘WHAT’S ALL THIS COMMOTION?’ and Elephant burst out of the undergrowth, flapping his gigantic ears. He was in his usual bad temper.
One monkey began to giggle again and pointed to Ahmed. ‘He’s trying to fly! He! He! He!’ he sniggered.
Elephant’s tiny eyes gradually looked down, down, down to where Ahmed stood.
‘You?’ he bellowed and lifted his trunk high into the air to trumpet loudly and grin from tusk to tusk.
‘Boys can’t fly!’ he shouted and the trees shook so violently that the monkeys had to hang on very tightly. ‘Why, I bet even I can fly better than you!’ he thundered and laughed so loudly that all the monkeys covered their ears with their hands.
‘I expect you could,’ said Ahmed, his eyes twinkling. ‘If you flapped your big ears really hard and ran as fast as you could, then you would be sure to fly.’
‘Do you really think so?’ asked elephant seriously.
Ahmed nodded but kept his fingers tightly crossed behind his back. Flamingo gave a little smile and hid behind Ahmed’s legs.
‘Ready, steady go!’ said Ahmed and elephant stormed off down the forest path, flapping his ears wildly as he went.
He was soon out of sight but they could still feel the ground shaking as he crashed along.
The monkeys leapt up and down on the overhead branches, cheering and laughing and chattering.
‘What’s happening?’ Ahmed called up to them. ‘Can you see anything?’
‘He’s not flying yet!’ cried one monkey gleefully.
Suddenly they all heard an almighty SPLASH! and everything went very quiet for a moment. Then, up in the trees, the monkeys began to laugh and laugh and laugh.
They could not tell Ahmed what had happened because they were laughing too much with tears running down their faces.
‘What is it? What is it?’ squawked the baby flamingo, jumping from foot to foot.
The undergrowth exploded in front of them and Elephant stood there dripping wet and very red in the face.
‘HOW DARE YOU ALL LAUGH AT ME!’ he shouted, but the monkeys could not stop because he looked so funny, with bits of river weed draped round his face.
Ahmed had to hide a wide smile behind his hand.
Elephant stretched his trunk high up into the trees and grabbed a branch to shake it roughly, but the monkeys were too quick to be caught out like that and they smartly leapt into another tree nearby.
‘Ha! Ha! Ha!’ they shrieked.
‘I’LL PUSH ALL THE TREES DOWN!!!’ roared the elephant.
‘You wouldn’t,’ said Ahmed.
‘Well,’ replied the elephant looking a little sheepish. ‘I might.’
‘No you wouldn’t,’ repeated Ahmed. ‘Because I know you’re really a nice, kind friendly elephant.’
‘Yes I am, aren’t I?’ agreed elephant
‘... Who was only trying to teach a poor little flamingo how to fly...’ continued Ahmed.
‘Yes I was, wasn’t I?’ said Elephant and he gently picked up the ugly little flamingo chick and placed him on his head among the river weed.
‘Oooh! It’s high up here!’ squeaked the flamingo.
‘Well, you’ll soon be flying higher than that,’ said elephant in his softest bellow.
‘Coo!’ said the flamingo.
‘Only doves and pigeons say ‘Coo’,’ said a gentle voice.
‘Mama!’ squeaked the baby flamingo and nearly fell off Elephant’s head.
‘Whatever is all this fuss about?’ asked Mrs Flamingo strutting regally onto the overgrown path, and her little offspring told her all about his newfound friends and how they were all trying to help him.
‘Well, I think they’ve all been very kind,’ smiled Mrs Flamingo. ‘But I think you’re a bit too young to learn to fly just yet, but I promise that as soon as your wings are big and strong enough I will teach you how to fly like Papa and I.’ So saying she wrapped her wings closely round her chick and took him off back to the river.
‘Goodbye!’ called the little flamingo. ‘I’ll come back and see you all as soon as I can fly!’
They all waved until they could no longer see them and then one monkey daringly jumped down on to Elephant’s back and took hold of two long strands of river weed and yelled, ‘Gee up!’
‘WHAT?’ bellowed elephant and charged into the thick undergrowth to try to brush him off.
All the other monkeys began to laugh again and Ahmed shook his head and smiled to himself as he walked back home.
He knew that he had done the right thing in helping the young flamingo, even if the other creatures in the jungle had laughed at him. Even grumpy elephant saw that it was the right thing to do in the end.

MORAL: Helping other people is sometimes not very easy but it is the right thing to do.

Publication Date: 05-04-2010

All Rights Reserved

Dedication:
To my family - with love