“Where are you going,” yelled Lily, “get back here at once.”
Henrietta crawled back. Lily tapped on the glass front of Billy´s family´s cage.
“Hello there, it´s only us,” shouted Lily, “I´ve come to say thanks for helping me win the race and Henrietta is here too, she´s been worried sick about you, why didn´t you tell her where you were going?”
“Hey, but she told me to return here,,” yelled Billy back. Then he saw Henrietta.
“Thank you Henrietta, I really fit in here, I´m afraid I can´t come and visit you but you can always visit me here.”
“That´s true,” said Henrietta. “I´m just happy that you´re happy.” She wiped away a little hedgehog tear.
Then Billy´s enormous parents slid over. “Thank you Henrietta, for all you´ve done for our Billy,” they said.
Henrietta was a little sad leaving the zoo that day but as time went on she got used to the arrangement and she finally had to admit it was the best for all concerned. Sometimes Billy and herself even did some training together, at either side of the cage. In fact the latest I´ve heard is that Henrietta is in tip top form and is entering the next special olympics and thanks to Billy she is a stronger swimmer than ever. I wonder are Ozzy Otter and Berty Badger going to compete. Something tells me that if they do they will be slow to cheat again.
The End
“THIRD PRIZE GOES TO THE WONDERFUL JIMMY JACKDAW.
WELL DONE JIMMY.”
Jimmy stepped up on the platform to receive his prize and shake the hand of the mayor. There were loud cheers from the crowd.
“SECOND PRIZE GOES TO HENRIETTA HEDGEHOG”
Henrietta fell against a nearby tree, “second, second?” she gasped, “How is that possible?” Now it was she that was sulking.
“AND FIRST PRIZE GOES TO THE WONDERFUL LILY LIZARD.”
They took their positions on the platform and accepted their prizes. The jackdaw anthem was played first, then the hedgehog anthem and finally the lizard anthem.
After the festivities, Henrietta went home. All previous thoughts about the race had left her mind. Her main worry was Billy. He wasn´t at home either. She rang Lily Lizard and Jimmy Jackdaw. She told them what had happened and they organised a search for him.
Two days went by and Henrietta was frantic with worry. Lily and Jimmy stayed over to comfort her. “He´s a big boy now, he´s well able to look after himself, anyway it´s not healthy for a snake to live with a hedgehog,” said Jimmy in an effort to calm her down.
“He´s not a snake he´s a boa constrictor,” sobbed Henrietta.
“All the more reason to let him leave the nest if you ask me,” replied Jimmy.
“You´re not helping the situation,” injected Lily abruptly. “Let´s search all the places we didn´t check yesterday.” she added.
“Good idea,” sniffled Henrietta.
So off they trudged, heavy hearted. They looked in all the village museums, shops, parks, forests, garages, factories, the baker´s, the chemist´s and finally they took a break
“Maybe he has run away with the circus,”said Lily suddenly. “ Never mind that, maybe he is in another place suitable for animals like him, a kind of fancy hotel,”
“But we checked all the hotels,” wailed Henrietta.
“No, maybe he is in the zoo Henrietta,” said Lily.
“Of course, that is exactly where I told him to go,” said Henrietta with a great sigh of relief.
So off they ran towards the zoo. Henrietta and Lily got up on Jimmy´s back so they could fly straight in and avoid the staring groups of children. The zoo was an impressive place. It was full of exotic and dangerous animals that would be totally out of place in the local forest. I suppose it was a good thing that the animals couldn´t escape. If they did the woodland creatures would end up as refugees or light snacks.
Sure enough as they approached the reptile house Henrietta could hear Billy singing and messing. When they got to where he was caged she got a little surprise. There he was with his real parents, telling them happily about his adventures with Henrietta and the others. He looked so happy with them Henrietta thought it best to leave.
“Henrietta, Henrietta,” he called. Henrietta just ignored him and kept swimming, she thought it was her fans cheering from the riverbank.
“Henrietta, Henrietta, stop a while, this is important.” he shouted. She stopped.
“Billy, whatever is the matter?” she asked.
“Ozzy Otter and Berty Badger are cheating, they´ve already attacked Jimmy and Steven. I think I can take care of them but before I do why don´t I give you a head start, sit on my head and I´ll swim you further on down the river.” said Billy.
“You most certainly will not. They may cheat but I won´t lower myself to their standards. I´m going to win this race fair and square.” said Henrietta indignantly.
“But can´t you see they already have something planned, if we don´t cheat they will attack you like they attacked Steven Stoat and Jimmy Jackdaw.” pleaded Billy.
“Forget it son, I´ll win this race my way.” and with those words she swam off. Billy knew what he had to do. He wiggled around a bit in the water and waited for Ozzy and Berty.
They caught up soon enough and easily enough because both of them were riding jet skis. “Oh for the love of god”, said Billy when he saw the cut of them. They were even wearing diving suits and goggles. How was he going to stop those machines. He had no choice but to follow them until they caught up with Henrietta and wait until they disembarked and were vulnerable.
Finally they caught up to within inches of Henrietta. They abandoned their jetskiis and diving suits and swam as fast as they could. But not fast enough. Another thing I think you should know about Billy is that he was a big snake for one good reason. He wasn´t a snake at all. Henrietta and her friends had never been to the zoo and I´m almost certain they had never seen a boa constrictor. Billy the snake was really Billy the boa and he knew exactly what had to be done to stop the two villains. Just as they were about to swim to either side of Henrietta, Billy coiled around both of them and gave each one a bit of a squeeze.
The roaring and screaming out of the pair of them was deafening, so, afraid his mum would turn around, he swallowed them both, goggles and all. Then he swam to the river bank where he threw both of them up. They were so scared they ran off home abandoning the race to the other woodland creatures.
Now it just happened that Henrietta did hear the screams of the cheats. She did turn around and she did see Billy swallow the rotten pair and she was not happy. She swam to river bank to where Billy was rubbing his tummy.
“Billy,” she started, “did I or did I not distinctly ask you not to cheat on my behalf?” she growled.
“I´m sorry,” apologised Billy. “Maybe it´s time you went back to the zoo.” said Henrietta. “The zoo? why the zoo?” inquired Billy. Henrietta didn´t answer she just returned to the race.
She crossed the finishing line with ease. The crowd cheered happily. She searched the faces in the crowd for Billy, he was nowhere to be seen. “Oh dear, he´s sulking.” she said to herself.
She strolled triumphantly to where they were giving out the prizes.
Henrietta always suspected them of cheating but as it had never been proved she could say nothing. However rumour has it that Sally Stout and Mickey Mink had given up on sports after competing with those two. Maybe they were rotten cheats but Henrietta felt sure that today she was going to prove to everyone that you don´t have to cheat to come out on top. She was sure that her persistent training would at last be worthwhile.
They lined up for the race after their warm up session and when Philip Fox blew the whistle they dashed off as if Philip himself were chasing them. Big Billy slithered alongside them. He wasn´t in the race but he knew Ozzy and Berty had a bad reputation and he wanted to keep an eye on everyone. Luckily with all the training he had done with Henrietta he was fit enough to keep up.
The running part of the race was difficult and after the first few minutes it was plain to see that Henrietta Hedgehog, Ozzy Otter, Berty Badger, Steven Stoat, Lilly Lizard and Jimmy Jackdaw were leaving the other competitors far behind.
After some time a gap was forming between Ozzy Otter, Berty Badger, Steven Stoat and the leaders of the race Lily Lizard, Jimmy Jackdaw and Henrietta. As they were slagging behind Ozzy and Berty decided to take advantage of their position and eliminate Steven. They both ran to either side of him and then they put a brown paper bag over his head and ran him into the ditch where they carefully tied him to a gate. “Say nothing,” they said, “and you´ll come to no harm.”
Then the wicked pair dragged out from a nearby field a motorbike and side-car. It didn´t take them long to catch up with the leader group. They ditched the motorbike before anyone could see them cheat and they ran again as if the race was very difficult.
Well because Henrietta was a nimble hedgehog she was the first in the running race. Jimmy Jackdaw came second and Lily Lizard third. Ozzy and Berty were next and they were surprisingly fresh looking. The next race was the cycle. They set off in a cloud off dust. Once again Henrietta and Lily Lizard took the lead. Jimmy Jackdaw was itching to fly but as it was in the rules that you couldn´t leave the ground or the water at any time his legs were starting to feel the pain. He was slowing down. Ozzy and Berty were speeding up. Together they cycled to either side of jimmy, put a brown paper bag over his head and cycled him into the nearest ditch where they tied him to a gate and said, “Say nothing and you´ll come to no harm.”
Then they fetched out from a barn a helicopter and took the lead without anyone realising. They landed in a field, not too far from the finishing line, out with their bikes, then off they shot toward the finishing line. Lily and Henrietta were fast and soon they were biting the heels of the two cheats. Henrietta, being a nimble sort of hedgehog shot out past Ozzy and Berty and came first. Lily came fourth.
The next competition was the swimming race. This was a tough one for Henrietta but thanks to Billy she had a good chance of winning. They set off.
Now while all this was going on Billy was doing his best to keep up with the competitors. He passed Steven Stoat and set him free. He passed Jimmy Jackdaw and set him free too. He arrived at the start of the swimming race. Another thing I think you should know about Billy is that he was by far the strongest swimmer in the wood. In fact he was a better swimmer than any of the competitors. So without anyone knowing he took caught up with Henrietta in no time at all.
In an old rickety house by an old rickety bridge there lived a nimble hedgehog. Hedgehogs by their very nature are far from nimble so this hedgehog was by normal hedgehog standards, something of an enigma and a legend.
One day our legendary hedgehog whose name happened to be Henrietta, was outside training for the Special Olympics. They were regarded as special because only woodland creatures were allowed participate. Domesticated animals, zoo creatures and farm prisoners had their own sports day event.
She was stretching and jumping when she heard a rustle in the bushes on the other side of the bridge. She sprinted over to take a look. There hidden in the bushes was a basket and in the basket moving quietly was what appeared to be a baby snake.
There was a note attached. It said,
PLEASE LOOK AFTER OUR LITTLE ONE. WE ARE
A FAMILY THAT HAVE JUST ESCAPED FROM THE
ZOO. WE THINK THE ZOO KEEPER WILL FIND US
SOON BUT WE WOULD LIKE OUR BABY TO HAVE
CHANCE TO LIVE IN FREEDOM LIKE YOU DO.
PLEASE LOOK AFTER HIM UNTIL WE CAN RETURN
FOR HIM. WE WOULD BE VERY GRATEFUL IF YOU
COULD LOOK AFTER HIM AS ONE OF YOUR OWN.
Henrietta hedgehog thought to herself for a moment. “What a load of baloney. Who ever heard of a hedgehog looking after a snake. And what was this rubbish about living in freedom and escaping from the zoo. It was common knowledge in these parts that living in the zoo was like living in paradise. There were no predators, you were encouraged to breed and meals were regular and nutritious. What a load of rubbish”
She began to walk away from the baby when suddenly she thought, “but out here there are predators, how can I leave this poor defenceless ugly thing in the bushes, whatever were his parents thinking.”
Maybe it was the parental irresponsibility that did it but without stopping she ran back and picked up the basket in her arms. The baby snake wiggled in happiness.
Months passed and the new family were getting on fine. Henrietta knew very little about bringing up baby snakes and everyone was impressed with how big and strong the baby snake was getting. She called him Billy and as time passed the neighbours called him big Billy because he was turning into the biggest snake anyone had ever seen.
Finally the big day arrived – the Special Olympics- Henrietta was so excited. She had been training hard for this day. Billy had been an enormous help to her. When he was little he enjoyed pretending to be a skipping rope and now as he was so big and a keen swimmer he gave Henrietta swimming lessons. Swimming came naturally to him, but Henrietta had no talent for it. Still it helped her keep fit and they both enjoyed it.
The first race was the triathlon. There was a marathon then a cycle and then a swim that had to be completed in order to win. Henrietta was extremely excited but she was also nervous. Two of the woodland creature champions were also taking part, Ozzy Otter and Berty Badger.