Barfoot&Thompson+Writing

RUMOUR HAS IT...

‘BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP’ a large truck backed into the tall gates of Auckland Zoo. “Bring it over here!” called a flustered security guard, waving his arms in all directions. The strange noises startled the animals, who peered out from their enclosures. The zoos’ four emperor penguins jostled each other to see what was going on. “What’s in there?” whispered Flappy to the other penguins. “I think it’s another monkey.” remarked Loudy. “No, no, it’s a whale.” Greedy said angrily. “I don’t like whales.” whimpered Stinky. The penguins started to argue. One of the zookeepers was carrying a bucket of fish toward the Sea Life enclosures, when she heard the loud squawking of the penguins. She sighed and emptied the contents of the bucket into their enclosure. The penguins quickly dived into the water and fought over the food. The zookeeper smiled. “You guys need to calm down. You’ll be getting a new neighbor very soon.” she said, before going to feed the sea lions. “What did she say?” asked Stinky nervously. Meanwhile, Coco, one of the twin monkeys, was peacefully enjoying a banana in her favourite tree, when she heard the penguins arguing in loud voices. She stormed over to the other side of her enclosure. “What’s going on here? I can’t even eat my banana quietly, without listening to you featherbrains blabbering on about nonsense!” she shouted. “There’s a new animal at the zoo.” said Flappy. Coco’s eyes bacame as wide as saucers. “Yeah, it’s a huge whale with three eyes!” added Greedy. “I thought we agreed it was a three-tailed lion!” yelled Loudy. Coco swung back to her tree. Her twin brother, Banana, was snoring on an old sack. Slobbery drool was dribbling down his hairy chin. “Banana, wake up!” Coco roared. Banana squinted into the sunlight. “What??” he mumbled. “There’s a new animal at the zoo! Apparently it has three eyes and two tails.” Coco replied. Then she ran off to tell her friends. Banana shook his head and climbed up a tall tree. He threw a stick into the lions’ enclosure down below. Solomon roared angrily. “Oh, sorry, it’s just you. What’s up?” he asked. “Well, there’s a new animal moving into the zoo, and it has three eyes, two tails and purple spots all over.” Banana chattered excitedly. Solomon shook his mane in disbelief and walked over to the other side of his enclosure. Zoe the giraffe towered over him. “Why hello, Solomon. How are you?” she asked politely. “Fine.” grunted Solomon. “There’s a new animal coming to the zoo and I heard it has three eyes, two tails, purple spots and twenty-five legs ” he told her. Zoe galloped over to the other side of her enclosure to see her friend, Burma the elephant. “Hi Zoe.” called Burma “Burma, guess what!” Zoe said enthusiastically. “There’s a new animal coming to the zoo and rumour has it that it has three eyes, two tails, purple spots, pink fur and twenty-five legs.” Burma frowned thoughtfully. “Who told you this?” she asked Zoe. “Solomon. It sounds like a strange creature. I’m going to keep away from it.” answered Zoe. Burma didn’t say anything. The next morning, all of the animals tried to peek inside the new enclosure. Nothing stirred. “It must be a boring animal.” squawked Loudy. “Either that, or really shy.” added Stinky. Eventually, the animals got bored and ignored it. That night, a long, curved beak stuck out from the new animals’ enclosure. It was followed by two curious little eyes, a brown feathered body and two strong, clawed feet. “Kiwiiiiiii! Kiwiiiiii!” it called softly. It woke all of the animals from their deep slumber. “What?Who?Where?When?Why?!” mumbled Banana, as Coco dragged him out of bed. All of the animals gathered outside the new enclosure. Burma was there first, smiling. Coco’s jaw dropped. “It doesn’t have...three eyes?” she whispered. “Or two tails?” asked Banana. “Or even purple spots?” said Solomon. Burma smiled. “I thought the animal sounded strange when Zoe told me about it. But it turns out, no one knew anything about it. It was just a silly rumour that spread until it got out of control.” she explained. The animals started to look uncomfortable. “We’re sorry for judging you before we even met you.” they all said to the kiwi. “That’s okay.” the kiwi said shyly. The morals of this story are: Don’t spread rumours and don’t judge someone before you’ve met them.