The Story of Ennylarat

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Once upon a time, in a place called Grand Rapids, there lived a little girl named Tara Lynne.  Now Tara Lynne wasn't just an ordinary little girl.  She had adventures that other little girls and boys just dream of.  This is the story of one of her adventures.  It's the story of a day that Tara Lynne met a giraffe.

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A lot of boys and girls have animals for friends.  Some have a dog.  Some have a cat.  Some have a horse.  And a few even have a goat.  But, I'll bet that up until now, you never knew anybody who had a giraffe for a friend.

Here's how it all happened.  One morning, Tara Lynne was playing with Pammie in front of her home.  When she looked up, what do you think she saw walking down the middle of Nelson Avenue?  You guessed it.  A giraffe!  A big, yellow spotted giraffe, who was walking right towards them.  And very quickly.

Now, you just don't find a giraffe in front of your home every day.  Or even once a month.  Oh, you might see one every once in a while in a zoo.  Or at the circus when it comes to town.  But it's very rare to meet a giraffe walking right down your street.  Especially a friendly giraffe.

You might ask how you can tell if a giraffe is friendly.  It isn't easy,  because a giraffe doesn't wag his tail the way a dog does when it's feeling good, or purr as a happy kitten does.  To tell if a giraffe is friendly, you have to look him right in the eye and see if he's smiling.  And if he is,then he's a friendly giraffe.

As the giraffe came closer and closer, Tara Lynne started to wonder just how in the world she was going to look him in the eye.  (Because, as you know, giraffes are quite a bit taller than little girls.)  But Tara Lynne didn't have to worry.  As soon as the giraffe got close to her, he bent his long neck down and looked right into her eyes.  I guess because he knew that that's how you find out if little girls are friendly.

While Tara Lynne and the giraffe stood looking eye to eye, each deciding if the other were friendly, all of Tara Lynne's friends came running out onto Nelson Avenue.

The first to get to the street was Pammie.  Then came Karlee Ann and Raggie and a gang of other kids.  But even though nobody on Nelson Avenue had ever seen a giraffe in the street before, only the kids rushed out to look at the giraffe.

Now, you might think it funny that a giraffe could walk right down the middle of the street without a big person seeing him and saying something.  But, big people have big things to think about.  And, sometimes, they think so hard that they just don't notice the things around them that we do.

If a butterfly lands right next to you, you'll look at it and look at it.  You may even run after it if it flies away, just to watch how pretty it is.  But big people will sometimes walk right on by and not even see it.  And if they don't see the butterflies, then it's a little easier to understand how they might not see a giraffe either.

The kids ran around and around the giraffe.  But the giraffe paid attention only to Tara Lynne.  It was as if it had been a long, long time since the giraffe had met as nice a girl.  And Tara Lynne, of course, had never met as nice a giraffe.

Tara Lynne had an idea that it might be fun to go for a ride with her new friend.  And, because Tara Lynne wasn't a selfish little girl, she asked Pammie if she'd like to come too.  Of course she said, "YES!"  Wouldn't you?  The friendly giraffe bent his head down and let Tara Lynne and Pammie climb onto his neck and slide down to his back.

As the giraffe and his riders started to walk down the street, something strange and wonderful began to happen.  The houses on the street seemed to fade away.  In their place appeared very big, very green and very different looking trees.  The sounds of car horns were replaced by the "bwark - bwark" of birds that most litle boys and girls had never seen before.  The pavement of the street, on which they had been clip-clopping, turned into soft brown dirt.

And when the riders looked back at where their friends had been, all they could see was a bunch of monkeys laughing and swinging in a tree!  It was very plain that, somehow, they had ridden right into the jungle.

Please come back soon for the conclusion of "The Story of Ennylarat"