A Boy, a Bird and a Bogglewump

Intended for children ages 6 to 8 years old.

Hinckley Mint was your average seven-year-old boy. That is to say he did average seven-year-old boy things that often got him into trouble with grown-ups. The reason he was alone in his family's back garden was that most of his friends were away on their summer holidays. It might also have had something to do with being caught posting frogs through Miss Toddle's letterbox.

As he lay on the lawn Hinckley watched a line of ants dragging the crumbs from one of his biscuits across the path. His scruffy blonde hair stuck up all over the place and his hands, face and knees were different shades of dirt-brown, grass-green and grazed-red. The sun baked down on Hinckley's back making him feel all warm and relaxed.

A big black bird with a large yellow beak landed near dad’s old shed and hopped around. All of a sudden it let out a screech and flapped its wings trying to fly off, but it couldn’t.

"Help me. I’ve been caught by the Bogglewumps!" The bird shouted to Hinckley.

He couldn’t believe it. Hinckley scurried over to the frightened bird, "Calm down, your foot’s caught." He unhooked the tiny snare and stroked the bird’s feathers.

"Thank you." It said, "My name is Ordinary-Paul. What’s yours?"

"Um… Hinckley," he replied, not sure what the rules were about talking to strangers when they were animals. "What just happened?"

"It's the Bogglewumps, they set traps to catch animals so they can make them their slaves."

"What’s a Bogglewump?"

"We are," said a nearby voice.

Ordinary-Paul let out another screech and jumped behind Hinckley.

Down amongst the long grass and bits of rubbish Hinckley saw a group of little people. They were dressed in clothes made from sweet wrappers and had bottle caps for hats. They were waving tiny, but very sharp looking, spears. One of them, the leader perhaps, waved a banner with the words 'BEST BEFORE END' on it "We’re going to take our bird back now!"

"I won’t let you," said Hinckley using his toughest voice.

"Oh yeah!" The Bogglewump leader stepped forward, "You and who’s army!" He laughed and the rest of the Bogglewumps cheered.

Hinckley took another biscuit from his pocket and crumbled it behind his back without anyone noticing. "My army is just coming."

The Bogglewumps strained to look. Fighting for position, they started shouting to each other.

…"Where’s his army?"
…"Over there! "
…"Yikes! There's thousands of them."

Ordinary-Paul turned around and saw Hinckley's Army. Columns of ants were marching towards them waving their antennas.

"Do you give in?" asked Hinckley, "Or do I send in my troops?"

"Call them off," squeaked the leader. "You can keep the bird."

"Halt!" commanded Hinckley, and the ants stopped. Ordinary-Paul noticed that they had reached the pile of crumbs.

"My army is all over this garden, so you had better promise to leave the animals alone."
Bogglewumps backed away. "We promise!" they said as they scampered off.

"That was pretty smart," said Ordinary-Paul. "Thanks again."

"No problem."

"I can do magic too," said Ordinary-Paul as he started to hop about and flap his wings. "Lie down and close your eyes. I’m going to make the sun disappear."

Hinckley didn’t believe him but he did what Ordinary-Paul asked. To his surprise the red glow of light shining through his eyelids actually faded and went dark. "Wow! You really did it!"

"Did what dear?"

Hinckley opened his eyes and saw his mum standing over him, blocking out the sun. Looking around he also saw the bird, in a tree. It winked at him. "Oh! …Nothing mum."

(600 words)

© Mark Ashton 2004