William and Grandma Fleur go somewhere fantastical

Dunedin writer Kath Beattie lets her imagination run riot in this funfilled children’s tale. Read it aloud or, even better, get your children to read it to you so it becomes a bit of backdoor learning.

William lives with his parents and Grandma Fleur.

At weekends, William’s parents say, ‘‘We’re going out and you two must stay home.’’

William says, ‘‘It isn’t fair. We never go anywhere.’’

Williams parents look surprised and say as they leave, ‘‘Where would a boy and his grandma want to go?’’

William and Grandma Fleur stare out the window.

‘‘I know where to go,’’ William says to Grandma Fleur. ‘‘Let’s go to the snow.’’ ‘‘Fantastical!’’ says Grandma Fleur. On the way to the snow, William and Grandma Fleur go past the zoo.

‘‘May we come with you,’’ call two small monkeys.

‘‘Take us too,’’ twitter two redbeaked toucan.

‘‘And us,’’ bray two striped zebra. ‘‘Fantastical!’’ says William. ‘‘We’ll all go to the snow.’’

Grandma Fleur sits on one zebra with a monkey on her back and a toucan on her head, and William sits on the other zebra with a monkey on his back and a toucan on his head. They go high in the mountains to the snow.

At the skifields the skihire man looks at the two zebra and rubs his hands together. ‘‘Four skis each for you,’’ he says and quickly pockets the money from Grandma Fleur.

‘‘Two skis for you,’’ he says to William. ‘‘And two skis for you,’’ he says to Grandma Fleur.

The man points to the monkeys and the toucan as they cling to William and Grandma Fleur. ‘‘What awesome hats and jackets,’’ he says.

They ski all day. They bump and fall and laugh and fall some more.

William shouts, ‘‘I do the best falls! This is fantastical!’’

Grandma Fleur is upside down in a snow drift. ‘‘Yes!’’ she calls. ‘‘This is fantastical.’’

The monkeys try to cling to William and Grandma Fleur.

Sometimes the toucan wobble, then fly into the trees.

‘‘Hey!’’ one skier laughs. ‘‘Your hat landed in a tree.’’

‘‘Your hat messed on me,’’ another calls.

One skier freaks when he sees the zebra crossing in front of him. He tries to ski over him. The monkeys throw snowballs at the skier and the toucan pull his hair.

‘‘Let’s go somewhere else,’’ William says.

‘‘Let’s go to an island,’’ the monkeys say. ‘‘We’ll be able to eat coconuts.’’

‘‘And there’ll be trees to hide in,’’ the toucan say.

‘‘And lots of grass,’’ the zebra say. ‘‘Fantasical!’’ William says. ‘‘Islands are usually near the sea.’’

So they head toward the sea eating chocolate to keep up their strength.

A police car stops. ‘‘Where are you going?’’ the officer asks.

‘‘To an island,’’ William says. ‘‘Can you take us?’’

‘‘Certainly!’’ the officer says.

The toucan take fright and fly on to a fence.

‘‘Whoops! You’ve lost your hats,’’ the police officer says. ‘‘Quick! Catch them before the wind blows them away.’’

The officer is friendly. ‘‘I’m looking for an old lady and a boy who are missing from home,’’ he says. ‘‘Have you seen them.’’

‘‘Do they look like us?’’ one zebra asks. ‘‘Good grief, no,’’ the policeman says, ‘‘you look more like a zebzebzeb . . . ah

. . . a foreign tourist.’’

‘‘Thank goodness for that,’’ Grandma Fleur says.

The police officer drops them at a sign that says ‘This way to the island’.

‘‘Have fun,’’ he says and rings his siren. The friends sing as they march down the track.

The monkeys sing ‘‘I’ve got a lovely bunch of coconuts’’.

The toucan twitter, ‘‘Anything you can do, two can do better,’’ and the others sing ‘‘Always watch for the zebra crossing’’. They get a boat and row to the island. The toucan fly away and hide in the trees.

The monkeys climb the palms and eat coconuts.

The zebra gallop off into the long grass.

‘‘We’re going to stay here,’’ they call.

‘‘So are we,’’

William and

Grandma Fleur call back and lie down on the grass under a tree.

‘‘Oh no you’re not,’’ a voice booms. ‘‘You will both go home NOW and you will stay there.’’

William and Grandma Fleur look up in surprise.

Standing there dressed in their pink swim suits and yellow sunhats are William’s parents. With them is a police officer.

‘‘These are the runaways!’’ William’s mother says. ‘‘They are missing from our home.’’

The police officer looks very stern. ‘‘You are the two I met! Why did you trick me?’’ he asks.

‘‘We didn’t know we were missing,’’ William says. ‘‘We were just going somewhere fantastical.’’

The police officer frowns. ‘‘And where are the clothes you stole?’’

‘‘Stole?’’ William and Grandma Fleur say in surprise. ‘‘We haven’t stolen anything.’’

The police officer says, ‘‘I saw you disguised as foreign tourists. You were wearing toucan hats, monkey jackets and zebra rugs.’’

‘‘Oh those!’’ William says. ‘‘They . . . they all ran away.’’

The officer is astonished. ‘‘Your clothes ran away! Now that is too fantastical to believe.’’

Then William says to his parents, ‘‘Oh please lets us stay. Let us have a holiday with you?’’

William’s parents look at each other.

‘‘Of course you can! We didn’t know you liked holidays.’’

William and Grandma Fleur jump up and down.

William says, ‘‘Let me tell you about our adventure.’’

So they all sit up late, eat chocolates, drink mango juice and William tells the

story.

The monkeys, the toucan and the zebra are never seen again.

But sometimes on a hot night on the island, there is strange chattering in the trees, and rainbow wings fluttering overhead. And deep, deep in the tall grass there are stripes of shadows that noone can explain.

IT’S ALL VERY VERY FANTASICAL!