Bubba and Barker

July 21, 2011 at 11:19 am · Filed under Family, fun stuff, Mostly fiction, Stories ·Tagged Bluebell books, Bubba and Barker, children's story, circus, elephant and puppy, http://bluebellbooks.blogspot.com/2011/07/short-story-slam-week-6-childrens.html, http://manicddaily.wordpress.com/page/3/, short story slam

I am submitting this to Bluebell Books’ weekly Short Story Slam. The picture is their prompt for this week, and it seemed like something I could work with. This is the first time I have ever attempted to write a children’s story. Let me know what you think of it.

Bubba and Barker

It was a small circus; the tent was faded and dusty; and most of the animals were old and tired from the years on the road and doing their tricks for the customers. Bubba was by far the youngest of all the animals, and the least trained, as well. He’d only recently been purchased from a zoo in a big city.

Bubba wasn’t a bad elephant—at least he didn’t mean to be—but it seemed like he was always knocking things over with his tail and his trunk, and making such a mess. He felt bad sometimes, but most of the time he didn’t let it bother him. He was a happy little guy. But the zookeeper said they were losing money, and couldn’t afford to keep Bubba. Lucky for Bubba, Big Jim Dandy, the owner of the circus that was passing through town, heard about Bubba and agreed to buy him

 

Country Nights with Dog and Elephant

One night, not long after Bubba had joined the circus, he was wandering down the midway, and when he came to the end of the booths he saw a small dog sitting at the edge of the forest. The dog—it was actually a puppy—had a huge grin on his face, and was wagging his tail like crazy. He was mostly white, with little patches of black here and there on his sleek white coat. Bubba thought maybe they could be friends, so he trotted over to the puppy and blared a greeting.

That sent the little white puppy scurrying off, and he peeked out at Bubba from behind a small tree. Bubba swayed side to side and made a noise that sounded like laughter. He thought it was funny that the puppy’s head was on one side of the tree, and his tail—still wagging—was sticking out the other side.

When the puppy heard the little elephant laugh, he came running out from behind the tree and ran circles around Bubba. He was yipping and barking and running, and it made Bubba so dizzy trying to keep up with him. Bubba finally sat down with a big “ker-thump”!

The dog stopped in front of Bubba and with its chin on the ground and it’s wildly wagging tail in the air, barked and barked at Bubba. Bubba decided that was the puppy’s name: Barker. He blared another elephant laugh, and when he did, Barker rolled over then rolled back again and continued to wag his tail. Bubba thought that was a pretty good trick, so he rolled over, then rolled back and sat looking at the puppy. The puppy suddenly stopped barking, and stared past Bubba.

Bubba looked over his shoulder, and saw his trainer, Toby Tarvel, standing right behind him. At first, Bubba was worried he was in trouble for wandering too far from the midway, but when he saw Toby smile, he knew everything was okay.

Toby said, “It looks like you found a friend, Bubba. He seems to be a smart little fella, too.” When he said that, Barker started wagging his tail harder than ever. Toby said, “Do you know any more tricks?”

Barker jumped up and began to dance on his hind legs, barking and wagging his tail as he went in circles.

Toby looked at Bubba and said, “Can you do that trick, too?”

Bubba thought, well, of course I can, and he stood up on his hind legs and spun around, then kicked out one leg then the other. Toby was amazed!

So that’s how it all started. Barker and Bubba learned lots of tricks and became the stars of the circus, performing in little country towns everywhere. And each night, when the final show was over, they would parade happily down the midway, Barker prancing along with Bubba right behind him, holding onto his little white tail. A million stars twinkled above them, as if the heavens were as happy as Barker and Bubba.

They were best friends forever.

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Picture by Manic D Daily at http://manicddaily.wordpress.com/page/3/

 

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