 We thought this could be George, Nancy's puppy. What do you think ? Elizabeth, Julie, Brett, Mary, Daniel, Mack, Matty, and Pepito Nancy was playing with her friend Porky and the two of them were in Porky's back yard where there was a small plastic swimming pool that was brightly colored in blue, red and yellow with green stripes. It was a VERY hot day and the pool was big enough for about four little children to splash in it. It wasn't deep at all and when they stood up the water only came to their knees. They were having fun splashing eachother and Nancy had a little bucket she kept filling with water and throwing it over Porky who tried to duck out of the way but never could. He was squealing and trying to kick up his hooves to splash Nancy but he was no match for her because she was a lot faster than he. Mrs Layton came out through the back door with a plate of chocolate chip cookies in one hand and a plastic pitcher of pink lemonade in the other. " Come over and have a snack," she invited, " It is so hot today and it would be good to get out of the sun for a minute". She went over to the big oak tree that was in the back yard and underneath was a round wooden table with four wooden chairs. She set the cookies and drink down and went back for some paper plates and cups. Nancy and Porky wasted no time in climbing out of the pool and going over to the table where they lit into the cookies. In fact, by the time Mrs Layton had come out again, four of them were already gone! " Where's George?" asked Mrs Layton. " Isn't he in the house?" asked Nancy. George was Nancy's friendly little puppy. Porky's Mom shook her head, " No, I thought he was out here playing with you two. And where are Perkin, Tomkin and Pippa, anyway?" Nancy and Porky looked at eachother - they had been having so much fun they hadn't even noticed the others had left! Now Nancy, Porky and his Mom were worried about WHERE the others could have gone. Mrs Layton called in a loud voice, " George! Perkins! Tomkin! Pippa! Are you hiding? If so, come out now, there are cookies to eat and I want to see you". No reply, and no one came out from anywhere. "Well," said Nancy, "we'll have to go and find them" and she started to go to the front of the house and down the little path to the gate that went on to the street. Mrs Layton pushed Porky after her, " You go wtih Nancy and help find your brothers and sister and George". she urged him. Porky didn't need any pushing he was only too eager to go hunting his siblings and George. Because it was so hot, the two of them wondered if the others might have headed for the river because they thought there wasn't enough room in the swimming pool for them all. So they went down the main street towards the part of Krumble that led to the river. On their way, Dress saw them hurrying along and called to them, " Hey, what's the rush, Nancy, Porky? You're going like you're being chased by a tiger or something!" " Can't stop" cried Nancy as they kept going, " George is lost and we don't know where he is and Porky's brothers and sister are gone too. Do you want to help find them?" " Oh dear!" exclaimed Dress, " Of COURSE I'll come. SNORKEL!" she yelled overher shoulder, "Come here. We've got to help Nancy and Porky find George and Porky's brothers and sister - they're lost". Snorkel came running out of the shop he had been in and the four of them headed for the river. The river Ripple was a wide winding stretch of water that curved round like an S to the south of Krumble and many of the Krumble children used to go there to try to catch some fish, or to swim or play on the banks where the reeds were tall and hide-and-seek was a popular game because it was easy to hide in the reeds and not be seen! There were water lilies in a large pond that the river flowed into in one spot, and sometimes there would be lots and lots of tadpoles that would squiggle around and when they grew up they would become frogs and leap all over the lily pond and splash in the water. When our friends got to the river they called and called the names of George, Pippa, Tomkin and Perkins but noone asnwered them. They looked in the reeds and went to the Pond and waded in the water but not a sign of anyone. They were all getting VERY hot and suddenly Nancy had an idea. She knew that George had a BIG liking for ice cream and seeing it was JUST the right kind of day when everybody would be wishing they could cool down, what better way than to eat something COLD? She turned excitedly to her friends. " I bet George wanted to go get an icecream." she said,"Porky I KNOW your family likes it, do you think they would take George there if he asked to go?" Porky nodded, " Yes, I think they'd go whether George was with them or not!" He grinned and the others laughed. Snorkel said, "I could do with a LARGE cone of Rocky Road, myself. How about we check out Cone Corner, Sweet Tooth and Jumbo's ?" These were the three places where icecream was sold and they didn't know which one the others might have gone to. "Good idea," said Dress, " Let's try Sweet Tooth first 'cos they might have wanted some candy as well". But when they got there there was no sign of Goerge and his friends and Jacko, who owned it, hadn't seen them either. They didn't have any luck at Jumbo's and hoped they would find them at Cone Corner. As they came through the door into the Icecream Parlour there were the four culprits sitting stuffing their faces with Hot Fudge Sundaes and Banana Splits! Nancy was NOT pleased. She stormed over to George and told him off right in front of everybody. " George!" she said sternly, " You all had us worried stiff and searching everywhere for you. We didn't know WHERE you were. Why didn't you tell us you were coming here?" George hung his head and Perkins interrupted by saying, " Hey, Nancy, cool down. It was OUR idea, not George's and we asked him to come with us. You and Porky were hogging the pool and we were HOT and wanted something to cool US down so we thought an icream would do just fine! Come and join us, we'll treat you all". Well now, they were not going to pass up THAT invitation so they all crowded round one table and ordered whatever they liked. ( What would YOU have ordered?) In the coolness of the Icecream Parlour and because they were enjoying their goodies, Nancy and Porky and his friends soon forgot to feel miffed at George and the others and they were soon all laughing and having fun. In the middle of it Porky suddenly remembered his Mom and said, " Oh HELP! we should tell Mom we found you guys. She's all worried thinking you are lost". So he asked the girl at the counter if he could make a local call, and called Mrs Layton and she was so relieved they were all safe. While they were sitting there, Nancy was looking round the room. She usually went to Sweet Tooth or Jumbo's for icecream and wasn't used to Cone Corner, so she was curious to see what they had there. She noticed that on the wall behind the counter were lots of drawings that looked like they had been drawn and colored by children. She got up and went to the girl behind the counter and asked her, " How come you've got all those drawings on the wall?" " Oh," replied the girl, " They're all part of the coloring competition we have every month. Any boy or girl who comes in can enter the competition and they can take a picture from over there " she pointed further down the counter where Nancy saw a whole stack of pictures. The kind you can color that have all SORTS of pictures on them - there were animals, scenes from movies like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Aladdin, Dumbo, Free Willie etc, and pictures of mountains and sea, forests and just tons to choose from. " Once a month," the girl continued, " a Man comes to pick up the pictures that have been done and then he takes them away and tells us the next week who has won and they get a prize. We like to put some of the drawings up on the wall so people in Krumnle and any visitors in town can see what our children do". Nancy's eyes lit up because she LOVED to draw and color. She asked if she could enter the competition and the girl said, " Of course, go pick any picture you want but only ONE, so you have to be careful not to spoil it 'cos you don't have another chance. You can take it home or color it here, we have some crayons in a box by the stack. However, the Man comes to pick them up the day after tomorrow so you need to get it back to us before we close tomorrow or first thing early the next day." The others had wondered what Nancy was cooking up and had come over to listen. They wanted to color too, except Snorkel, Perkins and Dress. So they all picked out what they thought they'd enjoy coloring. What kind of picture would YOU have chosen to color?? Porky chose a picture of a family sitting round a table in a restaurant! He thought he'd enjoy coloring FOOD as well as the clothes on the children and their parents, and the room had some interesting decorations on the walls that would be fun to do. George chose a simple picture of a Dog lying in front of his dog house and there was a bird perched on the roof of his house looking down at him. Tomkin chose one with a fire engine in it because he wanted to drive one when he got older, and Pippa chose a picture of Peter Pan and Tinkebell. Nancy chose her picture carefully - it was of a ballroom with men and women dancing. The women were dressed in beautiful gowns of many colors and designs and there were fine paintings on the walls and a chandelier hanging from the center of the ceiling and a broad stairway curving up to a second floor. This picture would need very CAREFUL coloring but Nancy wanted to try it. They all wanted to take their pictues home rather than stay in the Parlour and color. For one thing, they had a lot more different crayons at home than there were at Cone Corner, and they didn't want to get their pictures sticky with icecream or anything. Nancy and George took theirs home and that evening they were sitting at the dining room table with their pictures and a HUGE box of every colored crayon you could think of, and started to fill in the drawings. Nancy was VERY careful not to color over the lines anywhere and George TRIED so very hard not to, but sometimes his paw slipped and especially when he tried to color the feathers on the little bird's wing. He was coloring the bird blue and a little blue got on the brown roof of the dog house. Nancy comforted him and said not to worry, it would be FINE. When they were finished, and it took a long while, Nancy put both pictures inside a plastic cover so they wouldn't get dirty and the next morning she took them to Cone Corner and handed them in. The girl smiled and reminded Nancy to write their names, address and phone numbers on a label she gave her so the judges would know which belonged to whom. Brenda, the counter girl, said there were LOTS of pictures to be picked up that month and to come back a week from today if they wanted to know who won the prize. She wished her good luck and said she loved the way their pictures had been colored. They didn't have to go back in week later because one evening while they were sitting eating supper, the phone rang and Nancy's Mom, who looked surprised, said, " Nancy, there's a man who says he wants to speak to you. His name is Mr Gillham and he says he's got something to tell you". She handed the phone to Nancy who said, " hello?" " Hello Nancy," came a cheerful voice booming into her ear, " This IS Nancy, right?" "Right," said Nancy. " Well, Nancy," Mr Gillham went on, " I want to congratulate you on winning this month's Coloring Competition for Cone Corner. You win the prize for the BEST colored picture. Except for someone named George, you are the youngest person who entered and your coloring was perfect! There were one or two others who were also perfect but they were a lot older than you and because you did so well we decided you should win the competition. CONGRATULATIONS!" Nancy was SO excited she jumped up and down, waving the phone at her Mom and George and crying, " I won! I won!" and then she heard Mr Gillham trying to say something more so she listened again and told him she didn't hear what he had just said and to please say it again. He told her he would be coming to Krumble and would be at Cone Corner at 10 o'clock the next Saturday morning when he would give her her prize. As you might know, Nancy, George, Porky, Dress and Snorkel and all their families were at Cone Corner by ten o'clock in the morning the next saturday. There were a number of others too, including Mr Sheldon, the newspaper photographer, and he took a picture of Mr Gillham giving Nancy her prize. The Prize was a real artist's easel made smaller so she could stand in front of it to use it, a large box of water color paints and a very large box with three drawers FULL of different shades of crayons. Everyone clapped loudly as Nancy was given her Prize, and her picture was in the next day's local paper. The owner of Cone Corner was happy because he got more business and sold a LOT of icecream that day. He also gave Nancy some coupons so she and her friends could get a free icecream cone of their choice any time they wanted. What flavor would YOU have chosen? On the way home George said to Nancy, " Aren't you glad we went to Cone Corner while you and Porky were playing in the Pool? You'd never have seen the pictures if we hadn't gone there!". Nancy gave him a BIG hug and said, " Yes, THANK you, George. I'm SO glad you went and we all got icecream and now I can paint pictures and color pictures and draw pictures. All because of YOU, George. Thank you, thank you". George felt all warm and fuzzy inside and held Nancy's hand real tight. *********************************************** Goessoftly Retired Therapist www.goessoftlyishere.com (No Copies Allowed) | PIGMUS STORY 1. Heather | PIGMUS STORY 2 Nancy | PIGMUS STORY 3. Drew | PIGMUS STORY 4 Holly | PIGMUS STORY 5 Nobody | PIGMUS STORY 6 Mollie | PIGMUS STORY 7 Heidi | PIGMUS STORY 8 . Veronica | PIGMUS STORY 9. Nichole | PIGMUS STORY 10. Stephanie | Sunny | Merry Flipper | | THE HEALING PROCESS | DISSOCIATIVE IDENTITY DISORDER | POETRY | Biographical Entries | THE OTHER SIDE OF LIFE | STORIES FOR LITTLES (Pigmus and friends) | |
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