Hello, everyone.
If you haven’t yet read Robbi’s kickoff post about Ostriches, go do it now, if only to see the awesome photographs of ostriches’ weird toes.
If you’ve already learned all about our large, fast, bird friends and are ready for a story about ostriches, read on.
The Ostrich that Wanted to Fly
by Matthew Swanson
Edith was an ostrich. She had a long neck, a large fluffy body, and two scaly toes on each foot. She was smart and funny and had a nice smile, which made all the other ostriches like her quite a lot, but still she wasn’t happy.
Edith could lay enormous eggs. She could make creepy sounds when agitated. And she could run 60 miles an hour.
But all Edith wanted to do was fly.
She watched as the sparrows flew by. She watched as the hummingbirds floated in the air and fed from flowers. And she watched as the clouds drifted lazily across the sky. Everyone could fly, it seemed. Everyone but she.
And so Edith decided to do something about it.
First, she went to the carnival and bought a bunch of balloons from a clown named Dustin. But the balloons didn’t lift her off the ground. Not even a little. And so she let the balloons go, and when she did, they floated off to Istanbul.
Next, Edith went to the airport and tried to borrow an airplane. But there was a big sign on the wall that said, “No loaning airplanes to ostriches. No exceptions.” The man who ran the airport apologized politely but said he didn’t feel comfortable breaking the rules.
Finally, Edith found the biggest rubber band she could find and tied it between two trees to make an enormous slingshot. She pulled the rubber band way, way, way, way, way, way back and shot herself high into the air.
Suddenly, she was flying. She looked down and saw the ground below. It seemed very far away. She flapped her tiny wings. She was flying. She was flying! She looked up and saw the clouds above her, just a little bit closer than they had ever before.
But then something horrible happened. Edith started to come back down. And as she did, she started to worry. She hadn’t thought through this part of the plan, and wondered what would happen.
What happened is that Edith landed on an enormous trampoline in the middle of a carnival, which caused her to bounce high into the air and fly once again, not quite as high this time, but still pretty high. It was still very exciting.
The next time she came down, she landed on another trampoline in the middle of another carnival in the next town.
“That was really lucky,” said Edith, who was flying for a third time. A bit lower this time, but still high enough to feel like she was living her dream.
This continued, over and over again, as Edith flew from trampoline to trampoline, from carnival to carnival, from town to town.
Eventually, after landing on at least eleven trampolines, she came to rest on a soft mount of grass in a field full of ostriches. They cheered and took photographs and handed out cotton candy. Everyone wanted to give Edith a high five, but since ostriches don’t have hands, they settled for enthusiastic comments like, “Wow!” and “Way to go!” and “I had no idea that ostriches can fly.”
Edith was finally happy. It felt really good.
She never flew again, because she didn’t need to.
All right, guys, that’s my story about ostriches, but what do you have up your sleeve? Remember that your story can be about anything you want. Anything at all. Ostriches are just a suggestion. Just a place to start. Once your imagination takes over, who knows where you’ll end up?
Post your stories in the comments below. I can’t wait to read them!
THE OSTRICH
He runs really fast. He has two toes. His name is Kato. He likes to run really fast and beat people. He always beats them in the races. He likes to read books. He likes to poop on the potty. He pees in his diapers. He likes to go in the clock and get hit by the time tunnels. And he likes to burp and toot. The story is over.
My ostrich’s name is Mary. She walked along the path and ate flowers. Then she drank some water and then sat in the sun because it was SO CHILLY!
(Note: Inspired by Matthew Draws, I (Anna’s dad) sat down to do some drawing with Anna. Here is our joint picture that accompanies Anna’s story. Or vice versa.)
BILLY AND THE ANIMALS
Billy was an ostrich that always wanted to fly. One day, Billy saw some birds flying in the air. He tried to catch one with his mouth and swallowed one. 10 minutes later, Billy the ostrich noticed that he had tiny wings! He tried to fly but couldn’t because he had tiny wings. Later he saw a group of butterflies and ate 6 of them. Billy kept on finding flying animals and digesting them until he could fly. As Billy went flying into the blue sky, he saw 3 flying ostriches, 5 flying toads, and 2 flying giraffes. As they all played together, lots of animals kept on joining them. Billy flew down and tried to make a potion that made you fly instead of eating animals. He finally perfected the potion. Soon, all the animals were flying up in the sky. Soon humans wanted to fly so Billy invented another potion for humans, and it worked. So everybody lived happily ever after in the cloudy and blue sky!