Danny and the Hippos

Once upon a time there was a teeny tiny little bitty boy named Danny. And Danny's favorite things in the whole wide world (at least as much as he knew being a teeny tiny boy) were hippos.

Every day Danny would start walking home from school with the other kids, but by the time the other kids were home Danny would only be halfway home because he was so tiny. One day as Danny was walking very slowly on his tiny little legs he heard some splashing.

"Splashing?" though Danny, "That's odd, I don't usually hear splashing on my way home from school." Well Danny, though tiny, was very curious and so he decided that he would go see where the splashing was coming from. He turned right and walked towards the splashing as fast as his tiny little legs would carry him. As he walked the splashing began to get louder, and louder, and louder until he saw them.

Big, gray, wrinkly, fat hippo-ey HIPPOS! Danny was so excited! He ran up to the biggest of the hippos and started waving his arms and jumping up and down yelling in his tiny little voice as loud as he could, "Hello! My name's Danny! Do you want to be my friend?" Well, the biggest hippo just kept chomping on whatever it was he was eating and didn't even turn his head toward Danny. Danny was not to be deterred. He yelled again, as loud as his very tiny little voice would go, "Hello! My name's Danny! Want to be my friend?" Well...the hippo kept ignoring him so eventually little Danny had to give up and go home for dinner. All evening he thought about those Hippos and when it was time for bed he had made up his mind. He would go back the next day and see if the hippos would pay attention to him.

The very next day after school was over Danny began to walk home faster than usual because he was excited to see the hippos but still much much slower than the other kids because he was so very tiny. When he got to the hippo pond he began jumping up and down, waving his arms, and shouting as loud as his tiny little voice would go, "HELLO! MY NAME'S DANNY! DO YOU WANT TO BE MY FRIEND?" Not surprisingly, the same thing happened as the day before. The hippo just kept eating his food while Danny jumped and shouted. Danny was very persistent though, and every day for a whole week he kept going back to the hippo pond just hoping and hoping and hopping and hopping until finally, on the last day of the week, the big hippo turned his head toward Danny and after giving him a long serious look opened his mouth and started talking! Talking!

"Listen here son" said the hippo on a drawling deep voice. "Hippos only like being friends with other things our own size. We tried being friends with other sized folks but we could never fit in the same places so we got jealous and just stick to our own size. So you go on home now and quit buggin' us hippos."

Poor little tiny teeny weeny Danny was so sad. He went home with his head hung low and didn't talk to anyone at the home the whole evening. His parents asked him what was wrong but couldn't seem to understand the things he muttered about wishing he was the same size as a hippo. Danny went to sleep and had dreams about hippos all night and when he woke up in the morning he knew that he would have to go back to the hippos one last time just to try to be friends. Danny followed the sound of the splashing and arrived at the hippo pond just after they had finished eating breakfast. He walked slowly up to the biggest hippo and was about to start talking when all of a sudden a little baby hippo popped out from behind his daddy and said, "Hello, my name's Dexter and I was just born today. I'll be your friend." Danny was so happy, he had his very own hippo friend. Not many people can say they have a friend that also happens to be a hippo.

Danny and Dexter were great friends. They played all sorts of games where you had to fit in the same places. They played go to the moon in a cardboard box, they rode wagons down the hill, they places sardines and hide and go seek, and even sometimes had sleepovers at Danny's house in special Spiderman and Buzz Lightyear sleeping bags. That whole year they played together every day and Danny and Dexter both started to grow. Danny grew a little bit and Dexter grew a lot. Dexter grew so much that by the end of the year he was the same size as the biggest hippo in the pond.

One day after Danny and Dexter had been best friends for a whole year Danny came to play with Dexter but instead of their secret handshake that Dexter always greeted Danny with, Dexter greeted Danny with a sad smile and some words that almost broke poor little Danny's teeny (though slightly bigger than before) heart.

"Danny," Dexter began, "I'm not a little baby hippo anymore and you and I can't fit in the same places any more. I'm sorry, but we just can't be friends after this, I'm just too big." Danny stared at Dexter in disbelief. Not be friends with Dexter? How could he do that? Dexter was his best friend in the whole wide world. Danny turned away and began to slowly walk home on his short little legs. About half-way home Danny suddenly turned around and began running to the hippo pond. When he got there he marched right up to the biggest hippo, looked him straight in the eye, and said, "Being friends is NOT about fitting in the same places." The big hippo looked slowly and Danny, and then went back to eating whatever he was eating. But that didn't stop Danny. He yelled right up into that big hippos face, "Friendship is about finding things you can do together! It doesn't matter if you're big and I'm small or if you're purple and I'm pink! There are lots of things you don't have to be the same to do, and it's more fun to be friends with others who are different than you because they can teach you new things!"

Danny stopped to catch his breath. By this point all the hippos were looking nervously at the biggest hippo to see how he would react to what Danny was saying. The biggest hippo slowly looked at Danny, then he looked at the other hippos and said, "Like what?" "Excuse me?" asked Danny very confused. "Like what?" repeated the biggest hippo. "Like what kinds of things can you do if you're not the same size?" "Oh!" said Danny, less confused, "well, you can build snowmen. You can tell stories. You can sing songs, or you could even make model airplanes."

The big hippo thought for a minute. Then he thought for another minute. Then he looked around at the other hippos and back at Danny and nodded. "I reckon you're right." he drawled. "You could build snowmen if you weren't the same size, I'm not sure about the model airplanes but hippos have very good taste in paint colors so we could help you decide what color to paint them." Danny smiled. Then Dexter smiled. Then even the biggest hippo smiled and that NEVER happens.

After that Danny became friends with all the hippos and some of the other kids became friends with them too. The hippos were even kinda nice to the squirrels who lived in the trees next to the pond though hippos and squirrels generally don't get along very well, but we'll leave that story for another time. Sometimes squirrels have bad attitudes.

The end.

Stories

One of my four year old friends asked me to read them a story from my brain. We're working on the "tell me a story" phrase. The stories that I will post are an attempt for me to record the little stories I tell to my little friends to keep them entertained. I hope you enjoy them!