In a Tight Spot! (a story for children)

Hello friends!

I’ve been learning lots of new things this week, like how to boil an egg just in time for the soldiers, how to eat an ice cream in ten seconds flat and how to replace a floating goldfish without anyone finding out. I like keeping busy because sitting still just never seems to work out the way I plan.

Just look what happened one morning last week. Mum said “Dunster, it’s very important that you keep clean and out of trouble today. Your Grandmother is coming to visit and I want her to see how much you’ve grown up since you put washing up liquid in her tea.”

“Oh Mum that was an accident, I didn’t know she was going to drink it.”

“Just be sensible Dunster. You can sit here with your crayons until she arrives.”

And so I did. I drew myself as a spaceman, myself as a cowboy and myself as a sugar plum fairy. ‘Do sugar plum fairies have real plums?’ I wondered. ‘Are they coated in sugar?’ I puzzled. I got out my sticking paste and stuck my paw in the sugar bowl. This was going to be a beautiful picture.

I happily dabbed the page with my sticky paw and shovelled little piles of twinkling sugar wherever I could fit them. Soon my fairy was glistening from his ears to his toes and I though this might be the loveliest drawing I’d ever seen. But it wasn’t finished yet, for it was still completely plum-less. Now, what would I do about that?

Just then I saw a pot of breakfast jam on the side and it gave me a brilliant idea. Only a very special bear could become the world’s first sugar strawberry fairy! So I unscrewed the lid and plunged my paw right into the soft, sticky stuff to feel around for the fattest fruit I could find. And I pulled, and I yanked, and I struggled. And I discovered that my paw was stuck fast in the little glass jar. Oh crumbs. Now what was I going to do about that?

Smash it? No that would be far too dangerous. Call Mum? But she was already cross with me… which…hang on a minute, washing up liquid! That’s what she always uses gets the rings off her big hefty fingers. So with my free paw I squeezed out oodles of bright green liquid and watched as it seeped through my fur and into the thick red strawberry jam. Red and green, green and red, what a fabulous mixture… until…Oh no! I looked down to see the biggest, messiest puddle of colourful gloop growing bigger on the kitchen floor.

“Dunster” yelled Mum.Oh crumbs.

“Hello Mum, hello Grandma” I said with both paws behind my back.

“What on earth have you done?” cried Grandma.

“I pickled my paw” I almost sobbed, holding up my jar for a fist. Now my paw was throbbing from the pain of being squashed like a strawberry and I felt horribly close to passing out.

Grandma ran to steady me while Mum took hold of the slippery glass pot and slowly eased my swollen paw out of it. Then they picked me up, took me upstairs and ran a hot bubbly bath to soak off the jam, goo, sugar and glue that had started to become very itchy.

Soon I was resting buy the fire in my Jim Jams and recovering quickly with a chocolate finger and a mug of Grandma’s cocoa.

Think I’ve had enough of painting pictures for a little while. Which is just as well because I’ve got a funny feeling Mum has too!