Young Writers Society

For the Heak family the morning seemed like any other. The Penguin world was always the same. Mr Heak woke in the morning and kissed his wife on the cheek. She let out a low grunt, apparently still asleep. Mr Heak tiptoed out of the room; he didn’t want to disturb his pregnant wife. He tiptoed passed his son’s room as well; he was only two years old and needed his sleep. Carefully he walked down the stairs and looked out of the window onto the ice wastelands of Tenbri. Tenbri is a small town in the country of Eezlo, right on the border of Freton. The penguins of Freton had a rocky relationship with those of Eezlo. Mr Heak was always afraid of a war with them, although his wife said he was just being stupid. Mr Heak switched on the kettle and checked the clock. It was five o’clock. Why did the Fletchers want him in so early? He added milk to his tea without noticing while he was in deep thought about his work that day. He gulped down his tea and slid the icy door open. He hurried across the icy drive and started to walk down the road. He strapped on his bag and jogged off to work. He heard strange talk when he was jogging along. It was the clearest day since winter ended and he could see a few unusually small penguins. He had never seen them in town before. He tried to ignore it, but two penguins looking much the same but dressed in black and very hard to see in the shadow, were deep in whispered conversation. He listened closely and made out the words assassinate and king, was someone plotting to kill the king? Had these penguins sneaked over the border earlier today? He tried to push away the thought and focused on making bows. But later on that day, as he was taking bows to the armoury he saw three of the strange penguins and heard some of their whispered conversation.

“Do it this week James, do it this week!” whispered the one closest to Mr Heak.

“No! Security is too tight now, anyway are you crazy! How am I suppose to travel 250 miles in 1 week!” the other one whispered back.

“Yes I suppose I didn’t think of that.”

Could his ears deceive him? Mr Heak thought. The palace was 250 miles away, no; no-one could assassinate the king. He pushed the thought out of his mind and went back to collect his pay. He got his bag, and lost in thought, jogged right the way home, knowing he couldn’t mention a thing to his wife, not yet, he had the baby to think about and his two year old son. No, he was just going to carry on like nothing happened; it was just a coincidence, wasn’t it?

Mr Heak slid the ice doors open to the sound of screaming, he wasn’t sure why this person was screaming, but an idea suddenly springed into his head, could his wife be giving birth?

“Lizzy! Lizzy!” he bellowed

“I’m…. up….stairs…..”

Mr Heak ran up the stairs as fast as his flippers could carry him. He slid into his bedroom to see his wife lying down with a midwife sitting at her side. Mrs Heak was carrying what looked like a demented white tennis ball, which he soon realized to be an egg. He rushed down beside his wife, hugged her and let her put the egg in his hands. He felt it, it was warm, and he pushed it under his belly to keep it that way.

*

“Lizzy come here the eggs cracking!”

Mr Heak had been keeping his egg for many months now. When one day he heard a crack he quickly took out the egg to see a little beak protruding. Mrs Heak joined him quickly. There was now a whole head sticking out of the cracked egg. He was squawking madly as he tried to get free. Mrs Heak took as many pieces off the egg as possible without hurting her new chick. Eventually a small, grey fluffy penguin chick emerged. He ran around happily obviously amazed with this new sight, but didn’t take in his surroundings fast enough and ran right into a cupboard. Mrs Heak quickly helped him to his feet and he ran to Mr Heak, observing him closely, and then hurried off in a wavy line towards his brother who had just come down the stairs. The two year old penguin, Luke looked seriously confused.

“What’s that?” he said

“That’s your baby brother.” Mr Heak replied.

“Baby…. brother?”

“That’s right.”

Luke’s look of confusement instantly changed to one of excitement. He kneeled and hugged his newly hatched brother.

“Brother!” he said so only the baby penguin could hear him.

He let go of his new brother and allowed him to have a go at jumping each step, he instantly failed as he fell down.

“Clumsy isn’t he” Mr Heak announced

“Come on Luke I’ll take you up to bed, will you look after the little one until I get back?” Mrs Heak said

Mr Heak waited for just a second, or so it seemed, watching the little penguin until his wife came down.

“Right I must be off to work.” Mr Heak whispered, and left through the icy door. Mrs Heak watched him go and turned her attention back to the new member of the family. He was now attempting to get up a cupboard, but ran into it again.

“You really are clumsy, aren’t you?” Mrs Heak whispered to her youngest son.

The new baby obviously hadn’t heard her as he continued running into cupboards.

*

The newest member of the Heak family was now three weeks old. Mrs Heak kept on nagging her husband to hurry up and name him. Finally Mr Heak gave in and they discussed it over a steaming roast dinner.

“We don’t want anything common, I want him to be unique.” Mrs Heak said to break the silence.

“He’s going to be unique no matter what we call him.” Mr Heak replied.

“I know, I know, but what to call him?”

“Well why don’t we name him something based on his personality?”

“Yes that’s a good idea.”

“Well he’s the clumsiest penguin in the whole world so I suppose that could be part of his name.” Mr Heak suggested.

“Yes but we need something else, why don’t we end his name after my great uncle Bo?” Mrs Heak asked.

“OK, how about Clumbo? Mr Heak said.

“Clumbo, yes that sounds good let’s call him Clumbo.”

“OK then, his name is Clumbo.”