His blue eyes widened as he looked across the booth at the black and white figure standing on the shelf. It was sitting on the shelf all alone. ‘It needed a friend’, he thought in his head. “Mommy! Daddy!” he yelled as he ran over and grabbed their hands pulling them over to the booth to his soon to be best friend. “Can I have him?” he asked them pointing to the figure on the shelf. His parents looked at each other and smiled.
“I don’t know son,” his dad said squatting to reach his sons eye level. “He might be hard to get.” The son put his little hands together and put his best puppy face on. His dad chuckled at the sight and said, “Well, we might as well try.” The dad stood up and got ready to play the carnival game.
“Okay then, here’s how you play,” said the eager carney, “all you’ve got to do is throw the ring onto three of those bottles. You’ve got four hoops so good luck.” The boy’s dad took a hoop and tossed it at the bottles. He got the first one and his son and wife cheered him on. He picked up the second one and made it as well. He picked up a third hoop and unfortunately missed the bottle. “Oh too bad, but you’ve got one hoop left. Let’s see if you can make it.” The little boy gripped the side of the booth looking at his dad with anticipation. The hoop flew through the air and swung several times around the bottle. As the ring circled the bottle top, it was clear the mission was complete. The little boy ran over to his dad and hugged his leg. The dad then picked up his son and asked him, “Which prize do you want buddy?”
“That one,” the little boy said pointing straight to the stuffed animal across from him.
“We’ll take the stuffed penguin please,” the father said to the man in charge of the booth. The man walked over and picked up the penguin from its shelf. He carried the animal over to the child and handed it to him. The little boy hugged his new friend tightly and kissed him on the head. His parents laughed and smiled at their son as he strangled the fuzzy penguin.
“Sweet heart, do you know anything about penguins?” asked his mother to the child in his car seat.
“No,” he said looking at her.
“Well, they waddle and they can slide on their bellies.”
“They do!” said her son excitedly.
“Penguins can’t fly though,” his dad told him.
“They can’t?” asked the little boy.
“Nope. They don’t need to because they swim to catch their food. Luckily for them Antarctica has a lot of fish. ”
“What’s Antarctica like?”
“Well, its really cold and icy.”
“Oh,” the little boy said looking down at his buddy.
The next morning the little boy woke up in his bed with his penguin laying next to him. He got up and dragged his friend down to the kitchen table where his mom had a bowl of cereal ready for him. He sat down and ate his breakfast. “Be careful not to spill on the carpet, the maid is coming over today” his mom told him. He nodded and kept eating. After he was done she told him, “Go upstairs and get dressed, and be sure to take care of your friend.”
The maid was vacuuming in the den and the little boy came down the stairs with a box of crayons in his hands and a stack of paper which was almost about to fall out of his grip. He sat down at the kitchen table and spread out all of his supplies. As he was coloring away, the maid walked in the kitchen to start cleaning up. She saw that a box of popsicles was sitting on the counter. So she stopped sweeping and opened the freezer to put the box up. As the door opened, a dark lurking figure fell out of the freezer slowly. The maid screamed a high pitched squeal at the sight. As the figure flew out at her, she flung at it with her broom and hit it onto the floor. She then hopped up on the counter afraid that her attack on the creature might have not been enough. She looked down at the dark creature and saw a stuffed penguin laying on the ground. It was looking up at her with its gleaming button eyes. The little boy ran over to the stuffed animal and picked him up. He gave it a hug and kissed the penguin on the head. His mother and father ran into the kitchen and asked, “What happened?”
The maid slowly lowered herself from the counter top and told them, “I was trying to put these popsicles up, and I saw something falling from the freezer. I thought it was an animal or something because I it looked like one. It ended up it was just the penguin.”
“Oh,” said the mother as she comforted the maid.
“Son,” said the dad as he walked over to the little boy. “Why did you put your penguin in the freezer?”
“Because you said that penguins live in Antarctica and they have to be in the cold.”
“Oh, I see,” said the dad picking up his son, “Well, I think that this penguin has been in the cold long enough. How about you two go outside and play.”
“Okay,” said the little boy. As his dad let him down and he ran to the door. The dad laughed to himself, ‘ A penguin in the freezer, who would have thought.’
