Short Story / unlikely friends
Unlikely Friends
Herman began digging yet another hole in the ground. It seems this is what he was made for; bringing good rich soil up from below to the top! He busily kept up this tedious chore, never tiring. Going in the ground….coming back up a few minutes later.
One day when he was busily digging; Sherman came along!
Sherman stopped and watched Herman go down -then come back up.
’ Hmmmmm,’ Sherman thought. Herman was so busy he didn’t notice Sherman was standing there. If that’s what you could call it, see Sherman was a snail. And well if you haven’t figured out by now, Herman is a worm!
Herman went down into the ground again; and when he came up he was right in front of Sherman.
“Oh” Herman said, startled.
“ Sorry, am I in your way?” Sherman asked.
Herman smiled, saying, “ Oh, it’s alright, I can go another way.”
Sherman peered at Herman with his big eyes, and said, “ May I ask what you are doing?”
Herman smiled again, then said, “ My job!”
“ Your job? And what’s that, looks mighty boring to me?” Sherman said questioningly.
“Well my good….... whatever you are. I am the turner of good soil. I make the soil rich, so humans can have better plants to grow. It’s kind of a yin/yang thing!” Herman said proudly!
Sherman said sarcastically, “ well aren’t you all high and mighty, thinking you’re all bad.”
Herman went down and up again. When he came back up, he asked,
“ So what are you anyway?”
Very proudly, in a majestic way, he answered “ I am a Royal snail! See I carry my castle where ever I go. See I can go in- and come out when I need to!”
Herman stared real closely, then asked, “ If you’re Royalty, where’s your crown?”
“ Oh it’s inside my castle,” Sherman started. He then continued, “ I don’t want anyone thinking I am better than them, so I don’t wear it!”
Herman rolled his eyes as began going down again, whispering to himself, ’sure you are!’
Sherman waited for him to come back up, then said, “ You don’t believe me?”
Herman said, “ Huh, no I said I’d be right back.” He didn’t want to hurt Sherman’s feelings. It was nice having someone to talk with finally.
“By the way, my name’s Herman. What’s yours?” Herman politely asked.
Standing proudly, he replied, “Sherman, King Sherman Snail to be exact!”
“Well glad to meet you, Sherman. Hang around I got to get back to work. Lots of land to till, and get prepared. Plenty of nice cabbages over there if your hungry too!” Herman said before heading back down.
Sherman looked up, and said, “Wow a smörgåsbord! Have I died and gone to heaven?” Sherman excitedly said.
Just then as Herman started down, he came back up, looked around and yelled “ Hey Sherman, I forgot to tell you something.”
Sherman slithered back into view with part of a leaf hanging out of his mouth, and mumbled “ yeah?”
“ If you want to stay alive, don’t eat off the same plant for long. Farmer Johnson doesn’t like anyone eating on his plants!” Herman said cautiously. Then went back down out of sight. So Sherman thought for a moment, and moved on to another plant.
He began munching on another, when he saw Herman pop up again. Herman asked slyly, “ You got anything else in that fine home you carry around?”
Sherman happily said, “ Why sure Herman, it is my home after all. I even got a stereo with built in speakers in my shell here. Want to hear my choice of music?”
Herman said, “ Sure, it would brighten up my day. Since Farmer Johnson put up that scarecrow, the birds don’t come and sing anymore!”
Sherman went into his shell, and turned his stereo on. Some soothing jazz began emanating from tiny holes that were barely visible on the sides of the shell. When Sherman came out, he asked “ You like Herman?”
“Oh yeah, makes me want to dance!” Herman said as he moved his body back and forth.
“Well, you got to have good tunes to listen to when you travel as much as I do, Herman,” Sherman replied.
Sherman went off eating some more leaves, as Herman danced his way in and out of the ground to the sounds of the music. Soon it was beginning to get dark, so Herman decided to call it a day and get some sleep. Before he went down for the last time, he thought of something else he should mention to his new friend.
“ Hey Sherman, Shermie…...it’s my bedtime, but I want to warn you about something. Farmer Johnson comes out here real early in the morning,to check his plants. So make yourself scarce, I don’t think he would like having you eating on his prize cabbage’s! See you later!, Herman said sleepily. Then he went down into the ground for the night.
Sherman sat munching on a leaf, then moved to the next plant and ate until he was full. He almost couldn’t get into his shell to sleep for the night. But he was feeling good, and liked his new friend too!
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It works as a childrens story… would it be illustrated? If not I’d suggest some more details of what’s going on, like when the snail went over to eat the leaf, you didn’t say that… it just happened as if he appeared over there and the worm was yelling all the sudden.
It was a bit too repetitive but I think that works for kid stories. I don’t like it, but kids might.
Overall it’s cute, has a moral… just needs a little more detail of events.
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Nice story. Should make a good childrens story when you finish it up. I do hope you reject the pressure to build in some political agenda as is so often the case in childrens writing today.
At least Mother Goose’s agenda’s were only visible to the adults. the kids just like the characters.
I really don’t have anything negative to say about this. It is a nice luke warm kind of story with decent word pictures that the kids, and even adults, should be able to understand.
This is a cute story. If the audience is to be young children, this would actual classify as a children’s novel or storybook. You may want to replace words like questioningly or smorgasbord (sp?) for those super young audiences if it’s to be read BY children- no worries if it’s to be read TO children. On a side note, adding illistrations would really add to this piece. Great job.
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