Emily in Africa

A fun, short children's story. Young Emily Snow lives in Grimley with her horrible aunt Victoria and her mean sister Margaret. She misses her parents who have disappeared whilst traveling to Africa.

It was another dark and rainy day in Grimley. Ten year old Emily Snow was sitting at her desk and looking out the window of her classroom. She was looking out at the rain which had been falling down now for over a month. It rained all day and all night. She could never go out to the park and bring her dog Molly for a walk, and that was her favourite thing to do. She looked out the window and started to think about her parents. She wondered where they were. She wondered if she would ever see them again. Just as she was about to drift off into a nice daydream, she felt a big thump on her desk. It was Mrs.Flump’s fist. “Emily Snow pay attention at once!”, she screamed. “What question did I just ask the class?”. Emily looked around the classroom. All the other children sniggered and chuckled. She looked at Mrs.Flump again. Mrs.Flump was a fat woman with a long brown pony tail.  She was old as well but not as old as her aunt Victoria who was 70. Mrs.Flump was wearing the same grey cardigan and long grey skirt that she wore every day. She had wrinkles on her forehead and long brown hairs on her droopy chin. She had a big fat puffy nose and at the top of her nose, between her thick bushy eyebrows, she had a big fat wart. “I dont know Mrs.Flump”, said Emily. Mrs.Flump started to smile. It was an evil smile. As she smiled, Emily could see her old pointy yellow teeth. They reminded Emily of a shark’s teeth. Then, in a deep voice that sounded like thunder she said, “Go to the principal’s office, now!”.

Emily sat outside Principal Snicklewitz’s office. She looked out the window again. Nothing but rain. She looked at her school uniform. She hated her school uniform. It was an old uniform that  she had gotten from her older sister Margeret who was thirteen years old and much taller than Emily. The jumper was too big for her and the skirt was so long that you could barely see her black school shoes as she walked. Then Emily heard Mr.Snicklewitz’s loud shrieking voice that sounded like a cat scraping it’s nails on a window. “Emily Snow! Come in here at once!”. Emily walked into Mr.Snicklewitz’s office and closed the door behind her. She stood by the door. Mr.Snicklewitz was sitting in his big leather chair behind his desk. He stood up and put his hands on the desk. He stared at Emily. Mr.Snicklewitz was very tall and very skinny. He was so tall that his head nearly touched the roof. He was a bald man and he had a long pointy nose that looked like a sharp knife. He had small grey eyes and he had skinny black eyebrows. He was wearing a black suit that was too small for him, so Emily could see his skinny hairy arms. She looked at his skinny hands on the desk. He had long yellow fingernails that were very dirty. He was a horrible man. Every time Emily saw him she felt a shiver go up her back. “So. You weren’t paying attention in Mrs.Flump’s class again”. Emily could feel the shiver going up her back. “This is the fourth time this week!  As a punishment, you will stay behind every day after school for one month. You will clean the classrooms and next week when we are having our school fair in the schoolyard, you will stay inside and do extra Maths homework! Do I make myself clear?”, he said in his shrieking voice. “Yes Mr.Snicklewitz”, said Emily. Mr.Snicklewitz walked over to Emily and he stood in front of her. He bent down until he was face to face with her. Emily could see his little grey eyes and she could smell his horrible breath. It smelt like rotten onions and coffee. Then in his horrible high pitched voice he said, “Now get out of my office!”

II

Emily was sweeping the floors of her classroom. All the other children had gone home hours ago. Mrs.Flump was sitting behind her desk correcting the children’s copybooks. “Terrible...terrible...dreadful...terrible...dreadful...TERRIBLE”, she snarled. Emily looked out at the rain. It was dark outside. She was hungry and she wanted to go home. “Can I go home now Mrs.Flump?”, she asked. Mrs.Flump looked at her watch which almost disappeared into her fat arms. “Ok. But I’m giving you extra homework to do”, said Mrs.Flump with an evil smile on her face. 

When Emily got home, her clothes were soaking wet from all the rain. Emily lived in a small cottage with her aunt Victoria, her older sister Margaret, who was mean to her and her fat dog Molly who Emily loved and who was her best friend. Molly was always eating any food that aunt Victoria made, so aunt Victoria hated Molly. Molly had to sleep out in the rain in the small back garden but every night when her aunt Victoria fell asleep, Emily would quietly sneak downstairs and let Molly inside so that she could sleep with Emily in her bed. “Where have you been?”, shouted her aunt as Emily walked in the front door. “I had to stay behind after school and clean the classrooms”, said Emily. “In trouble again? What am I going to do with you child. Go to your room. I’ve given your dinner to that fat smelly dog. Go to your room!”, screamed her aunt Victoria. Emily walked upstairs to her room. She shared a bedroom with her sister Margaret. Margaret was sitting on her bed reading her girly magazines. “You were in trouble again in school”, sneered Margaret. “Aunt Victoria was very angry with you. She said that next time, she’ll kick that fat dog out of the house.” Emily didn’t like her sister. She was taller than her, she was better in school than her and she had lots of friends. Emily had no friends, except her fat dog Molly whom she loved so much. Emily stood at the window looking out into the small garden. Molly was sitting in the garden in the rain and looking back at Emily and wagging her tail in excitement. She wanted to go outside and give her big fat dog a big soft hug but she knew that she could not, because her aunt would be angry with her. “Margaret. Do you think Mum and Dad are still alive?”, she asked as she looked out the window. “Don’t be silly. You know not to talk about them. They’re gone. They’re gone forever. Stop talking about them and try and forget them”, replied Margaret, with a quiver in her voice. “How can I forget them? They are our parents. Do you not miss them?”, said Emily. “Emily, I told you to stop talking about them. They are gone and they’re not coming back!”, replied Margaret as she stormed out of the room. She slammed the door behind her and Emily could hear her walk downstairs. Aunt Victoria would probably give her some chocolate too. Aunt Victoria loved Margaret and always gave her nice things.

 

III

Emily lay in her bed. Margaret was asleep. Emily started to think of her parents and how wonderful they were. Her parents worked in the zoo owned by mean old Mr.Plumpleton, who hated the animals. Mr. Plumpleton only cared about money and his appearance. He was never nice to children and he often say “vile, smelly little creatures” when speaking about them. Emily’s parents looked after the animals and helped them when they were sick. They were vets and they were very nice people. Emily would always visit her parents at the zoo when she was finished school. Her parents loved animals and would go on journeys to far away countries to learn more about animals. They would travel to India to see the Tigers. They would go to Australia to see the crocodiles and the kangaroos and the koala bears. They would go to China to see the panda bears. They would even travel to the south pole to see the polar bears and the penguins. Emily always wanted to go with them to see the animals but her parents would never bring her. They said that she was too young, but they promised her that when she was older that they would bring her away with them on one of their adventures to see the animals. When her parents would go away on one of their journeys, Emily and Margaret would have to stay with their aunt Victoria in her cottage in Grimley. Emily hated staying with her aunt Victoria because her house was old and smelly and she was mean to her, but she was nice to Margaret so Margaret loved staying there. Emily always wanted to stay at Mr. Bradley’s house. Mr.Bradley was a friend of her parents and he was a lovely man. He lived in a big mansion in the counrtyside all by himself. His house had a very big back garden with lots of trees and wild animals like foxes and dear and rabbits. However, her parents told her that she must stay with her aunt. “It won’t be for long”, her mother would say,”we will be home soon”. Emily would look forward to her parents returning so that she could leave her aunt Victoria’s house and go back home to her own house with her parents where she had her own bedroom and a nice back garden full of trees and grass. Emily loved to play in the garden. She would pretend that the garden was a jungle in South America where she would watch the exotic birds in the trees. Or, she would imagine that her garden was the plains of Africa where she would walk amongst the tall giraffes as they ate their dinner by nibbling on the leaves in the tree. Sometimes, she liked to pretend that she was in the cold and windy arctic, where she would watch a polar bear and her baby cubs looking for fish to eat, using her father’s binoculars. Emily loved her garden. It was her favourite place in the whole world.

One day, Emily’s parents were getting ready to go on another journey. They were going to Africa to see the elephants and to learn more about them. Emily was very upset because she was going to miss her parents terribly. She begged them to take her with them but they said no. “I don’t want to stay with aunt Victoria. Please, please, please take me with you”, she said. “Emily you can’t come with us, you know that. When you are older we will bring you with us and you can see all the wonderful animals”, said her dad. Emily’s birthday was coming up but her parents were going to be away in Africa and so, they would not be there for her birthday. “You won’t be here for my birthday. Please stay. I’m going to miss you too much”, begged Emily. “Emily, I know we won’t be here for your birthday and we feel awful about that”, said her mum. “We have gotten you a very special present though, and you can have it now”, her dad told her. “Come out to the garden and have a look”. Emily ran out to the garden. Sitting in the garden was a beautiful golden retriever dog. Emily was so happy to see the dog that she started to clap her hands together and jump up and down. She ran out to the dog and gave it a big hug. The dog started to lick her face. It was the happiest that Emily had ever been. “Her name is Molly”, said her dad. “We got her from the dog pound. She’s all yours”. Emily ran to her mum and dad and she hugged them tightly. “Thank you so much. She is beautiful. I love her!”, said Emily. 

Later that day Emily’s parents dropped her at her aunt’s house along with her sister Margaret and her new dog Molly. Emily was crying because she didn’t want to be staying at her aunt’s house and she didn’t want her parents to go away. She begged and begged them to stay. “We won’t be gone for long”, her mum told her. “We will be back shortly”. Emily cried harder and harder as she watched her parents drive away. Molly started to lick her hand. “Get inside”, snarled her aunt Victoria. “That dog isn’t coming into the house. It sleeps in the garden while you are here”. 

Later that evening while she was eating her supper in the kitchen with her sister, Emily heard a loud smashing sound coming from the living room. She rushed into the room. Her aunt Victoria was standing in front of the television. Her old face was as white as a glass of milk. She had dropped her cup of tea on the floor and she was staring at the television. “Aunt Victoria are you alright?”, she asked. Her aunt did not reply, instead, she kept staring at the television. “Aunt Victoria, what is the problem? Is everything ok?”. Again her aunt did not reply to her question but instead, she kept staring at the television. Emily turned and looked at the television. Her aunt was watching the news. Emily hated the news. On the screen she could read the words “Small plane goes missing over Africa”. Emily listened to the man on the news talking. “A small plane that was travelling from London to Kenya in Africa, has been reported missing. The plane is reported to have disappeared out of sight. Nobody knows where the plane is and some have suggested, that perhaps the plane has crashed. For now, this is all we know.” Emily suddenly felt sick. She turned to her aunt who has now looking at her. Margaret was standing in the doorway and she was looking at the television screen. She had tears running down her face. Emily knew what had happened. Her parents were on that plane. They had disappeared. They were gone.

IV

As she lay in bed, Emily started thinking about her parents and she began to feel lonely. She knew that by now her aunt would most certainly be asleep. She slowly got out of her bed and tip toed out of the room. As she quietly stepped down the small stairs she could hear her aunt snoring in her bedroom. When she got to the back door of the house, Molly was already waiting for her. Emily took a towel from the cabinet in the kitchen and used it to dry Molly who was dripping wet from being out in the rain. They made their way up the stairs. Molly knew not to make a sound as the tip toed up the stairs. They climbed into the bed and Emily hugged Molly tightly. She didn’t smell of wet dog though, because Emily washed her often with soap and water in the back garden. Emily rubbed her face into Molly’s fur and closed her eyes. She dreamt of her parents.

V

It was the day of the school fair. Emily was in the classroom doing extra maths work whilst everyone else was in the schoolyard enjoying the fair. The rain has eased to a light drizzle. For a while, everyone thought that it might stop raining, but it always rained in Grimley. Emily looked out the classroom window at all the children running around enjoying themselves. There were horses for the children to sit on and have their photograph taken. There were clowns blowing balloons and magicians doing magic tricks for the children. There was a stall that sold only sweets. Chocolate, jelly sweets, lollipops, popcorn, crisps, and even big thick white creamy ice creams with sprinkles and raspberry syrup on them. Mr.Mario, who owned the local pizzeria, was there too and he was giving the children big hot cheesy slices of pizza for free. There was a big ferris wheel too. At the top, the children could see things that were miles away. All the children were enjoying themselves. Everyone at the fair was having lot’s and lot’s of fun. Even Mrs.Flump looked happy as she gobbled down a hotdog from the chip van and then washed it down with a can of fizzy orange. From the classroom Emily could see Margaret and her friends. Margaret had Molly with her. All her friends were petting and rubbing Molly and telling Margaret how beautiful a dog she was. That made Emily angry. Molly was Emily’s dog. Margaret never asked Emily if she could bring Molly to the funfair. Emily was about to jump from her desk and run outside to Margaret, when suddenly she heard a voice that sent a cold shiver up her back. The voice made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. “Going somewhere?”, said Mr. Snicklewitz. “No sir, Mr.Snicklewitz”, replied Emily, the hairs on her neck standing straight like soldiers. “Good. The fair is for children who behave. You will stay here until you are finished your maths work. Then you will clean the classrooms. Do you understand?”, said Mr.Snicklewitz as he moved his face closer to Emily’s so she could smell his horrible smelly breath. Today it smelt like old socks and rotten eggs. “Yes sir, I understand”, replied Emily as she pulled her face away from his. “Very well. I shall be in my office eating my lunch that my wife made specially for me. Pickles, onions and mustard sandwiches. My favourite”. Emily looked out the window again. The whole town must have been at the fair, she thought. Her aunt Victoria was there too. She and Mrs.Flump were talking to each other as Mrs.Flump bit into a big thick caramel chocolate bar. This isn’t fair, thought Emily. She felt really angry. She began to cry. She folded her arms and buried her head into the desk as she cried. “It’s not fair!”, she sobbed. “Why is everyone so mean to me. I want my mum. I want my dad. I want to run away and never come back!”, she cried. All of a sudden there was a great cheer from the playground. Emily looked up and out the window. A hot air balloon was preparing to land. All the children were cheering and clapping their hands. As the balloon came closer to the ground all the children rushed towards it. Emily could see Margaret running towards the balloon and shoving the other children out of the way so that she could get closer to it. Molly ran over to a table covered in food and began gobbling everything up. Emily began to laugh at Molly. She had ketchup and ice-cream all over her face. Emily knocked on the window and Molly looked up and saw her. Molly ran towards the window and jumped up, putting her fat golden paws against the glass. “Oh Molly”, said Emily, “Why is everyone but you so mean to me? I want to run away and never come back. I want to go to Africa and find my mum and dad and be with them again. I want to go on an adventure with them and see all the wonderful animals, but I’m stuck here in Grimley”, she sighed. Now all the children outside had returned to the various stalls and fair games. Margaret was stuffing her face with a big slice of pepperoni pizza and Mrs.Flump was preparing to glug down a big bottle of fizzy cola. Emily looked at the hot air balloon and began to think to herself. What if she and Molly got into the balloon and flew away to Africa? She would find her parents and see all the animals. She would be away from fat old Mrs.Flump and slimey old Snicklewitz. Margaret wouldn’t tease her anymore and there would be no more aunt Victoria and her smelly old cottage. She would be free. No, thought Emily. What a load of nonsense. It would never work. She looked at Molly who still had her paws against the window. She looked at her desk and the big pile of paper that was full of horrible maths questions for her to do. She hated maths. “I want to run away, and never come back”, she said. That was it, she thought. She was going to do it. She was going to run away. She was going to go to Africa to see her parents and stay there forever with them and all the wonderful animals. She looked out the window at the big hot air balloon. She thought of her parents and of how much she missed them. That was it. She was going to do it. She turned away from the window and sprinted for the classroom door. She ran out the door and down the corridor. She turned around a corner and whizzed even faster down another corridor. She had never ran so fast in all her life. She turned another corner and saw Mr.Snicklewitz at the end of the corridor, standing with his back to her. He was looking out at all he children in the schoolyard as he bit into one of his disgusting pickle, onions and mustard sandwiches. Emily didn’t stop running. She ran as fast as she could. When she got to the end of the corridor she kept running and with a big BOOM she knocked skinny Mr.Snicklewitz out of the way. He went up in the air and hit the ground with a big thump, his horrible sandwiches flying everywhere. “Aaaaaargh”, he screamed, as he fell. Now Emily was in the schoolyard. She could feel the rain on her cheeks. She whistled for Molly. Molly came leaping towards her and she jumped up and knocked Emily to the ground. She began licking Emily’s face. Emily jumped up quickly. “Let’s go Molly”, she said. “We’re running away and never coming back!” They started running through the fair. Mr.Snicklewitz was now back on his feet and he screamed in his whiney shrieking voice,”STOP HER! STOP EMILY SNOW AND THAT STUPID FAT DOG!”. Emily and Molly kept running as fast as they could as they knocked people out of their way. BOSH! Emliy sent her aunt Victoria flying out of the way and head first into the sweet stall. BANG! She elbowed Mrs.Flump in her fat behind and she was sent crashing into  Mr.Mario the pizza man who dropped a big hot pizza on her big fat head. BOOM, another one. BISH, another one. BASH, another one. Emily and Molly were knocking anyone down who stood in their way. “STOP THEM!”, she heard Snicklewitz cry. They were almost at the balloon when Margaret jumped out in front of them and tried to stop them. They kept running. Molly ran under Margaret’s legs and she tripped and went tumbling away. They were almost there, just a few more yards. All they had to do was make it to the balloon and they were free. WHOOOSH! Emily and Molly jumped as high, and as far as they could. They crashed into the basket underneath the hot air balloon. They had made it! Emily jumped up and quickly untied the ropes that were holding the balloon down. “We did it!”, she cried. “We did it Molly! We’re free!”. “The balloon started to move up and away from the ground. “NOOOOO!. My Balloon!”, cried the hot air balloon pilot. It was too late though. They were off the ground now and on their way up towards the sky. Emily looked down. Everyone was staring at the balloon. Mr.Snicklewitz was running towards the balloon. “Goodbye Mr.Snicklewitz you mean smelly old fart!”, shouted Emily. “You’ll never see me again!”. Mr.Snicklewitz jumped up at the balloon. He was so tall that he grabbed onto a loose rope that was hanging from the balloon. He held on as the balloon moved higher and higher and everyone below in the schoolyard started to look smaller and smaller. “You get out of that balloon!”, he cried, but Emily did not listen to him. “If you don’t get out of that balloon right now, you will be in big trouble!”, he growled, but again, Emily did not listen. He wouldn’t let go of the rope. Up and up the balloon went until Emily couldn’t see the people in the schoolyard anymore. “AAAAARGH!”, screamd Mr.Snicklewitz. “BRING...THIS...BALLOON...DOWN...NOW!”, he yelled as he held on tightly. His long lanky legs were dangling high up in the clouds now. “No Mr.Snicklewitz! Either you let go or you hang on until we get to Africa!”,replied Emily with a big smile on her face. Molly started to bark and jump with delight. “Africa?”, screamed Mr.Snicklewitz with a look of horror on his face. “Yes Mr.Snicklewitz”, said Emily. “We’re going to Africa and we’re never coming back!”. Now they were over the ocean and the rain had gone away at last. The sun was shining and they were on their way. 

VI

A few hours had passed now and Emily and Molly were as happy as a fat baby with an ice-cream. Mr. Snicklewitz had let go of the rope by now. Emily had watched with delight as he fell and fell and fell until SPLASH, he went into the ocean below. She never saw Mr.Snicklewitz again. Emily had found the hot air balloon pilots bag. In it was his lunchbox and a bottle of water. In his lunchbox, Emily found ham and cheese sandwiches, two bananas, a chocolate bar, a slice of cake and two strawberry yogurts. Emily opened a yogurt and put it down for Molly, who slurped it up in seconds. Emily laughed as Molly now had yogurt all over her face and she was trying to lick it off with her long tongue. “Oh Molly, you really are a silly fat dog”, said Emily, “But I love you”. Molly barked and Emily gave her a hug. She was very happy in the balloon with Molly. They were moving quite fast in the balloon and the strong sea wind was carrying them along. Emily looked down at the ground. She could see land beneath them. “We’re not above Africa yet Molly”, she said as she remembered stupying a map of the world that was on the wall in Mrs.Flumps classroom. “I think we’re over Italy”, she said. “I can smell spaghetti and pizza!”. Molly began to bark and drool and Emily laughed at her silly fat dog.

Emily was getting tired and Molly was beginning to yawn. They had eaten all of the food in the lunchbox and the water was nearly all gone. It was getting dark out now. Molly lay down to fall asleep and Emily lay down too and put her head on Molly’s big fat stomach so she could use it as a pillow. They slowly drifted off asleep. Emily dreamt about her parents again. She dreamt that she and Molly landed in Africa and met her parents there. She dreamt that she was with her parents and they were watching the lions roar and the elephants run with their big heavy feet across the land. She dreamt that she was sliding down a giraffes’ long neck into a lake were she swam with the big happy hippos. She dreamt that she was swinging from the branches in the trees with all the monkeys. She dreamt that she was sitting on a zebras back and riding it like a horse. She dreamt that she was falling, falling, falling! Suddenly Emily woke up. Molly was barking loudly. The balloon was spinning and spinning out of control. They were falling. The balloon was stuck in the middle of a thunderstorm! “Oh no Molly!”, cried Emily. “A thunderstorm!”. The balloon kept spinning and spinning. Emily was starting to feel sick and dizzy. The loud thunder was roaring. DUSH. BANG. DUSH. CRACK! Emily was frightened. She hung on to Molly and hugged her as tightly as she could. The balloon continued to spin and spin and spin until BOOM! THUD! BASH! They had stopped. 

The balloon had stopped and the storm had cleared. Everything was now silent. Emily let go of Molly. “Are you ok Molly?”, she asked. Molly barked loudly. They were ok, but they were scared and they didn’t know where they were. Emily stood up and peeped her head out over the basket. She could’t see much. It was still quite dark out but the sun was starting to come up. Emily was trying to look out and see where they where when suddenly she saw a big hairy face staring at her. It was huge. Emily screamed with fear and closed her eyes and hugged Molly closely. “Oh no Molly!”, she screamed. “We’re lost. There’s a monster outside and he’s going to eat us!”. Emily was very scared. Molly was barking very loudly. “I wish we never came on this journey. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I wish we were back in Grimley and I was doing my extra maths work in Mrs. Flump’s classroom. Emily could feel a giant mouth nibbling at her shoes. She started to scream. Molly started to growl at the monster. “Oh no! I’m going to be eaten!”, cried Emily who still had her eyes closed. Emily could feel the monster smelling her. “He’s going to eat me, he’s going to eat me. He’s trying to see what I’m going to taste like”, sobbed Emily, who still had her eyes closed. Molly had stopped barking now. Emily could smell the monster’s breath as it huffed and sneezed. Then, she could feel nothing. “He’s gone”, thought Emily. “But he didn’t eat me.” Emily slowly opened her eyes. Molly was sitting up and panting. “Where did he go?”, she asked. “Where’s the monster Molly?” Molly barked and jumped up and put her paws on the edge of the basket and looked out. “What is it Molly? What are you looking at?”. Emily slowly got up from the bottom of the basket and she looked over the edge at what Molly was looking at. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head! She couldn’t believe what she was looking at. She rubbed her eyes and blinked, but the amazing sight didn’t disappear. “I can’t believe it Molly!”, she shouted. Emily pinched her arm. “Ouch!”, she cried. “This isn’t isn’t a dream! I can’t believe it Molly”. Emily gave Molly a big hug and a kiss. She was so happy. It wasn’t a monster after all that was sniffing Emily. It was a giraffe.

Author's Note

All criticism welcome. Just a bit of fun really.