By David and Alexander Ellis
Once upon a time, in a jungle far away, a boy named Mike was blowing bubbles for his monkey friends. The monkeys were excited by these bubbles, happy and scared all at once. When Mike blew into the bubble wand, the bubbles seemed to appear in front of his face out of nowhere! Once they were there, though, they floated lazily around, until they popped and disappeared again, and Mike would start again blowing up a new set of bubbles.
Soon, a small gust of wind caught a set of bubbles and flung them around and towards the monkeys! The monkeys became very frightened and the one that was touched by the bubbles cried out and swatted at the rest! …but nothing bad happened, and the bubbles just popped and disappeared the moment they were touched! Ha ha! The monkeys soon came to delight at being able to pop the bubbles when they pleased, and they stayed to play with Mike much longer that day!
When the day was almost done, Mike put the bubble wand back into his big bubble jug and screwed the cap back on and carried it back to his hut, and left it outside the front door. Inside, Mike’s mom gave him mango and chicken and plantains to eat for dinner.
But little did Mike know that John had been watching him from behind some jungle vines the whole time. John was jealous that Mike got to play with the monkeys, since they loved his bubbles. John snuck over to Mike’s hut and took his bubble jar! He took out the bubble wand and tried to blow bubbles, but none came out! He didn’t know how to blow bubbles.
This made John angry. He wanted to blow bubbles and play with the monkeys, but if he couldn’t, then he’d make sure Mike couldn’t, too! He took the bubble jar to a bush and poured out all of the bubble juice! Then he returned it to Mike’s hut.
But wait, if the bubble jar is empty, Mike’s mom or dad will just make more bubble juice and put that in the jar. So John had an idea. He took the bubble jar to the river and filled it up with river water, and then brought it back to Mike’s hut and then went to his own hut for the night.
The next day, after Mike had his breakfast, he went outside to blow his bubbles again. A few monkeys were already there waiting for Mike, and squealed with excitement when Mike pulled out the bubble wand.
Mike blew. No bubbles. He put the wand back in the jar and back out. Mike blew again. No bubbles. The monkeys were quieting down in confusion. Where were the bubbles to pop? Mike shook the wand in his hand. Still no bubbles! The monkeys grew bored and started to leave.
“Mom,” cried out Mike. “My bubbles aren’t working!”
“Were you blowing too hard,” Mike’s mom asked. “You’ll have to try again later today, sweetie. It’s time to go to school, now.”
On the way to school, John caught up with Mike. There was a grin on John’s face. “Hey, Mike! Where are all the monkeys that usually follow you around?”
“Oh,” Mike said sadly, “they went back into the jungle today. The strangest thing happened, I–”
”–can’t blow any bubbles, huh,” John interjected.
“Yeah. Wait, how did you know?” Mike was surprised. He hadn’t said anything about the bubbles, yet.
“Uh, well, err, I saw you trying when I was leaving my hut,” stammered John.
“Oh, I see,” said Mike.
After school, Mike walked home slowly. Slow enough that he arrived home about the same time as his dad.
“I saw that your bubble jar was filled with tadpoles and small fish, Mike,” his dad said. “I don’t remember seeing you go down to the river, though.”
“I didn’t,” Mike exclaimed!
“That’s what I thought,” Mike’s dad continued. “I spoke with mom as well, and she didn’t see you go down to the river, either. In fact, there wasn’t any time for you to have done so, since you were blowing your bubbles for the little monkeys all the way until she called you in for dinner.”
Mike thought about that.
“So I took the bubble jar to the river, dumped out the fish and tadpoles back where they belong, and then put new bubble solution into the jar,” Mike’s dad said.
“Thank you, daddy,” Mike said. “Can I blow bubbles now?” “Sure,” Mike’s dad replied.
Mike ran to his bubble jar, pulled out the wand, and blew a few bubbles triumphantly. Then an idea came to him.
“Can I walk around the edge of the jungle and between the huts blowing bubbles? I want the monkeys to know they can play with me again,” Mike explained.
“Sure, I’ll come along,” Mike’s dad replied.
So Mike walked slowly around the perimeter of the village, blowing bubbles, with his dad at his side, holding the large bubble jar for him.
Monkeys noticed Mike and the trail of bubbles behind him. This was even more fun, running around and popping bubbles instead of just staying by a single hut! When there were 6 or 7 monkeys trailing him, Mike suddenly turned in towards the village, and walked to John’s hut. Mike’s dad slowed down and followed behind the monkeys. The noise of the chattering monkeys quickly alerted John, who looked out of the window, and then ran out the front door.
“What!? How are you blowing bubbles? Why do you get to play with those monkeys, anyways,” John shouted. Suddenly, John tried to take the bubble wand from Mike!
“It seems Mike knew who poured out his bubble solution,” Mike’s dad said while he got between Mike and John. “Jenny, Frank, you guys hear all this?”
“Oh, Andrew, I’m so sorry,” John’s mom said as she came outside. “I didn’t think John could do such a thing! John,” she said, turning towards John, “you’ll have no cookies or chocolate milk after dinner for the next week!”
“Why’d you do it,” Mike asked John.
“You get to play with those monkeys all the time! It’s not fair,” John exclaimed. “It’s not fair…”
“You don’t have to blow to blow bubbles,” Mike said. “Look!” Mike dipped the wand into the bubble jar, took it out, and shook the wand, bubbles popping out as he shook it.
“If you want to play with the monkeys sometimes, you can do it that way until you learn how to blow softly into the wand,” Mike explained.
John stared at Mike. “You’re not mad at me?”
“I am mad at you,” Mike said. “But everyone makes mistakes sometimes, even with how they behave. Besides,” Mike continued, “these monkeys are a lot of work! They want me to blow bubbles for them every day! If someone else wants to help out with them, I can go play basketball without the monkeys stealing it!” Mike smiled.
”I’m sorry for what I did,” John said. “Thank you for teaching me how to make bubbles!”
And the monkeys were extra excited as twice as many bubbles were blown from then on.