2008 MANY STORIES ONE VOICE ONLINE COLLECTION

Sam Byrne, Age 11, South Africa

Click HERE to download the full story in Microsoft Word format.  

 

The Strange Kangaroo  

by Sam Byrne with help from his classmates & Jackie

 

My story is about me, Sam.  If you like holidays then you will like reading about mine.  Holidays are such fun.  Here is what happened to me during my December holidays.

 My home is in South Africa so going to Australia was a big adventure and very far away.  It took a long and boring time to get there.  All I wanted to do when I got to Australia was to rest for a while in the garden.  The house we were staying in was great as the sea came right past the bottom of the garden.  I really liked having the sea at the end of the garden. 

 

I woke up very excited one day as we were going to the zoo and I would see my first kangaroo.  I ate my breakfast fast.  I wanted everyone else in the house to get dressed and be ready to go much faster than they did.  We had just arrived at the zoo when the bright sunny day changed and it started pouring with rain.  The rain came down hard and we got very wet.  The water was rushing past my wheelchair wheels like a river.  When the rain slowed down we put on funny white raincoats.  I thought we looked like aliens.

 

Now comes the strange part.  I heard a kangaroo talk to me.   There were two kangaroos on either side of me.  I noticed that one of the kangaroos was trying to push the switch of my AlphaTalker.  The kangaroo had put its front legs on my lap-tray and was looking at my AlphaTalker.  "Hey, what is that funny looking box you are using?"  I looked at my mom.  Could she hear the kangaroo talking?

 

The kangaroo looked up at me.  "So, are you going to tell me what it is?"  I pretended not to notice.  I could not move away as I was not in my motorised wheelchair.  The kangaroo spoke again.  "Ok.  I get it.  You can't use your mouth to talk so you use this machine."   "Now, can you tell me whether a lion would eat a kangaroo?  I heard your mom say you were from South Africa.  I want to visit there but not if your lions will eat me.  "

 

I did not know what to tell it.  Would our lions eat a kangaroo?  Maybe if the kangaroo ran really fast the lion would not catch it.   Just then my mom moved me away from the kangaroo.  I wanted to tell it to be careful if it visited us.  I decided to send an email to my friend Caitlyn in South Africa and ask her about it.   The next morning I read her answer. 

 

Dear Sam

First of all I don't think you should tell anyone else about the kangaroo talking to you.   I am sure you understand this.

I think that our big fierce lions would eat a kangaroo.     

All our friends in class say hurry back. 

See you soon.

Caitlyn

 

It was almost time for my holiday in Australia to end.  Bye Australia.  I hope that the kangaroos do not decide to visit my country.  I would not like to hear the news that a lion ate a friendly kangaroo.