Mr Hops was walking in the forest when he heard a telephone ringing. There in a clearing he saw a big green phone box. He went into the box and answered the phone.
‘Hello? Is there anyone there?’ he said.
‘Hello Mr Hops,’ said a mysterious voice. ‘This is, um, um, your cousin, um, um, Bugsy. Would you like to come to my house for tea?’
‘Hmm,’ thought Mr Hops. ‘I don’t have a cousin called Bugsy. In fact, I don’t have a cousin at all.’ But he was curious, so he said: ‘Yes, I’ll come to tea, Bugsy.’
‘Meet me at Mountain View at the house with the red door at five O’clock,’ said the voice. ‘Bye-bye.’
‘Bye-bye, Bugsy,’ said Mr Hops, but he didn’t put the phone down right away and he heard the voice snickering on the other end of the line.
Mr Hops went home and baked a cake. It was very yellow because it was a… CHICKEN CAKE! And Mr Hops put a secret ingredient in, a unicorn sleeping potion.
When the cake was baked he set off for Mountain View and at five O’clock he knocked on the red door.
Rat-a-tat-tat.
A very strange-looking rabbit opened the door. It had extra floppy ears and sloppy stitches all down its back.
‘Hello, Cousin Hops,’ said a gruff voice.
‘Hello, Cousin Bugsy,’ said Mr Hops. ‘I’ve brought you a cake.’
Please observe the remains of former tea guests buried under the floor…
‘Oh. How kind. Carrot, I suppose?’
‘Chicken, actually,’ said Mr Hops.
The strange rabbit jumped up and down with delight. ‘Chicken! My favourite,’ he squealed. He jumped around so much that some of his stitches burst and out popped a big red bushy tail.
‘Oh oh,’ said Mr Hops.
‘Oh oh,’ said Mr Fox.
‘Cake?’ said Mr Hops nervously. ‘Please do eat.’
‘I will,’ said Mr Fox. ‘But I don’t know what to eat first, the cake or YOU!’
Suddenly something blocked the open door and a huge black shadow fell over the two enemies. They turned around slowly.
It was Mr Wolf!
‘Do something,’ cried Mr Fox.
‘Mr Wolf,’ stammered Mr Hops. ‘Would you like some chicken cake?’
‘Ah,’ said Mr Wolf. ‘I knew I could smell something very delicious.’ And he snatched the cake from Mr Hops’ trembling paws. ‘This will do as a starter, before I gobble up you and your foxy friend.’ The cake was gone in a gulp.
Mr Wolf turned to the rabbit and the fox and opened his great stinky jaws to bite off their heads.
BUMP, THUMP!
He fell forwards in a deep deep sleep and landed in what was left of the chicken cake.
‘What happened?’ said Mr Fox.
‘Unicorn sleeping potion,’ said Mr Hops. ‘We’d better get out of here before he wakes up.
‘Yes, let’s,’ said Mr Fox. ‘I’m awfully sorry, Mr Hops, for trying to trick you.’
‘I’m sorry too, Mr Fox,’ said Mr Hops, ‘for trying to trick you back.’
‘We’ll make a great team, Mr Hops,’ said Mr Fox, and the two friends jumped over the snoring wolf and ran all the way home to Bunny Burrow.
This story was created on August 12th at the Wild Words Festival in Carrick-on-Shannon. It is the work of Piper, Kayanna, Peter, Connor, Zoe, Emily, Roxi, Ronán, Cadhla, Mia, Eimear, Tristan, Ruby, Poppy, Róisín and Rossa, under the guidance of Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick. © is held by Wild Words Festival on behalf of the creators.
The Belugas are Watching 