Mr. Daddy-Long-Neck Saves the Day
Story by:
Kaden Acevedo
Rub De Los Santos
Babacar Deme
Dilleiny Guzman
Paityn Henriques
McCiaJohnson
Noah Martoral
Isabella Ortega
Kayleen Pamblanco
Kimberly Peralta
Ilaini Ramirez
Aiden Reyes
Natalia Rivera
Caroline Santos
Treasure Thompson
Yariel Toribio
Brianna Turbi
Aaron Valdez
Katerina Spaeth
Mr. Daddy-Long-Neck Saves the Day Mr. Daddy-Long-Neck Saves the Day
It was not a good day for Mr. Daddy-Long-Neck.
Shirley the Mega-Shark had been chasing him around the beach since lunchtime.
“Mister, you slow turtle!” she screamed.
“Come and play with me or I’m gonna eat you up!”
Shirley was the most spoiled shark on Lasagna Island, still a toddler but with too many teeth to count.
No one wanted to be her friend.
Mr. Daddy-Long-Neck had a very, very, very, very long neck. However, he had incredibly short legs that could not go very fast. Mister wished that he was clever, so he could find the right thing to say to get the shark to leave him alone. He adjusted his helmet, checked his knee pads and carefully crept into the nearby bushes.
BUMP!
Mister nudged against someone.
“Who’s there?!” he gasped.
“Dr. Hopps, at your service,” came a voice from below.
“I am so sorry,” Mister whispered. “My name is Mr. Daddy-Long-Neck. I was getting away from a mean shark who likes to chase me.”
“Why don’t you come back to the village with me? It’s a long walk to the other side of the island, but you’ll be safe there.
You can be my assistant!”
Mister looked down at his small turtle feet, far below. “You must be so smart to be a doctor.” He had always wanted to help others but no one had ever offered to teach him how.
The sun was setting fast and the moon was running late. The world turned blue and dark. Only the Goldstar flowers glowed bright.
“Perhaps we should go through the forest to avoid Shirley the Mega-Shark,” suggested Mr. Daddy-Long-Neck. “We can use these Goldstars to light our way!”
“Excellent idea!” agreed Dr. Hopps.
As the two trod deeper into the forest, the trees got denser and the ground protested their footsteps with a sloshy, wet echo. Dr. Hopps was having a hard time wading through the thick jungle puddles.
“I can carry you!” offered Mr. Daddy-Long-Neck. He slowly picked up Dr. Hopps and set him down onto his shell.
“Thank you so much!” said the doctor.
“At my age, it’s so easy to break a bone.”
“Peep . . . peeeeep . . . peep!”
A sad squeak came through the darkness.
“Who’s there?” asked Mr. Daddy-Long-Neck.
“Peep . . . peeeeep . . . peep!”
The mooncameoutandcast a raydirectly down.
atthesmallestparrot in the world.
Right
“Not good, not good at all,” the doctor muttered after examining the parrot. “When a baby bird falls out of its nest, the parents can’t lift it back . . . If only we had a ladder.”
“I have an idea!” Mister leaned down to the tiny parrot.
“Peep!” The baby hopped up onto his helmet.
Mister carefully reached up with his very, very, very long neck until he saw the little nest in the branches.
“Peep,” said the parrot and jumped into her home.
SWOOSH!
A strange sound came through the forest. The two continued walking through the darkness, but something didn’t feel right.
SWOOSH!
Mr. Daddy-Long-Neck looked back and caught sight of the Mega-Shark Shirley! She was riding on a swift hoverboard, right behind them! Mister grabbed the doctor and ran as fast as his short legs could carry him.
Shirleyswooshedandswishedthroughtheforest onherbrandnewhoverboard.Hereyeswereontheturtle.Notthetreesorthe groundbelow.Shewasgoingatrecordspeed. Mr.Daddy-Long-Neckdartedbehindatree.
Shirley ran straight into the same tree.
“Ouch! My hoverboard, my leg, I need a bandage!
GRRRRRRRRRR!” she growled.
“You made this happen, Mister! You are a terrible turtle!”
“Why do you keep following me around?” asked Mister.
“I just want to be your friend,” Shirley howled, “but you keep running away from me. Everyone hates me!”
“Don’t you tell everyone that you will eat them?” asked Mister. “Don’t you call them names?”
“It’s all just shark jokes! I don’t really mean it!” screamed Shirley and burst into tears.
“My knee hurts,” Shirley sniffled. She pointed at Dr. Hopp’s hat.
“You look like a doctor. You owe me a bandage!”
“Mister, take a bandage and some cotton balls from my case and help the shark, please,” Dr. Hopps instructed.
Mr. Daddy-Long-Neck felt like a real doctor’s assistant as he helped Shirley put the bandage on her leg.
Shirley looked down at her knee.
“I am sorry for calling you mean names,” she said.
After the chase, all three of them were exhausted. They rested on the soft jungle moss for the night.
The next morning, Dr. Hopps woke everyone up bright and early.
“We need to get back to the village as soon as possible,” he said.“I have patients waiting for me!”
“You can take my super-duper pirate yacht to reach the village faster!” Shirley the Mega-Shark told her new friends. The three headed back to the beach.
It was a great day for Mr. Daddy-Long-Neck after all. He felt smarter, stronger and better.
Best
of all, he was surrounded by friends and heading toward even more adventure!
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Text & Illustration Copyright © 2024 Katerina Spaeth
Mr. Daddy-Long-Neck Saves the Day
Published by Jesse Byrd Creative Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from Jesse Byrd Creative Inc.
ISBN: 979-8-9895736-0-8
Mr. Daddy-Long-Neck is a turtle, as you may have guessed, with a very long neck. A neck that, until this story, he couldn’t find any reason for it being so long. A helper at heart, he gets his chance to aid a doctor, make a new friend, and stand up to an old enemy.
