Elijah's Big Day

Elijah's Big Day This book was collaboratively written by the CNA Marketing and Distribution team

It was a cool and breezy morning in New York City. The sunshine came through the window, shining right on Elijah’s face.

He tried to block the light with his pillow, but couldn’t get back to sleep. “I guess I’m up now,” Elijah said, “It’s for the best. I have a big day ahead of me!”

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So Elijah rubbed the dust from his dark circled eyes, fluffed his ringed tail and crawled out of his oak tree den. That’s when he smelled it, the Hudson river trash barge. THE dream of every raccoon in NYC. “This is the last job, if I can make it onto that barge I’ll be sitting pretty and can finally float off into the sunset,” he thought. “First, I need to get the crew together.”

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Elijah whistled sharply as the sun continued to rise. Soaring in the sky above was his friend, Francis the Gull. She circled and circled and circled, lower and lower and lower until she spotted Elijah by the shoreline of the Hudson River, staring intently at the trash barge, and landed right at his feet. “Good morning Eli! How are you doing?�

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Elijah turned and smiled at his feathered friend. “I couldn’t be more excited,” Elijah exclaimed. “The Hudson river trash barge is back. If I can find a way to board that barge, I’ll finally have a chance to see the world.” Francis cheered, “That is exciting, Eli! But how can you board the barge when it’s all the way down there?”

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Elijah scratched his head, thinking hard, when a big gust of wind came and an empty pizza box started floating past him. Francis saw the pizza box and landed on top of it. “I got it!” Francis exclaimed, “You can sit on this pizza box and the other gulls and I can fly you to the barge.”

Elijah wanted to say yes, but he was scared of heights.

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Elijah thought hard about this option, until he heard a little voice from below and his friend, Teddy the Turtle popped out of his shell.

“You’ll break the pizza box if you do that, and fall in the river!” Elijah sighed with relief. “Oh yeah…that’s true,” said Francis. “You could hop a ride on my back and float across,” offered Teddy. But Teddy was a tiny turtle, and Elijah couldn’t swim.

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Elijah was not willing to give up on his dream that easily though. Elijah thought long and hard, and then asked Francis and Teddy, “Could you help me out by looking around to see if there are any other floating objects nearby that I could hop a ride on?�

Francis and Teddy were more than happy to help out their good friend.

Francis immediately flew high into the sky and Teddy started swimming around the harbor searching for something that would get Elijah to the trash barge.

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Straight away, Francis spotted an interesting object in the distance!

She flew closer to get a better look.

Below the boardwalk, she saw a vessel, which she thought could help Elijah get to the barge. Francis returned to the group and relayed her discovery to Elijah and Teddy.

They jumped with joy and started racing toward the vessel with excitement. When they got to the vessel, they saw that it was an oarless row boat with a rope tied to its bow and an unfortunate hole in the center. Elijah despaired.

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“Don’t worry!,” shouted Teddy, “I’ll cover the hole with my shell.” So the team pushed the boat into the water and the boat miraculously stayed afloat thanks to Teddy’s shell and quick-thinking. Francis grabbed the rope with her beak and began to tug the boat toward the barge. “It’s working!,” they all shouted at once. It was all going very swimmingly when, suddenly, tragedy struck…

“Boom! Rumble!” Teddy and Elijah looked up to see lightning across the sky and then raindrops began falling.

“Oh no!” exclaimed Francis. We need something to cover our boat or we will never make it to the barge!

Elijah frantically scanned the inside of the boat for something he could use as a cover, but found nothing. He sat up in despair, then slowly brightened when he saw the pizza box drifting slowly but steadily into the path of the boat.

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“Let’s unfold the pizza box and use it to cover the boat!” Elijah exclaimed. He pulled the box out of the water and got to work, moving quickly so that everything stayed as dry as possible.

The boat was now mostly keeping dry, when all of a sudden, the wind started to pick up, and rain started flying in every direction. If only there was a way to make the boat go faster… but Francis was flying as fast as she could!

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“Oh no,” exclaimed Elijah, “We’ll never catch the trash barge in time!” Out of nowhere, a striped bass jumped out of the water. “Hey, I’m Barry!” the bass shouted. “Did someone say ‘catch’?”

Elijah, Francis and Teddy quickly explained their problem to the friendly fish.

“One moment please,” replied Barry. A few moments later, Elijah spotted a massive school of fish swimming their way. Barry popped back out of the water and shouted, “We’ve got your back, Elijah!” Barry and his friends began pushing the boat underneath the water. Elijah finally felt the trash barge was within his reach…

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With Teddy blocking the hole, Francis flying as fast as she could, and Barry and his friends pushing the boat through the choppy water and harsh rain, the barge was quickly approaching, Elijah stretched out his paw as the team grew closer to the barge.

With the wafting smell of tuna cans and banana peels, his excitement grew as he scoured the vessel for something to grab. Suddenly, he noticed a long pair of grimy overalls hanging over the edge. Elijah reached out his paw, grabbed onto the pants, and swung himself onto the barge.

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Elijah couldn’t believe he’d finally reached the barge. In every direction, fragrant, soaking-wet garbage stretched for what seemed like miles. It was just as beautiful as he’d imagined!

“Good luck Elijah!” shouted Barry and Teddy from the water. Elijah waved goodbye to his old friend and his new friends and turned back around to inspect his new home.

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The raccoon’s eyes were wandering from a half-eaten tuna sandwich to a shiny broken necklace when his friend Francis flew down to ask an important question: “Is that shoe moving?”

As usual, Francis the Gull was right.

Peeking out the top of a torn, dirty old gym shoe, a furry face smiled at the new arrivals.

“Welcome to paradise!” exclaimed a small squirrel peeking out of the dirty old shoe. “My name is Sammy, what’s yours?” the squirrel shouted as she jumped from the shoe and darted in Elijah’s direction.

“I’m Elijah and this is my friend Francis,” Elijah responded excitingly.

Sammy quickly scurried into a mound of old socks, and then back out. “Well what are you doing?” she said scurrying back into the pile of socks, “Follow me, I can show you the way!”

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Elijah looked back at Francis and then slowly crept toward the pile of socks.

“Show me the way to what?” Elijah wondered out loud, “I thought I already made it.”

Following Sammy under the cover of old clothes and trash, the sky disappeared and Elijah crept forward. He followed Sammy’s dirty footprints forward until the floor suddenly collapsed under him and Elijah began to fall.

Faster and faster he slid down into the belly of the barge until – “CRASH” – he landed upon a bed of boxes and banana peels. Elijah stood up slowly, looked around and cracked a toothy grin.

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All around, Elijah could see nothing but the best treasures a trash barge could offer – French fries, pizza, tacos and every sort of fast food you could imagine.

Elijah was so distracted by the smells and sights, that he didn’t realize he was not alone! Sitting at pizza box tables, enjoying the fare, were all types of animals from all over New York City!

Elijah’s journey to the barge was only the first step in this grand new adventure.

Now, not only would Elijah get to travel the world, but he’d get to do it with new friends. And new experiences are more fun when you can share them with others!

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This book was collaboratively written by the CNA Marketing and Distribution team: Eric Leviton, Steve Kiecker, Chris Lawson, Gianna Rizzi, Jessica Arenz, Annamarie Messner Duckmann, Sal dAmico, Sarah Sommario, Christy Rodes, Cara McCall, Porter O’Brien, Laureen Bartkowski, Danielle Haddad, Jennifer Livingstone, Katie Osberg, Peter Bell, Katie Roberts, Emma Landry, Nadia Ata, Robin Plocharczyk, Kate Donovan, Marvin Isling, Raissa Correa, Dan Stewart, Michele Serafine, Sarah Welter, Mary Bach, Luke Webber, Sabrina Timmins, Dave Roseman, and Tara Fleming Illustrations by: Katie Osberg