Wandering Through WorldWonder
King’s Adventure
Wandering Through WorldWonder
King’s Adventure
Copyright © 2024 Westminster Christian Private School, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of Westminster Christian School.
Preface
In the first part of this story, we learned about a special place called WorldWonder. It is nestled in a corner of the pine rockland forests of Palmetto Bay about a mile from strangled mangrove roots lining the coast of southern Florida. It’s a small, special place, ringed with a high green wall. It has one gate that is always open. Mr. Heetderks is there. He cares for WorldWonder and all who live in it.
We first wandered into WorldWonder following Mac and Mica, and their parents, who were arriving from Australia. They are kangaroos and their adventures were captured in Wandering through WorldWonder, Mac & Mica’s Adventure. They show up a little in this story, but this adventure is not really about them. King, a young goat who lives in WorldWonder is already grieving the quickly approaching day when Mac & Mica, his best friends, will be leaving. And his adventure begins just as theirs ends.
The other characters, like Tommy the tortoise, Stanley the squirrel, Lizzy the iguana, Samuel, King’s dad, and of course, Mr. Heetderks all have a part to play in this story as King’s adventure unfolds. Even Cane, the toad, has a few things to say.
There are strange things happening in WorldWonder and no one knows what to make of it all. Things are going missing, and everyone is looking for someone to blame. King has gotten all wrapped up in it and will have to take some risks before clearing his name and setting things right.
He has always been eager to grow up. He sees the freedom that comes with getting bigger as something exciting and full of possibility. But as he embraces his independence, he is surprised how quickly his curiosity and courage lead him into the unknown on a nocturnal adventure.
Chapter 1
The Mango Mystery
“Thwump!”
King opens his eyes still blurry with sleep and peers into the half-lit early morning. “What was that?” he thinks. He scans the area expecting to find the cause of the noise that roused him from sleep. His dad, Samuel, is in his usual spot sleeping soundlessly. To the right and behind the structure he hears the sounds of Mac and Mica and their mom and dad, nothing out of the ordinary there.
He looks in the direction of the fence, nothing. “Must have been a coconut,” he justifies to himself as he stands and turns in his bed of straw to adjust himself and go back to sleep. He plops back on his hay, now facing the other direction. His eyes narrow, and he slowly drifts back into his dreams.
Suddenly, he is startled awake. “King! KING! Wake up.” Mac is standing over him buzzing with energy. The sun is shining with oppressive heat as it is already late in the morning. He slept in.
Mac is still buzzing with energy beside him, though it takes King a second to realize it. He tunes into what he is saying, “…and I’ve only had a taste of one that Mr. Heetderks gave me. You’re so lucky to have a whole half. How did you get it. You didn’t have it when we went to bed last night?”
King is confused, not knowing what Mac is talking about, “Get what?” he asks, still trying to wake up.
“The mango, silly!” Mac says as he points to the ground a few feet in front of where King is now standing. “Where did you get that mango? I didn’t think we could have the mangoes. I thought they were only for Mr. Heetderks. I want one. I’m gonna ask Mr. Heetderks when I see him.”
Mac notices a strange expression on King’s face. King looks at the ground where Mac is pointing and sees the skin of half of a mango laying there. Most of the juicy sweet fruit is gone, and a small army of ants is busy clearing away all that’s left. Looking back up at Mac, King says, “I don’t know where the mango came from, it’s not mine.”
Mac bursts out laughing. “Yeah, right, it’s not. I bet it just dropped out of the sky already eaten. Of course it’s yours. Who else’s would it be? I bet it was delicious. I can’t wait to get one too.”
Mac continues, deciding that King is obviously joking.
“NO! Seriously, Mac, it’s not mine. I don’t know where it came from.” King eyes Mac suspiciously wondering what game he’s playing. Mac likes to joke and over the past eight months has played several pranks. “But this is taking it too far,” King thinks. Everyone knows that the mangoes in WorldWonder are not for animals. “Where did you get it, Mac?” King says accusatively, with a tone that is far sharper than he intends.
Just then Mica bounds around the corner. “Morning, guys,” she says cheerfully as she looks over to find King and Mac facing each other with angry expressions on their faces. “What are you guys doing?” she asks as she stops abruptly.
“Ask him?!” they both say in unison.
Then Mica sees the mango and asks, “Why is there a mango there?”
Samuel, King’s dad, comes around the corner, drawn over by the commotion. Seeing the standoff he asks, “What are you guys up to?”
Mac and King explode in shouts of defense and accusation, talking over each other, attempting to tell their version of the story. King accuses Mac of playing jokes and demanding he drop it. Mac is explaining how he arrived a few minutes ago to find King lying inches from the mango skin.
Samuel, being a wise and patient goat listens and sees they are both getting too worked up to be reasonable. He attempts to diffuse the situation by saying, “Guys, guys, guys, it’s fine, calm down, I ate the mango.”
It works, Mac and King stop arguing and stare with gaping mouths up at Samuel.
Mica objects, “Really?” she exclaims, aghast. “I thought animals weren’t supposed to eat the mangoes.”
“No, of course not,” Samuel says with a chuckle, “but these guys,” he continues as he nods over toward Mac and King with a wry smile on his face, “looked like they were about to fight each other, and I needed to get their attention.” Then turning toward Mac and King he says, “I don’t know where the mango came from, but I’m sure it will all be cleared up before too long. Perhaps Mr. Heetderks came in early this morning.” He adds in an attempt to provide a reasonable explanation. “Though, I’m sure he wouldn’t have just left the mango like that.” he mumbles to himself.
After a pregnant pause he shakes his head and looks back at the three of them and says, “Well, I don’t know, but if both of you say you’re innocent then I’m sure you are. Let it go for now anyway, I’m sure we’ll know more before long.”
As the three of them murmur and struggle to settle down King happens to catch his father looking down at him. The look vanishes immediately as Samuel catches King’s eye, but King is almost certain that it was there. He struggles to decide what kind of expression it was. He isn’t certain, but King almost feels like his dad’s face communicated suspicion. Despite what Samuel said, and even though the tension has passed, King can’t help wondering if his dad thinks he’s guilty.
“But I didn’t eat the mango,” King thinks, feeling very insecure and alone. Just then he remembers the sound that woke him up in the middle of the night. “That’s it!” he thinks excitedly. “That must be what made the sound.” He is about to tell everyone about it when the image of his dad’s suspicious look pops back into his mind. He realizes that telling everyone about the sound won’t clarify anything, it might even just make him appear more guilty, like he’s trying to hide something. He decides to keep it to himself for now. His dad is probably right, “We’ll know more before long.”
As everyone drifts off into the enclosure busying themselves with various things, King remains standing alone. He looks down at the mango skin and doubt creeps into his mind, “Where did it come from?” He wonders. King knows he didn’t do it and shakes off a growing sense of dread deciding the truth will have to come out soon.
From above him he hears a muffled noise, almost like a laugh, but he can’t be sure. He looks up at the branch of the old oak that overhangs his enclosure but sees nothing. Then, from the corner of his eye he catches some movement back toward the trunk of the tree. “What was that?” he thinks. But dismisses the thought and says under his breath, “It’s probably just Stanley playing around.” Stanley has taken up residence in the tree, much to the chagrin of the peacocks, and is always flitting around in the branches overhead.
He shrugs and trots off to his food bowl to eat his breakfast and shake off the strange events that interrupted his morning. But even though King isn’t aware of it yet, these events will not be shaken off so easily. In fact, this adventure has just “thwumped” into his life in the dead of night, and it has only just gotten started.
The Mango situation did not die down as quickly as King hoped. Before the end of the day, every person in WorldWonder seemed to be talking about it. All agreed that mangoes are not to be eaten by animals in WorldWonder except when Mr. Heetderks himself hands them out, and that is a rare occasion.
The rest of that day, the next day, and the day after that, debates continue about what really happened and who is to blame. A few side with King, “He has always been a respectful goat,” they claim. Mica, for example, is his chief supporter.
Others don’t so much side with King as they align themselves against Mac who, according to them, “Is quite a prankster!” Cane, who always stands for justice, sides against Mac reminding everyone of the time Mac leapt into a pit and hurt his foot.
Still, others when the story is told have a difficult time reconciling how the mango would have simply appeared inches from King’s mouth. King never offers up the story about the strange sound in the night, and many people become increasingly more convinced that King must be hiding something. “Sure,” they say, “Mac is a prankster, but it just doesn’t add up.”
Mac doesn’t help the situation at all. Partly in self-defense, and partly because he is convinced that King is lying, he tells everyone about his view. This is perhaps the most hurtful part of the whole situation for King. He and Mac had grown very close over the months they’d been together. King wants to confront Mac, but he feels so insecure by the whole thing that he doesn’t know what to do.
Even more hurtful than Mac’s accusation, is his dad’s silence. King is very close to his dad, since he lost his mom when he was young. And now, for reasons that King finds unjust, his dad seems to be taking others’ side against him. Everyone has found out that Samuel was the first adult on the scene, and they all want to know what he thinks, but every time he’s asked, he simply shrugs his shoulders and says, “I’m sure we’ll know more before long.”
After a few days of this talk, all but King’s most loyal friends begin whispering their suspicions about his guilt. Some even start spreading the story that he must have stolen it. On top of that, other things have started to go missing, rumors that Peacock tail feathers had been taken from the nest at the front, and Momma’s necklace, has apparently gone missing too.
Thankfully, most of these details don’t make it back to King. There is only the occasional awkward look or hushed conversation to reinforce his general uneasiness. King has never felt this alone and sad. And on top of all the mango mystery stuff, there is worse news fast approaching. His best friends, Mac and Mica, are leaving.
Chapter 2
Saying Goodbye Too Soon
King, Mica, and Mac have spent a lot of time together and grown very close. They have known that the time for Mac and Mica to leave was quickly approaching, but they hadn’t wanted to think about it. Now that the time to say goodbye has come, they’re not ready.
Mica comes over to talk with King. “I can’t believe it’s already time to leave!” She says with tears in her eyes. “It feels like we just got here.”
“Yeah,” he mutters, wanting to say more, but not really finding the words. “It all happened so fast,” he adds.
King looks away and coughs as a lump begins to form in his throat. His eyes are burning as he blinks to clear his blurring vision. He feels Mica’s hand on his shoulder and turns his head ever so slightly toward it, though he doesn’t dare to look at her for fear that he will burst into tears and embarrass himself.
“I don’t want to leave,” Mica says, and it is obvious to King that Mica is already crying. He bites his lip and turns away. Then, just before he starts crying, a streak of red fur flies into view and soars down toward his head. He barely has time to duck before it sails past him and slams directly into Mica’s neck.
“WHAAAAA!!! DON’T LEAVE!!!” comes the wailing voice of Stanley as he clings to Mica’s neck in a wild embrace.
Mica and King are so startled by his appearance that for a moment they forget their own sadness.
“Stanley, where did you come from?” King demands, feeling annoyed, but also a little amused. Stanley, who is clinging to Mica’s neck like a drowning man might cling to a life preserver doesn’t respond, but instead continues to look and sound positively ridiculous heaving and sputtering with snot and tears seeming to ooze out from everywhere. His fur is somehow both matted and fluffed out in the most awkward ways, and between his squeals, slurps, wails, sniffs, coughs, sobs, and gasping breathes he sounds like a sick piglet honking on a noisemaker in a thunderstorm.
Mica, having made a full recovery from the shock of suddenly having Stanley wrapped around her neck realizes she is not actually in danger and starts to laugh.
A few seconds later, Stanley notices that both Mica and King are laughing hysterically. He considers being offended as he wipes his nose with his forearm and then, seeing the snot on his arm, begins to half chuckle, half sob.
When everyone has recovered adequately King repeats, “Where did you come from Stanley?”
“Well, I was sitting in the oak branch right above you guys, because I was going to tell you about something I overheard Cane telling Lizzy,” At this, King’s expression changes from mild amusement to annoyance assuming Stanley’s message had something to do with mangoes.
Actually, Stanley had been intending to tell them about some strange shadowy figure Cane had seen lurking around his favorite rock the previous night but seeing Mica crying had completely driven the thought from his mind. Instead, he continues, “But when I heard you guys talking and I saw you guys crying and…I mean, you guys have been such good friends to me, even when I didn’t deserve it and well, I…” He stammers and then bursts into tears again, “I don’t want you to go!” he wails.
King considers asking what Cane had said but realizes it isn’t the right time and instead says defensively, “What do you mean when you saw us crying? I wasn’t crying!”
Mica stops consoling Stanley and punches Mac in the arm and says, “Yes, you were!”
The next few days are filled with conversations about fun memories, as King spends as much time as he can with Mica and Mac, but mostly Mica. They laugh a lot and cry some too. King spends some time alone while Mac and Mica go around with Mr. Heetderks to say goodbye to everyone, but whenever they can the three friends sit together on the roof of the enclosure looking out over WorldWonder soaking in the little time they have left.
Only a few short days later a truck pulls up to the gate at WorldWonder and crates are unloaded and prepped. Momma & Dad are busy speaking with Samuel as King passes by on his way to say his final goodbye to his friends. He hears Momma say, “ I don’t know where it went. I guess it fell off somewhere in the enclosure. It is my favorite necklace. If you do find it, I would love to have it back. It means a lot to me.” With that she leans in and gives Samuel a big hug and then turns toward the open gate where Mr. Heetderks and two men in khaki overalls with logos that say, “Macropods International” are waiting to take her and Dad to the crates.
King is already halfway up the steps to the roof where he knows he will find his friends. He hears Mr. Heetderks say to the men in khaki overalls, “Let’s get mom and dad loaded up first. I think the kids will go in easier if their parents are already loaded.”
As King comes out onto the roof, he sees Mac and Mica standing in their favorite spots looking at what has been their home for nine months. He walks up and stands quietly behind them and says, “Your mom and dad are getting loaded now. I just heard Mr. Heetderks say so.” Neither of them responds.
A few seconds later Mac turns and starts to say something, then he just leans in, and gives King a hug and starts walking toward the steps to leave. At the last minute he turns back and says, “Sorry about the mango thing, I just…well…” but he doesn’t finish. He turns and walks out the door before King can respond.
King stands awkwardly next to Mica not knowing what to do. Then he opens his mouth to say something. She looks at him expectantly. King sighs, slumps his shoulders, and says, “I think your momma lost her necklace.”
Mica looks disappointed for a second and then says, “Yeah, I know. She’s been looking for it all day. I hoped she’d find it. I’m going to miss you, King! Maybe one day you can come visit us in Australia?” she says, but she knows they are just words.
“Yeah, that would be nice,” King says, knowing it won’t happen. There is a tense moment of awkwardness as both Mica and King look everywhere but at each other. Both of them are fighting back tears.
Just then, Mr. Heetderks’ head comes around the corner of the structure, “There you are! I thought I might find you here.” He says as he reaches up and lifts Mica down to his chest. He turns and begins walking away. Mica looks over Mr. Heetderks’ shoulder at her friend King standing on the roof. She is very sad, and, well, grateful. Her time in WorldWonder was an incredible adventure, and she’ll never forget the time she spent with her friends. Even though her adventure in WorldWonder is coming to an end, she knows she’s better off for having come.
King watches as Mr. Heetderks carries Mica away. Just before he disappears behind the trees, he sees Mica wave one final goodbye. King turns and exits through the high door and down to his home below.
Chapter 3
Fish in a Puddle
King wakes up and looks around. It’s the morning after Mac and Mica left and the sky is filled with dark, heavy clouds. It feels like WorldWonder is grieving with him. As the day unfolds the wind picks up and then in the early afternoon it starts to rain. At first, it is simply the kind of drizzly rain that makes your fur look white, but soon it changes to real, heavy rain.
King retreats to his shelter to lay on his straw while the sky weeps.
As he watches from inside his shelter, puddles begin to form in the lower parts of the enclosure. Little rivulets and streams begin to run down the sidewalk. Soon, huge raindrops bombard the leaves and branches of the swaying trees overhead and the wind drives the water drops in every direction until it feels as though rain is coming from all sides. King curls up tighter and closes his eyes to nap the day away. He doesn’t want to go out today anyway.
All through WorldWonder the animals find whatever shelter they can. Tommy finds a place under a large over-hanging boulder where he has been slowly excavating a tunnel. Stanley plans to stay with Tommy to keep him company, but as the storm worsens, he finds he is not as suited to the mud as Tommy and becomes very uncomfortable. Eventually, they agree he should retreat to the treetops where he can stay relatively dry. A few moments later he is nestled in his favorite hollowed-out space of the old oak. Just before slipping into a nap, he reaches over to the back of his secret space and grabs a seed from a small, hidden bundle.
Lizzy hardly notices the storm and continues doing what she always does, wandering from place to place looking for food. Today, however, she notices that everywhere she wants to go is blocked by mounting puddles and flowing streams. “That’s what I figured,” she comments. “Everywhere I need to go is always blocked by something.”
Cane is the only one happy about the rain. He comes out from under his sheltering leaf and stands on his favorite flat rock where he always likes to stand in the rain. He puffs up to his most majestic size (at least in his own mind’s eye) enjoying the fresh rain as it splashes off his warty skin.
As the day wears into evening, no one notices that the pond in the middle of WorldWonder is filling up at an alarming rate. Between the rainwater and a pipe that had coincidentally broken that morning, the pumps cannot keep the water level regulated. Before long there is a small river flowing out of the pond at its lowest edge.
The larger fish are not bothered by this, they simply swim away from the breech and busy themselves on the other side, but the smaller ones are not able to escape the current. Despite their frantic attempts, three are swept over the edge and down into WorldWonder. Two of the three fish veer to the left and down toward the turtle enclosure while the other spins past a rock and down toward the right where it finds itself trapped in a swirling pool at the base of a tree.
Two gleaming eyes are watching from their perch in a tree above as the single fish swims by below. The eyes follow the fish and then disappear as a bulky shadow-shape leaps across branches and up and over leaves and from tree to tree until it settles on a branch above where a little fish is now alone, exhausted, and trapped.
Slowly and deliberately the shadow-shape skulks down the trunk of the tree. The fish is swimming in circles with the current of the water. The shadow-shape stops just above the ground. Suddenly a furry grey hand flies out from the shadow-shape and punctures the surface of the water as quick as lightning and reemerges with the wriggling fish clutched in its claw. The hand draws the fish into the shadows. A fluffy tail with alternating black and white rings briefly swings into the dim light and follows the shadow-shape back into the darkness as it turns and darts up the tree and fades into the night.
The rain continues through most of the night and finally stops in the early morning.
Just as the sun is coming up, Lizzy rounds the corner on the path heading toward the turtle enclosure and finds her way blocked. “Blocked again,” she says. “Every time…” she mutters as she attempts to skirt around the puddle. She doesn’t notice the two fish swimming in the puddle, nor the flowing water that continuously feeds it. Her head is down, and she is consumed with her own troubles. “I’m just trying to get some food,” she thinks as she makes her way onto a rock. Just then, she slips and falls with a great splash.
From the back porch where Mr. Heetderks is sweeping away debris after the storm, he hears the splash. “What’s that?” he asks himself, starting off toward the sound. As he approaches, he sees Lizzy splashing and spluttering in the puddle. “What are you doing, Lizzy?” he asks. “I can’t imagine you need a bath after the storm we had last night,” he jokes. And then reaching out with his broom he gives Lizzy a little nudge back to her feet where she is able to climb out of the puddle and back onto the rock.
“There you go,” Mr. Heetderks says. Then, as the puddle settles, he notices the fish. “Well, hello! What are you doing out here?” he asks. Mr. Heetderks seems to notice the stream of water and follows it back up the hill to the pond with his eyes, “Looks like there’s some kind of leak in the pond, Lizzy,” he says. “Or maybe the pumps are broken.” he adds, thoughtfully. “I’d better go shut the water off and see what’s going on. Boy this storm was something else,” he adds as he turns back toward the Nature Center.
Before he’s taken three steps, he pauses and turns back to Lizzy and says, “Thanks for pointing out these fish, Lizzy. It may have been hours before I’d noticed them myself and that would have been too late for these poor little guys. It was very heroic of you to get my attention by splashing around in the water like that!” With that he turns back and begins walking up the path. Just as he is about to pass out of site, he stoops to the ground and picks up a mango laying on the ground and says, “Oops, must have missed this one.”
Within a few minutes, Mr. Heetderks has returned to the puddle with a net and is scooping up the fish. The water has stopped flowing, and the puddle is starting to drain into the turtle enclosure as he gets the fish back to the pond.
Lizzy moves onto the top of the stumps surrounding Tommy’s enclosure to find a patch of sunlight and watch. A little later, Mr. Heetderks approaches again. He’s still holding the net, and Lizzy tenses up for a second, then, he stops and says, “Thanks for your help, Lizzy. I brought you something to say thank you. This could have been a much messier situation if it hadn’t been for you, and I wanted you to have a little token to remember it by.” Then, placing the net against the wall, he leans over and lays a slice of mango and a small shiny object a few feet away from her. Continuing he says, “Sometimes things happen to us, and it can seem like we can’t do anything right, but then some accidents and mistakes turn out to be blessings. Keep your head up Lizzy, today you’re a hero.” Then he turns and heads back inside. As he is walking away Lizzy hears him say under his breath, chuckling, “Now, if you could only help me find my other glove.”
Lizzy waits a minute and then, drawn in by the sweet smell of mango, scrambles forward. She is momentarily startled by the handle of the net still leaning against the stump but, remembering what it is, shrugs it off and devours the mango knocking the net over with her tail in her feasting.
A few minutes later she is basking in the sun with the shiny washer lying beside her. “A very heroic deed.” She repeats to herself. “A heroic deed,” she says more confidently. Then, with a little stomp of her front leg, she lifts her head and declares, “I am a hero!”
Tommy, who had seen Lizzy on the wall and wandered over to say hello, arrives just as Lizzy says it. He chuckles, and says, “You are a hero, Lizzy! You certainly saved Stanley from the trap we set for him a few months ago,” he continues, laughing.
Lizzy scowls and looks down at Tommy condescendingly and says, “Actually, I did save him, and today I saved some fish. That makes me a hero and Mr. Heetderks even said so. That’s why he gave me this,” she says nudging the washer with her front claw.
She grabs up the washer, turns and stumps off. Tommy stands smiling to himself. Then his expression changes and his eyes go wide and mouth gapes. There, right where Lizzy had just been lying on the wall, is a mango skin.
Chapter 4 Trapped in the Night
Tommy’s story about Lizzy and the mango skin spreads like wildfire and before it’s even lunchtime, the mango mystery is all anyone can talk about. Lizzy, for a moment, is the top suspect as people speculate how and why she might have stashed the first mango skin by King.
On the other hand, no one really sees Lizzy as malicious and cunning enough to pull off that kind of deception. Even so, the evidence seems to be mounting against her. Then, information comes forward about several more dried mango skins that are found hidden behind King’s enclosure just outside of the fence. This new discovery seals the case against King, and Lizzy is forgotten about.
“Welllll, it is like I said from the beginning, King is getting a little too big for his legs,” Cane is overheard saying to a group of peacocks doing their best to ignore him. “He gets a few hairs on his chin and thinks he runs the place. If you want my opinion, (they didn’t) he needs to be knocked down a few notches. It’ll be good for him in the long leap, that’s for certain. No doubt he took those mangoes, and I’m sure he took my rock too,” he continues.
“SQUAWWWK!” is the only response.
Even Samuel, who has managed to stay above the gossip, feels the need to step in. So, in the evening he risks the conversation, “King…” he starts, as they are eating together, he pauses, gathering his thoughts, “I’m sure you’ve heard what everyone is saying,” he probes.
King looks up from his oats and sees his dad’s face. It has the same look as before. King feels his stomach turn over and a sense of dread grows in his mind. The words, “You’re guilty!” seem written across his dad’s eyes. King feels stabbed in the heart and starts to get angry.
Samuel, perceiving his son’s emotions hesitates, but ultimately decides to push through and continues, “I want to be confident that you didn’t do what everyone is accusing you of doing, but I don’t know what to think. Is there anything you can tell me to help me understand your perspective? You’ve said you didn’t do it, but the mango skins…” He trails off awkwardly, feeling that it is not coming out right.
King snaps, “I didn’t do it!” he yells. “I’ve never done anything like this,” he protests as he fights back tears.
Samuel looks with compassion at his son and doesn’t respond right away. His mouth hangs open in suspense as if what he wants to say won’t come out. Finally, he manages to say, “But King…”
King burst into tears, turns, and runs off. Samuel starts to go after him, but then stops. “He probably just needs a minute,” he thinks.
King runs toward the steps that go to the roof. As he bounds up the steps he slips and bangs his shin against the top step. Samuel watches as King scrambles back to his feet and hobbles through the door and out onto the roof.
King’s shin is throbbing with pain. His eyes are blurred with tears. And he throws himself down in a heap and weeps. He is angry. He feels helpless and betrayed. But he also misses his friends, and everything seems harder without them here.
The sun is setting, and the sunset casts an orange light on all of WorldWonder, but this doesn’t bring any comfort to King. Time slips by as King’s emotions drain themselves dry. His tears are gone, and his vision clears a little. He finally notices the last orange streaks of the fading sunset.
Then his thoughts wander back to the time Mica had made the plan to trap Stanley. It was in the very spot where he now lay. A small, imperceptible smile forms as he recalls the story remembering the courage and strength of his friend. A quiet strength grows in his chest.
Suddenly, he leaps to his feet, stumbling slightly due to his now bruised shin, and says defiantly to the setting sun, “If they don’t believe me, then I’ll prove I’m innocent!” and he stomps his foot in a gesture of conviction just as the sun flashes and disappears.
King moves across the roof to the far side and looks over the edge. He remembers people saying that the other mango skins had been found on the back side of his enclosure and he realizes he should be able to see the spot from the roof. He leans over the edge to look. There, on the ground is the exact spot. Following a hunch, his eyes move up until they are fixed on a branch of the oak tree directly above the spot. He remembers the noise that woke him up the night this whole thing started and says, “I wonder….”
King successfully avoids his dad for the rest of the night, pretending to need his space. Eventually, he acts like he’s heading to bed, but he doesn’t go to sleep; He’s got a plan.
King waits a long time until he is certain his dad is asleep. Then, in the middle of the night, he creeps over to the gap in the fence. On his way through, he scrapes his back and leaves a little skin and fur on a protruding wire. “Oww!!” he says under his breath as he sucks air through his teeth.
Shaking off the discomfort of his scrape, he moves around to the back side of the fence approaching the place where the new mango skins had been discovered and looks. Immediately above him is a bend in the branch of the oak tree. King thinks for a second and then sneaks away in the direction of the trunk of the tree. It is completely dark, and King can’t see well. His shin is still very sore, and the scrape on his back is burning, but he limps forward despite his discomfort.
As he makes his way through some large-leafed ferns he emerges in the clearing beneath the oak tree and stands looking around hopeful that the solution to the mango mystery will be waiting for him. Nothing obvious appears. Then, he creeps toward the tree. The way is blocked with large, twisted roots. They intertwine in such a way that pits and holes open up between their strangling arms. “A perfect place to break a hoof” he thinks as he gingerly steps onto an outstretched root. He isn’t sure what he is looking for, but he feels drawn to go on to the base of the tree. “Maybe something will be here to prove I didn’t do it,” he thinks, wishfully.
King hops across several roots and is now almost to the trunk of the tree without incident. Then, from above him, hidden in the shadows of the looming, overhanging tree, he thinks he hears the snap of a breaking twig. It echoes through the silent night like an alarm clock and sends his heart racing.
He freezes! “What is that?” he thinks, remaining perfectly still and silent, despite his pounding heart. Nothing.
Then, just as he decides he’s safe to move on, a raspy voice calls down to him, “I didn’t think you’d have the nerve,” it says, gruffly, as if pressing its words through clenched teeth.
“Whose there?” King asks the void. Then he looks up, squints into the shadows, and sees a shape sliding out onto the thick branch above him. As he strains to make out what kind of thing this shadow might be, a tail flops off the back of the branch and into the dim light. It is ringed with alternating white and black.
King’s eyes are fixed on the tail. He is frozen with fear. Suddenly the entire shadow-shape leaps into the air and lands on the trunk of the tree a few feet above the ground. It slowly climbs down the trunk and onto the roots and moves toward him.
King inches away from the advancing shadow-shape and slips, just catching himself before he falls. As he regains his balance a face emerges from the shadows. It is grey all over with a black mask around its eyes. It stares at King for several seconds before it finally says, “My name is Fonti, and I know why you’re here.”
King is too scared to respond.
Fonti continues, “You want to know if the mango skins fell from my tree?” He looks at King with a knowing, side-long glance and waits for a beat. Then suddenly he turns, snarls, and says, “They did!” and laughs as King jumps.
King lands awkwardly on his bruised shin and stumbles almost falling again. Steadying his body and his courage he says, “But, but, but everyone thinks I…” he stutters.
Fonti cuts him off impatiently, “Yes, I know. You didn’t do it and you’re trying to prove it. Because what does it matter that you’re really innocent if everyone thinks you’re guilty? But either you did it or you didn’t, which is it?” Fonti challenges.
King’s anger flares again at the question. “I didn’t do it!” he declares defiantly. Then with a boldness and courage that King didn’t know he possessed, he looks straight at Fonti and says without trying to hide his anger, “Maybe you, did it!”
Fonti steps back a little, but then he laughs dismissively and says, “Maybe. What are you going to do about it? Who would ever believe you anyway?”
As angry as King is, he sees the truth in this. Fonti is right. King will only look more guilty if he claims some raccoon no one knows is guilty.
Fonti, sees King’s doubt and capitalizes on it, “I guess if you’re going to prove your innocence, you better catch someone in the act. Good luck!”
Before King can even respond, Fonti turns and leaps back to the trunk of the tree and scurries around to the far side and is gone.
King guesses that he hasn’t gone far, and wants to shout after him in anger, but thinks better of it. He remains perched precariously on his root for a few minutes thinking and trying to calm his nerves. It has been quite the night. As he stands in the darkness, the beginning of a plan forms in his mind. Then, remembering his precarious perch, he turns carefully around to make his way off the roots and back to his enclosure.
Just then, a swooping sound and a screechy laugh comes from behind and above him. A sensation, like something heavy swinging close behind him, causes him to stumble forward. He loses his footing and falls into a gap between two roots. Slamming into the ground with a thud, the wind is knocked out of his lungs. He tries to move but finds that his foot has twisted around and is caught in the Y of the intertwined roots. He isn’t injured too badly, but he can’t move either.
And that is where Mr. Heetderks finds him trapped early the next morning, drenched with dew, scratched, banged up, and pitiful.
“What are you doing out here, King? You know, I put up those fences for a reason. Not every place in WorldWonder is well suited for goats,” he says with concern as he gently loosens King’s hoof and lifts him free. “Seems like everyone’s constantly falling into pits around here,” he adds as he smiles down at King.
Mr. Heetderks puts King back into his enclosure and promptly fixes the hole in the fence. “I probably should have fixed this a while ago, but now it’s done,” he says as he packs up his tools and walks back toward the Nature Center, leaving the bruised, exhausted, and yet determined King laying to recover on his hay.
Chapter 5
“It’s Fonti’s Fault”
amuel is startled awake as the gate swings open, and Mr. Heetderks walks in. The sun is just rising over the trees. He deposits King on the hay and then busies himself mending the hole in the fence. Samuel walks over to King and sees a nasty scrape across his back. It’s caked with dried mud and bits of moss. “Where have you been, King?” he says quietly to himself as he lays anxiously nearby to wait for King to wake up.
Mr. Heetderks occasionally walks over to check on King, but as he’s asleep, he keeps a respectful distance. Only once does he risk saying something quietly to Samuel, “He was in a tight spot last night, Samuel, and he showed tremendous courage. You’ve got to be made of some strong stuff to be stuck outside all night and come back in one piece. It’s dangerous to go walking around on roots in the dark,” he continues. Then adding in response to Samuel’s concern, “Don’t worry, it’s all part of growing up. He’s going to be just fine.”
Eventually, Mr. Heetderks finishes mending the fence, packs up his tools and leaves the enclosure. “Don’t be too hard on him, Samuel,” he says as he walks toward the gate. “I’ve never known King to be rash, so I’m sure there’s a good explanation for all this. No doubt we’ll know more soon, assuming we stay patient,” he adds with a knowing look back at Samuel. “Bye for now.”
Samuel knows Mr. Heetderks’ advice is good and decides to keep his distance and be patient. “Better he doesn’t know I know,” he thinks as he walks away from his son full of concern.
After he sleeps most of the morning away, King finally gets up. Despite his bruised leg and scraped back he can’t stand to waste any more time, frustrated with himself for sleeping so late. He walks, or rather hobbles, out of his structure and looks up trying to find Stanley who is often in the oak tree. He’s in luck, Stanley is busy at his favorite game, terrorizing the peacocks that like to perch in the big oak. King calls to him, “Hey Stanley, come here, I want to ask you something.”
Stanley makes a final swoop at a particularly large peacock causing it to half fall, half jump off the branch. It squawks angrily and flies away with a continuous stream of angry squawks hurtling back toward Stanley. Stanley turns and leaps from the branch still laughing hysterically. Landing with a thud on the hay near the door of the goat structure, he scurries over to King and excitedly says, “Ha, gotta defend my perch.” He asserts as he approaches King. “There is always somebody climbing around on my branch. The peacocks are the worst. They poop on everything. No one wants poop on their front porch. Why just the other day,” he pauses and looks curiously at King, as if something has just occurred to him, “actually, it was the day after the first mango skin was found in your enclosure…Huh? Well, anyway, that day, I came out and the whole branch was lined with it, poop that is, but not all of it was peacock,” he adds angrily.
King interrupts Stanley’s speech, “What are you talking about Stanley?”
“Huh,” Stanley says, seeming to remember that King is there. Stanley tends to talk a lot, and if you let him, he’ll go chattering on and on for hours. “Oh, I was just saying that I don’t like peacocks or anyone else on my branch. But, what’s up, what do you need?” he adds with eager excitement.
“Well, I need help with something, but first, what do you mean it’s not all peacocks’?” he said, catching on to the significance of Stanley’s accidental discovery. “Are you saying that you saw a lot of, uh, poop on your branch the morning that the first mango skin was found.”
“Yeah, lots of it, and not just my branch. It was like an army of peacocks had taken over the whole tree while I was sleeping. Poop was everywhere.”
“But you said, not just peacocks,” King responded.
“Yeah, apparently. Actually, there were some strange tracks too. Unless there’s a peacock with three legs that all have different feet on them, I’d say there were at least two different animals, maybe three. One of them had five toes. That one left poop prints all up and down my branch. Disgusting!!” he said with a shiver. “Thank God for the rain, or I might have had to move to a different nest.” At this point, Stanley says with a hesitant suspicion just as King bursts into a triumphant laugh. “What?” Stanley says with a hesitant suspicion, just as King bursts into a triumphant laugh.
“That’s exactly what I was going to talk to you about,” King begins. “I snuck out last night, because I’m tired of everyone accusing me of stealing the mangoes, and I thought if I could get to the base of the tree, I might find something, a clue or whatever. I didn’t see something, but I did meet someone. His name was Fonti, and I think he might have put those tracks on your branch. And I think he might be the one stealing the mangoes too. He basically admitted it right to my face.” Stanley is speechless! He stares at King. Feeling he’s making progress, King adds, “Yeah, and he also pushed me into a hole.” He adds. “Mr. Heetderks found me this morning, trapped in the roots. That’s why he closed up my escape route. Now I can’t get out anymore, but I’ve gotta catch Fonti, so I need your help,” he finishes.
Stanley looks over at the fence line where there had been an opening and sees a fresh patch of fencing over the hole. Then he looks back at King who is staring at him with confidence and conviction. Then he looks up at the branch of the oak and back at King. Finally, he says, “So you’re saying that this Fonti guy stole mangoes and then framed you for it?”
“Yep!” King says. “And, apparently, he doesn’t have any problem leaving poop prints all over your front porch either,” he adds.
Stanley thinks and stares at King. He looks at the fence and the branch and stares over at the ground where the mango had been. After a few long seconds he leaps into the air and yells, “LET’S GET HIM KING!!!”
“SHHHHHH,” King says, urgently, ducking his head like he’s avoiding a blow. “Not so loud! I think it’s better if we keep this quiet.”
“Oh, yeah, good idea. Sorry!” he squeaks, apologetically.
Stanley and King wander casually up to the roof to make their plans.
Samuel is watching, and listening, but he is careful to appear like he is distracted on the other side of the enclosure. It seems to work, as King and Stanley disappear onto the roof confident their counsel is secret.
All that day, and into the night King and Stanley make plans. They recruit Lizzy into their confidence knowing they need a third set of eyes…and a long tail. It is pretty easy to get her on board since, after Mr. Heetderks had given her a slice of mango, she’d been considered a suspect for a few hours.
“We can’t do it tonight but we gotta move fast!” King says as everyone disperses to gather supplies for their trap. King finishes as they all turn to their assignments, “If we can get everything we need tonight, we can set the trap tomorrow, got it?”
“Got it!” Stanley and Lizzy say in quiet affirmation as they leap and stump off in the direction of their goals.
It is the middle of the night. King and Stanley have been long asleep, and Lizzy is off on the other side of WorldWonder busy with her own interests. There is a pile of supplies gathered haphazardly on the ground by the fence, mostly hidden by a large fern leaf. Samuel slips past King like a shadow and walks toward the gate. Using his nose, he twists his head and pops the latch with a click. Then, quietly swinging back the gate, he disappears into the shadows of the night.
No one is around a few minutes later to see Samuel whispering quietly to a shadow-shape leering furtively from the trunk of the oak. Moments later, the shadow-shape stifles a quiet laugh and then slides up the tree trunk and is gone.
The next morning King wakes up early to start executing his plan. His dad is sleeping soundly in his usual spot. King sneaks by and whispers to himself with a chuckle, “Thanks for sleeping in today, dad. Makes my job easier.”
Chapter 6
Shining Light on the Truth
Using the net that Mr. Heetderks accidentally left leaning against Tommy’s enclosure, helpfully retrieved by Tommy, and an assortment of other odd items, the band of conspirators construct a crude trap.
King pulls everyone together to review the plan, “Okay, guys, the plan is simple. Fonti walks along the branch and finds the lettuce we put by the spotlight. When he bends over to eat the lettuce, he’ll also be staring straight at the spotlight. The light will be off, of course, because it’s in the middle of the night,” he adds in response to Lizzy and Stanley’s confused faces. They nod their heads with relief and agreement. He continues, “Since the raccoon will not know he is staring into a spotlight he will be shocked when it comes on. Then he’ll stumble backwards, like I did on the roots, and fall off the branch. All we need to do is get the net into that knot hole on the underside of the branch to catch him when he falls.
Everyone agrees the plan is foolproof but then Stanley says, “But wait, how will the light come on?”
King’s expression goes blank.
“I’m doing it!” Lizzy says, reminding them of her very important role.
King looks relieved and says, “Exactly, Lizzy will do it.”
“But how will you know when to do it?” Stanley asks. “You can’t see the trap while you’re at the switch.”
This problem almost stumps them until Lizzy remembers how her splash in the puddle brought Mr. Heetderks over and the fish were rescued. She offers, “What if we come up with some kind of signal?” King and Stanley agree, and they work out a little plan. A few minutes later King reviews their plan, “Okay, so I will hide on the roof, Stanley will be on the rock by Tommy’s place where he can see me and Lizzy who will be over by the light switch. When Fonti is in position I’ll drop a leaf over the edge of the roof. Stanley, when you see the leaf, you will roll the coconut off the rock.
Then, when Lizzy hears the coconut hit the ground, she will swing her tail at the switch and turn on the light.” He pauses for a second thinking if he left anything out then asks, “Is that right?”
They are all content with the plan and move off to their posts to put all the final touches on the trap. Stanley struggles to get the coconut onto the rock and eventually gets Tommy to help. Lizzy has no trouble getting onto the trash can by the switch and decides to lay there in the end-of-day sun. King, having already finished all of his responsibilities and unable to leave his enclosure, doesn’t have anything to do and paces nervously. Samuel noticing King’s pacing says, “What’s up King? You’re pacing like you’re waiting for the other coconut to drop.”
King eye’s his father suspiciously, thinking for a brief second that he must know something, but Samuel is just smiling in the way he always does when he’s telling a terrible dad joke, so King laughs it off and says, “Nope, everything is fine, I think I just need some fresh air,” and hops up the stairs to the roof.
King emerges through the upper door just as the sun falls below the horizon. A flare of light splashes the sky sending out orange and yellow streaks of light. King’s eyes follow one of the beams of light as it collides with a single, almost perfectly round cloud in the center of the sky. As he watches the cloud shifts with the wind, pieces of the cloud break apart and holes emerge within the center of the cloud. The tail end stretches off into the distance and thins out. All of a sudden King realizes that the new shape looks almost like a raccoon with a smiling face and a long tail. He thinks about Fonti and wonders how the night will go.
Lost in his own thoughts, King doesn’t notice his dad approaching behind him and is startled when he says, “Beautiful, isn’t it?”
“Whoa, you scared me!” King objects after jumping out of his fur.
“Sorry, bud,” Samuel says, “Thought you knew I followed you up here. Just wanted to let you know it’s time to close up. It’s getting late.”
King sighs with relief after his scare and says, “Yeah, okay.”
“Everything okay?” Samuel risks, “You seem a little distracted.”
For the second time, King can’t help feeling that his dad knows something, and plays it off, “Yeah, just a little tired that’s all.” He says, evasively. He has always been able to trust his dad completely, and this new distance between them leaves him with a gnawing ache in his stomach.
They both head down the stairs even as the sunlight thins and dusk settles in WorldWonder. A few moments later they are heading toward their separate areas for bed.
Later that night, King finds his way to the corner of the enclosure where he, Stanley, and Lizzy had planned to meet up. Stanley is already there. “Where’s Lizzy?” King whispers.
“I just came from over there,” Stanley says, waving in the direction of the Nature Center. “Lizzy is in place and told me to tell you she’s ready.”
King hesitates. Something doesn’t feel quite right to him about starting the night differently than what they’d planned. He shrugs it off, “We really should stick to the plan,” he says, “But, whatever.” He adds, dismissively, “Everything set for you?” he asks.
“Yep, the coconut is ready, and Tommy says he’ll help me watch for the leaf to make sure we don’t miss the signal. Also, I noticed earlier today that I can kind of see the net from my rock too. That’ll help,” Stanley responds casually.
“Yeah, okay,” King says haltingly, “but just make sure you don’t do anything until I drop the leaf. We need to stick to the plan.”
“Yeah, yeah, we got it.”
Something about Stanley’s overconfidence adds to King’s growing sense of unease, but he quickly dismisses it. “I’m just nervous,” he thinks. Then he whispers, “Okay, well, I guess we’re ready then.”
“We’re ready.” Stanley affirms. They exchange nods and turn toward their assigned posts. A shadow-shape, crouched and hidden in the tree above, stands, and quietly moves among the branches of the trees of off into the night.
Several hours later, nearly at dawn, Fonti stops at the end of a long branch of an old hoary olive tree at the far end of WorldWonder near the bamboo. In a move of surprising dexterity, he leaps to the outer wall and then down to the ground. Littered among the fallen leaves where he lands are several empty mango skins. He looks at them with disgust and disappears behind the bamboo.
“CRACK!” A branch snaps.
“Oof!” comes the muffled cry of an animal, like the sound you might make if you caught a soccer ball in your gut. Then with a chittering laugh, Fonti leaps from behind the bamboo and runs toward the trunk of the black olive tree with a short stick in his teeth. The noise of some animal roused to movement erupts from within the tangled bamboo accompanied with grunts of protest.
Fonti leaps up the tree and into the branches above. He stops and looks back. His eyes widen, and his mouth form a thin smile as he sees what he is looking for. Then he turns, flicks his tail, and moves a few branches away. Peering into the darkness with his powerful nocturnal eyes he sees his pursuer. This time he releases a taunting chitter. He turns again and leaps away. This pattern continues as Fonti moves across WorldWonder through the treetops.
Along the way, he lands in the branches of the prized mango tree. Ripe, sweet juicy mangoes are heavily hanging all around him. The sweet smell of their delicious fruit fills the air. He grins broadly. “Can’t resist these,” he says under his breath. Then, making sure not to touch or disturb a single mango he gracefully weaves his way to the heart of the mango tree, stops, and turns back. A thud
comes from somewhere in the darkness. A shadowy figure approaches out of the gloom of the neighboring tree and prepares to jump onto the end of the branch Fonti is now resting on. Just as it gathers itself to leap, Fonti chitters, turns, and bounds off.
Seconds later Fonti perches himself several branches above where King has placed the net. He scans the roof and finally makes out a dark shape on the far side, obscured in the shadows of the night. “Nice, I can hardly even see you.” Fonti says quietly to himself around the stick still clenched in his teeth. He watches a few more beats and then says, “Good! Asleep just like I left you.”
Just then a shiver passes through the oak as some heavy thing lands in the branches on the other side of the tree. Fonti leans back to see around the central trunk as a lumbering shape makes its way along. “So predictable,” Fonti thinks, scornfully. The shape shuffles up to the central trunk. Fonti tenses preparing for action.
“Where has that dirty scoundrel gotten off to?” a venomous, snarly voice asks as it makes its way around the trunk. “Who does he think he is poking me in the ribs while I’m sleeping?”
The sweet smell of ripe mango wafts up to Fonti as the shadow passes below. He crouches preparing for a spring. “Just a few more steps,” he says, quivering with energy. “Almost there…”
Fonti leaps off his perch with legs and arms spread wide and sails down through the air landing just in front of the shadow. It squeals, leaps up and tumbles off the branch into the net. Fonti, as quick as lightning, grabs the stick from his mouth and thrusts it across the top of the net, trapping the creature in its prison.
As the trapped creature thrashes around trying to gain purchase, the handle slips out of the tree branch sending the net and its prisoner into the thick ferns below. A second later a muffled “Oof!” indicates that the creature has slammed into the ground.
Chapter 7
Pat’s Tale
Lizzy, who had fallen asleep early in the night, is startled awake at the thudding sound of what she assumes is the coconut hitting the ground. She jumps up feeling disoriented and tries to clear her clouded mind. Then, like a bright light shining through the fog of her thoughts, she remembers the plan. “The lights!” she shouts and swings her tail wildly toward the switch.
“SLAP!” Her tail swats the light switch flipping it to the ‘on’ position. Bright lights shine out all through WorldWonder. Even though the sun is already creeping above the horizon and the deep darkness of night has passed, the sudden appearance of light is startling.
Stanley, who also fell asleep early in the night, is startled awake by the lights and leaps up landing on top of the coconut. It rolls over the edge, with Stanley clinging to it, into the turtle enclosure and lands right on Tommy’s hard shell.
“Thwack!” goes the coconut.
“Oof!!” says Stanley who is sandwiched between the coconut and tommy’s hard shell.
“Huh!” says Tommy, as this unconventional wake-up call interrupts his early morning dreams. “What are you doing, Stanley?” Tommy asks as Stanley and the coconut tumble off his back and onto the dirt beside him.
Just then Stanley sees Lizzy speeding across the tops of the stumps lining Tommy’s area. Her legs are windmilling so aggressively, and she’s moving with such velocity, that her feet are hardly touching at all. As she arrives at the end of the wall and leaps into the air she calls back to Stanley, “Let’s go, Stanley!” and then with a thud she smashes against the ground and speeds off toward the goat enclosure.
Stanley recovers himself, realizes what’s happening, and leaps up to go. Instead of jumping into the air, however, he slaps awkwardly, and immediately falls back onto the ground. Realizing his tail is stuck under the coconut he begins running in place trying to dislodge it.
Tommy, seeing Stanley’s plight, frees him by nudging the coconut with his head. The sudden removal of the weight of the coconut sends Stanley careening into the nearby wall, like a sprinter from his blocks. He flops over momentarily stunned. A second later he’s up again. He leaps onto the wall in pursuit of Lizzy. But at the last second, switches direction and jumps to the other side speeding toward the oak tree.
Tommy yells after him, “What’s going on, Stanley? STANLEY?” But he’s gone.
King wakes up suddenly. The sun is starting to brighten the sky. “What is that?” he thinks, having been woken up by some thudding noise. Remembering their plans, he realizes he must have fallen asleep while waiting last night. He panics.
He hears the muffled complaints of some animal struggling and turns toward their trap. Sitting on the branch right where their trap was set, he sees a shadow-shape, but the net is gone. Just then a bright light flares on. King is temporarily blinded as his eyes adjust. When he’s finally able to see again the shadow-shape is gone.
Seconds later Lizzy comes crashing through the underbrush up to the edge of the fence urgently asking, “DID WE GET HIM? DID WE GET HIM?”
Before King can respond Stanley leaps from somewhere high up in the oak down onto the branch where the shadow-shape has just been standing and yells, “IT DIDN’T WORK, I JUST SAW FONTI,” he starts, but his sentence is cut off.
Out of the underbrush below a high-pitched snarling voice captures the conspirator’s attention. They freeze and make eye contact with each other, and then Lizzy and King both leap into motion.
King arrives at the edge of the roof, looking down just as Lizzy skids to a stop on the edge of the underbrush. All three stare toward the voice.
“LET ME OUT OF HERE. YOU RASCAL, YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO,” it is yelling between huffs and grunts as it struggles against whatever restraint has it trapped.
Ignoring the voice, Stanley finishes his thought, “I was going to say that it didn’t work, because I just saw Fonti running back that way,” he flicks his tail behind him to indicate the direction, “but if we didn’t trap him, then who’s down there?” he adds with a questioning look down into the thick ferns.
Just then, there is a loud snap, like a stick breaking in half, followed by a shuffling, scrambling noise among the ferns. Moments later a hairy greyish-brown animal with a long nose, sharp protruding teeth, beady eyes, and a long cord-like tail waddles out from under the ferns and plops onto the ground a few feet away from Lizzy, apparently exhausted.
The three conspirators stare in disbelief at the new arrival. Finally, King breaks the silence as he notices two things simultaneously. First, there is a half-eaten mango still clutched in its huge mouth and, secondly, there is something shiny hanging around its neck. At first King can’t figure out what it is, then suddenly he realizes and shouts, “HEY, THAT’S MOMMA’S NECKLACE!”
The creature, which of course is an opossum, looks up at King, seeming to notice for the first time that it has an audience. It tenses like it might spring up and run off, and then seems to decide differently. It puts the mango down and says incredulously, “Momma’s necklace? That’s ridiculous. I found it lying around and I took it because I wanted it. That makes it mine.”
King doesn’t know what to say and stares blankly. Stanley is the one that finally speaks up, “That’s not right,” he says as he leaps down from the branch to the top of the fence below, “You can’t just take something that doesn’t belong to you. That necklace is our friends’ Momma’s necklace, and you need to give it back,” he says with as much authority as his squeaky voice can summon.
“Ha, ha, ha. Isn’t that nice,” the opossum says. “When I was a child, I used to think simple things like that too.” It continues, “But when you get old enough and you no longer have a squeaky little voice, you learn that when you want something for yourself you need to just take it. When I saw
this necklace lying around, I wanted it. Now it’s mine and I’m not giving it to anyone.” Then as if to drive the point home the opossum turns toward the mango lying nearby and takes a bite and begins chewing with exaggerated enjoyment.
The friends are so shocked by thisopossum’s boldness they don’t know what to say.
The opossum, picking up on their hesitation, continues its speech, “It’s like this mango,” she says, swallowing the bite she’s just taken. “It’s delicious! And why should we not eat it? What are mangoes for if not for feeding the animals that live in the shade of their tree? Maybe if they didn’t taste so good,” she continues as she takes another bite, “I wouldn’t want them.” She finishes, as mango pulp drools out onto her hairy jaw.
“The fact that you got in trouble for it,” she continues, directing her speech at King, “is only proof that you’re living with silly people who have silly rules. If you’d been clever like me, you could have been eating mangoes the whole time and let some other chump take the blame for it. But you insist on keeping your silly rules, so you have to deal with their consequences. Too bad,” she says as she takes another bite of the mango, “These are so good!”
“BUT THAT’S WRONG!” King finally bursts out in protest and disgust. It isn’t right to take something that’s not yours. “And,” he starts as tears form in his eyes, “It’s not right to let other people get in trouble for the things you do.”
Just then, Fonti leaps down onto the branch from where he’d been listening to the conversation and says, “You’re exactly right, King!”
The opossum’s expression, which had become smug and confident, shrivels into a snarling contempt as it whirls around to glare at Fonti. “You!” she hisses, resentfully.
“And you’re right to point it out,” Fonti continues ignoring her. “Pat here,” he says, as he waves his hand toward the opossum, “has been stealing stuff from others ever since she snuck into WorldWonder a few weeks ago. I finally caught up to her on that branch over there right after she
dropped the mango skin by where you were sleeping. I knew what she was up to. She talks a big game, but she knows she’s wrong. That’s why she works so hard to frame others for her behavior. It’s a game for her making chaos for others while she gets what she wants.”
Pat scowls at Fonti and says, “You’ve been bothering me ever since I got here, always trying to tell me what’s right and wrong. What good has it done for you, huh?” she says spitefully. “All it got you was the distrust of these naïve kids who repaid your protection by trying to trap you in a net.”
Fonti looks thoughtful and a little sad for a second as he takes in what Pat is saying. She sees this and begins to grin with her mango juice slicked lips.
Finally, Fonti says, “You’re right Pat. Your lies almost worked.” Fonti turns back to King and says, “I’m sorry I wasn’t able to help you more directly. I know this has been really difficult on you. When your dad came to tell me about how others were treating you, I wished there was something I could have done sooner, but Pat’s lies are too well laid out, and I had to lay low. Then when your dad told me about your plan to trap me, I realized, if I was patient, I might be able to help you after all. Thankfully, Pat took the bait. I think it will be easy to set everything right now.”
King, who is shocked by everything he’s hearing is most surprised to find out that his dad and Fonti are friends. Not knowing what to say or where to start he says, “Wait, so…you know my dad?”
As King looks at Fonti, expecting a response, he is startled by a voice from behind him, one that he knows very well. It says, “We’ve been friends for a long time, son.
”King whirls around to see his dad’s smiling face looking back at him. All hints of suspicion are gone, only compassion and relief.
As King begins to cry, his dad walks over and rests his chin on his shoulder. He says, “I wish I could have said something sooner, but you needed to figure this one out on your own. And you did, King! I’m so proud of you!”
The Character of King
Everyone’s attention is turned to King and Samuel as they share a special father-to-son moment on the roof. King has endured some difficult weeks. He said goodbye to his closest friends and carried the shame of being wrongfully accused. He faced his fears and suffered pain as he went out into the night to discover the truth. Worst of all, he spent much of this time believing that the people he loves most had believed the lies about him.
But now Pat is caught and all that can be set right again. The relief King feels at this realization is pouring out of him in the form of happy tears, and the whole group is feeling the relief with him. Pat, on the other hand, takes the fact that everyone is distracted as an opportunity to sneak away. While they are all celebrating, she slips over to the fence unnoticed.
Stanley, a rather emotional squirrel, is bawling and carrying on with such drama that he missteps and falls off the fence post where he’s been watching. By some miraculous coincidence, he lands right on top of Pat just before she escapes around the corner. Instantly, he finds himself overpowered by a possum who believes she’s been discovered and is fighting tooth, claw, and tail to evade capture.
Thankfully for Stanley, the commotion Pat causes catches everyone’s attention. Fonti, perceiving the danger Stanley is suddenly in, leaps into action, and bounds from the branch to the fence and then to the ground in seconds. He snatches Stanley by the tail and tosses him away just as Pat snaps her jaws where Stanley’s back leg had been. Then Fonti turns to face Pat.
She sees Fonti looming over her where a small, helpless squirrel had just been, and in an instant, flips around and turns toward the underbrush in a mad attempt to escape.
Fonti rushes forward and steps on her trailing tail. She swirls around to prepare for a counterattack. Stanley, who has landed a few feet away, skitters up the nearby fence post to safety. Lizzy bristles and coils herself up preparing to slash her tail in self-defense. And the faces of King and Samuel appear over the edge of the roof above.
In this way, everyone is watching as Fonti, a rather large and experienced old raccoon, effortlessly dodges Pat’s attack and flips her over, pinning her to the ground. Pat crumples under the move and flops over. Her body goes completely limp. As everyone watches, stunned, her tongue, like a strip of undercooked bacon, separates from the roof of her lifeless, gaping mouth, and flops to the ground with a splat.
“SHE’S DEAD!” Stanley finally yells. As everyone holds their breath, unable to move or speak. Then Fonti starts laughing. King, who is staring at Pat’s lifeless body, hears Fonti’s laugh and feels panic rise in his chest. Fonti, a second ago had seemed like a hero, but now he appears savage and menacing. Doubt surges into King’s thoughts, “Am I wrong, is Fonti really the bad guy?” he wonders.
Fonti says in response to Stanley’s claim, still laughing, “No, no, don’t worry, she’s not dead. She’s just a deceiver. Opossums are good at faking it.” He takes his foot off of her tail, takes a step back and leans against the fence in a relaxed and unconcerned manner as if waiting.
Finally, he says casually, “Pat, I have no intentions of hurting you, I just needed to stop you from hurting Stanley. He’s safe and the moment has passed so you don’t need to go on like this. Anyway, we’re not going to leave until we’ve gotten back the necklace and heard your apology. So we’ll wait.”
If Pat had not been lying there dead, everyone would have taken Fonti’s words as reasonable, almost friendly, but for nearly five seconds Pat’s motionless body remains unchanged. With every passing second Fonti appears more and more dangerous and threatening, as he casually leans against the fence seeming amused. Then just as the tension is about to make the group burst, Pat instantly transforms from being completely dead and limp to alive and venomous. She stands, looks around at everyone with eyes full of malice and disgust and says, “Well, isn’t this nice. I’m being
called a thief for finding this necklace thrown away, and you claim you’re innocent even though you’re standing around me like a gang, robbing me of things that are rightfully mine. Maybe I will let you take the necklace, because it doesn’t seem I have a choice, but if you think I’m going to stoop to apologize, you’re wrong!”
Everyone but Fonti and Samuel are completely shocked by this apparent resurrection. Then Pat bends her head and shakes the necklace off onto the ground. “There, go ahead and take my necklace, I’ll just get another one,” she says smugly.
Then she turns casually and starts walking toward the underbrush. Fonti, bounds over and cuts off her escape and says, “Not so fast Pat, you’re not just going to slink back to your hiding place to start with your tricks again. We’re escorting you to the wall of WorldWonder and seeing that you leave and never come back. If you were willing to live with us in an honest way and learn to trust us, in time you would find this is a wonderful place to be, but since you’re committed to your own crooked way, you cannot stay.”
Pat doesn’t put up a fight, instead she just chuckles in a condescending way and says, “Well, I should have expected this kind of treatment. You people are all the same, you talk about kindness, but really you only care about those who are just like you. Don’t worry, I don’t want to stay here anyway. That should make it easier for you to throw me out.”
A few minutes later, Fonti asks Lizzy and Stanley to go with him, leaving King and his dad with some time together, as they lead Pat back across WorldWonder to her den behind the bamboo. Fonti instructs her to bring out all of the things she has stolen.
Stanley is shocked to see his secret bundle of nuts and seeds dragged out and placed before them. He didn’t even know it was missing. How Pat knew where it was and how she managed to get it, she refuses to say. Instead, she simply insists, “Maybe you have a stash of food that looks like this, but this one is mine.”
Stanley immediately inspects his bundle to ensure nothing has gone missing and while doing so, the washer Mr. Heetderks had given to Lizzy falls out. There is a moment of confusion as Lizzy thinks to accuse Stanley of stealing it, but Fonti recognizes the tension and intervenes quickly, “Well, Pat, I’m sure you had some dark plans for this little trick. No doubt you intended to put a wedge between Stanley and Lizzy by making it appear that Stanley had stolen Lizzy’s medal. Looks like these kids caught you just in time! Finish getting the rest of the things, and we’ll show you out quickly before you can do any more damage.”
Lizzy looks at Pat just in time to see the slightest prideful smile flash across her face. She seems genuinely pleased that her intentions have been so clearly understood. Then, Stanley and Lizzy make eye contact and share expressions of relief, realizing how close they had been to disaster. Pat’s plans had been thorough, devious, and would have been very damaging had they not been discovered in time.
Pat is cooperative, even eager as she brings out the items she’s stolen, seeming to delight in the misery she might have caused, but she takes her time, relishing in the tension of it all.
As the stolen items are brought out, and lined up there is Cane’s favorite flat rock, several peacock tail feathers, Mr. Heetderks’ left glove and sundry other precious and important items that had undoubtedly been missed.
Finally, when Fonti is satisfied it’s all out, they escort Pat to the wall and see her out.
A while later they return and are all on the roof with King and Samuel, “Don’t you think she’ll just come right back in?” King asks as they reflect on all that has happened.
“No, I don’t think so,” Fonti says. “Someone like pat operates best in the darkness, choosing to pass the blame while they push people from behind,” he says with a knowing glance at King.
King nods in agreement until recognition dawns on his face and he blurts out, “Wait, that was her?”
“Of course!” he says laughing at King’s shock. “She swooped across your path just as you turned using her tail to dangle from the branch above. No doubt she knew you would think it was me.” He says almost to himself, “But now that she’s exposed, she won’t come back. Her power is in deception and confusion; she can’t work her mischief in the light. No, she’ll move on to some other area where she can hope to hide and get away with her tricks. Still, we’ll keep an eye out for her. And if she does come back, it might be because she realizes she needs help. She may not be able to see it now, but we treated her very kindly and that will stick with her – even if, for now, she resents us for it!” Then, like he is recalling some unhappy memory from the past he looks off toward the wall and says, “Perhaps, there’s still hope.”
Everyone stands around talking, laughing, and sharing details as the story pieces itself together. Then after a while, Fonti, Lizzy, and Stanley return to the pile of stolen items and begin redistributing them to their proper owners. Each time they returned an item to it’s owner they shared the story of how King courageously braved the night to uncover the real mango thief.
Everyone is relieved to have their prized possessions returned and even more grateful to know the truth. Cane, upon having his rock returned and hearing about King says, “Wellll, it’s like I always say, all’s well as leaps high. I always knew that King would turn out for the good. Just needed a little coaching, that’s all. Good for him! Glad I could help.”
Fonti shoots Stanley a glance just as he is about to protest and saves them all from Cane’s lecturing. Later he tells him, while they’re sitting together in the oak tree, “Some battles aren’t worth fighting, Stanley. Cane means well, he just has a very narrow view of things. We all have blind spots, and we all make mistakes, but when you see people’s hearts it’s easier to give them grace. Cane,” he starts, thoughtfully, “He’s got good intentions.”
Later that day, Mr. Heetderks walks onto the back porch of the Nature Center and sees his left glove, and a small pearl necklace, sitting in the middle of the sidewalk. Beside them are faint, five-fingered tracks leading off in the direction of the oak.
He bends down, picks up his glove and the necklace and inspects them both. Seeing the tag on the necklace he flips it over and reads, “Macropods International” with an address in Australia. “I guess Momma forgot her necklace. I’ll need to drop that in the mail later today. And here’s my lost glove. I wonder how that found its way home,” he says with a big smile. “Now all I’m missing is my net, but I guess that will show up eventually,” he adds.
A moment later he looks off toward the oak tree and says, “Good! So, it all worked out in the end.” Mr. Heetderks stands surveying WorldWonder and then smiles like he’s just heard good news and says, “Better go check on the goats.”
As Mr. Heetderks approaches the goat enclosure, he slows his pace and smiles. King and Samuel are curled up together on the hay fast asleep. Cautiously opening the gate and quietly walking over to them, he pulls a mango from his vest pocket, cuts it in half with his pocketknife, and lays each half beside the goats. Then turning back toward the gate, he says, “Good work, King! Good work!”
— The End —
Wandering Through WorldWonder King’s Adventure
Wandering through WorldWonder: King’s Adventure, is the second book in a series aiming at making bible truths relatable to kids. In this story, King and his friends must face difficulties and learn to thrive, like the tree the psalmist references in Psalm 1:3. As they model what it looks like to overcome challenges and confront their fears, we hope the kids of Westminster Christian School will learn how to do the same.
John Bishop Director of Spiritual Formation Westminster Christian School
Wandering Through WorldWonder
King’s Adventure
“That
person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not withered – whatever they do prospers.”
PSALM 1:3
John Bishop, Westminster’s director of spiritual formation, is the author of “Wandering Through WorldWonder: King’s Adventure.” Mac, Mica and the many other characters found in this story were created to share the lessons found in Psalm 1:3, the central focus of Westminster’s spiritual formation plan for the 2024-25 school year.
