Week 7 Storytelling: The Story of the Playground Bully

There once was a mean young Jackal who bullied all the animals in the land on the playground at school. He always pushed them into the mud when it rained, popped out of corners to scare them, and stole all their food at lunch. The teachers never saw it happen, so they always let Jackal get away with everything- especially because Mr. and Mrs. Jackal were very prominent and wealthy in the community. Jackal was a notorious bully and some of his classmates- Lion, Baboon, Leopard, Hyena, Hare, and Mountain Tortoise- were simply tired of it.

(The playground of the animals)

One day, at recess, Hare, Leopard, and Hyena discovered delicious berries from a bush near the swing set on the playground. They quickly called the rest of their friends over to gather them up and take them to the giant blue slide where they always liked to meet during recess. As soon as they had set the berries down and begun to snack on them, Jackal swooped in from the top of the slide where he had been hiding and snatched all the berries up into his mouth in one smooth motion. He laughed as he ate and even dangled several berries in front of the animals to taunt them. The animals cried out in horror that Jackal had gotten to benefit from all of their hard work and eat the berries himself.

Hare, Leopard, Hyena, Lion, Baboon, and Mountain Tortoise huddle around each other, each furious and fuming, to decide what must be done to punish Jackal. He couldn't get away with his trickery and bullying any longer- they had had enough. Lion was the strongest, so he offered to eat Jackal up with his sharp, enormous teeth. Leopard was the stealthiest, so he proposed sneaking up behind Jackal and pushing him off the slide. Hyena was the ugliest, so he offered to jump in front of Jackal and make the most hideous face to scare him. Baboon suggested screaming in Jackal's face to deafen him and Hare recommended kicking Jackal with his powerful hind legs. Only Mountain Tortoise remained silent during their discussion for he knew none of those ideas would work. Jackal was too quick to be caught by any of those ideas, so he stepped forward to offer to snatch the Jackal himself and show him off. The other animals laughed until they realized Mountain Tortoise was serious and then they gathered close as he whispered his plan.

  (Jackal looking for animals to bully)

The next day, Jackal arrogantly pranced around the playground pushing aside and taunting all of the animals in his class as he usually did. As soon as he reached the top of the slide, he saw Mountain Tortoise sitting at the bottom, seemingly asking for Jackal to prance on him. With a smirk, he hurried down the slide at top speed and jumped high in the air to violently slam his paws onto Tortoise's back and push him into the ground. Much to his surprise, the second his paws touched Tortoise's back, they were instantly stuck to a dark, sticky, glue-like substance. He soon realized Tortoise had borrowed "shell shine" from his father the night before and smeared it across his shell to play this trick. Jackal strained and fought to remove his paws from Mountain Tortoise's back, but they were firmly stuck without budging. He heard snickering off to the side and looking to see Lion, Leopard, Hyena, and Baboon eagerly watching and giggling to themselves at Jackal's plight.

 (Moutain Tortoise waiting at the foot of the slide)

Suddenly, Hare and three of the animals' favorite teachers appeared standing over Jackal during his distress.  Hare had summoned the teachers as part of the plan to help them catch Jackal in the act. Mountain Tortoise recounted the whole ordeal and they were surprised and quite disappointed in Jackal for treating Mountain Tortoise so poorly. Another dismayed teacher soon arrived with adhesive remover to free Jackal from the shell and take him to detention, where he would be scolded and punished for bullying his classmates. Lion, Baboon, Leopard, Hyena, and Mountain Tortoise all celebrated and thoroughly enjoyed the rest of recess.

Author's Note:
I wrote this story because I was so frustrated in each of the readings with how often Jackal bullied all of the other animals without ever experiencing any sort of punishment. The original story dealt with water that the animals had worked hard to discover and how Jackal drank it all for himself, upsetting the other animals, so I changed it to berries that they worked hard to pick to give them something they were upset to lose. I decided to alter the ending so that he is punished so I thought it would be funny to place him in detention for all of his horrible bullying. Then I had the idea to place all of the animals in school on the playground so I took the approach of writing a children's story. I wanted Mountain Tortoise to seem like the wise one of the friends so I tried to ensure he had a large role and had the best plan to catch Jackal, which made it fun to imagine the ridiculous plans of the other animals. Overall, I had fun writing this short story and I hope it was fun to read!

Bibliography:
South African Folktales by the nomadic and San people (bushmen) of South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe