Madame Icicle and the Zoo Penguins

            by Lizzy Arnason

 

            Charlotte’s favorite spot in the all of New York City was the zoo in Central Park. Every weekend Charlotte went to the zoo. Charlotte’s favorite animals to visit were the penguins. She always saved her visit to them for last. Each weekend when Charlotte went to visit the zoo she stopped at the lion’s cage first.

            “Hello there lions,” she called.

            “HELLO CHARLOTTE!!!!” they roared at her together. Then rumble, rumble went their tummies.

 

 

            “Would you like some of my Popsicle,” asked Charlotte Her mom had told her to always share, especially when someone else was hungry.

            “NO,” the lions roared. “We lions don’t eat popsicles, we eat meat.”

            “Oh!” exclaimed Charlotte who was a vegetarian and hated meat.

            “Well, bye lions!” she yelled and headed off to the kangaroos.

            “Bye charlotte!” roared the lions.

           

            “Hello Charlotte,” said Mr. Zen, the zebra.

            “Hello Mr. Zen, how are things at the zoo today?” Charlotte always asked Mr. Zen about the current events at the zoo because he was the oldest animal there and spent all day trotting around chatting with all the animals.

            “The penguins are all in a puff and they don’t know just what to do. A new penguin has just come all the way from Antartica and she is NOT getting along with the other penguins at all,” cried the wise old zebra in frustration.

 

 

            “Oh, Antartica is so far away, I have never met anyone from there. I think I’ll go and meet this new penguin right away. I’m going to see if I can help out.”

            “Good bye Mr. Zen,” said Charlotte as she hurried off to the penguins home.

             Charlotte’s very popular with all the penguins. So before she could meet the new penguin from Antarctica she had to stop and say hello to all of her friends.

            “Hello Mr. and Mrs. Paddyfoot. Hello penguin Mcguin. Hello Tuxedo.”

            All the penguins were so happy to see Charlotte, especially because the new penguin from Antarctica had put them all in the worst possible of moods. They all clustered around her, and it took her seventeen minutes to untangle herself from the mess of beaks and flippers.

            Finally she was able to walk over the Antarctican.

            “Hi, my name is Charlotte,” said Charlotte as she reached out to shake the newcomers hand. But the penguin looked at her disdainfully, and said without shaking Charlotte’s hand:

            “My name is Madame Icicles and unlike all the penguins here, I am from Antarctica. Penguins in Antarctica are much better than these zoo penguins. And any friend of these zoo penguins is most certainly no friend of mine,” quacked Madame Icicle with a flourishing wave of her beak as she strutted away.

            “Well you look just the same as all the penguins here,” called Charlotte after her. She was very confused, Madame Icicle did not look any better than Mr. Paddy Foot or any one of the other penguins; in fact charlotte could see no difference between this snooty foreigner and her flapping penguin friends.

            “Oh my poor child, you cannot even tell a real penguin, like me, from these zoo penguins.” Madame Icicles gave Charlotte a sympathetic look. So Charlotte went back to her penguin friends.

            “See we told you, she’s just snotty and no fun,” said Mr. Paddy foot the penguin.

 

 

***     

            The next day Charlotte went back to visit the penguins. She said hello to all her friends as usual. All the penguins were in a better mood today because one penguin was missing. Madame Icicle was no where to be found. Charlotte asked Mr. Zen the zebra but he just gave her a disinterested shrug.

            “It’s better she’s gone, she was causing so much trouble with the penguins.” Said Mr. Zen the zebra.

            “What if something terrible has happened to her!” shreaked Charlotte.

            “That is not my problem, after all, she’s not a zoo animal.”

            With a HUMPH, Charlotte went of looking for Madame Icicle because its terrible to be lost when you’re so far away from home. First she was going to ask the lions if they had seen her.

            “Lions!” yelled Charlotte to wake them up from their afternoon nap. They all lifted their heads and yawned. “Have you seen the new penguin, Madame Icicle?”

            “YESSSSSSSS!!!” they roared together. “Last night, she strutted past our cage that way.” All the lions leaned their furry heads to the left. And off Charlotte ran. Past Mr. Zen the zebra, past the monkeys, the tigers, the bears, the walrus and the giraffes. Charlotte looked in every ditch, every nook and every cranny. She knew the zoo like her very own house. Finally at the very top of a hill, at the very end of the zoo, charlotte saw the very small end of a penguin sticking out of a very small hole in the fence.

 

 

            “Are you all right, I’m going to get you some help.” Off Charlotte went to fetch Mr. Zen the zebra and all her penguin friends. The hole in the fence was so small and all the penguins wanted to know why Madame Icicle had tried to climb through it. Apearantly she wanted to get out of the zoo and she thought that this may be the way back to Antarctica with the real penguins.

            Mr. Zen the zebra and all the penguins were not very excited about helping out Madame Icicle, but Charlotte begged and pleaded, and no one could ever say no to Charlotte. So they all ran around the zoo looking for ways to get Madame Icicles out of the hole in the fence. They asked every animal if they could possibly help, the walruses were too lazy, the giraffes were too busy stretching but finally the lions agreed to help. One of them had just had his claws trimmed so he gave them to Charlotte. She took one of the big claws and she cut an even bigger hole all around Madame Icicle and she was free.

            “Oh thank you all so much!” Gleamed Madame Icicle, but then as all the penguins walked back home Madame Icicle still had just a bit of her strut.

            At dinner that night Madame Icicles asked the penguins if they had all been born in this zoo or other zoos. Madame Icicle beak was wide open in surprise when she heard all the penguins shout out their answers.

            “I was born in Greenland!”, “The north pole.” “Russia”

            Madame Icicles wasn’t the only penguin who had not been born at the zoo and she hadn’t been able to tell them apart!

            After they had all finished their delicious fish Madame Icicles did something amazing. She waddled around and helped clear away everyone’s fish bones.