A Silly Short Story

“Pencey when are the wildlife photographers visiting today? Do you have any idea at all?We need to figure this out,” Rupert said as he began to pace anxiously across the sand. “I know, I know. I’m not sure when they’ll be back. It’s not often they visit our coast in New Zealand we can’t waste this. It’s time for an extreme brainstorming session we have to have a solid plan,” Pencey replied as he waddled towards Rupert. “All of the other penguins are content with the possibility of a few seconds of screen time on the Discovery channel or to be a tiny, indistinguishable speck among the other penguins in a National Geographic picture but that isn’t enough, we are meant for more than that Rupert.” Pencey reached out a flipper to stop Rupert’s incessant pacing. Rupert smoothed down his feathers and took a few deep breaths, “Well how do we become famous? What can we possibly do that will give us more attention than that?” Pencey thought for a moment his brow furrowing in concentration. “I’ve got it!” He exclaimed. “We can get our big breakthrough in the easiest form of entertainment. It wont matter that we’re just little penguins we have more personality than most people in any of those shows anyways. We can be reality television stars.” Rupert was caught off guard by such a bold idea but before much excitement could grow his anxiety questioned Pencey once again. “As magical as that would be where would we possibly fit in on Bravo or TLC. We still don’t know what to do to get the photographers attention enough to make them consider taking us to Hollywood.” “Well,” Pencey began, a step ahead of Rupert already. “What if we danced. What are people’s first thought when they think of penguins related to television? Happy Feet. That silly cartoon could be our way in. They see dancing penguins they’ll think its the most naturally bizarre thing they’ve ever seen and they’ll want to bring us back to the US. Once our little dancing phenomenon is put on whatever talk show they see most fit, we will have had more than enough time to think of a way to get our own reality TV show.” “Pencey…” Rupert said slowly. “Yes?” he replied, eagerly awaiting his friends response. “I think perhaps you’re the smartest penguin in the world.”

Prompt and characters co-created by me and Samuel Conde

“There were two tiny penguins and they only longed for reality television stardom”