Silly Story: Family Time

Once upon a time, there was a baby elephant named Zed. He lived in a tree-house with his mummy, Lydia, and her boyfriend Phil. Phil was a silverback gorilla. One day, Zed and Phil got into a big argument. Zed wanted to eat chocolate cereal and watch cartoons all day, but Phil insisted that they go on a walk with Lydia instead. Zed was so  frustrated that he decided to run away! He shimmied down the fire-station pole in their living room, all the way down to the forest floor, and began running. Phil was about to run after him, worried that he would get lost or get into trouble, but Lydia stopped him. "Maybe this will be good for him. Maybe it's time he found his own way in the world." Lydia was a terrible mother, but Phil loved her so he decided to humour her for a while, then go out looking for Zed while she was at her vampire book club.

Meanwhile, despite thick underbrush and creepy snakes with bad attitudes barring his path, Zed had somehow managed to find the only cave within a five-mile radius. It was super cool, with stalactites and stalagmites and glow-worms everywhere.

"WHOA, what a neat cave!" Zed exclaimed. "I need to throw a wicked party and invite all my friends!"

So Zed whipped out his Android phone, and gave all his friends the GPS coordinates of the cave. Soon, everyone was there- Libby the baby panther, Zelda the baby orangutan, Freddie the baby shark, and Corky the teenage ostrich. Even Melvin the baby goth squirrel showed up, and he usually hated parties.

Someone whipped out their mp3 player and a pair of speakers, and soon everyone was moving to the groove. The music was so loud, that other animals became curious and came to investigate. They were welcomed, and it turned into a forest-wide jamfest. A-listers, hipsters, reality television stars, accountants- everyone was cutting a rug. Of course, that's when Trouble turned up.

Trouble was a 27-foot Crocodile, and he was the next big thing in the forest. His rad tunage was in the top five of every radio station, all 3 of them. Of course everyone wanted him to perform, and even though it was his one night off, he agreed to play a song or two because he was just a super nice guy!

Everyone was singing along to the bridge, when Phil showed up. "WHOA!" Phil exclaimed, "What a neat cave!" He had followed the rumours of a wicked awesome party in a totally bitchin' cave, and figured that since everyone who was anyone seemed to be at the dance party, he could probably ask around and get some leads as to where Zed had gone.

Well, of course as soon as Phil walked in the spot, everyone stopped singing and looked at him. This is because Phil was very hip and up on all the latest fashion, and he was looking particularly stylish that afternoon in some fluorescent pink leopard print pants. That was when Zed ran up to him.

"Phil! You came to my party!!"

"This is your party, Zed? I'm impressed!"

"Wow, thanks Phil! Does this mean you aren't mad at me anymore?"

"Oh, I'm still mad. But there will be plenty of time for that later. Right now we have more important things to do."

"Like what?"

"Like boogie the night away!"

With a cheer, the crowd lifted the pair onto their shoulders as the DJ dropped some more beats, and they crowd-surfed for the entire song. Then Trouble invited them to come on stage and sing with him, a dream come true! It was the best night ever.

When they finally got home at five in the morning, Lydia met them at the door.

"Where were you two?? I've been worried and lonely all night! I tried calling your cells but I kept getting voicemail."

"Oh, man! I'm so sorry, babe, we were at this awesome cave party and I guess the music was so loud that we couldn't hear our phones!" Phil explained, "But we're here now. I'll make it up to you, I promise!"

And he did. Phil took Lydia and Zed out for pancakes and ice cream, which meant they were spending quality time together as a family. This was all Phil had really wanted when he insisted that they all go on a walk the previous day, and so he was no longer mad at Zed. They were a happy family once more.

The End