'Crocodile' children's book

CROCODILE Text copyright © 2007 by Melissa Hekkers Illustrations copyright © Anna Fotiadou All rights reserved.

Printed in Cyprus. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the publisher.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons is entirely coincidental.

ISBN: 978-9963-8644-7-8 Published by the Pantheon Cultural Association, Lefkosia, Cyprus www.pantheongallery.org 2007

cro co dile» «

Lara lived with her mum in a quaint little house,

near a city called Petal.

The house was picture like.

Made out of wood, each windowsill had its own flowerpot decorated with multi-coloured tulips.

The front yard was an exotic one with plenty of fruit trees and a huge palm tree standing in its centre.

From the outside, the house looked warm and cosy,

but once inside things seemed to take a different turn‌

You see, Lara was a very naughty little girl.

If she wasn’t scribbling on the walls, she was pulling her cat’s ears,

hanging off the curtain drapes and never did she want to go to bed when the time came.

Lara’s mother, Olivia,

was desperate.

She tried absolutely everything to calm Lara down but alas, with no success.

She bought Lara toys, read bedtime stories and cooked her her favourite meals, but Lara had

a mind of her own.

She insisted on making her mother’s life a misery.

One day, Olivia decided enough was enough.

She had to think of something that would change their lives.

And if this something wasn’t going to work she didn’t know what would.

It was time to put an end to Lara’s naughty behaviour.

That very same day, Olivia sat patiently at the kitchen table waiting for her daughter to come home from school.

As Lara walked through the front door, Olivia calmly said:

«Lara my darling, we need to talk and I want you to listen to me carefully.»

Lara was intrigued.

Not only did she long to be a big girl but she had never heard her mother speak to her like this before.

Lara sat opposite her mother, rigid and silent.

«I’m listening» said Lara, looking straight into her mother’s eyes…

Approaching her small child Olivia began…

«I want to talk about your behaviour.

I don’t understand why you behave the way you do and I’d like to know why.

People are starting not to like you.»

Approaching her daughter Olivia continued.

«I understand that you would love to have a baby brother or sister.

I know that you want to be a big girl sometimes and that you seek a freedom of your own.

I was a little girl once, and I’ve felt the very same way you do.

But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t listen to me when I tell you something. You have to realise I want your own good.»

It went without saying that Lara had heard all of this before although

not in such a serious and grown up manner.

Whatever the case Olivia carried on talking…

«I have come up with an idea»

said Olivia reaching for Lara’s hand,

«and I’d like to make a deal with you.

What do you say?»

Lara’s eyes opened wide.

Her mother had certainly managed to catch her attention and

she had seen cowboys make deals on TV and there always seemed to be a winner.

Lara, as expected, wanted not only to face the challenge but she wanted to be the one who came out of the deal with a cheeky smile on her face.

Lara wanted to be the winner, she wanted to be number

!

«What kind of deal are you thinking of mummy?

What do I have to do?» asked Lara.

«Well, I was wondering if we could share a secret word that only me and you would know.

I would like to use this word as a form of warning.

Every time you are naughty or when I feel as though you have crossed your limits, I don’t want to shout at you or punish you anymore.

All I want to do is mention our secret word and then you would know, in our own secret language, that something isn’t right.

Then, you could sit down for a while and think about why I had to use our secret word and if you want, we could even have a talk about it, just as we are doing right now.»

This all seemed a little too complicated to Lara.

It surely meant that putting her mother’s words in one ear and out the other wouldn’t work anymore, instead it looked like she would have some thinking to do. But somehow

the secrecy behind the whole story excited her.

Lara silently thought to herself: «A

single word that only me and my mother would know in the whole wide world!»

«What will our secret word be mummy? Can I choose it?

Please can I choose it?» asked Lara jumping up and down.

«Sure you can pumpkin. What would you like it to be?»

Without a thought Lara jumped up and with a big smile on her face she said:

ÂŤ

» «Crocodile it is then! I like it!» said Olivia.

For the rest of the afternoon there seemed to be a wave of calmness within the little wooden house.

Whether it was due to the girlie’s conversation that they had had earlier, or the pure exhaustion of a long day at work and school, nightfall came without a sound‌ As time passed, the secret word was important.

Olivia seemed to make use of it quite often.

Crocodile here, Crocodile there...

On another hand there didn’t seem to be all the shouting and fighting there used to be.

Lara had got the message.

As soon as she heard their secret word she knew she had reached her limits.

She simply smiled to her mother,

making it known that

she had understood that she had to stop whatever she was doing at that specific moment.

Once at the party,

faces were smiling everywhere.

The house was decorated with bright coloured balloons, party streemers where dangling from the ceiling and the buffet was filled with sweets and cakes that made one’s mouth water.

After a hurray of laughs and a parade of costumes, the crowd sat around the dinner table.

Lara, not being too interested with grown up talk got bored and drifted aside trying to find something to do until the time came to go home.

As Lara slowly approached the table,

Olivia spoke out loud,

looking straight into her daughter’s eyes and with a deep voice she slowly said:

»

«

Finally on their way home, Lara explained to her mother how happy she was that they had shared their secret word and soon apologized for her misbehaviour.

«I’m sorry mummy» said Lara.

Olivia realised that her relationship with her daughter had changed immensely and that they had found their own way to communicate.

For the first time she was happy and confident about the way she was bringing up her daughter.

It was all a matter of patience and understanding.

Lara on the other hand was proud of herself.

After all she was the “winner” of the deal she had made with her mother.

Counting the street lights going by, she put on the cheeky smile on her face she had pictured in her mind the very moment she had shook her mother’s hand.

Days and months passed by until Lara’s birthday finally arrived.

Olivia decided that Lara deserved a smashing party!

After all Lara was turning into a nice, young lady.

Things had become much more settled at home and Lara had definitely made an effort.

It was time to show Lara how proud her mother really was…

Olivia decorated the house into a paradise of festivity.

Balloons, cakes, jellies and sodas!

Lara was surely in for a surprise…

It was to be a day Lara would never forget…

And so it happened…

Lara and her friends danced, played, ate their favourite cakes and loved Lara’s birthday present:

a little blond puppy called Jules‌

In the mean time, Olivia was entertaining her own friends who had gathered in the colourful front courtyard...

This was fine until Olivia had a little too much to drink and started to be a nuisance.

She spoke too loud and definitely too much.

To put it bluntly, she was unbearable! In Lara’s eyes she was just as annoying as when her classmates used her markers without asking.

Guests started leaving‌

Lara, who was stroking her new puppy,

had realised something was not quite right.

She slowly placed her little puppy on the grass, shook her party clothes from the dry twigs she had gathered from the ground and headed straight for the table where her mother was sitting.

As she reached closer she tugged at her mother’s skirt.

Too busy talking to her friends,

Olivia ignored her daughter and carried on chatting away like no body’s business…

Impatient,

Lara with a loud voice

and for the first time in her life called her mother:

«O L I V I A!»

Olivia was surprised.

As she looked down she picked her daughter up and said in a loud voice:

«You see this is my little girl, the best little girl in the whole wide world, better that any other child you see playing in this courtyard, better than…»

«Stop!» exclaimed Lara,

«And put me down!

I have one thing to say to you!»

Shocked, Olivia did exactly as her daughter asked her to.

«What is it you want to tell me Lara?»

asked Olivia with a shivery voice.

«ONE WORD mother and one word only…»

«

»

Melissa Hekkers always wanted to become a writer.

She was born somewhere in Eupore and studied communications.

Melissa skis and sometimes finds it hard to balance on one leg.

Anna Fotiadou always wanted to become an artist.

She was born on an island in the Mediterranean sea and studied arts and design.

Anna scuba-dives and sometimes finds it hard to get ashore.

Melissa & Anna both work and live in Cyprus, share some common interests and place this book in your hands.

Sponsored by Cultural Services, Ministry of Education & Culture Published by Pantheon Cultural Association, Lefkosia, Cyprus Written by Melissa Hekkers Illustration and Layout by Anna Fotiadou

Many thanks for the help and support of Annick Wendelen Ball, Aristides Lapithis, David Ball, Constantina Nicolaou, Christopher Malapitan, Kiki Drakopoulou, Philippe Hekkers & Petros Lapithis

Printed by Stavrinides Press Ltd Printing Supervision by Costas Stavrinides

Inspired by events in one’s life