Matilda
Original story by Annina Artwork by An-Magritt Talseth
There was a happy Swiss cow called Matilda. She lived in the Swiss Alps, where the beautiful warm sun comes rising in behind the snowy mountaintops and you can’t only hear, but you can smell the icecold fresh waterstreams flooding down the hills.
Matilda was an independent cow and lived on her own. She loved playing around with her golden shiny bell, which she always wore around her neck. All her friends adored her fancy pretty bell and they would be pleased by the sound it made everytime Matilda would shake her head.
One morning Matilda woke up, all nervous cause of the family reunion that would take place that day and all excited to finally present her bell to the rest of her family. But after she only had been awake for seconds, she realised her bell was gone!
“Oh no, who stole my bell?” Matilda yelled out desperately. She got up immediately and started to look for her loved bell. She visited her friend Garry the goat.
“Garry you stole my bell, why would you do this to me?” said Matilda. “Oh but Matilda I didn’t steal your bell, I know how much you love it!” said Garry. “But I know that you love my bell as well!”, replied Matilda. “I didn’t take your bell Matilda, I would never do that”, whispered Garry disappointed.
So Matilda believed him and went off to visit Perry the Pig.
As soon as she arrived at her friend’s house she started talking stressfully: “Perry why did you steal my golden shiny bell, I need it back I want to show it to the rest of my family.” “But Matilda I didn’t steal your bell, it wasn’t me” answered Perry surprised. “I know you love my bell as well, so why wouldn’t you steal it?” said Matilda. “It wasn’t me, I don’t have it”, replied Perry sadly. And Matilda believed him and walked off.
She was really heartbroken and desperate by now, because she didn’t have much time left to get her glorious bell back so she could bring it to her family reunion and she didn’t know anymore who else could have taken it. She walked up her favourite hill hectically, it was just where she could see snow all around her but there was no snow on the hill itself, so she could still have a good feed. She thought the grass would taste much nicer up there, because it was so fresh and green and she didn’t have to share it with anybody. She started to rip off some grass and chew it and rip off some more and keep chewing all the time. She started thinking intensely and the constant chewing helped her do that.
Suddenly it came to her mind, the insight that she might just had misplaced her own bell before she went to bed the last night! She was convinced of that simple absurd thought and ran back to her house as fast as she could. As soon as she arrived she started looking for it everywhere.
She looked under the table, inside her wardrobe and then finally she found it wrapped in her soft blue blanket! She probably was the happiest cow in the world right after she found it, but then she realised that she had instantly accused her innocent friends, even if it was her own fault! Matilda felt awfully guilty and she knew she had to apologise to them, and that’s what she did.
“It’s alright Matilda, just don’t ever do that again”, said Garry. “Yes Matilda you shocked me a bit, but I know how much you adore your bell.”, said Perry. Matilda was very glad that her friends could forgive her. “I never wanna be that careless again”, she said honestly and invited both her friends to her family reunion that night, where she proudly showed her stunning golden bell to her family.