Storytelling Week 12: The Swing

 The Swing

 Swing. Image source: Pixabay

There once was a mischievous little boy named Tommy who always seemed to get himself into trouble.

One day Tommy decided to go play in the woods. It was a particularly hot day in the middle of the scorching summer they had been having and he knew of a little pond he could go to that would be the perfect way to cool down.

Before leaving, his mother told him not to jump from the swing by the water.

"For if you do...you'll fall and get all scratched up," she warned him.

Tommy brushed it off. This summer was the first that he was tall enough to even reach the swing, so of course he was going to jump from it. All of his friends were already tall enough and doing it and that's all they ever talked about. He couldn't stand being left out any longer.

And so he set off on his journey to the woods. It took him longer than he thought to make it to the pond and by the time he got there, he was exhausted. But of course, that wouldn't detour him from making the jump from the swing.

His eyes darted around, excitedly searching for his adventure waiting to happen...and then he spotted it. The swing. He rushed over and climbed up to the swing, barely making it on.

Despite his exhaustion, he swung. He swung for what seemed like hours. He was absolutely giddy, finally getting to do what he had been dreaming of for years. Back and forth, back and forth, slowly forgetting his tiredness and the heat of the day.

And then the time came...the jump.
He swung up to the highest of heights and let go, free falling to the pond below.

But right away, he realized that he didn't swing out quite far enough to make the cool water. Instead of hitting the pond, he hit the branches sticking up out of the ground.

Blood immediately began to seep out of the scratches on his leg. His mother was right...he should've listened to her advice. Scared and hurt, Tommy hobbled all of the way back home.

Once there, his mother took him in her arms, patching him up and caring to his wounds.

"I knew you would get scratched up," his mother sighed.

"Now I know to always listen to your advice...I'm sorry," Tommy replied.

Author's Note: This story was inspired by A Lion and a Man. It is about a little lion who does not take his father's advice to not fight a man. Instead of listening to his father, he goes to find and fight a man, and of course it does not turn out well. He ends up wounded, but understands that he needs to listen to his father's advice. The moral of the story was "Disobedience to Parents is against the Laws of Nature and of Nations, Common Justice, Prudence and Good Manners; and the Vengeance of Heaven, Sooner or Later, Treads upon the Heels on't." Instead of a lion I decided to make the story about a little boy and bring it into more modern day times.

Bibliography: This fable is part of the Aesop's Fables (English) unit. Story source: Story source: Fables of Aesop and Other Eminent Mythologists by Roger L'Estrange (1692).