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Young World
Stripes are all he wants!
DEEPTI RUTH AZARIAH
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Linus the zebra had lost his stripes. But his friend Imani, the elephant, has a solution…take a vacation.
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ho’s shivering in the bushes on such a hot summer’s day?” wondered Imani the elephant. “It’s m-m-me, Linus,” said a zebra, poking his head out from behind a branch. “Don’t come any closer.”
“Do you have a fever?” She stretched her trunk in, like a stethoscope, and felt the zebra’s chest.
“It’s worse than that,” wailed Linus. He stepped out.
“Oh, dear,” said Imani. For Linus was rather line-less. He had turned completely white. He didn’t have a single stripe. Even the tip of his black nose had turned an odd shade of gray.
“I was running from Jamar the cheetah,” explained Linus. “I was so scared, and then when I stopped running, all my stripes were gone. Now the other zebras laugh at me.”
“You need a vacation,” said Imani. “I’ll write to my cousin Pasha in India, and he’ll take care of you.”
So Linus packed his bags and sneaked onto a cargo ship. He arrived at Pasha’s home. “You must be Linus,” said the elephant wisely.
A week later Pasha said, “Now, I have a plan for your stripes. Come, I want to show you something.”
The elephant led Linus deep into the jungle. Suddenly he stopped and peered through the trees.
“Look,” he said.
Linus saw a magnificent creature with a brown and white coat and beautiful black stripes crossing a clearing. “That’s Akbar the tiger,” whispered Pasha. “Don’t you think he has lovely stripes?”
“They’re splendid,” said Linus. “Do you think he’ll give me some?”
Pasha smiled wickedly. “No, but we’ll borrow them anyway.”
Just trickery
The elephant and the zebra followed Akbar. Morena the monkey watched from the trees.
“What are you doing, Pasha?”
“Ah Morena, how would you like to play a trick on Akbar?”
The elephant whispered what he had in mind. Akbar had reached the water hole. As the trio watched he sank into the cool water with a growl of pleasure. After a while, he came out of the water and then, he took off his stripes and hung them on a bush to dry. Then he flopped down beside the bush and yawned. Soon Akbar was asleep.
Quick as a wink, Morena scooted to the bush and picked up two stripes. She hurried back to Pasha who pulled out a pot of rice paste from behind his ear, and stuck the stripes on Linus.
“We need more stripes, Morena,” said Pasha. So off went the monkey again. And again.
Soon, the zebra was looking quite normal, and there weren’t many stripes left on the bush.
Meanwhile Akbar was having a lovely dream of chasing monkeys. Why, he could even smell monkey right now. He opened one eye and ...ROAR! Where had his stripes gone?
Linus and Pasha fled. Morena jumped up into a tree, and shrieked with laughter. Poor Akbar — he was hastily putting his stripes back on. But there were fewer than before, and none left for his two front paws.
“I’ll get you for this, Morena,” growled the angry tiger. But, of course, the clever monkey stayed away from him.
To this day, tigers hate elephants and monkeys for their treachery. They’ve never taken their stripes off since. As for Linus, he returned to Africa. The happy zebra never lost his stripes again.
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