Novels2Search
Lost in Pandamonium
Chapter 4: Umpteenth Annual Garden Variety Contest

Chapter 4: Umpteenth Annual Garden Variety Contest

CHAPTER 4 - UMPTEENTH ANNUAL GARDEN VARIETY CONTEST

Michaelah walked over to the panda drinking from the pond. She said, "Hello Mr. Panda!" And the panda stopped drinking and looked at her.

"Hello" he said back.

Michaelah was confused. She had never heard a panda talk before.

"Mr. Panda is my father’s name. Please, call me Koji," the panda said, "what is your name?"

Michaelah waited a couple of seconds and thought this panda must be very smart to know how to speak.

Then she said, "My name is Michaelah," finally answering the panda's question.

"Nice to meet you, Michaelah" said Koji the panda, "You are not a panda. What are you?"

"I'm a human," she answered.

"I've never seen a human before," pointed out Koji.

”Where are we?" asked Michaelah.

"This is Pandamonium. Have you not heard of it?" asked Koji the Panda, "It doesn’t make much sense with all the different places about, but they all seem to like my home, the Bamboo Palace, all except one of course, the local bully. Let’s hope we don’t run into him! I went for a walk and got lost. Then I got thirsty. So, I stopped at this pond to drink."

"I am trying to go home too. Except I don't remember how I got here," said Michaelah.

"Well, if you would like, we can look for our homes together," suggested Koji the panda.

"That would be nice, I hate being lost, and alone, it is very scary," said Michaelah.

"You don't have to be alone anymore, Michaelah," said Koji the panda, smiling.

"Friends?" he asked.

"Friends!"

They both shouted as they shook hands with each other. The fur on Koji’s paw was so soft it made Michaelah giggle. Together Michaelah and Koji the panda walked away from the pond and into the garden. Michaelah kept holding his paw and he didn't seem to mind. It was just so soft and velvety, she couldn't resist.

"This is a very pretty garden," said Michaelah.

"Would you like to look at the flowers?" asked Koji.

"Sure!" said Michaelah.

They walked over to a patch of tulips. Michaelah felt the petals of the tulip. The tulip was a different kind of soft than Koji's paw. Not as warm but smooth and delicate.

When Koji went to feel the flower, the tulip screamed, "PLEASE DON'T EAT ME SCARY BEAR!"

Koji jumped back and Michaelah knelt down in front of the tulip.

"You can speak too?" asked Michaelah.

"Of course, I can speak. If you would like to ask every creature in this land if they could speak that is your right. But if you would like to get over such a surprise then you will find that you will have much more fun!"

Michaelah did not understand the tulip at first.

"That flower sure does talk funny," Michaelah said to Koji.

Koji agreed with Michaelah and suggested that maybe they look at more flowers. So, they said good-bye to the weird tulip, but took with them his words of warning, and moved on to the next flower.

"Hello!" the roses yelled at Michaelah and Koji.

"Hi." They said back.

"How many roses do you think there are?" asked Koji.

Michaelah did not know, so she started counting the roses, "One, two, three, four, five, six..."

"Seven! Eight! Nine! Ten!" The roses started counting out loud along with Michaelah, "Eleven! Twelve! Yay!”

Michaelah told Koji the Panda, that there were twelve roses.

"We are the Dozen family," said the roses.

"What does that mean?" asked Koji.

"Dozen must mean twelve," guessed Michaelah.

"That's correct!" all the roses yelled.

Michaelah and Koji then moved on to the next flower. Instead of kneeling down as they did with the tulip and the roses, this time Michaelah and Koji had to look up at the sky.

"My! You are the biggest flower I have ever seen!" shouted Michaelah.

"Why thank you! And what are you?" asked the Sunflower.

"I'm a human," said Michaelah.

"Very funny, ahooman" giggled Mr. Sunflower.

"How many flowers are there in this garden?" asked Koji the panda.

"There are hundreds of flowers in this garden, but I am the biggest flower. And the smartest might I add!"

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Does that make you the boss, Mr. Sunflower?" asked Michaelah.

"Well, I am the boss of the flowers, but not of the whole garden."

"Who is then?" asked Koji.

"It is hard to explain, but if you would like to meet them I can bring you over to where they live."

Michaelah looked at Koji and he nodded his head, ‘Yes’.

So together, Michaelah, Koji the panda, and Mr. Sunflower went to the center of the garden. Now, its important to understand here that when Mr. Sunflower walked he didn't do so with feet like animals do. He was a plant, and they were in a garden. His form of walking didn't use legs. Mr. Sunflower was big enough to move his root through the dirt of the garden.

"Wait right here," said Mr. Sunflower.

He walked around the corner and disappeared. Michaelah turned around to ask Koji a question, but before she could, Michaelah saw something scary and screamed! Koji quickly turned around to see what was behind him. It was a spider as big as Koji. Koji jumped back to Michaelah's side, for he was scared too.

Upon hearing Michaelah and Koji's screams the spider dropped down, its belly hit the ground, and the poor spider began to cry. Michaelah no longer felt scared, she felt sad. Koji and Michaelah felt bad for the poor spider. Michaelah went over to the crying spider and asked it, "Why are you crying Mr. Spider?"

The spider answered, "Because everybody is afraid of me, when I just want to be friends."

Michaelah never thought that such a scary creature could have its feelings hurt.

"Well, I am Michaelah, and this is Koji the panda. We can be your friends," said Michaelah to the spider.

"I would love to be your friends! My name is Samuel the Spider, but you can call me Slam," said Slam the Spider as he smiled and got back up off his belly.

"What other kind of creatures are there in this garden?" asked Koji.

"Well, there are mostly flowers and bugs," answered Slam.

"We already met the flowers. What about the bugs?" said Michaelah.

"Don't worry, you will get the chance to meet everyone!" said Slam.

"How?" asked Michaelah.

Just then Mr. Sunflower came back around the corner, and he said, "Because now is the hour of the contest and we must all make our way to the Gazebo."

Michaelah looked at Koji the panda, and Koji shook his head.

I don't know

Michaelah asked to try to figure it out. "What is a Gazebo?"

Mr. Sunflower had already started walking away, so Slam the Spider answered Michaelah's question, "A gazebo is like a small house. It is the only place in this garden that was not built by Mother Nature. We think the LollyGagger made it. We use it as a meeting place for everyone who lives in the garden. And today our meeting is now! Will you come with us?"

Michaelah thought about it for a second and then answered, "Of course we will come with you!" So together, Michaelah, Koji the Panda, Mr. Sunflower, and Slam the Spider walked over to the Gazebo for the meeting.

When Michaelah walked into the Gazebo, it was not what she was expecting. She thought it was like a house, but it really looked like a stadium. The seats were filled with all different kinds of bugs and flowers. There were rows of tulips, ants, roses, caterpillars, daisies, bees, violets, ladybugs, lilies, grasshoppers, oleanders, and inchworms.

At first, Michaelah was very afraid, but then she remembered how Slam the Spider cried because they thought he was scary. So, she swallowed her fear and kept walking. Before Michaelah could sit down everyone started clapping and cheering. She did not know why they were clapping.

Then Mr. Sunflower stood up and said, "Ladybugs and gentleworms welcome to the Umpteenth Annual Garden Variety Contest!"

Michaelah tried to find a seat, but it seemed as though there were none left for her. She looked at Koji. He was confused too.

"Let the games begin!" screamed Mr. Sunflower and then they all quieted down. Michaelah found herself standing center stage, in front of all the bugs and the bees, the flowers and the trees. And she had no idea what to do. Then she heard three voices coming from behind her. They said...

"The contest starts with you!"

"You must do something!"

"If you do nothing they will boo!"

Michaelah turned around and did not see anyone. All she saw were three statues. The statues were of three old gray men with bald heads. She wondered, 'where did those voices come from?' Then she realized, if bugs could talk, and if flowers could walk, then why not statues...

So, Michaelah said to the statues, "What should I do?" The three gray bald people turned towards each other and then looked at Michaelah and together they said, "Do what you know...

Michaelah was confused and nervous, so nervous she could not think. She felt a little dizzy and started to fall over. Before she hit the ground, she did a summersault. When she rolled back over to her feet and stood up the crowd went wild. They loved it. They had never seen anything like it before. Michaelah remembered her gymnastics training. She did another summersault and then she did a handstand. As she was doing the handstand, she heard all of the bugs and flowers cheering for her.

Koji the Panda was very excited for Michaelah. She was doing so well. For her last trick, she held her hands up and waited. Koji began chanting her name, "Michaelah! Michaelah! Michaelah!" Soon the entire crowd began chanting with Koji, "Michaelah! Michaelah! Michaelah!"

Michaelah ran as fast as she could and performed a perfect cartwheel, landing on her feet without falling over. Every flower, insect, and the one panda in the crowd jumped to their feet and clapped and cheered as loud as they could for Michaelah. Michaelah bowed in front of everyone. Eventually they quieted down and sat back in their seats.

Michaelah turned towards the three statues. She realized that they were who Mr. Sunflower went around the corner to see before. They were the bosses of the garden. And they were the three judges of the Umpteenth Annual Garden Variety Contest. Michaelah had figured it all out. Now she was ready to see if she won. But before the three judges gave their scores, something very scary happened.

A dragon flew down from the sky and started spitting fire all over the garden.

Everyone hurried out of their seats, and out of the Gazebo, to get away from the scary dragon. Michaelah did not know what to do. Now she was really scared. Koji grabbed Michaelah's hand and together they ran, with the flowers and the bugs, out of the Gazebo. Feeling Koji’s soft fur made Michaelah calm down a little bit.

Koji saw a tree that was so tall it went all the way up into the clouds. When they got to the tree, Koji told Michaelah to hold on to his back like a piggyback ride. So, Michaelah put her arms around Koji's furry neck and held on tight. And Koji the panda climbed the Jolly Green Climbing Tree.

Michaelah watched as the dragon spat fire all over the garden. The dragon looked very mean. It must have been angry because they were having so much fun at the Umpteenth Annual Garden Variety Contest. Maybe if they invited the dragon it would not be so angry at the garden creatures and seek to ruin their parties.

All of a sudden, the dragon turned around and saw Koji climbing the tree with Michaelah on his back. The dragon started flying right at them. Michaelah screamed in horror and told Koji to climb faster. But it was still a long way to the top. The dragon stopped blowing fire and opened its mouth as it flew towards Michaelah and Koji.

"It's going to eat us!" screamed Michaelah, as the dragon got ever closer.

What were they going to do?

Michaelah held Koji tight and closed her eyes. She was scared for her life. She wanted her mom and dad. There was nothing they could do, so far away.

Any moment now, an evil angry dragon was going to eat Michaelah and Koji right off the vine.