Sulky Sukey

Stories for Another Day

Once there was a girl named Sukey, who would never say she was sorry. If she ever made a mistake or did something naughty, like dropping a jar of honey, or leaving the tap on in the bathroom so that the sink overflowed and water went everywhere, and her parents said “Oh, Sukey, look what you’ve done!” or “Sukey, that was naughty of you!” she would frown and push her lips out. Then she would fold her arms and sit in a corner with her face turned away, sulking.

After a while her parents would get tired of her sulking and not saying anything, and they would say things like, “Oh, I suppose it doesn’t matter anyway,” and give her a piece of cake or a chocolate to make her stop sulking.

One day they went to the zoo. While her mother and father were watching the meerkats, Sukey got bored and wandered off by herself. She came to the ducks’ pond and she took a piece of toast out of her pocket that she had put there after breakfast, and she broke it into pieces and threw it into the pond, even though there was a sign that said, clear as day, Please Do Not Feed the Ducks.

One of the zoo-keepers came up and said, “Excuse me, young lady, you mustn’t feed the ducks. It’s bad for them.”

Sukey didn’t say anything, but she frowned with a face as black as thunder. She went off and sat near the elephants’ enclosure and folded her arms, thinking how mean the zoo-keeper was. She picked up some stones and started throwing them at the baby elephant, who was standing near his mother. One of the stones hit him on his leg, and one on his soft new trunk. The baby elephant started to cry in a loud voice.

The monkeys in their playground all screeched and chattered and ran up and down their trees and rope swings. The noise they made upset all the birds. They flapped and shrieked and flew up in clouds, swirling round and round over the lion’s park, and that woke the lion. Now the lion always liked to have a long sleep in the middle of the day, and he was very cranky at being woken up.

“What’s going on?” he roared.

The monkeys chittered, the birds screeched and even the hyenas started howling. The mother elephant, whose name was Ivy, said, “That girl was throwing stones at my little boy, Sebby.”

“What!” roared the lion. He turned to Sukey and he glared at her.

Sukey folded her arms and didn’t say anything. She frowned her meanest frown and glared back.

The lion roared, “Right! That’s enough!” He made a sign to Ivy, and Ivy reached over the wall and wrapped her trunk around Sukey and lifted her up into the air.

Sukey gasped with fright, and said, “Put me down, put me down!”

Ivy said, “That’s not good enough, young lady. The least you can do is say you’re sorry. Look at the bruise on Sebby’s trunk. You almost hit his eye!”

Sukey shut her lips tight and tried to fold her arms. The monkeys chattered, “Say sorry, say sorry!” but she pushed out her lips obstinately and didn’t say anything.

Ivy had had enough. She swung Sukey across the fence and dangled her in the air just over the lion’s head. Sukey found herself face to face with a very angry lion.

She gulped and said in a very small voice, “I’m sorry.”

“What?” roared the lion, shaking his mane and showing his very long, very sharp teeth. He was a little deaf, because of his age.

“I’m sorry!” Sukey said loudly. “I’m sorry I hurt the little elephant, I’m sorry I was throwing stones, I’m sorry I fed the ducks.”

“What??” roared the lion. “You fed the ducks? Is there no end to this girl’s wickedness?”

Ivy said soothingly, “Now, now, she said she was sorry.”

The lion stopped shaking his mane, and said, “Well, that’s all right then. But don’t do it again!” He gave Sukey one last fierce look and went back to sleep.

Ivy put Sukey back down on the right side of the fence, and Sukey ran off as fast as she could to find her parents. They were still watching the meerkats and taking photos. She ran up to them and hugged them tightly. “I’m sorry, I really am!” she said.

“What for?” her parents asked.

“Everything,” Sukey said.

They laughed, and said, “That’s all right, Sukey,” and hugged her back.

When they got home, I’m not going to say that Sukey never sulked again, or that she never did anything naughty again, but when she did and her parents scolded her, she remembered the lion’s hot breath in her face and most often she quickly said, “I’m sorry.” And she meant it.