The Lion in Love
By Mr. Duck
Dear Readers of The Woods Street Journal,
I am very excited to tell you guys the latest gossip from the Woods! I
had quite a week since the last column appeared in the journal. I want
to thank all my fans for the nice letters they sent. I am very happy
that everyone enjoyed the little story I wrote, and I will definitely
try not to disappoint you this time.
A couple of days ago, I went to the football game that opposed the
Woods Sooners and the Swamp Horns. I was fortunate enough to be invited
by Chip the Firefly to join him and his friends at the game. I had no
idea, however, that Chip had reserved the prestigious suites of the
Grand Stadium. That was pretty awesome! For those of you who are not
familiar with Chip the Firefly, I can tell you one thing for sure: he
knows all the gossip that goes around the sports scene in the Woods. He
is the equipment manager for our Woods Sooners, and he gets the inside
scoop in the locker room. I have to tell you that I was really excited
stepping in that room full of celebrities, up there in the Grand
Stadium suite, mostly because I knew that I
would be getting a fresh story for you guys. I sat down with Chip and
he started telling me all these stories about the Swamp Horns. I was
getting a little bit annoyed because I was not interested very much in
finding out who Jim the Chicken, the quarterback for the Horns, was
dating at the time. I kept being patient, and finally, Chip started
talking about the Sooners. This story involves the star football
player, Matt the Bull, who's the running back for the Woods Sooners. He
had an amazing year. He rushed for 259 yards, and scored 27 TD's. He
definitely set the record for the most TD's in one season, not to
mention that the Sooners still have 5 games to play. You might think
that this football player has everything one could want in life. Chip
assured me, however, that Matt has had some serious problems with love.
Just a few weeks ago, the running back Matt the Bull fell madly in love
with Lizzie the
Gazelle, the daughter of the famous sports manager, Luke the Gazelle.
Poor Lizzie did not love Matt at all, but her dad forced her to go out
with him because he was looking to get Matt to sign a contract with his
company. The two "lovers" went out every day, and the running back
would
take Lizzie to the most expensive places, hoping that she would love
him
back. One night, Matt was invited to have dinner with Lizzie and her
father Luke. After hours of intense talking about
football and contracts, Luke handed the running back a contract that
would make both of them very rich. Matt felt that if he signed that
piece of paper, Lizzie would immediately start loving him. Without
looking at the terms and conditions on the contract, Matt signed what
would turn out to be the worst contract in sports history. The football
player was very shocked when Lizzie told him minutes after signing the
paper, that she didn't want to see him ever again. She told him about
her dad's plan to take advantage of him,
and that Matt would have to give ninety percent of his earnings back to
Luke's sports company. After hearing all this, Matt fainted in their
living room, and an ambulance had to take him to the Woods General
Hospital. He showed up at practice the next day, and told Chip all
about his misfortunes. "My friend," said the equipment manager with a
soft and friendly voice, "you should've known that Luke cannot be
trusted. He fooled so many athletes into signing very bad contracts.
You can never trust your enemy. Not ever!"
Well folks, I thought that Chip gave our poor football player a piece
of very
wise advice. I hope that Matt will follow it, and that he will get out
of this big mess. Finally, I enjoyed writing this column and I
definitely hope that you will read some more gossip next week. It will
be good.
God Bless,
Mr. Duck
Author's Note: I based this story on the "Lion in love" fable
re-written by Joseph Jacobs. Again, I completely changed the whole
story, and the characters. In the original story, the lion falls in
love with a farmers daughter. The lion agrees to have his teeth taken
out
and claws removed because he thinks that the farmer will let his
daughter to marry him. In my story, the lion is Matt the Bull, the
famous and great football player on the Sooners team. He falls in love
with Lizzie the Gazelle, who's representing the farmers daughter. Luke
the Gazelle represents the farmer. In my version of the fable, Luke
will make Lizzie seduce the football player. At the end, Matt loses
everything; the girl breaks up with him, and he finds out that he
signed the worst contract in sports history. I kept the same moral as
the original story. I liked this fable because I thought that it
teaches something important and valuable in life. I believe that it is
very important to know who we can trust in life. The poor football
player did not take a smart decision by trusting the girl and her
father. I hope that everyone will enjoy reading this fable, because I
surely enjoyed writing it.
Bibliography: The
Lion in Love, The
Fables of Aesop, by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by
Richard Heighway (1894)
Image Information: Lions humor, McHumor