Hello,
My name is Jacqueline and I'd like to thank you for choosing my story to listen to.
I wrote this story when I saw a goose wandering up and down the road that I live in.
I hope you enjoy it.
Now settle down,
Make yourself comfortable and I will begin.
The Padling Pool Once a week,
A flock of geese like to fly from one pond to another,
Just to stretch their wings and enjoy a change of scenery.
The biggest and eldest goose,
Bert,
Was the leader of this flock and he would decide the day and moment in which they all would fly.
Today was the day and Bert started honking to gather all the geese together.
When everyone was ready,
They flew off.
Although it wasn't very far as the crow flies,
It would take them just over ten minutes in the air.
Up in the sky,
The view was magnificent and the geese could see for miles around.
Gerald,
The youngest goose in this flock,
Had only learnt to fly recently as he was just a few months old.
But each day he felt his wings were growing stronger and stronger and his confidence was increasing enormously.
Gerald loved it when they flew.
It was his favourite thing to do.
The air rushing between his feathers felt so refreshing and invigorating.
He always flew at the back of the pack because he liked to look around and didn't want to get in another goose's way.
Today as they flew over the land,
Bert didn't notice the dark clouds which were closing in rather quickly behind them.
The geese were nearly at their new pond when suddenly the storm was overhead and huge drops of rain started to fall.
The geese were used to flying in the rain except for Gerald.
He was not as experienced as the others.
This was only his third flight.
When the rain began to fall,
It startled him and he lost his wings' flapping rhythm.
Before he could do anything about it,
He fell from the sky and landed with a thump on a big patch of grass.
Gerald lay on the ground stunned for a second.
When he felt ready he stood up and noticed he had fallen on a very nice piece of grass outside a big house.
Looking around,
He spotted a small kind of shed which looked the perfect place to shelter from the rain.
Gerald walked over to the shed and to his delight he saw there was an opening where a door should have been.
He fit perfectly inside the shed although he had to bend his head slightly as his neck was just a tiny bit too long.
He sat down and waited for the rain to pass.
Gerald thought the sound of the raindrops bouncing on the shed was quite soothing and he tucked his head under his wing and drifted off to sleep.
Suddenly he was awakened by something very wet pushing on his feathers.
He took his head out from under his wing and came face to face with a hairy dog who was licking Gerald with his big wet tongue.
The goose raised his head high in the air above the dog and hissed.
The dog ran away yelping as if he had been struck by something.
Gerald came out of the shed and noticed the rain had stopped and it was lovely and warm outside.
The sun was beaming down and soon dried up all the rain.
Gerald walked about and thought the grass appeared extremely lush.
He realised he was hungry so he bent his head down and tucked into a feast of fresh succulent juicy grass.
The meal was really tasty and certainly filled a gap.
Hearing a noise behind him Gerald turned around and saw a young boy walking towards him holding out his hand.
Hesitating slightly Gerald started walking towards the boy.
They were the same height and neither of them felt scared as they looked into each other's eyes.
The boy was holding out a worm for the goose to eat.
Gerald opened his beak and carefully took the worm from the boy's fingers.
Mmm that was yummy thought Gerald.
Then the boy turned and walked away.
Gerald decided to follow him hoping they would find some more worms.
As they walked behind the big house the boy seemed to be going towards something which was sitting on the ground and quite colourful.
Getting closer to the object Gerald could see it was a pond although he had never known a pond to be so round and small with thick sides.
The boy climbed into the water and sat with his back against the side as he looked up at the goose.
Gerald watched the water sparkle in the sunlight and decided to climb in too although he didn't do it very gracefully.
The ponds he usually got into didn't have high sides like this one they were normally lower than the ground.
It was wonderful in the water and felt so good.
Gerald and the boy enjoyed splashing around together.
Eventually the boy climbed out of the water and went into the big house leaving Gerald all alone in the pond.
After a few minutes Gerald clambered out of the water and made his way back to the grass at the front of the big house.
He missed his goose family and wondered where they could be.
In that very moment he heard a noise above him.
Looking up he saw Bert just as he swooped down and landed next to him.
Gerald honked at Bert so happy to see him.
If they had arms instead of wings they surely would have hugged each other.
Honking in reply Bert took off up into the sky and Gerald followed him feeling extremely happy.
As they flew Gerald looked down and saw the boy standing by his pond looking up at Gerald and waving.
Within minutes Bert started flying downwards,
Gerald followed and they landed on a huge pond amongst their family of geese.
Gerald was extremely pleased to be back with them and swam around honking as loud as he could.
Later that evening when the geese were settling down for the night Gerald thought about his great adventure.
Although it had been fun he decided it wasn't something he wanted to repeat.
I hope you enjoyed the story.
If you're still listening to it I'd like to ask you a question.
Which wild animal would you like to play with?
