Ella & Wilbur

Ella and Wilbur were best friends who lived in a shed. Ella was a ball of light with a flame for a tail. Wilbur was made of pots, pans, things, stuff, nuts, bolts, bits and bobs. They were all rusty and dusty.

One day, Wilbur was feeling sad, so Ella wanted to cheer him up. She decided to take him to a beautiful garden where colourful flowers grew by a sparkling lake.

Ella led the way, zigzagging through the forest trees – zip, zip, zip! Wilbur followed her slowly – clink, clonk, clink, clonk!

All of a sudden, it began to rain.

“Oh no!” cried Ella.

Wilbur kindly opened one of his teapots and Ella flew into it, safe from the rain.

Wilbur carried on walking – clink, clonk, clink, clonk! Until the rain stopped.

Ella flew out of the teapot happily and saw a tunnel made of branches and leaves.

“Over there!” she said.

But Wilbur was too big to fit through the tunnel.

“Wilbur, my dear friend,” said Ella, “if you want to go through this tunnel, you’ll have to get rid of all your bits and bobs.”

Wilbur shook his head. He did not want to take off his collection of things, stuff, bits or bobs.

“I promise we will collect them when we go back home – we won’t litter.” Ella flew around Wilbur and tapped on his teapot. “Where did you get this?”

Wilbur spoke for the first time that day and said, “This teapot is what my father used to make tea.”

“And what about this?” Ella asked – tap, tap, tapping.

“This is a compass my mother used whenever we went camping,” Wilbur replied with a growing smile.

Wilbur began taking off all his pots and pans. He could now fit in the tunnel.

When they crawled out from the other end of the tunnel, they saw the beautiful garden. It was full of flowers and trees. Butterflies and dragonflies danced by a waterfall.

Wilbur began to feel really happy as he and Ella explored around the garden.

When the sun was setting, they went back through the tunnel. Wilbur collected his pots and pans from the ground and carried them in his arms.

When they were home, Wilbur decided to create a pet out of the pots, pans, nuts and bolts that he didn’t need anymore. He polished and shined it the best he could, and it wagged its metal tail with excitement, making Wilbur laugh.

Ella was happy to see that Wilbur had cheered up.