By 4th Grade Students at Peabody Charter Elementary
March 2016
One day an extraordinary emu was born, but it was all alone, until Johnny Appleseed, the alien came by.
He was conflicted. He saw this little creature, all alone. It might be hurt. It might need to be saved. Should he save it? Or, was this creature the key to saving his alien species. What if he could use it in his scientific experiments to find a way to save his ailing species? What to do?
The emu was weird-looking. It had black spots on its head and black stripes on its back. Interestingly, this creature had two eyes. Johnny Appleseed only had one. The little creature seemed smallish. It only came up to his thigh. But the little creature had quite long legs for its body, much longer than Johnny Appleseed’s. His were only a foot high, whereas his body was four feet long. His body structure was the opposite of this creature. And it had two legs where his had three.
Johnny Appleseed had one hundred arms. With two, he got food for the creature, with two more he got water, and he used the rest to pick up and shelter the creature.
The creature was puffy and soft and warm. But it smelled like disgusting, totally gross peppermint. He immediately put the creature back down. Then he backed far away.
It trumpeted very loudly. Was it angry? Had he hurt his feelings? He stretched the two arms that held the food – cheese pizza – toward the baby. Maybe it would stop trumpeting if it ate. It did stop! It took a taste of the yummy pizza! Hurrah!
Johnny Appleseed loved pizza. It tasted just like sugar. But the little creature spit out! It tried taking another bite. This time it spit the food so hard that it hit Johnny Appleseed in his mouth.
Rude little creature, but yummy, sugary pizza!
Suddenly, another creature snuck toward them. It was a very weird creature–super hairy and red and it had two large triangles coming out of its head. What were they? Were they ears?
Johnny Appleseed didn’t have external ears, but he had heard about them. His ears were inside his head. The red creature looked at the little baby in a way that made Johnny Appleseed worried. He thought the red dude might want to eat the little guy.
He picked up the creature, holding it far away because of the peppermint smell, and ran with it into a cave. The place was brightly lit and there was a huge pool in the middle. Then he saw that the cave had lots and lots of tiny houses. It appeared that little creatures that he loved to eat lived there. Where he came from they were called steaks. They were tiny with long tails and beady eyes.
He grabbed one by its tail and dressed it up to look like the little baby he carried, all black spots and stripes.
Hopefully, the red creature with its triangular external ears would try to eat this decoy instead of Johnny Appleseed’s new little friend. The red creature did go after the decoy, but immediately spit it out. Instead of looking for the real baby, he ran out of the cave.
Johnny Appleseed thought that perhaps the red creature had left for good. He was pretty hungry himself. He left the cave and got some yummy sugary pizza! Then he decided to take his creature home. He used his teleporting device and teleported to his planet. He landed in his home, but the place was dreary and sad. No one was there. His family was gone.
He set the creature down in his backyard and ate more pizza. When he went back for the creature, it had eaten all of his lawn and was going through all of the lawns in his village like a motorized lawnmower. At the same time, the creature made a lot of manure. He didn’t know that the creature would like grass, but he was very happy about that.
Also, he thought he should test the manure in case it might help his planet and people. He did a chemical test using uranium. The manure exploded. It passed a very bad smelling gas.
He did a taste test to see if the manure could be a food source for his people. It tasted like peppermint. He gagged and spit it out. Gross!
He fed it to his plants. They died.
He rubbed it on his arms and tried eating it again. Anything for science! This time it tasted like pizza! Yay! That meant that his people could rub it on their arms and then eat it, and be happy without eating pizza. They could survive on this creature’s poo!
He gave it to his people in the hospitals and they revived. They were happy because it tasted like pizza but it had significantly less carbs.
With another experiment he blended the manure and sprinkled the dust all over him. Suddenly he was big and buff.
Conclusion: This creature’s manure was extraordinary! This creature was extraordinary!
Johnny Appleseed made sure that his people were safe and healthy with this creature and its manure, then he left for parts unknown to find more of these miraculous creatures.
He didn’t remember where to go. He got terribly lost.
Would he ever find more of those creatures? Would he ever make it home safely?
Anything for science.
The “Cliffhanger” End.
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