Ziwi the Zebra

By Ruchita Mathur

“Hey! Cut that out, I just had a bath” said Ziwi the zebra. There were about 6 birds on his back. Birds loved to sit on his back. With that, he did a dance so that the birds would fly away. He first moved his front legs and then his back legs. All the birds flew away.

Ziwi was in a Savannah zoo. Everyday kids came to the zoo. When they saw Ziwi dance, they laughed. Chimpu the monkey laughed too.

“What are you laughing at?” asked an irritated Ziwi.

“You!” said Chimpu with a wicked smile.

Soon it was night, and everything was quiet.

Around 2 am a sleepy Ziwi said “Oh no! It is still night but I am hungry”.

Ziwi was always hungry. He started singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

“Go back to sleep and why must you sing this poem” said Chimpu.

“I read this poem a few days back and liked it,” replied Ziwi.

“Also, I had a dream. I dreamt that I was home with my family and my mother was telling me about the school for animals” said Ziwi.

Ziwi used to stay with his family in the Savannah wasteland. He had a flaw. Despite being a zebra, Ziwi had no stripes. Poachers were common where Ziwi lived. Seeing a zebra with no stripes they captured Ziwi and sold him to the zoo.

Again Ziwi started to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

“Were you a star in your previous life? Read your book quietly” said Chimpu angrily.

Ziwi had big eyebrows and stood at 7 feet. He opened his book, which was about the stars. Reading about the stars, he fell asleep.

The next morning Ziwi woke with a smell of grass. He yawned and said “Breakfast!”.

“Hey, eat fast, kids will be here soon”, this was from Jack the zoo keeper .

Sure enough kids could be heard. Being naughty was Chimpu’s trademark. He ate a banana and threw the peel just outside his cage. Jack slipped and fell, though not getting hurt. All the kids had a good laugh.

Ziwi too had a trick or two up his sleeve. One kid was having an ice cream.

“WOW! Ice cream!” said Ziwi .

He came up close to the kid and licked his ice cream. The kid got scared, dropped his ice cream and ran as if there was a lion chasing him.

“Enough of the fun, seriously I would like to escape from the zoo” said Ziwi.

“I too wonder what lies beyond the zoo. I wouldn't mind escaping from the zoo and having adventures with you.” said Chimpu.

Throughout the day they wondered how they would escape. Suddenly Chimpu had a brain wave. He whispered an idea into Ziwi’s ear.

At noon Jack came with bananas and more grass for Ziwi.

Suddenly Chimpu began shouting” I have a stomach ache”.

Hearing that Jack went to see what was wrong with Chimpu leaving Ziwi's cage open. As soon as Ziwi saw this, he ran to freedom. Jack saw this and this time he left Chimpu’s cage open and went after Ziwi. Chimpu screamed with joy as he too went out of his cage. Imagine the look on the faces of the children as they saw two animals amongst them.

There was total chaos with children running here and there. Since a lot of children came to the zoo, the gate of the zoo was open. So both Ziwi and Chimpu went out of the gate. Meanwhile, all the staff of the zoo went after Ziwi and Chimpu. It was easy for Chimpu to climb among the trees and hide. But Ziwi was having a difficult time.

There were cars everywhere. Two people in a car came in front of Ziwi. The person braked the car.

The lady in the car said, “Honey, be careful there is a zebra without stripes. It is so beautiful.”

The man screamed “Are you out of your mind? That zebra could kick us.”

And with that, the man opened the car door and ran.

Ziwi quickly hid behind the tree on which Chimpu was sitting.

“What now?” said Chimpu.

“Well” said Ziwi “we will hide in there”.

Chimpu looked at the direction of his finger.

“That is the spooky graveyard. You do know that there are ghosts there” said a scared Chimpu.

“There are no ghosts. I read it in a book” said Ziwi.

The gate to the graveyard was open. Both entered. There were tombstones all around. Huge trees covered the graveyard. There were creepers that covered the tombstones. Fruits grew on the trees.

During the night, Chimpu was woken up by a noise. There stood in front of him a ghost. Scared to death and unable to speak, Chimpu hid behind a tree. Because of the commotion, Ziwi woke up.

“What happened?” asked a sleepy Ziwi.

“Ghost!” replied Chimpu.

“There are no ghosts” said Ziwi.

“Look there” said Chimpu pointing in front of him.

And sure enough there was a ghost as white as snow.

Ziwi followed the ghost. The ghost went behind a tombstone. It had a bag, Ziwi noticed. When the ghost came from behind and went away, Ziwi went to the back of the graveyard. Behind the graveyard was gold.

Everything was crystal clear now to Ziwi. There had been a robbery yesterday, and the thieves had not been caught, so maybe these were the thieves and had come to hide the gold.

Ziwi soon found Chimpu hidden behind a tombstone.

“Maybe we should tell Jack about the stolen goods. He will call the police. But then we can't escape” said Ziwi.

“But that would be the right thing to do,” said a wise Chimpu.

“You are right,” remarked Ziwi.

That night both ate the fruits of the trees in the graveyard. Next morning both went back to the zoo. When it opened, they went inside. On seeing them Jack could not believe his eyes.

“Jack, we have to show you something. Please follow us” remarked Ziwi.

When Jack saw the gold, he was surprised that the thieves had hidden the stolen goods here.

“Thanks Ziwi and Chimpu for helping us catch the thieves and not escape. For showing you gratitude I will not keep you in the zoo. But we have to catch the thieves. I will inform the police about this” said Jack.

The police could not believe what had happened. So two policemen were sent to hide near the graveyard and capture the thieves when they came. Sure enough, after sometime two people came. As they were about to enter the graveyard the police caught them. They told the police that they used to dress up as ghosts so no one would come to the graveyard. Further they had stolen more goods before and hid them in the graveyard.

Both Ziwi and Chimpu were happy to see the thieves get caught.

“So where will you go?” asked Jack.

I guess I don’t have to tell you what they replied.

By Ruchita Mathur