The Moon, A Balloon, and A Spoon | Narrative Text

This is a very strange story about the moon, a balloon and a spoon-but who's to say it isn't true?

It happened late one night when everybody had gone to bed. All the children in the houses had been fast asleep for hours, and all the grown-ups too. Only the cats that sat on the rooftops were wide awake in the monnlight.

Suddenly there came a noise like..,,,...thunder perhaps, or a jet plane maybe, or the roaring, rushing sound of a hurricane......no-one could really say for sure.

All at once everyone was out of bed opening their windows and looking up into the sky.

There it was again, and again, and again. The noise was so loud that it knocked off some of the chimney pots and sent them rolling down the roofs.

"What is it?" the people in the houses cried with fright.

A ginger cat who had been sitting on the roof seemed to know the answer.

"Its the Moon!" he purred, looking very aloof. "The Moon has a bad cold and he keeps on sneezing!" and the ginger cat strolled off to find a quieter rooftop.

Sure enough when the people looked up into the sky, they could see that the Moon had a dreadful cold red nose and all!

The stars were scattered across the sky, for they found it very difficult to hang on when the Moon was sneezing so hard.

All through that night the moon sneezed and sneezed. No-one got a wink of sleep and everyone felt very tired and grumpy next morning.

"What are we going to do?" neighbours asked one another-but nobody had the least idea.

"How long does a bad cold usually last?" someone asked the chemist in the shop down the street.

"At least a week," he said gravely, "and in some cases up to a fortnight!"

Everybody groaned. No sleep for a fortnight.....it was unthinkable!.

"What the Moon really needs is a bottle of my best cold medicine," the chemist went on, "that will stop him sneezing in a jiffy."

"This all sounds very silly indeed," said a lady who lived in one of the houses. "How on earth can we give medicine to the Moon?"

"Somebody could float up there in a ballon," said one little boy "they do it all the time in nursery rhymes and fairy stories!"

"That sounds like a very good idea to me," a man spoke up, "I have a hot-air balloon and would gladly help the Moon's bad cold!"

First the medicine had to be mixed. The chemist found everything he needed and put all the ingredients into a great big bowl. He had a giant bottle in his shop window so he carefully poured the cold mixture into that.

"So far so good," smiled the chemist looking very pleased with himself.

"We shall need a giant spoon!" piped up the little boy (whose idea it was in the first place).

"I've just the thing," cried the baker. "I use it to stir my cakes at Christmas time.......I've such a lot to make!" 

So straight away he ran to his shop to fetch the giant spoon.

The man who owned the hot-air balloon started getting things ready.

The little boy (whose idea it was in the first place), was going up in the basket to give the Moon the medicine.

By the time darkness fell and the Moon appeared in the sky, everything was ready.

You could hear that the Moon's cold was no better, in fact he sounded much worse. Even the clouds were being blown all over the place.

"Soon we shall be sneezing instead of twinkling," some of the stars grumbled loudly.

At long last the man in the hot-air balloon and the little boy, (whose idea it was in the first place), reached the Moon.

Very, very carefully the little boy gave the Moon the cold medicine from the giant spoon.

"Is it alright to take the whole bottle?" asked the Moon wheezing and sneezing.

"Perfectly alright," the little boy replied, "it says so on the label!"

The cold medicine worked wonders. In next to no time the Moon recovered and all was peace and quiet.

Everyone in the houses had a good night's sleep, for there was nothing to disturb their slumbers......and the cats walked along the rooftops as usual and gazed up at the moon, who was asleep too!