Renee Oelrich

Chapter 1: Invitations

The summer was coming to an end.

The leaves were now changing colors.

Winter season would bring Christmas cheer for Smidgeon.

It would be wonderful to have all her new friends together for the holiday season.

She wanted to celebrate her first Christmas in Frecklopia.

She wanted to enjoy it with holiday decorations.

She hoped to have festive cheer with her friends.

But she really wanted to enjoy a very thankful dinner with everyone.

She was so thankful for her new friends, Patches and Pocky.

They traveled with her to Frecklopia all the way from Africa.

She was also thankful for meeting Mr. Motley.

He was the protector of Frecklopia.

He let them stay there as long as they wanted.

Smidgeon was a leopard from Nigeria trying to fit in on the soccer team of lions and panthers.

But she never got to be on the team.

Because she had fuzzy fur with lots of spots. And they had shiny smooth beautiful fur.

So, she set off to find the stickiest gum to help remove her spots and fuzzy fur.

Along the way she met Patches, a giraffe from Chad, and Pocky, a hyena from Kenya.

Both went along on Smidgeon’s journey to find gum in Spain.

During their travels, they met Macula.

He was a whale shark in the Atlantic Ocean.

He helped them through some rough waters.

They met Flaws and Char in France.

Flaws was a tall Dalmatian.

Char was a small pug.

They were able to help Smidgeon find and gather some gum in France.

In Spain, they met the Commander Quickles and his cocoon crew, the Fiddlemites.

They were military monarch butterflies.

They also conducted a successful operation of retrieving gum from the general area.

It was decided.

     “I am inviting them all,” Smidgeon thought to herself.

      “Since Macula lives in the ocean.”

     “I will visit him after the Christmas holiday,” she thought.

     “The first thing I will need to do.”

     “Is send my friends invitations to the holiday dinner.”

     “Then, I need to make this hut bigger for the guests,” Smidgeon thought.

     “I will need to decorate the hut and trees.”

      “And I’m going to need Patches and Pocky to help,” she thought to herself.

She ran out the door to recruit Patches and Pocky.

They needed to get started on the festivities right away.

Smidgeon was writing out the invitations to her friends in Spain and France.

When she noticed the last of the spotted cuckoos migrating north.

She watched them land near the lake to rest. She quickly finished the invitations and went to ask the cuckoos if they would deliver the invitations.

She was hoping the cuckoos could deliver the invitations in time.

So, all her friends would be there for the day of the thankful dinner.