A  kangaroo was fast asleep when the sun began to paint the sky.  Just as the light crept up over the mountain it blankets the kangaroo with its warmth and  pierced its eyes.  It opened one eye and surveyed the world around.  The grass was swaying with the breeze and the pasture was dotted with all sorts of colors.  All the other kangaroos were already up and about doing whatever it is that kangaroos do in the early morn.  All was good.  Yet looking at the contentment of the other kangaroos made this particular kangaroo ask himself “Is this all I’ll ever be?”

 

Turning its head around it surveyed a barbed-wire fence, not too high that it could not be jumped given the right amount of effort.  And beyond the fence there was a cow.  The cow was munching on its breakfast of grass and hay.  In its eyes the kangaroo saw a blankness that was either from, again, contentment or of lack of wanting better.  “How am I better than that?”

 

A further turn of the kangaroos head gave sight to a small farm.  On that farm there was a modest house, and at that moment the farmer who owned the house came out and headed for his vehicle in the garage and sped off. 

 

“He must know something I don't.  His life seems so much better.  He has so much more.  I must know what secret he keeps to give him all that.”

 

When the kangaroo was sure that the farm was cleared of people it jumped the fence and slowly made its way towards the house.  The excitement was so overwhelming that the kangaroo failed to notice the hippo that has been keeping an eye on the kangaroo all that time.  The hippo was wallowing in both the river that ran through the farm and in its discontent for life.  The hippo too was in search for something better but could not find a place to begin.

 

Hmm….I wonder what that kangaroo is doing.  Has it gone mad? Perhaps.  But it seems to move with a purpose towards the farm, maybe it has a plan to learn ways to make a better life for himself.  I must follow it so that I might learn a new way of life as well, any life is better than this.   And so the hippo dragged his lumbering body from the water and slowly made his way towards the stealthing kangaroo.

 

“What are you doing?”

 

“What the F?!?!”

 

“What are you doing?”

 

“I’m trying to find out what this human knows that enables him to have this sort of life.  I can’t be a kangaroo forever”

 

“Can I follow you and learn as well?”

 

“As long as you keep quiet and remember that I’m top dog”

 

The two finally reached the house and began to peep through the windows.  Inside they saw all sorts of wonderful things, most of it they knew nothing of but none the less wonderful.  They must get inside the house in order to explore and hopefully discover the secret.  They tried all doors.  All doors were locked.  All of a sudden they heard the sound of an engine “The farmer! Hide!”

 

They looked around for a place to hide and saw that the only place to hide was a small garage.  They both rushed inside and squeezed in.  They could hardly move but they were so scared that the discomfort meant very little. 

 

But then, buzzing about was a mosquito looking for food.  The mosquito saw the hippo’s rump and felt as though heaven had smiled upon it.  One cannot pass this one over, it was too good.  So off to the hippo’s hind side it landed.  It braced itself and gave the hippo a humungous bite. Mmmm.

 

“Aww!” The hippo turned its head in surprise, but in doing so the tip of its snout hit the kangaroo in the head.  Out of reflex the kangaroo gave out a kick and hit a window pane.  Crash! 

 

“What was that?” the farmer thought.  He ran inside his house and brought out his gun.  Big.  Deducing that the sound came from the garage the farmer cautiously inched his way towards the garage.  It could be a burglar.  Armed.  Slowly the farmer looked inside his garage and to his surprise he saw a kangaroo squeezed in with a hippopotamus.  This can’t be right.  He took aim and fired, took aim again and fired again.

 

Both the kangaroo and the hippo died.

 

THE END

 

Kangaroo and his friend Hippo*...

*Kangaroos and hippos do not belong in the same continent.  I know that.