Sloth Paints the Moon

SLOTH PAINTS THE MOON

Sloth lived in the Magic Jungle, next to the Unforgivable Lake.

“I love to sleep in the moonlight,” Sloth would croon.

And he would think about stuff.

If any jungle creature asked, “How can we find Sloth?”

The golden moths would say, “Just follow our trail.”

This meant leaving at night and following the shine of their wings to the heart of the Magic Jungle.

“Watch out!” the moths would whisper, “The Unforgivable Lake may flood and chase the animals away!”

But Sloth lived high up in a tree and water levels were not a problem. The problem was loud Macaw.

“Hey,” Sloth said softly (he always spoke very quietly), “What’s wrong with you bird?”

“I’ve got a HACK! Sorry SQUEAK! COUGH!” Macaw squawked.

So Sloth said, “Hey honeybees.”

And they said, “Yezzz?”

Sloth said, “Please give my bird here a little dose of your honey?”

So they did and with that and a little lemon juice, Macaw was much better and Sloth went back to thinking.

Thinking was very important. He spent hours in the same position just thinking. One evening, Sloth was thinking, “How could I visit the Moon?”

It looked very close to the Magic Jungle. Sometimes, it hung like a light bulb, just above them and sometimes it played in the water of the Unforgiveable Lake. Twice a year, it turned a brilliant orange and was as big as a beach ball.

“Macaw,” Sloth said, “I have decided to visit the moon.”

“Ah,” said Macaw in a smoother voice.

“But only when it turns orange,” Sloth said, “That’s my favourite colour.”

“How will you get there?” whispered the moths.

Sloth did some more thinking and came up with a brilliant plan.

He said. “Hey honeybees?”

They said, “Yezzz.”

“Tell the great, hairy jungle spiders I want a word,” Sloth said.

The bees buzzed off and Sloth snoozed.

Then the spiders came crawling up because they were terribly curious.

“What do you want Sloth?” the most hairy spider leader asked.

“I have a great plan,” Sloth said, “But for it to work I need all of you spiders to spin webs around the jungle vines to make a basket.”

“What for?” the spider leader said, “Silk is pricey you know.”

Sloth said, “I will get a lot of banana skins to make a balloon and my relatives will all blow all their hot air inside it.”

“Then what?” said the spider leader.

“Then,” Sloth said, “I will fly to the moon when it turns orange.”

“Oh well that’s different then,” the spider leader said, “You didn’t tell us it was space research. We have to beat the monkeys at all costs!”

Sloth invited the golden moths to join them, bringing their light and their wings!

(Some of the spiders walked out on strike, but they were persuaded that the project was great advertising for their new silk fashion range.)

Finally the great day came when the silk vine jungle balloon was finished.

Sloth said, “Goodbye family! Goodbye friends! I will miss you all. But you know that I always wanted to travel, especially to the moon when it is orange.”

So off he went into the night sky and it wasn’t long before there was nothing above him, but stars and nothing below him, but stars. It was wonderful!

“I could just stay here forever,” he thought. But he always stuck to his plans and so he landed on the Moon.

“Yikes!” Sloth said, “It’s sticky!”

And those were the first memorable words of a sloth landing on the moon.

“It’s sticky and orange,” Sloth said.

All around he could see small creatures rushing around with pots and brushes. They looked like Moon Mice.

“What are you doing?” Sloth asked.

Of course, the Moon Mice couldn’t understand Sloth language, but by using signs, they showed him that they were painting the Moon orange and they were in a hurry.

“Why?” Sloth signed.

The Moon Mice acted out their explanation that if they didn’t finish painting their half of the Moon before it popped up on the world, they would be punished by their leader, the King Rat and they would not be allowed to eat cheese for a week.

“That’s a bit harsh,” said Sloth, who thought food was very important, “Never mind! We’ll all give you a hand – or a wing as the case may be.”

Sloth and the golden moths grabbed paintbrushes and painted as fast as they could, and if it had not been for their help, the Moon would not have been finished.

“What a lovely job!” Sloth said happily, admiring the orange glow.

But the King Rat did not seem happy. He was jumping up and down and shaking his fist. The Moon Mice all looked sad. The King Rat was telling them they were not worthy of cheese.

“How rude!” Sloth said, “You Moon Mice must come back with me in my banana-vine hot-air balloon. There’s lots of room for you in the Magic Jungle and just wait till you try honeydew cakes – you won’t miss the cheese.”

The Moon Mice all leaped with glee and clapped their little hands and stamped their little feet and came running to the balloon. This time, the golden moths had to help with launching due to the extra weight.

“Up, up and away!” Sloth chanted and the Moon Mice all squealed and squeaked excitedly in their own Moon language.

The balloon floated gently back down to Earth, past the oceans to the dark green of the Magic Jungle and the deep blue of the Unforgivable Lake.

“Home at last”, said Sloth, “It was a nice adventure. And I did get to paint the Moon orange. But I like my hammock hanging in the cool vines, where Macaw can tell me a bedtime story.”

Everyone was most surprised when all the Moon Mice hopped out. But it was very lucky for them that a large burrow had just been emptied by a family of moles and so there was a warm and dry home ready for them to move into.

“Although it does bother me that the King Rat got his way,” Sloth told Macaw, “Every time I look up at the moon now, I’m going to think of my new friends and that naughty Rat up there.”

Sloth was thinking so hard about his next problem that he fell asleep in his hammock in the middle of Macaw’s story.

The Moon Mice were already tucking in to honey dew and there were little cries of “Hooray, Hooray!” Their first Magic Jungle words!

Sloth didn’t know that the monkeys had launched their first hot-air jungle balloon to the moon and were so cross to find Sloth’s footprints that they stamped their feet and squished the King Rat by mistake!

By Ingela Richardson