Esme Boo and the Fish that lost its voice

It was a rainy morning and Esme Boo was outside running and jumping in puddles with her best friend Lucy Lou.

In the garden, round them all the animals were taking shelter, except for Esme’s loyal dog T-bag McDoogle who loved nothing more than to run through puddles dipping her head and splashing the water.

‘’Breakfast’’, shouted Mamma Boo, from the kitchen window of the Boo house. So quickly Esme Boo and Lucy Loo ran towards the kitchen, throwing their wellington boots at the door, hungry for some of Mamma Boo’s delicious eggy bread.

As they passed by the fish tank in the hallway they called ‘’Morning Tizzy’’, ‘’Morning Bizzy’’ and ‘’Hello Izzy’’, just like they always did, not stopping to hear the replies, which they always got.

Sure enough though, ‘’Good morning girls’’ said Tizzy, splashing to the surface, ‘’Morning little ones’’, whizzed Bizzy as he rushed round the tank but Izzy stayed quiet. Esme and Lucy suddenly stopped eating their lovely warm sticky eggy bread and jumped down from the table to take a closer look at Izzy.

‘’Hello Izzy’’ repeated Esme Boo, but Izzy just looked back at her, nodding her little fishy head. ‘’Mamma Boo’’, shouted Esme Boo, ‘’Izzy won’t talk, whatever could the matter be?’’
‘’I have no idea’’, said Mamma Boo, ‘’But I know someone who may’’, so they took Izzy out to the kitchen where Percy Parrot was eating some bird seed and the remains of the girls eggy bread.

‘’Hello Percy’’, said Esme ‘’Any idea what is wrong with Izzy’s voice?’’, ‘’Smelly bum, smelly bum’’ chirped Percy. Esme sniffed her own bottom and quickly said ‘’Sorry about that, in all the confusion and fun Lucy Loo and I were having I forgot to ask for a clean nappy from Mamma Boo’’. ‘’Give us a kiss, give us a kiss’’ said Percy and with that Esme leant in and gave Percy a big kiss.

Lucy Loo asked Percy ‘’Now do you know what is wrong with Izzy?’’. ‘’Come closer, come closer’’, replied Percy to his waiting audience of two small children and Mamma Boo, who all came closer as asked.

Just then cheeky Percy the parrot looked at the three of them and after and long and thoughtful pause he simply said ‘’Percy parrot is my name and trouble is my game, Percy parrot is my name and I’m going out to play’’, and with that he flew out of the kitchen window and landed in the garden bird bath.

‘’This is useless’’, said Mamma Boo, ‘’We should have known we would get no help from Percy at breakfast time, ‘’He is so cheeky before his morning bath’’.

‘’Let’s go and try asking Ronnie the raccoon’’, said Lucy Loo. ‘’He scurries around the house at night, when we are all fast asleep, maybe he knows what is up with Izzy’’. With a quick heel spin Esme and Lucy were heading out of the back door, towards the large cherry apple tree, where Ronnie was quietly reading a comic. ‘’Hey Ronnie raccoon that’s my comic’’ said Esme Boo, realizing he had her copy of snuggle babies in his hands.

‘’Finders, keepers’’ replied Ronnie, keeping his eyes firmly on the comic. ‘’You cheeky raccoon, I keep them safely hidden’’. ‘’Not safe enough’’, smirked Ronnie ‘’Anyway this gets you back for leaving a used nappy under my pillow’’. Esme smiled to herself and nudged Lucy Loo as they recalled playing a trick on Ronnie just last week.

‘’Anyway Ronnie can you help us please?’’ said Lucy Loo, as she then explained what was wrong with Izzy to him. When she had finished she asked ‘’ Do you have any idea how Izzy has lost her voice?’’.

‘’None’’, said Ronnie, ‘’She was fine yesterday afternoon, when we watched Teddy bear wrestling on the television’’. In fact Izzy was very vocal, making lots of sounds at the TV. Esme scratched her head and said ‘’ I wonder then what has happened to poor Izzy’s voice, that she cannot say Hello back to us?’’.

Then in the distance Esme Boo, Lucy Loo, Ronnie Raccoon got excited as they heard daddy Boo’s car horn sounding his return from helping the squirrel Robinson family move house.

‘’Daddy Boo’’, shouted Esme ‘’Can you help?’’. ‘’Hello monkey chops’’, he called Esme Boo as he scooped her up in his arms and smothered her with kisses and cuddles. ‘’What are you all doing out here?’’. ‘’Well…’’ explained Esme ‘’Poor Izzy has lost her voice and we have no idea why’’.

Daddy Boo looked at Izzy shaking his head and with a smile said, ‘’Well I am not surprised Izzy has no voice today, she will sing karaoke all night with Auntie Sarah Boo’’.

Esme and Lucy looked with surprise down at Izzy and little Izzy shrugged her scaly shoulders and she managed to croak ‘’Sorry, but we did have fun’’. ‘’Ok’ but next time can we join you?’’ suggested Lucy Loo and Esme Boo giggling all the way back to the kitchen for more eggy bread