The AbrakaZebra Crossing

At the AbrakaZebra crossing stands the magical Lollipop man and children and fairies and other folk who wish to cross over into Fairytale Park beyond, with its silver swings and shimmering golden See-Saw, must learn to look both ways incase a shooting star or a comet or some other whizzing, magical object is coming down the magic highway.

If all is clear then the Lollipop man steps out onto the crossing and lifts up his lollipop stick which, apart from being every type of flavour a lollipop can be, also has the power to make anything stop in its tracks, even a herd of stampeding purple rhinoceroses.

Usually all is happy and peaceful at the crossing but sometimes Rhoda, the evil witch, her cat Cat’s Eye and her wicked army of traffic cones try to cause trouble.

Rhoda would love to get her hands on the Lollipop man’s magic Lollipop stick because, with it, she could stop anything; even time itself and then she would invincible.

One time, for example, a long time ago, Rhoda was having her mid-morning beauty sleep when she started having a terrible nightmare that she was in the middle of a deep lake and couldn’t swim.

“Help! Help!”, she called out in her sleep, waving her arms about, “I’m drowning! Drowning!”.

Her black cat Cat’s Eye leapt up onto her bed, “Miaow!”. he exclaimed, “You’re not drowning, you silly old woman. You are just having a bad dream”.

And, to wake the old witch up, Cat’s Eye ran to fetch a bucket of water, then he tipped the bucket over Rhoda’s head.

“What?!”, said Rhoda, waking up with a start, coughing and spluttering, “Where am I?”.

“You’re in bed”, said Cat’s Eye, irritably, “You were having a nightmare. You said you were drowning”.

“Hmm? That’s right. Now I remember. I was dreaming that I was in the middle of a deep lake”, said the old witch, her eyes lighting up, but then she noticed that her magical star covered night gown was soaking wet, adding, “And it must have been some dream because I’m still covered in water!”.

“It’s not the dream that made you wet. I threw a bucket of water over you. You were making a terrible commotion, waving your arms about and screaming”, replied Cat’s Eye.

“You did what?!”, growled the witch, angrily and was about to bop her treacherous feline familiar with her magic broom when, suddenly, a marvellously cunning idea popped into her head.

“That’s it!”, she shrieked, leaping up and down on her bed, “That’s how I will finally get my wicked old hands on that magical lollipop stick”.

Cat’s Eye just yawned with boredom because
he had heard it all a hundred times before.
“I’ve got a marvellous, fool proof plan to
steal that lollipop stick”, the witch would always say and, everytime, her marvellous
plan would only fail miserably.

But Rhoda paid no heed to her sceptical cat and, instead, called all her magical minions, the traffic cones, to gather round and listen to her plan.

Into her bedroom rushed the living orange and white plastic cones, beeping and honking loudly like car horns as they gathered round the foot of her bed.

“Listen up, my conical cohorts”, she told the cones, “This is what we are going to do”.

And, the next morning, as the Lollipop man was helping a family of Gnomes to cross over the Abrakazebra crossing; Cat’s Eye, cunningly disguised as a little grey mouse, called out
“Squeak squeak! Help! Old Granny Tootles,
the fairy Godmother, has fallen in the
lake and she can’t swim!”.

“Granny Tootles? Oh no!”, said the Lollipop man,
and, leaving his friends, the Red man and the
Green man in charge of the crossing he then, frantically, rushed off towards the lake, calling out, “Don’t worry, Granny! I’ll save you”.

When the Lollipop man got to the lake he saw an old woman who looked like a Fairy Godmother splashing about frantically, near the middle and, reaching his magic lollipop stick out to her shouted, “Grab onto the end of this, Granny Tootles and I’ll pull you to safety”.

Unfortunately, what the poor Lollipop man didn’t know was that the old woman in the lake was not Granny Tootles, the Fairy Godmother at all but Rhoda, the wicked witch, in disguise. Infact, Rhoda was not even drowning because she was standing on a tower of traffic cones that were straining to hold her up.

And, as soon as the Lollipop man reached out with his stick, Rhoda grabbed hold of its round, flat end and yanked it out of the old mans grip.

“Hee-hee!”, cackled Rhoda, whipping off her Fairy Godmother disguise and clutching the magic lollipop stick close to her, “I’ve finally got it. The power of the magic lollipop is mine, all mine!”.

“Oh no!”, said the Lollipop man, shaking his head, “What have I done?”.

But, just then, as Rhoda was enjoying her moment of victory, a friendly fish swam up to the tower of cones that was holding up the old witch and started to tickle them all with its tail.

The cones couldn’t take holding up the witch, who was rather on the portly side, and being tickled by a fish and so, suddenly, their tower gave way beneath her and, with a loud kerploosh,
Rhoda fell backwards into the lake.

“Help!”, cried Rhoda, waving her arms about wildly, “I can’t swim. I’m drowning” and this time she really meant it.

The lollipop man, who was a kind hearted old gentleman, didn’t want to see Rhoda drown no matter how wicked she was and so he called out to her, “Reach out with the lollipop stick and I’ll pull you
in”.

But Rhoda didn’t want to risk losing the magic stick, “Oh no you don’t!”, she said, “This is my stick now and I’m never giving it up”.

However, then, to the Wicked Witch’s horror, behind her rose a giant purple lake monster and he was licking his lips hungrily with a long purple tongue.

“Oh dear. All that splashing about must have woken up old Philbert!”, cried the Lollipop man.

“Philbert?”, asked Rhoda.

“The lake monster”, explained the Lollipop man, “That lake is where he lives and he doesn’t like guests dropping in uninvited. Not unless it’s for supper”.

That was enough to persuade Rhoda. There was no way she was going to become some Lake monsters supper and so, reaching out with the magic lollipop stick she allowed the lollipop man
to grab hold of it and pull her to safety.

But when the old witch was safely on dry land again, the Lollipop man grabbed his stick back from her, “I’ll take this, thank you very much”, he said, smiling.

“Garr!”, shrieked Rhoda, “You never would have won if it wasn’t for that Purple lake monster thing that wanted to eat me!”.

“You mean Philbert?”, said the Lollipop man, laughing, “Why, old Philbert wouldn’t hurt a fly. He’s a vegetarian”.

The old witch refused to believe it, “But I saw that monster looking at me and licking his lips”, she argued.

“Uggh? I wasn’t looking at you, old lady”, said the giant purple creature,confused, “I was looking at the big lollipop. I like lollipops”.