The Wise and Foolish Penguin

A couple of years ago during lent the children from our church group challenged me to write a silly stories each week. I tried hard to give them a Bible theme and this one kind of worked.

The story had to include Marshmallow World, a polar bear and a French penguin - or something like that.

I’d almost forgotten all about it but as penguins are in the news today it’s seems a good day to share it. Although maybe I have missed a trick not updating this to include marshmallow tarrifs or give the polar bear a bad blonde flyaway wig!

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Pierre the Penguin always wanted to be a cordon bleu chef but, the blue-ribbon award was only presented to those with exceptional talent. Unfortunately, Pierre preferred eating food than preparing it. He also had a very sweet tooth, always choosing sugary cakes and gateaux over any kind of fish or vegetable.

One day he received an email from his friend Paulo the Penguin who lived in a colony of Penguins near the south pole. He described an igloo building contest and delighted in telling Pierre how he had built the most magnificent igloo winning the blue-ribbon award. The igloo was still standing firm, and Pierre was invited to go and visit.

Pierre stared at the attached photo. He had to agree it was a stunning piece of architecture but he wanted to send back a photo of something impressive he had made. He searched his recipe books looking for ideas but didn’t feel inspired. So he went for a walk along the Champs-Élysées, the most famous avenue in Paris. He stopped outside a sweet shop and licked his lips while looking at the display of yummy chocolates and sweets in the window – perhaps he needed sugar to be properly inspired, he was a little bit hungry.

Inside the shop was a polar bear called Claude who told Pierre about his idea to build a theme park of sugar called Marshmallow World. There would be bouncy marshmallow castles, rollercoasters over the tops of the marshmallow mountains, and spinning hot chocolate mugs – a bit like the spinning tea cups at some other theme park nearby.

“I have most things sorted out but there is an area of the park that is still empty.” He said sadly.

“It all sounds like such a marvellous plan,” said Pierre still looking around the shop for his own inspiration. He spied a jar of jelly beans, and remembered Paulo’s photo.A mad idea formed in his brain. “How about creating the world’s biggest jelly bean and turning it into an igloo on a bed of snow-white marshmallow.”

Claude thought the idea was splendid and took him to the theme park building site the next morning, showing him where the jelly bean igloo should go and agreeing to cover the ground with marshmallow ready for building on.

Pierre worked on his recipe for the giant jelly bean shell, it would be hollow inside and large enough for an average family of penguins to live in. He spent all his money on the project, certain he would make more money once the theme park opened and visitors paid to come and see it.

Finally, the structure was complete and a huge crane lowered it into position. The marshmallow base was a little bit sticky but Claude assured him it would set to a fine bouncy consistency and the stickiness would help it rest in place at the centre of the theme park.

Once Pierre was satisfied with the position of his exhibit, he asked to be shown around the rest of Marshmallow World, but Claude had vanished and the rest of Marshmallow World still looked like a building site. There were no bouncy marshmallow castles, no rollercoaster over the tops of marshmallow mountains and no spinning hot chocolate mugs. Claude had told Pierre it would be opening next week.

Pierre checked for a website, even a sign advertising the theme park but he found nothing.

Just then it started to rain so he pulled his beret down tighter on his head and watched as the giant jelly bean started to drip, it wasn’t just the rain running off the roof but liquid sugar. He looked down at the marshmallow base and saw that that too was melting into puddle of sugar. Very soon his masterpiece turned into a gooey mess and he had not even taken a photo of his most fabulous creation.

He turned round to leave with tears in his eyes not noticing another penguin coming towards him.

It was Paulo his friend from the South Pole. He gave Pierre a hug and invited him to come and visit him, staying in his award winning blue-ribbon igloo.

“Penguins were never meant to live in igloos made of jelly in a sea of marshmallow.”

Pierre agreed, left France, and went to travel the world.