The Lion
By Jeremiah Hankins
(2nd grade)
A long, long time ago when the animal kingdom ruled, there was a king. He was a lion. The lion was smart and was a very good looking lion. His hair was a light orange color and very slick, but he had no mane and no puffy tail. He did not ever consider the royal hair style that only kings and queens could have. The royal hair-do has lots of hair around the neck and a puffy tail.
One day the king received a letter from the old King and Queen Rabbit saying that they wanted to come over to see what he’d done with the kingdom. They asked if they could come over in three weeks.
The king had scheduled a hair cut because he wanted to look his best. But the day before the hair cut, the barber had to go to his daughter’s wedding. So the king called the closest town for their best barber.
The next day there was three loud raps at the door. The king went to open it. It was the new barber. She said, “Hi your majesty. I’m Deer-Barber.”
“Come in, come in. I need a haircut. When is the next opening?”
“Two weeks I think. Let me check my appointments. It’ll be one week and six days.”
“Isn’t there a tiny little space for me to fit in?”
“Nope, I’m packed.”
Finally, the day the old king and queen were coming and the day the king was going to get his haircut, arrived. The king rushed to Deer-Barber’s Barber Shop. “I need my haircut - the usual.”
“Okay, sit right here.” Deer-Barber thought King Lion meant by ‘the usual” that he wanted the royal hair-do because he’s a king.
So Deer-Barber cut the royal haircut, but Lion’s hair would not stay. So he asked Lion for the bottle of gel on the shelf. There were two bottles that said gel. He grabbed one and gave it to Deer-Barber. Deer-Barber put it on Lion’s hair. Little did they know that it did not just say ‘Gel’ -- that it said, ‘New Gel-Glue, Permanent.’
Lion’s hair stuck fast. Not one hair was out of place. If you looked at him from the front his face looked like the sun and his hair looked like rays of sunlight. His tail looked like it was on fire.
Lion did not stop to look in the mirror. He just ran back to the castle. Everybody admired him.
Clunk, clunk. Somebody was at the door.
“They’re here,” said Lion. Lion went to open the door. “Oh, come in, come in. Would you like something to eat?”
“No, we’re fine. Could we have a tour of the castle?”
“Oh, yes.”
So first they visited the throne room. The throne room was blue with a yellow carpet. It was an unusual throne room, but Lion was unusual. The throne was purple silk and the rest was green!
They visited many other places. Soon it was time for them to go, so Lion opened the castle door and said, “Good-bye.”
They said, “Good-bye and by the way, I like your hair.”
“What? I always wear this hairstyle,” Lion said as they drove off. Lion rushed the nearest mirror and saw that he was wearing the royal hairstyle!
Then he marched into Deer-Barber’s shop and yelled, “You gave me the wrong hairstyle! So I’m going to eat you up!”
“Wait, don’t eat me. I’ll give you your normal haircut.”
“Ok.”
“How do you like it?”
“I like the slick.”
“Okay, sit down. Your hair is stuck, or else you have a knot as big as your head!”
“I’m going to eat you up not!”
“Ahhhhrgh,” Deer-Barber yelled and started running.
So to this day lion is still chasing Deer and his hair is still stuck so that when you look at his from the font he looks like the sun and his tail looks like it’s on fire. The reason Lion roars is he’s grumpy because of his stupid looking hair!