Calvin Camel's Hump
Good evening,
ladies and gentlemen. Once again, this is
the Mickey Mouse Show and I am your host, Mickey Mouse. Now that we are
back from our commercial break, I can introduce our first guest, Calvin
Camel.
(Calvin wearily walks up on stage with a sad frown on his
face.)
Mickey: Hello, Calvin, and thank you for being here with us
today. To begin, would you mind telling us a little bit about yourself?
Calvin: Thank you for having me, Mickey. I'm glad to be
here, considering my only alternative is very bleak and tiring. All I
do
all day long and day after day is trail after humans, hauling
their loads. Because of my stupid hump, I rarely need to eat or drink
so I never get a break. When I do get to rest, it is very difficult to
get comfortable because of my large bulk.
Mickey: I get the feeling that you are not happy with your
hump. Could you explain to everyone how you acquired it?
Calvin: (looking a little sheepish) Well, I don't want
anyone to think bad of me, but I used to be quite lazy. I hated doing
anything. All day long, I would just lay around, watching the other
animals work and haul loads. I just relaxed by the water, looking at my
beautiful reflection and enjoying my life. I didn't have a care in the
world. That is probably very difficult for some people to understand.
You are obviously a very hard-working mouse to be where you are today.
Your parents must be proud. My parents were never proud of me.
Mickey: Well, actually my parents died when I was just
a little pinky. They liked
cheese too much and were often too careless when they came upon traps
with cheese on them. But that's a story for another time. Let's get
back to you.
Calvin: Fine. Well, back when I was lazy but beautiful, the
animals were forced to carry my load and started complaining about me.
They often asked me to help, but I just rolled my eyes and ignored
them.
I feel bad about it now, but then I didn't care. Unfortunately, they
told this magic man what was going on. So, he came and talked to me
about it, but all I did was roll my eyes at him and turned away. He
warned me that if I kept doing that, I was going to end up cross-eyed,
but I didn't know he could do magic so I didn't believe him. So,
of course, I did it again. Next thing I know, he's chanting and waving
his arms around. It was really creepy! While he was doing this, I
noticed something was growing on my back. I started running around in
circles, trying to make it go away but it just kept getting bigger and
bigger. Then, all of a sudden, my eyesight started getting blurry. By
then I was crying and blubbering like a little sissy camel, so I just
thought my tears were blurring my vision. Little did I know that I was
really going cross-eyed! The magic man ordered me to
stop freaking out. I begged him to make it go away, but he just shook
his head sadly
at me and said that I had to learn my lesson and stop being so lazy.
Mickey: (Passing out Kleenex to
the audience and sniffling a little himself) That is a very sad
story, Calvin. I'm so sorry you had to go through all that. How did the
other animals react to what happened to you?
Calvin: They thought it was funny. Not only did I have this
huge, ugly thing on my back, but it turns out that the reason my vision
became blurred is because the magic man made me cross-eyed. I haven't
had a lazy day since.
Mickey: Wow, what an amazing story. And for coming on our
show today, we have a surprise for you. A team of renowned surgeons has
volunteered their services to remove your hump and to correct your
eyesight! What do you think about that?
Calvin: Holy camel! I can't believe it! I am so grateful,
but I have to decline the offer. I may not be happy with how I look,
but my hump is a part of me now and I know that I have to eventually
learn to love myself despite my disfiguration.
Besides that, I think glasses to correct my crossed-eyes might make me
look quite distinguished and handsome.
Mickey: I'm sure you're right. Good luck with all your
endeavors and thank you so much for coming on our show today. Calvin
Camel, ladies and gentlemen!
(Applause)
Mickey: Now, our next guest is....coming up right after this
commercial break!
Author's
note: Above all, I like
to make my stories humorous. So, I added a few little details to make
the camel's situation more funny. In the original story, the magic man did not
really make the camel cross-eyed. I added that part on my own.
Originally, the camel always said "Humph" to people when they
wanted him to work. This is how his
"hump" came about. I changed this part, because I wanted to include the
idea of a cross-eyed camel. I thought that would be hilarious! So, in
my story, I had the camel roll his eyes whenever people talked to him.
Then, as a punishment, not only did he get a hump, but he also became
cross-eyed. The original also had many more details about how
the magic man made the hump out of different things. I played down the
magical aspect because I didn't think it was a very important part of
it all. I wanted to make the camel more human-like and easier to relate
to. I figured the magical stuff would distract from the main point. The
main point is that the camel is not happy with the way things happened,
but he has learned his lesson and he is willing to make the best of it.
I also enjoyed adding a little background for Mickey Mouse. I think
it's
important that whoever is reading my stories remembers that the host is
a mouse. So, to each of my stories, I'll be adding little passing
details for Mickey.
Image: Funny camel. Web source: Flicker.
Bibliography:
Book title: Just So Stories
Author: Rudyard Kipling
Year Published: 1902
Web Source: Boop