Herman's Choice

Written for a Storytelling & Bookmaking field trip with Ms. Colon's 4th-grade class from PS 503

11/3/06

Once upon a time there was a snake named Herman. Herman was sad for several reasons. He smelled like rotten cabbage. He had no friends even though he was friendly. He was not poisonous, but everyone thought he was.

Herman lived by himself in a rainforest. For all of his sixteen years, he'd wanted a friend more than anything in the world. Unfortunately, all the other animals thought he was poisonous. He wore a red cap to try to be cool, but still nobody would hang out with him. So he took up photography, because it was something he could do alone. He took pictures of places and other animals. The only things that could make him happy were his pictures. Every day he went out to take pictures and look for friends.

One day he saw a reindeer.

"Hey, what's a reindeer doing in the rainforest," Herman wondered.

The reindeer's name was Hector. He was painting a picture of a snake. Herman was curious. He asked, "Why are you painting a picture of me?" Being very nervous, Hector fainted.

Suddenly Herman found himself surrounded by forest animals yelling at him. A monkey said, "Hey everybody, Herman finally bit somebody and it looks like he's dead!"

Herman said, "No, no no, he just fainted!" But the animals didn't believe him.

"We don't believe you!" they shouted. "Let's arrest him and take him to snake court!"

Just then, Hector woke up and stood up with his enormous antlers in the air and said, "No, I'm cool. I just fainted." All the animals screamed when they saw Hector.

"Save us, Herman! He's going to get us!" they shouted. "Scare him away!"

Herman said, "No, because if I scare him away, I'll never have any friends. Everybody will think I'm mean."

"We don't care!" the animals said.

Herman looked at Hector and saw that he was painting a picture of the whole crazy scene. Hey, that's pretty good, he thought to himself. Hector and I have a lot in common. He makes good pictures and everybody is afraid of him too. And he smells like cabbage. What an amazing coincidence. What should I do? If I scare Hector away, the animals will be grateful to me, but Hector will hate me. But if I make friends with Hector, the animals will hate me but I'll finally have a friend. What should I do???

And then...