Congratulations !
You have been awarded points.
Thank you for !
- Story Listed as: Fiction For Kids
- Theme: Action & Adventure
- Subject: Drama
- Published: 09/08/2020
Hercules and Bubblegum (H&B), the famous Toy Bears, were ready for another special summer week in the hotel in the mountains. Not only were the ‘Good Twins’ Jerry and Jenny visiting for the week with their parents, but their parents were coming too! H&B had met Jerry and Jenny’s grandparents a few times before, some thirty years before when they - as parents - had brought their children – Jenny and Jerry’s parents – got all of that?
That was the good news, and many guests had been coming to the famous hotel in the mountains for generations. Famous people, like writers and actors, were visitors; and non famous people too – people just like us! The Toy Bears, H&B, had met them all, and most visitors remembered H&B when they saw them again. Most visitors were fond of H&B, even if they were just toys! It was wonderful to see how younger children and most adults were quite respectful of H&B. For them, the Toy Bears were individuals not just ‘stupid toys, useless stuffed bears!’ as some children had called them. Examples of such disrespectful children, were the infamous ‘Terrible Twins’ Tammy and Tommy, who were troublesome ‘long before puberty’!
The receptionist after receiving a phone call, abruptly fainted. When the Hotel Manager restored her with smelling salts, the poor receptionist gave the bad news. Well not really ‘bad news’, just ‘terrible news’ – the ‘Terrible Twins’ were coming too! The ‘good news among the bad news’ is that they were not only coming with their poor, but very loveable, parents - but also with their grandparents too.
The Black Cat had observed all of the to-do at the Reception Area, and reported the ‘bad news among the good news’ to the Toy Bears Hercules and Bubblegum. H&B in turn alerted all of the Hotel Toys and Hotel Pets, and prepared to inform the Animal Council about the impending ‘State of Alert’ with the arrival of the ‘Terrible Twins’. It was practice now to start a ‘Green Alert’ as soon as any potential condition could endanger animals and humans, in and near the hotel. Fans of H&B stories will certainly remember previous ‘Alerts’ during the visits of the ‘Terrible Twins’. It was wise to prepare for the worst, and the Animal Council quietly put the word around to animals and pets in the rest of the village, in the fire brigade, at the police station and hospital.
Actually everybody settled in very well. The three generations around Jenny and Jerry were extremely happy, and the grandparents of Jenny and Jerry became very friendly with the grandparents of Tammy and Tommy. “Hard to believe”, reported the Black Cat to Hercules and Bubblegum, “Tammy and Tommy are almost model children - like Jenny and Jerry. Must be the quieting effect of the grandparents”. Hercules commented “I remember 30 years ago when the grandparents of Tammy and Tommy used to come here with noisy motor bikes. The terrified father of Tammy and Tommy hanging on the back of one bike, with his shaken sister on the other.” Bubblegum went on, “I heard that the grandparents of Jenny and Jerry are also bikers, were also ‘wildies’, and members of ‘Heaven’s Devils’. Perhaps that’s why both sets of grandparents get on so well?”
The Hotel Manager remarked that “I have heard that both sets of grandparents had also been ‘wildies’ - when the age of Tammy and Tommy, but with age they had quietened down. “Trouble seems to jump a generation” suggested the Receptionist, about the contrast in behaviour between the generations.
The next day Hercules and Bubblegum were just about the relax the ‘Green Alert’, when a couple of the hotel’s ‘Mice Squad’ reported overheard conversations of Tammy and Tommy. The ‘Terrible Twins’ had been hanging around the Reception Area a lot in the last few days, and had paid lots of attention when they heard about a famous guest coming. Tammy said to Tommy, “I hear that someone like ‘Herlock Sholmes’ is coming tomorrow. Tommy said, “Never heard of that one, do we have ‘Copyright’ problems?” Tammy replied, “No just the confusion that I always have in mixing up names!” Tommy went on, “Well maybe we can have some fun if we pretend to be the Receptionist and Hotel Manager, and confuse the hotel staff and a few customers!” Tammy went on, “I do get bored with pretending to be a ‘nice one’ when our grandparents are around. They are nice enough to us, but it is boring when they talk always about their visits thirty years ago, even before we were born. When will these grey-haired people realise that there was hardly any human life before we were born!” Tommy paused, “That’s a bit hard Tammy, our grandparents are quite fun”. “Maybe”, said Tammy, “but Grandma said some politician had said exactly that ‘That there was no human life before I was born!’ Well I suppose we can worry about all of that when we get to that age”, said Tommy.
The Black Cat reported to Hercules and Bubblegum that “There may be even be ‘hope for the Terrible Twins’, if they at this age realise that they may grow old with time!” “Well indeed”, remarked Hercules to the Black Cat and Bubblegum, “we had better get on with this story, and not bore the listening children with too much philosophy in one reading!”
Tammy and Tommy were spying on the Reception Area in the late afternoon, when a ‘telegram’ arrived. You may not remember ‘telegrams’ from those ancient days before Internet and Mobile Phones, but they were message delivered on ‘slips of paper’ by a ‘man on a motorbike’! The man on the motorbike was clearly in a hurry when he quickly asked Tammy and Tommy standing at the reception desk, if they could deliver the message for him, before he sped away into the sunset.
Tammy and Tommy first read the message printed onto the ‘slip of paper’. ‘Will arrive much earlier than planned, at approximately midnight tonight. Please be kind enough to have someone wait for me. Yours sincerely, S.H.’. “Great”, guffawed Tommy to Tammy, “we can have fun if we don’t tell the Hotel Receptionist about this, and meet the famous detective all by ourselves!”
Luckily for us, the famous detective, and all of the Hotel Pets and Guests, the Black Cat had observed all of this. Promptly he moved over to the window seat in the lounge where the toy bears H&B were lounging, and it looked as if the Black Cat was in intense conversation with the Toy Bears. Well any disbelievers would just laugh at this point, because everybody knows that cats don’t talk and Toy Bears are just that!
Very rapidly, plans were made by H&B to deal with the upcoming midnight event. When Tammy and Tommy crept down the darkened staircase just before midnight, their eyes glinting mischief, they had no idea that pranks were about to be played on them - not by them! The first prank took place outside the hotel where the taxi of the famous detective was met by a delegation of toys and pets. Luckily Mr. S.H. was very experienced, as all great detectives need to be, and followed immediately the suggestions from the Black Cat and the delegation of toys and pets.
Just after midnight the hotel door bell rang, and Tommy and Tammy opened the door to greet the famous detective. The ‘Terrible Twins’ had made plans to mislead the famous detective by telling him that all of the villains were already locked in the room under the Grand Staircase in the hotel lobby. The ‘Terrible Twins’ planned then to lock the famous detective himself in the same room until morning, when they would blame Jenny and Jerry for high jacking Mr. S.H.
But the ‘person’ at the door did not look at all like Mr. S.H., or any of his known disguises. The apparition wore a long ‘voluminous coat’, a ‘bear-eared’ hat, a big scarf, held a walking stick and announced his name to be ‘Hercules Bearot’. Monsieur Bearot announced he was a famous Belgian detective, with his name written with a ‘t’ at the end which was silent when spoken! He commented to Tommy and Tammy, that they as Receptionist and Hotel Manager were much younger than he expected, but that did not matter. “Unfortunately Mr. S.H. is much delayed, and I ‘Hercules Bearot’ have come in his place to exercise my ‘grey cells’!” explained the apparition.
Tommy and Tammy spontaneously decided for fast improvisation and greeted the ‘voluminous coat’ containing ‘Mr. Bearot’ beneath his bear-eared hat. They obviously decided to carry out their plan with this ‘other famous detective’. “Please come this way Sir,” charmed Tammy with her best girlie voice, as Tommy held back giggles. Tammy and Tommy led the ‘voluminous coat’ with bear-eared hat to the door of the room under the Grand Staircase. From behind the ‘voluminous coat’ with bear-eared hat on top, we could see under the ‘voluminous coat’, Hercules standing on the shoulders of Bubblegum. Tommy and Tammy stepped aside to permit the famous ‘voluminous coat’ detective to enter the room beneath the Grand Staircase. The ‘Terrible Twins’ slammed the door shut and locked the bolts and the key lock. They doubled up laughing and rolled about for a while until they realised that no-one was knocking from the inside of the same door. As they rolled about longer and longer, laughing all the while, Tammy and Tommy did not notice that all of the hotel toys and house pets had assembled in the hotel lobby facing the door of the room under the Grand Staircase.
“Do you think that Mr. Sholmes is all right in there?” asked Tammy, because it was so quiet behind the door. “I suppose you mean ‘Hercules Bearot’ with the silent ‘t’?” asked Tommy.
“Maybe we ought to have a look?” suggested Tammy. She opened the door but no voluminous coat came out from under the Grand Staircase. The ’Terrible Twins’ both went inside to investigate, and then ‘Slam’ - the door was quickly shut. They did not know at all that the toy bears Hercules and Bubblegum were peering down at the activities through the railings of the Grand Staircase. How was this possible you might ask? After about twenty minutes of banging and shouting, Tommy and Tammy must have decided to give up trying to attract attention for the night.
At about six the next morning sirens sounded outside the hotel as the fire-brigade, police wagon and ambulance all arrived outside, each with their pets sitting beside their drivers. The Hotel Manager was giving his report to the local village detective - who was ‘not-yet’ famous, “I heard the Black Cat howling at the door to the room beneath the Grand Staircase, and went to look. I don’t know who called the Fire Brigade and Ambulance Service, but I see that they are labelled for ‘Green Alert’”. When the ‘not-yet famous local detective’ asked the Hotel Manager about ‘Green Alert’, the Receptionist just pointed mysteriously towards the hotel toys sitting with H&B on some ‘voluminous coat’ on the seat in the hotel lounge.
“And what happened to the ‘first famous detective’, Mr. Sholmes?”, we hear the attentive, but sleepy, children ask you - the reader. Well, the Hotel Manager had already explained it to us, “Mr. Sholmes is actually an actor who lives all-of-the-time in the role as famous detective, and he always comes here for his holidays. He is well known to the whole staff, both human and animal. He joins in all of the games and activities and it is rumoured that he can talk to the House Pets, Hotel Toys and pets of the Guests. Mr. Sholmes and Mr. Bearot have shared many adventures together. Maybe we will hear about some of them soon!”
H&B and the Famous Detective(Alan Bruce)
Hercules and Bubblegum (H&B), the famous Toy Bears, were ready for another special summer week in the hotel in the mountains. Not only were the ‘Good Twins’ Jerry and Jenny visiting for the week with their parents, but their parents were coming too! H&B had met Jerry and Jenny’s grandparents a few times before, some thirty years before when they - as parents - had brought their children – Jenny and Jerry’s parents – got all of that?
That was the good news, and many guests had been coming to the famous hotel in the mountains for generations. Famous people, like writers and actors, were visitors; and non famous people too – people just like us! The Toy Bears, H&B, had met them all, and most visitors remembered H&B when they saw them again. Most visitors were fond of H&B, even if they were just toys! It was wonderful to see how younger children and most adults were quite respectful of H&B. For them, the Toy Bears were individuals not just ‘stupid toys, useless stuffed bears!’ as some children had called them. Examples of such disrespectful children, were the infamous ‘Terrible Twins’ Tammy and Tommy, who were troublesome ‘long before puberty’!
The receptionist after receiving a phone call, abruptly fainted. When the Hotel Manager restored her with smelling salts, the poor receptionist gave the bad news. Well not really ‘bad news’, just ‘terrible news’ – the ‘Terrible Twins’ were coming too! The ‘good news among the bad news’ is that they were not only coming with their poor, but very loveable, parents - but also with their grandparents too.
The Black Cat had observed all of the to-do at the Reception Area, and reported the ‘bad news among the good news’ to the Toy Bears Hercules and Bubblegum. H&B in turn alerted all of the Hotel Toys and Hotel Pets, and prepared to inform the Animal Council about the impending ‘State of Alert’ with the arrival of the ‘Terrible Twins’. It was practice now to start a ‘Green Alert’ as soon as any potential condition could endanger animals and humans, in and near the hotel. Fans of H&B stories will certainly remember previous ‘Alerts’ during the visits of the ‘Terrible Twins’. It was wise to prepare for the worst, and the Animal Council quietly put the word around to animals and pets in the rest of the village, in the fire brigade, at the police station and hospital.
Actually everybody settled in very well. The three generations around Jenny and Jerry were extremely happy, and the grandparents of Jenny and Jerry became very friendly with the grandparents of Tammy and Tommy. “Hard to believe”, reported the Black Cat to Hercules and Bubblegum, “Tammy and Tommy are almost model children - like Jenny and Jerry. Must be the quieting effect of the grandparents”. Hercules commented “I remember 30 years ago when the grandparents of Tammy and Tommy used to come here with noisy motor bikes. The terrified father of Tammy and Tommy hanging on the back of one bike, with his shaken sister on the other.” Bubblegum went on, “I heard that the grandparents of Jenny and Jerry are also bikers, were also ‘wildies’, and members of ‘Heaven’s Devils’. Perhaps that’s why both sets of grandparents get on so well?”
The Hotel Manager remarked that “I have heard that both sets of grandparents had also been ‘wildies’ - when the age of Tammy and Tommy, but with age they had quietened down. “Trouble seems to jump a generation” suggested the Receptionist, about the contrast in behaviour between the generations.
The next day Hercules and Bubblegum were just about the relax the ‘Green Alert’, when a couple of the hotel’s ‘Mice Squad’ reported overheard conversations of Tammy and Tommy. The ‘Terrible Twins’ had been hanging around the Reception Area a lot in the last few days, and had paid lots of attention when they heard about a famous guest coming. Tammy said to Tommy, “I hear that someone like ‘Herlock Sholmes’ is coming tomorrow. Tommy said, “Never heard of that one, do we have ‘Copyright’ problems?” Tammy replied, “No just the confusion that I always have in mixing up names!” Tommy went on, “Well maybe we can have some fun if we pretend to be the Receptionist and Hotel Manager, and confuse the hotel staff and a few customers!” Tammy went on, “I do get bored with pretending to be a ‘nice one’ when our grandparents are around. They are nice enough to us, but it is boring when they talk always about their visits thirty years ago, even before we were born. When will these grey-haired people realise that there was hardly any human life before we were born!” Tommy paused, “That’s a bit hard Tammy, our grandparents are quite fun”. “Maybe”, said Tammy, “but Grandma said some politician had said exactly that ‘That there was no human life before I was born!’ Well I suppose we can worry about all of that when we get to that age”, said Tommy.
The Black Cat reported to Hercules and Bubblegum that “There may be even be ‘hope for the Terrible Twins’, if they at this age realise that they may grow old with time!” “Well indeed”, remarked Hercules to the Black Cat and Bubblegum, “we had better get on with this story, and not bore the listening children with too much philosophy in one reading!”
Tammy and Tommy were spying on the Reception Area in the late afternoon, when a ‘telegram’ arrived. You may not remember ‘telegrams’ from those ancient days before Internet and Mobile Phones, but they were message delivered on ‘slips of paper’ by a ‘man on a motorbike’! The man on the motorbike was clearly in a hurry when he quickly asked Tammy and Tommy standing at the reception desk, if they could deliver the message for him, before he sped away into the sunset.
Tammy and Tommy first read the message printed onto the ‘slip of paper’. ‘Will arrive much earlier than planned, at approximately midnight tonight. Please be kind enough to have someone wait for me. Yours sincerely, S.H.’. “Great”, guffawed Tommy to Tammy, “we can have fun if we don’t tell the Hotel Receptionist about this, and meet the famous detective all by ourselves!”
Luckily for us, the famous detective, and all of the Hotel Pets and Guests, the Black Cat had observed all of this. Promptly he moved over to the window seat in the lounge where the toy bears H&B were lounging, and it looked as if the Black Cat was in intense conversation with the Toy Bears. Well any disbelievers would just laugh at this point, because everybody knows that cats don’t talk and Toy Bears are just that!
Very rapidly, plans were made by H&B to deal with the upcoming midnight event. When Tammy and Tommy crept down the darkened staircase just before midnight, their eyes glinting mischief, they had no idea that pranks were about to be played on them - not by them! The first prank took place outside the hotel where the taxi of the famous detective was met by a delegation of toys and pets. Luckily Mr. S.H. was very experienced, as all great detectives need to be, and followed immediately the suggestions from the Black Cat and the delegation of toys and pets.
Just after midnight the hotel door bell rang, and Tommy and Tammy opened the door to greet the famous detective. The ‘Terrible Twins’ had made plans to mislead the famous detective by telling him that all of the villains were already locked in the room under the Grand Staircase in the hotel lobby. The ‘Terrible Twins’ planned then to lock the famous detective himself in the same room until morning, when they would blame Jenny and Jerry for high jacking Mr. S.H.
But the ‘person’ at the door did not look at all like Mr. S.H., or any of his known disguises. The apparition wore a long ‘voluminous coat’, a ‘bear-eared’ hat, a big scarf, held a walking stick and announced his name to be ‘Hercules Bearot’. Monsieur Bearot announced he was a famous Belgian detective, with his name written with a ‘t’ at the end which was silent when spoken! He commented to Tommy and Tammy, that they as Receptionist and Hotel Manager were much younger than he expected, but that did not matter. “Unfortunately Mr. S.H. is much delayed, and I ‘Hercules Bearot’ have come in his place to exercise my ‘grey cells’!” explained the apparition.
Tommy and Tammy spontaneously decided for fast improvisation and greeted the ‘voluminous coat’ containing ‘Mr. Bearot’ beneath his bear-eared hat. They obviously decided to carry out their plan with this ‘other famous detective’. “Please come this way Sir,” charmed Tammy with her best girlie voice, as Tommy held back giggles. Tammy and Tommy led the ‘voluminous coat’ with bear-eared hat to the door of the room under the Grand Staircase. From behind the ‘voluminous coat’ with bear-eared hat on top, we could see under the ‘voluminous coat’, Hercules standing on the shoulders of Bubblegum. Tommy and Tammy stepped aside to permit the famous ‘voluminous coat’ detective to enter the room beneath the Grand Staircase. The ‘Terrible Twins’ slammed the door shut and locked the bolts and the key lock. They doubled up laughing and rolled about for a while until they realised that no-one was knocking from the inside of the same door. As they rolled about longer and longer, laughing all the while, Tammy and Tommy did not notice that all of the hotel toys and house pets had assembled in the hotel lobby facing the door of the room under the Grand Staircase.
“Do you think that Mr. Sholmes is all right in there?” asked Tammy, because it was so quiet behind the door. “I suppose you mean ‘Hercules Bearot’ with the silent ‘t’?” asked Tommy.
“Maybe we ought to have a look?” suggested Tammy. She opened the door but no voluminous coat came out from under the Grand Staircase. The ’Terrible Twins’ both went inside to investigate, and then ‘Slam’ - the door was quickly shut. They did not know at all that the toy bears Hercules and Bubblegum were peering down at the activities through the railings of the Grand Staircase. How was this possible you might ask? After about twenty minutes of banging and shouting, Tommy and Tammy must have decided to give up trying to attract attention for the night.
At about six the next morning sirens sounded outside the hotel as the fire-brigade, police wagon and ambulance all arrived outside, each with their pets sitting beside their drivers. The Hotel Manager was giving his report to the local village detective - who was ‘not-yet’ famous, “I heard the Black Cat howling at the door to the room beneath the Grand Staircase, and went to look. I don’t know who called the Fire Brigade and Ambulance Service, but I see that they are labelled for ‘Green Alert’”. When the ‘not-yet famous local detective’ asked the Hotel Manager about ‘Green Alert’, the Receptionist just pointed mysteriously towards the hotel toys sitting with H&B on some ‘voluminous coat’ on the seat in the hotel lounge.
“And what happened to the ‘first famous detective’, Mr. Sholmes?”, we hear the attentive, but sleepy, children ask you - the reader. Well, the Hotel Manager had already explained it to us, “Mr. Sholmes is actually an actor who lives all-of-the-time in the role as famous detective, and he always comes here for his holidays. He is well known to the whole staff, both human and animal. He joins in all of the games and activities and it is rumoured that he can talk to the House Pets, Hotel Toys and pets of the Guests. Mr. Sholmes and Mr. Bearot have shared many adventures together. Maybe we will hear about some of them soon!”
COMMENTS (0)