Eamonn the Bat

Eamonn the bat

Spread 1

Eamonn was a bat. But while most bats loved the dark, he just loved the light.

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Every morning when all his family and friends were going to sleep after a busy night of hunting and fun and frivolity he was just getting up, ready to seize the day.

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“You will never believe what the light is like!” he would tell his friends. “All the views you can see, the water- that has actually been warmed by the sun- that you can swim in! The animals you can meet..”

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You see, being a bat was pretty lonely sometimes as you only really got to meet other bats as everyone else was sleeping and all you saw was dark, unless you had super x-ray vision which poor Eamonn didn’t.

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His friends were just not interested in doing anything different though. But, Eamonn was someone who knew his mind and would not be put off a project very easily so he kept going.. he just loved seeing all the wonders that the world had to offer in the light of the day.

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He directed koalas to eucalyptus leaves, settled a kangaroo love dispute, saved a platypus from a fight, found a kookaburra’s laugh but still none of his bat friends would join him.

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So, Eamonn got used to exploring Australia in the light on his own and got to know the whole island pretty well. Being the only bat did have its advantages sometimes; he had the pick of nectar from any flower that he liked as there were no other bats to take it first!

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All the nectar that is except for one plant which rather puzzled him as it looked very beautiful inside but was pulled together so tightly that it looked more like a stress ball than anything resembling a plant.

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He stood and watched it all day once just to see if it would open but there was no movement, not even a flicker. He tried tickling it with a stick but that made no difference. He tried creating a strong wind with his wings to force it to open but that made no difference either.

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One day he asked his bat friends and they said... “Oh, that flower hates the light, just like (most) bats! It only opens in the dark.”

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“Well, what can I do?” Eamonn thought to himself. He didn’t want to go back to living in the dark all the time again just to see that flower.

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He was flying around a fig tree and had an idea. He collected a lot of the fig’s leaves and started sewing them together into a beautiful quilt and then carefully draped it over the flower and himself one day and they were plunged into total darkness.

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The flower slowly opened.... “It’s working!” he thought to himself and the flower was indeed very beautiful. “We can’t continue like this forever,” he thought to himself though after a day of being under the quilt with the beautiful flower.

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So, gradually, he started to remove the quilt, a little each time he visited, so the flower got used to the light and, finally, the day came when the quilt was removed completely and the flower stayed open even in the heat of the mid-day sun.

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Eamonn was happy as could be and went back to his usual life making friends with lots of other animals and plants and always ready to help out where he could, but he always made sure to visit the beautiful flower each day just to check she hadn’t hidden herself away again.

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The flower now had the power to open in the light or the dark. The whole world was her oyster thanks to her bat friend.

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Your life on this earth is short so make sure that every day is as bright and beautiful as it possibly can be.