zorzLe:OUTCASTS WIN THE DAY

HOW FRED & AUDREY CHANGED THE WORLD© David Stephen Ayliffe 2015, Mt Evelyn Victoria

ILLUSTRATIONS WITH GRATEFUL THANKSBY THE WONDERFUL TERRI AYLIFFE....

zorzLe:OUTCASTS WIN THE DAY

HOW FRED & AUDREY CHANGED THE WORLD© David Stephen Ayliffe 2015, Mt Evelyn Victoria

Fred and Audrey Zorzle were very ordinary people but from the first day they rode in to LingerLonger Town on their ancient bicycle local people didn’t want them to stay.“Go away!” they’d say. “You’re not welcome here. You’re not like us!”“You’re not real people, people.”

There was a good reason why people thought that way.Everyone in LingerLonger Town was cuddly. The Zorzles were not at all.There were big people and short people, fat people and thin people but every single LingerLonger town person was cuddly. Some very cuddly.

Fred and Audrey Zorzle were not cuddly. There was nothing about them you could cuddle anywhere. You see, they were, in fact, stick people. Stick arms, stick legs, stick bodies and their round smiling flat heads. No, there was nothing about them to cuddle and that made them very different.But that wasn’t all.

Everyone in LingerLonger Town drove fast cars and lived in big houses but the Zorzles rode their very old bicycle and lived in a tent on the road into town. That was very strange

“Why?” They’d ask as they drank coffee in the local coffee shop.“Why?” They’d ask as they waited at the school for their children.“Why?” They’d ask as they did their shopping.“Why?” They’d ask on the golf course.

A movement began in the town in the coffee shop, and the school, and the shop, and the golf course and even, you won’t believe this, in the church, synagogue and mosque!

Local people wanted the Zorzle’s to go away. Now.

They went to the Mayor in the Big Council building. They demanded he do something.So the Mayor, Mr Big, Percy Big, called a meeting. He invited everyone to come and he filled the Big Town Hall (named after his great great grandfather Sir Henry Big who was the first person to live in Lingerlonger Town, before LingerLonger Town was a town at all.)

At the meeting everyone talked about how bad the Zorzles were living in their tent and riding their very old bicycle. “They’re not like us” they’d say. “They’re NOT cuddly, NOT cuddly at all!””, and lots of people agreed.“They’ve got to go”. “Now”

Then a little old very cuddly lady, Mrs Pin, called out from the back. “Wait a minute. When I was very very sick and couldn’t get myself a cup of tea Fred and Audrey Zorzle rode their very old bicycle to my house with a thermos of tea and one of Audrey’s feel better biscuits. It made me feel better straight away. I like them.”

“Hmmm….” people said around the Big Hall.“When we had a car accident in my big fast car,” Bertie Kettle said, “I was lying on the road and couldn’t move when the Zorzle’s rode up on their very old bicycle with a thermos of tea and one of Audrey’s feel better biscuits. It made me feel better straight away. I like them.”

“Hmmm….” people said around the Big Hall.

Then one by one other people got up and told similar stories about the Zorzles and how they were always there when people were in need. Helping people everywhere and not looking for thanks.

There was a lot of “hmmmm...ing going on around the Big Hall.”

Finally the Mayor Mr Big, stood up and said that he owed his life to the Zorzles. When he collapsed on the golf course with a Big attack of the old Big problem he wouldn’t have recovered if Fred and Audrey Zorzle hadn’t ridden up on their very old bicycle with a thermos of tea and one of Audrey’s Feel Better Biscuits.

That made all the difference for him and he was able to finish his game.

“No more talk of the Zorzles not being people, people,” he said firmly.“No more talk about them NOT being cuddly, NOT at all!“And no more talking about them having to leave and not live here,” he said even MORE firmly.

“The Zorzles are better people than many of us have been. I am going to create an award to honour them and I’m calling it “The Zorzle”. It will be given to good ordinary people like them every year. People who care about people and do what they can to help others.”

And so it was that the Zorzle Award was given out every year in Linger Longer Town on Zorzle Day and Fred and Audrey were allowed to stay. In fact local people built them a nice big house in town near the Mayor’s Big house. And they stopped talking about them NOT being cuddly, NOT at all.”

And guess who received the very first Zorzle Award in Linger Longer Town?The Zorzle’s. Fred and Audrey. And they put their award on the kitchen shelf just near Audrey’s Feel Better Biscuits Jar.