A story, why the platypus looks so funny. Copyright Paul Audcent 1998
One day, last summer, two little animals were sunning themselves under the hot Australian sun, listening to the westerly wind whistling through the gum trees. It made each leaf in turn tremble in excitement. Koala and Frog, each dreamily gazing at the rainbow colours of the darting dragon-flies, were suddenly roused by a ‘scamper…scamper’ noise on the other side of the creek. So they slowly crept, that is, one crept and the other hopped, toward where they had heard the strange sound.
“There he is, THERE HE IS”, shouted Koala, so loudly that Frog, caught amid hops lost his balance and landed on his nose.
“Where?” said Frog very unhappily, “And anyway who is HE?”
“It’s a platypus,” yelled Koala greatly excited.
“Oh” said Frog in wonderment, “I’ve never ever seen a platypus.”
“And you won’t either, at least not in daytime” Koala cleaned his furry ears.
“Why not?” said Frog as he hopped under the branch of a fallen tree.
“Because….” Began Koala swelling his chest, “because he’s a little odd, doesn’t like to come out to be seen, if you see what I mean.”
“No I don’t see” replied Frog from under the branch.
“Do you want to know why?” asked Koala.
“Yes please tell me,” said Frog who was very polite by nature, so he hopped out and sat close to Koala full of expectation.
“Well I’ll begin,” and Koala began by sweeping a little pile of eucalyptus leaves together and then sitting comfortably right on top.
Frog had often tried to copy Koala’s ways, but had never mastered the actual sitting on the topmost part, often he would fall right over, so this time he lay down and lent his head on the pile.
“Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, there lived a furry little creature who was VERY short tempered, and NEVER had a good word to say about anyone.”
“Was that the platypus,” asked Frog.
“Yes,” said Koala crossly, “now don’t interrupt…now where was I.” Koala cleared his throat, “As I was saying, Platypus never liked anyone and I suppose nobody liked him, as he was ALWAYS complaining. Well one day Mother Nature asked him why he was always disgruntled and Platypus replied quite nastily to her, that everybody else was much better looking than himself, and that it WASN’T fair at all. Mother Nature smiled and said it wasn’t so, Platypus was VERY handsome and was certainly a credit to creation. However no amount of flattery would change silly Platypus’s
mind and he would continue to be bad tempered until something was done about his appearance. He looked a little like me in fact,” Koala sat proudly up on his leaves. “Froggy are you listening?”
“Um,” said Frog as he tried to imagine Platypus looking like Koala.
“Very well. Now Mother Nature being a kindly person told Platypus that, since he wasn’t satisfied, he could have three special wishes to change his appearance. Platypus was so full of himself that he dashed away to his little home on the edge of the creek without even thanking Mother Nature for the wishes she had given him. In his home he thought over and over again how he could improve how he looked.”
“Suddenly a large flock of ducks came swooping by and landed near a pool in the creek, they sat there on the water bobbing about, noisily dipping down to chew the weed.”
‘My,’ said Platypus, what fine heads they have I do wish I could have a head like that.’ Before he could utter another word there was a puff of smoke and his little furry mouth changed into a head with a large flat beak. Just as he was about to look in the water to inspect his new face he spotted a large beaver on the bank, thumping her tail ready to swim to some branches.
‘My,’ said Platypus, ‘she has a lovely tail, so beautiful and useful too, how I wish I could have such a tail as that.’ Before you could say jumping frogs, Platypus had a huge tail exactly like the beavers. ‘Goodness me’ cried Platypus in delight, as he swished his new tail this way and that. ‘And so much larger than my old one, how fortunate I am.’
As he turned around and contemplated thumping his magnificent tail on the ground there was a knock on his door and he peeked out to see who was there. It was one of the ducks. They had lost their way and ‘Please would Platypus direct them to the North’. Just as Platypus was about to slam the door in the ducks beak, he looked down and saw the ducks webbed feet.
‘Why have you got those funny webbed feet?’ he asked.
‘To swim better with, and walk on the mud without sinking,’ said the duck.
‘My,’ said Platypus ‘I wish I could have feet like you.’ Well, you guessed it,
Platypus looked down and his little furry paws had quite changed into large webbed feet. The duck was so shaken that it flew off in fright, but Platypus still banged the door after it had gone. He even had forgot to tell the duck which way was North.
“Well what do you think of it so far,” Koala looked down at Frog sprawled on the ground.
“Um..but it doesn’t have a happy ending, I like all stories to have a happy ending.” Frog looked upset.
“Its not ended yet,” said Koala quickly, “There’s more to come. To continue, Platypus was most pleased with himself, in fact quite overjoyed, so he decided he’d go out that very day to show off to all the animals in the bush. He tried on every pair of shorts, every pair of socks, and shoes, every shirt in his cupboard but none would fit him. Determined and being very stubborn he decided to go out as he was, anyway the other animals could see his new shape all the better. So out he went his head held high and a smile on his Beak lips jauntily striding along until he reached the kangaroos in the pasture and the cockatoos in the trees above. He waved and bowed and thumped his new tail, but no one waved back. Mr. Wombat gave him a very wide berth and looked at him hard.
‘Why Platypus WHAT ON EARTH have you done to yourself?’ he asked.
Platypus ignored him totally as he paraded himself along every path.
‘Poor soul’ said the kangaroos, ‘How terrible,’
‘Oh gracious how could that good looking Platypus change LIKE THAT.’ Whispered the cockatoos.
Alas the Kookaburras were not so polite, they laughed and laughed so much that they even do it to this very day. Poor silly Platypus heard them clearly and rushed to the nearest pond to see for himself.
‘Oh my', he cried, 'Oh my, I wish I was back to being my old self again,’ but alas nothing happened, he had already used up all his wishes. He would now remain like this forever.
“The end” said Koala, looking pleased with himself.
“ All good stories should have some sort of moral in them,” Frog said a little sadly.
“Well mine did, you obviously weren’t thinking hard enough.”
“I was, I listened from when you started, to when you said ‘the end'. I want a moral or a happy ending please,” Frog was very insistent.
“Very well,” said Koala slowly, “ You will get the moral but the story stays as it is. The moral is, that everybody should be happy being themselves and not being something they aren’t.” Koala looked down at Frog to check he understood, but Frog had fallen asleep, his croaky snores coming from under Koala’s pile of leaves. In the distance Platypus had also heard Koala’s story as he lay hidden in the undergrowth, and he crept out with a tear in each eye.
“Come on out Platty, and stay awhile with us,” called Koala.
“Why?” cried Platypus.
“Because its good to have friends who don’t care what you look like, only how you behave, that’s the most important thing. So forget the silly Kookaburras and be yourself inside at least.”
So Platypus ambled over to the pile and curled up to sleep in the sun, for the first time in many, many years, and Koala curled his own furry paws around Platypus’s webbed feet. They all slept soundly on that pile of leaves shaded by the tall eucalyptus tree in my back garden.
And that is why sometimes you will see a platypus in daytime, swimming or padding along a creek bank, off to meet his friends.