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Copyright (C) 1995-2008 Ruth Ingulsrud
This puppet show was written with young students in mind, of course, but its impetus also comes from a lower back injury I sustained while trying to close a heavy door that was firmly latched to the wall. In hindsight, I suppose I should have asked someone else to do it, but I didn't think it would be such a difficult task. Besides, teachers are supposed to be independent and capable at all times, right?
Asking for Help
Annie the Chipmunk:
Oh dear. Oh dearie, dear, dear! How could I be so clumsy? How could I be so silly?
Mr. Lion:
Well, hello Annie. How goes it? Not so good, huh?
Annie:
Everyone’s mad at me and now I don’t know what to do.
Lion:
What’s wrong? Who could be mad at you? You’re always so helpful to everyone.
Annie:
I like helping out my friends, but I sure don’t like asking for help. I like to do things by myself.
Lion:
That’s good. Nothing wrong with that.
Annie:
Except this time I should have asked for help because now Rita Rabbit and Sammy the Snake and even Lucky Duck are all mad at me.
Lion:
Whoa! Slow down Annie. You’d better start at the beginning.
Annie:
Okay. You see, I found this big beautiful nut and I just wanted to crack it open and eat it and how was I supposed to know that it was a hickory nut, the hardest nut in the whole forest? So I tried and tried to crack it open, but I couldn’t do it.
Lion:
So then you asked for help, right?
Annie:
Well… no. I wanted to do it by myself. If I asked for help, someone might call me a baby and laugh at me.
Lion:
No one would call you a baby! Everyone has to ask for help sometime. But why are all those animals mad at you?
Annie:
I decided to roll a big rock onto the nut to try and crack it open. So I rolled the rock off the hill and it fell on the nut and cracked it open, sure enough, but then it just kept right on rolling.
It rolled through Rita Rabbit’s garden and smooshed all her tomatoes. It rolled right over Lucky Duck’s half-built nest and flattened it. Then it rolled to the bottom of the hill and stopped right on top of Sammy’s snake hole and he couldn’t get out.
Lion:
Wow. That’s a lot of trouble just for one little nut.
Annie:
Yeah, and it all happened just because I wouldn’t ask for help.
Lion:
Next time you have a tough nut to crack, just ask me, Annie.
Annie:
I didn’t know that lions could crack nuts with their teeth like chipmunks.
Lion:
Oh no, we don’t. I just use a nutcracker!