Juju: A Short Story

Illustration #1 (Izzy and JuJu on the phone with Papa)

It’s a sunny Sunday morning in July. The twin detectives are rolling their suitcases with their T.D.I. bags down the stairs when the phone rang.

“I’ll get it! That must be Papa” Izzy said as he dropped his bags at the bottom of the stairs and ran to the phone.

“Hello! Helloooo! Oh hello Papa! How are you?” exclaimed a very excited Izzy.

“Hello son son. How you do?” replied Izzy and JuJu’s grandfather with a very thick Jamaican accent. This means “Hello my grandson. How are you doing?” Papa real name was Isreal Blake. Izzy was named in honor of him. Papa lived on the small island of Jamaica in the West Indies. He was a wonderful and kind man that loved to raise animals and grow

“Fears?” asked Izzy.

What fears? added JuJu.

Just then, Pagey flew onto JuJu’s bag and began to tell the twin detectives all about Beris, Johnny and their crew. He explained how scared the rest of the islands were because of them. The stories were so horrifying that Izzy and JuJu stopped walking to listen to Pagey. Since Izzy did not communicate with animals, JuJu repeated everything Pagey said to Izzy. “Come on guys. We have to go through immigration, get our bags, and find Papa.” called Daddy.

As they grabbed their mom and dad’s hands, Izzy responded to Juju “ Tell them to get all the leaders and meet us under the Ackee tree in the front yard at Papa’s in Petersfield.”

“Papa you would not believe the plane ride. All the fish and dolphins and whales made signs welcoming the twins." said mommy.

“They made a great amount of noise as we got off the plane too,” offered daddy. “Good grief, I don’t remember Jamaica being this noisy.”

Illustration #5 Papa and twins in the car

As they traveled from the airport, Papa whispered to Izzy and JuJu. “Pssst! You and I share a secret. Not sure why your mommy can’t hear them but I understand the animals and insects

Snakes and crocodiles have attempted to eat him. He was sick and tired of feeling so afraid all the time. As for Beris, he was also tired of being attacked. One day while drinking sweet nectar from a flower in the cow pasture, a cow named Boodoo almost ate him. Now his wing was broken. He could not fly anymore. What’s even worse the cow did not even apologize. Everywhere he went people, animals and insects try to hurt him. All the bad treatment has made Johnny and Beris very angry. So they decided to put a stop to this once and for