A Story with a Moral

I'm going to give you the moral of the story before the story begins. I know it's customary to bung the moral in at the conclusion of the tale, for those who may not have caught on to it during the reading, but I prefer to get necessary things out of the way and then start on the fun stuff.

So - the moral of the story I am about to embark on is this:
If you park your pizza in the park, don't expect nature to be kind.

There. That's done. Now I can tell the story freely and without the weight on my head that I have to bung the moral once I type 'finish'.

So ...

Once upon a time there was a young lad named Toby, who loved pizza. He loved pizza so much, he'd even exchange a piece of chocolate cake for a piece of pizza. All the other boys in the vicinity took full advantage of this and gained many a piece of chocolate cake when their doting mothers thought they were snacking on pizza.

Toby's fondness for pizza was known to everyone in the town he lived in, and even some folks in the neighbouring town. So one day, when a rich kid threw a tantrum that there wasn't enough corn on his corn pizza and demanded another, and his doting Dad endorsed this, Leo, who ran the pizza shop and found himself with an extra pizza, phoned Toby to come over and get it.

Toby dropped whatever he was doing (he happened to have been cuddling his cat, which fell on its feet and ran away) and went to Leo's pizza shop and got his free pizza.

He was walking through the park when the catastrophe occurred. He spotted Lydia and her Mom on their daily ramble. Now Lydia's Mom was a teacher and big on teaching kids to share - especially other kids to share what they had with Lydia. And the thought of sharing his corn pizza made Toby quail.

He did what any boy would do under the circumstances. He hid the pizza behind a convenient bush, to collect when the park was de-Lydiaed, and free of her Mom.

He tried to look innocent as he passed them with his empty hands, on the way home. He threw a nonchalant 'Hello, Good afternoon," their way and moved on.

At home, he set the egg timer, calculating the minutes it would take ma-daughter to be out of park range.

There were two minutes to go when the second catastrophe hit. A bolt of lightning and a rumble of thunder.

Followed by rain.

Pots and pans and buckets and pails of rain. Relentless, restless rain.

Now, all of us know that nature can be kind, and nature can be cruel.

Nature is kind to the wee nestling just learning to chirp and fly.

Nature is kind to the tall giraffe, putting the most succulent leaves at the top of the trees so he can eat without stooping or getting a pain in the neck.

Nature is cruel to the deer who lags behind at the watering hole, he shall be the lioness's prey.

And nature is cruel to a piece of pizza left behind a bush in the park.

The rain got into the cheese. It got into the corn. It got among the tomatoes. It loosed the topping from its moorings, till the topping floated away and disintegrated. It soaked into the base till the base turned into a pulpy mess -- and disintegrated.

In short, a pizza in the park becomes a non-pizza during a thunderstorm.

Toby was all for running to rescue his snack - he could brave a mere storm for his pizza - but his cat mewed as he was opening the front door, his mother heard the cat, and forbade him to go out. (Moral here - don't drop your cats when excited about your pizza.)

Anyway, his mother made him sit by her on the sofa and read him stories till the storm had passed.

When the sun was shining again, Toby went to search for his precious morsel, but not a trace could he find. In desperation, he searched behind every bush in the park, but no, no, no clue that a pizza had ever lain there.

"TOBY!"

He straightened and peered around the bush. It was Lydia, followed by Lydia's mother.

"Hallo, Toby dear," Lydia's mother said. "You ran by us so fast we didn't have time to tell you. Then the storm came so we took shelter in the park hut and saw you return."

"Toby!" Lydia said, "It's my birthday on the 3rd and Leo's is having an all-you-can-eat deal on that day. I'm inviting my friends. Come for my pizza party!"

The other moral of the story is check with Lydia's Mom what she's telling you before you run home.