Heroes Forever

Let me 'splain...about five years ago , I was teaching third grade in a "portable classroom." It was about this time of year, because our class was hatching chicks. May is the time of year we usually do this. We were lucky and successfully hatched three babies. Over the course of the next three weeks, I would take care of these three beautiful birds as they quickly matured. Each day, I'd take them home and let them roam around in the tall (by their standards) grass of my backyard. They would always hang together and strut around, chasing and gobbling ants and other wild insects. I would lay down on the cool grass and watch them as an interested overlord. One day in class, the three chicks were roaming my classroom when I led my children into a free-writing period. I usually join my kids in such games, so I was staring around the room looking for inspiration, and suddenly this silly story leaped into my head. Fifteen minutes later, I had scrawled out this silly little tale. Third graders dig stories like this.

Heroes Forever

“Bandidos!” Some people screamed as they waddled past. For me, however, they will always be my heroes- “The Three Bambinos.”

I don’t know where they came from, perhaps an egg somewhere in the wilds of New Guinea, but The Three Bambinos became crusaders for all that is true and good in the world.

Scarf was their leader. His blackened, masked face hid his true identity and emotions. He was a bold pecker with big feet. Voltrox, with his streaked face and perky manner was the most dashing of the group. You could always count on him for a kind word or a quick scolding. Wedge was the smallest. He was always tagging along watching the others. I suspect he was the brains of their operation.

I first met The Three Bambinos on a late summer evening. The drought sun had seared away practically all crops on my dusty farm. The previous day, as I was about to harvest the remnants of my pathetic corn crop, a hoard of grasshoppers descended from a dust devil and began devouring the surviving corn kernels.

Just as the munching jumpers were about to destroy my life, THE THREE BAMBINOS zapped onto the scene seemingly out of nowhere. With a frenzy-like that of an Imperial Skywalker attacking Tatooui, they quickly gobbled up the invading hoard and saved my crop from total destruction.

They didn’t say anything as they strutted away; they just chirped happily through the sweltering moonlight. A funny thing happened as they walked away, the sky clouded; and a beautiful, welcomed rain began to fall.

They’re not bandidos to me... they are The Three Bambinos! My friends.