Flip Flop and the Penguin World Cup

The World Cup approaches and the Penguin side desperately needs an edge against their singuin nemeses. Will Flip-Flop be ready to foot the bill?

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Hello. Welcome to Stories of Wonderful Children. I'm Dan Wendellin, your host and storyteller. When my children are younger, I told them new bedtime stories every night to help them go to sleep. Now I'm sharing the best of those stories and a few new ones with you. I hope you enjoy these stories for wonderful children.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

Flip flop was sitting in the Elysium, and it had been very quiet in the Elysium. And he decided to go for his usual walk.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

And just quiet or too quiet?

SPEAKER_02 0:55

Just quiet. And as he was going for his walk, he saw a bunch of shapes emerging from a cave up on a hill above the Elysium.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

Penguins.

SPEAKER_02 1:07

He stopped to look at them, and as they made their way down the hill, sliding on their bellies, he saw that they were indeed penguins. There were f six of them. And as they arrived at one at the front popped up and said, Hello there, are you Flipflop? And Flipflop said, Yes, I am. I don't believe we've met before. And the penguin said, Well then, it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Fundle. And I'm the captain of the penguin soccer team. And we have a problem that we're hoping you could help us out with. And Flipflop said soccer, huh? I didn't know the penguins had a soccer team. Oh yes. Well we get a soccer team together and we practice quite a lot, because once a year we play soccer against the singwins. You do? said Flipflop. How did I never hear about this? Oh, I'm afraid it's very much a secret. Very hush hush. We wouldn't want the Frost Fairies or anyone else to find out about it because they wouldn't let us play anymore. And although we don't really get along, singguins and penguins, we do enjoy playing a good game of soccer against each other. But here's the problem. We've been training all year long, and our goalie, I'm afraid, has gotten sick, injured, actually. He had a bit of a run-in with the sea lion, and so he has an injured flipper, and so he can't tend goal for us, and we're afraid we'll have to rather forfeit this year's game to the sanguines. And Flipflop said, okay. So why are you coming to see me? Well, as it would happen, we know that you play soccer, and that you played soccer for the cat team that won the All Creature Championship in 1987 and 1988 and 1989. Well yes, said Flipflop, but that was a long time ago. Uh uh, no false modesty, please. You, sir, are a goalie, and we are penguins who are in need of a goalie. So, will you help us out? Well, I don't know, said Flipflop. I'd need some time to get in shape. When's the game? The penguin said, Let me see. He looked up at the sky.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

The sun looks uh about that far above the horizon, so I'd say about an hour.

SPEAKER_02 3:37

An hour, said Flipflop. An hour from now? Well actually, said the penguin, in about fifty eight minutes now, 'cause you've been talking so long. Are you coming or not? Flipflop said Do you have another candidate? No, I'm afraid not. Most penguins don't play soccer, just the ones who are trained to play against the Siguins won't see us, so if it's not you, it's nobody. Well, said Flipflop, I guess I'll give it a shot. You don't have anything to lose, huh? That's the spirit, said the penguin. Come along now. So the penguin started waddling back up the hill. Flipflop ran back to his cabin in the center of the Elysium and got out some warm clothes. Since he had been outside the Elysium in the South Pole before, and even during the summer it was quite cold. He got out his shin guards and his goalie gloves and his goalie shirt, which he always kept in a chest under his bed. Right next to his chest full of practical jokes. And then he went racing up the hill after the penguins. Penguins don't go uphill very fast, they go downhill very fast when they're sliding on their bellies. But they don't go uphill very fast. So he caught up of them pretty quickly. That's the spirit, said the penguins. Come along in and they flopped down on their bellies and hit the ice slide of the cave. And Flipflop, who had done this before, also flopped down with them. That led from one part of the penguin country to another. As they went down, they went right and then left, and then they took a third passage going down that Flipflop had never taken before. Before long, they were shooting out in a huge underground cavern. Flipflop noticed that it was relatively warm for the Antarctic. It was still cold enough for ice to freeze, but not so cold as it was outside. He also saw that there were large numbers of sanguines and penguins lined around the lined up around the edges of this cave, and that they were already cheering. As soon as they arrived, the penguins began to make their way down to the soccer field, which was a rather unusual soccer field. All of the soccer fields Flipflop had ever played on were covered with grass, but this soccer field was covered with sort of a rough ice. It was almost more like a hockey rink than it was like a soccer field.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

Like um little icicles?

SPEAKER_02 6:32

Sort of, but not like little icicles, more like chunks of ice. Little grebles of ice. So that it wasn't smooth, so you didn't slip quite as easily. Um Flip Flop put his cleats on and found that he could move over the ice relatively easily. Still, he said, I don't see him throwing myself down on this stuff in order to try to stop a ball. It would hurt. Apparently they had arrived just in time for the beginning of the game, because the referee, who was a walrus, was already standing at the center of the field with the ball between his two tusks. Flip flop made his way to the goal and watched as the penguins flopped onto their bellies and slid across the ice. The Singguin team on the other side glided just above the ice. And then with a sort of roar, the walrus tossed the soccer ball down, and the game was begun. The penguins got the ball first. And they were really quite good. They were great at passing the ball back and forth and having the ball be just where the next penguin was just as it reached there. It was a good thing that they were good passers too, because they were not as fast as the Singwans. The Singwins, because they were not really sliding or running, they were flying. We were probably almost twice as fast as the penguins. But the penguins, with their excellent passing, managed to keep the ball away from them. And soon they had worked their way down to the other end of the field, and there was a he heard a flip flop could hear a solid kick, but the Singguin goalie was there, and the ball caught the ball between his flippers and tossed it out to midfield, and then the Singwins were coming back towards him. The Singguins did not pass to each other very much at all. They relied on their speed to make it downfield, and the rest of the penguin team was going to have a hard time catching up, so it was just the two defenders and flip flop. The Singguin got around the first defender, but the second defender slid into him, and the ball popped free, but another Sengwin was there, booting it towards Flipflop, and Flipflop leapt to catch it but missed, and the ball went right into the goal. He heard a great cry of all the sanguines in the cave. And all the penguins let out a sigh. Huh, thought Flipflop. I really am out of practice. Well, that's the last goal they score on me, he said to himself. But it wasn't. The Singguins got the ball again the next time, and this time, just when Flipflop thought he knew they had he had their number, the Singguins surprised him. They passed, and when he was defending the goal on one side, they passed to a player on the other side, and that was that. Well the penguin team called a timeout, and they all gathered in the middle of the field, and they did not like the score two for two to nothing. Alright, lads. We've got to get this together. We've got we can't go in to halftime behind by two. Flipflop stiffen up that spine. We know you've got this. Just concentrate. And come on, keep passing, we've got a score one on them before halftime. Well, Flipflop's heart sank when he saw that the sanguines had again gotten the ball away from the penguins almost immediately, and they came streaking down the field. The lead sanguine dodged past one penguin defender, and then the other, and then the ball was flying right towards Flipflop and right between his paws, which he clamped over the ball, his claws just barely scratching the surface. And then he heaved one big paw back and threw it over the heads of all the sanguines, right into the midst of the penguin attackers. And they were down the field. The sanguines, even with their speed, could not catch up with them, and the sanguine defenders could not by themselves stop all the penguin passers. This time the penguins had a smooth move. When they got to the goal, the penguin, instead of taking a kick, passed it to his teammate. And when the senguin flew over, the teammate passed it back, and the first penguin hit it with his beak just as it flew over, and it flew into the goal. And flip flop went, Skoll! And just as he did, his own yell was drowned out by the walrus, yelling, Huffton. So the singlins went back to their end, and the penguins went back to their end of flip flop. That's what I'm talking about, said the penguin team captain. That was a beautiful save, flip flop, and you set us up for the goal beautifully. Well, said Flipflop, I'm doing the best I can. Well, I think we've got this. We're going to beat them. I can feel it in my bone, said the penguin. Don't worry about being behind by one. We can beat them. Flipflop isn't going to let any more through, is he? Flipflop thought about it for a moment.

SPEAKER_00 12:11

I think he meant I could feel it in my blubber.

unknown 12:15

Fliplop said.

SPEAKER_00 12:16

What's a blubber?

SPEAKER_02 12:18

Blubber is sort of a layer of fat that creatures who live in the water a lot used to help keep warm. Fish don't fish don't have it, right?

SPEAKER_00 12:31

Uh whales.

SPEAKER_02 12:35

Whales have it primarily. And flip flop said nope. Said nope. This is my goal, and no more balls are crossing it. And when they started the second half, that was the way it turned out. The Singwin team came after him again and again. Passes, cross passes, centering passes, kicks from way back, kicks from close up, kicks coming from up in the air. He stopped them all. Some of them he batted away with his back paws, some of them he batted away with his front paws, some of them he caught and threw back to the penguin offense. It went on like that, but the Singguin defenders had learned to break up the penguin team's passes. And they were not scoring. And the Singguin team had a breakaway. Three of the Singguen offense had gotten past the Penguin Defenders, and they thought they were going to score for sure this time. They took a kick and another Singguin redirected it, and Flip Flop still to this day does not know how he managed to change directions in midair like he did and f snag the ball just with the back of the tip of one paw, just enough to knock it up over the top of the goalpost and avoid the goal. But he hit the ice with a hoof and it knocked the air out of him. And he was slow in getting up. Oh, he thought, I hope they can keep the ball down at the other end. The team captain came back to take the kick. And he said, Don't worry, flip flop, this one's going in. And he took three steps back and made a beautiful kick right to midfield to the left penguin striker, who took three steps forward and then kicked it over just in front of the penguin's right striker, who managed to dodge between two sanguine defenders and kick it up toward the goal, and the sanguine goalie was there and pecked it away, but it took a bad bounce right to the other penguin striker who kicked it behind the Singguin, and it was a goal! And the game was tied up with only a minute left. Well, the penguins got the goal, got the ball back, and they began to make their way down towards the Singguin side. And the Singguin defenders got it away from them, kicked it back to midfield, and here came the Singguins again. But the penguin defenders got it away, kicked it to midfield. Oh, the Singguins got it back, and they kicked it down towards flip-flop. And fortunately, they kicked it from a ways away, and it wasn't going very fast because he was starting to feel sore. And he picked it up and threw it to midfield. The penguin team captain got it and he kicked it right down the field between two of the Singguan defenders and kicked it straight at the goal. And the Singguen goalie got to it just at the last second and slapped it away with a flipper and it went out of bounds just as the walrus called Game Tagame. And both sides cheered because they loved a good soccer game no matter who won. And then both teams lined up and did something that they only ever did once a year at soccer games, which was they f shook flippers, except for flip flop, who shook paws. It was the first time he had ever shook flippers with a sing button, and he whispered to the team captain, This is sort of weird. Yeah, alright. I believe you it is sort of weird. But it's nice sometimes to show a little sportsmanship, even to people you even to things you don't like. Yeah, said Flipflop. Kinda is. Sorry we didn't win, he said. Oh no. The last three years we've lost. A tie is great. And next year next year we'll take 'em. Yeah, said Flipflop. One condition. Next year I just want to come cheer. And the penguin looked at him and said, Well, we'll have to see about that, won't we? And after that they had a big party with lots of slushies of all different flavors, because penguins, given that they live in ice and snow, make the best slushies in the world. And Flip Flop had three a cherry one, a lime one, and a chocolate one. Which he didn't even know you could make. And then he went home and crawled into his warm bed at the Elysium and slept really well, because he was tired.

SPEAKER_01 17:33

Thanks for listening to Stories for Wonderful Children. I hope you've enjoyed this story. Our theme music was created by Brandon Thompson. My thanks to Silas Wendelin for creating the art for our social media and podcast cover icon. I created and told these stories, but all credit for the witty commentary and clever questions goes to my children. If you'd like to get in touch with the show, please email us at stories for wonderfulchildren at gmail.com. And if you enjoy the show, please tell a friend about it. And remember, tell someone you love a story.