The further
adventures of Marty and Gillian the motorcycling giraffes.
Story 8 Marty and
Gillian’s wonderful New Years Eve adventure
Marty and Gillian are motorcycling giraffes who live in the
big Kenyan city of Nairobi
But what Marty and Gillian really like to do is to whizz
around on their motorcycles and have lots of adventures.
As it is new years even Marty had finished his work early
but Gillian had not started work yet, as she and Gloria are going to set up
their stall in Uhuru Park ( a big park in the centre of Nairobi) and work all
night selling smoothies to the crowd that will gather there to celebrate the
new year arriving.
As well as Gillian and Gloria working at Uhuru Park ,
Marty and Gillian other friends, Peter, Victor (the trainee window cleaner),
Emmanuelle (a farmer) and Moira (Emmanuelle’s girlfriend) will all be joining
them at Uhuru Park
Marty had agreed to go along with Gillian to help set up the
stall because Gloria and Gillian wanted to put a big banner reading
“lovely smoothies kwa ajili ya kuuza” (“Lovely cool smoothies for sale”)
High above their stall and of course Marty and Gillian are
very useful when you need something put up high, as they can reach the top of
the poles to the banner up with ease.
So after Marty had a quick wash and freshen up, they set of
for Uhuru Park
It didn’t take Mary and Gillian long before they reached Uhuru Park
Gloria can't help Peter carry the heavy boxes as she is
expecting their first baby and is now quite heavily pregnant.
Peter and Marty helped Gillian and Gloria set the stall up
and then Gloria took one end of the banner in her teeth and Marty took the
other, Peter then pulled himself up Marty’s neck and sat on his head so he
could tie that end of the banner to the tall pole an them Marty leaned across to
the Gillian’s side so Peter could tie that one too,
“Oooh be careful up there” shouted Gloria
“Hakuna matata” laughed Peter “I spend most of my working
day sat on Marty’s head to clean the windows on the tall buildings in Nairobi
Once the banner was up the four friends stood back to admire
their handiwork
“The stall is looking good, this should help to attract a
lot of customer, we will be busy tonight” said Gloria
“Well you be careful and don’t work too hard” replied Peter
“you have to take care of yourself and our little baby, it wont be long now
before he or she makes an appearance”.
“Oh don’t fuss, I’ll be fine” smiled Gloria.
Peter then told the other that he has to go back to his
window cleaning yard to some work in his office and that he see them all later
on that night.
Marty decided to stay in Uhuru Park
“Be sure your back before midnight to see the New Year in”
he said to Peter.
“I will be” replied Peter before giving Gloria a kiss
goodbye and jumping into his van and driving off
It didn’t take long for quite a big crowd to start gathering
in Uhuru Park for the new years festivities and Gloria and Gillian were soon
very busy selling there lovely cold smoothies to the thirsty revellers.
Marty decided to leave Gloria and Gillian to get along with
running their stall and went off for a wander around the park to see what other
fun things were taking place.
After a little while Gillian noticed that Gloria wasn’t
looking too well.
“Gloria, are you okay?” asked Gillian
“No, I don’t feel to well and I am getting some pains in my
tummy” replied Gloria
“Well you had better sit down and take a rest, you have
probably over done it today, leave the stall to me for a while”
“But we are too busy, you can’t run the stall on your own”
replied Gloria before letting out a load groan and almost bending double in
pain.
“Gillian, Gillian, I think the baby is coming early” gasped
Gloria, “you need to get Peter to take to the hospital”
“I will get Marty to go for Peter, he rides that motorcycle
so fast it wont take him long to get to
Peter’s yard”
Gillian looked around the park and could clearly see Marty
in the distance as his head and neck was sticking out way above the crowd, but
with musicians playing, people dancing and children running around, the park
was very noisy and no matter how loud Gillian shouted she couldn’t make Marty
hear her.
“Oooh Hurry up please Gillian” groaned Gloria.
Gillian then had an idea and she bent down and pick up a
mango from the box of fruit that was waiting to be made into smoothies, and
with one mighty swing of her neck she threw the mango high into the sky.
The mango flew through the air above the head of the crowd
and landed with a mighty thud against the back of Marty’s head
“Ouch! Who threw that?” said Marty with a very cross look on
his face.
He looked around to see Gillian frantically beckoning him to
come over.
Marty realised something must be wrong so he quickly ran
across to the smoothie stall, making the crowd of people scatter out of the
way, as they didn’t want to be kicked by a large giraffe.
“What’s the matter?” he gasped as he arrived at the stall
“Gloria is having her baby you must go and get Peter quick”
said Gillian “Oh and the go to Emmanuelle’s farm and get Moira, I am going to
need some help on the stall tonight”
“Oooh please hurry Marty, I need to get to the hospital”.
Groaned Gloria.
Marty jumped on to his motorcycle and weaved his way through
the crowd out of the park on to road, where he pulled back his throttle and
accelerated at great pace and was soon whizzing through Nairobi’s busy streets.
At the windows cleaners’ yard Marty didn’t bother to get off
his motorcycle instead he just shouted as loud as he could at Peter
“You have to get back to the park and get Gloria to the
hospital the baby is coming!!”
Peter stood there looking stunned
“Haya! haraka haraka” (!Come on hurry hurry!”) shouted Marty
and Peter snapped himself together and grabbed! his keys and headed toward his
van, Marty turned his motorcycle round and shot off to fetch Emmanuelle and
Moira.
Back in the park a big queue of people wanting smoothies was
gathering at the stall as Gillian was struggling to serve them all on her own
and look after Gloria at the same time.
“I wish Peter and Marty would hurry up and come back” sobbed
Gloria
“They will be here soon” soothed Gillian.
The all of sudden a loud beeping of a horn was heart and
Gillian looked around to see Peter’s van slowly making its way through the
crowd flanked by Marty on his motorcycle on one side and Emmanuelle and Moira
on Emmanuelle’s motorcycle on the other
side.
“They’re here they’re here” shouted Gillian
Peter parked the van and jumped out at and ran to Gloria
“Oh my love, are you ok?” he said giving Gloria a big hug
and a kiss.
“Yes but we have to get the hospital quickly” replied Gloria
Gillian and Moira helped Gloria into the van and made Peter
promise to look after her and to phone them as soon as there was news”
“Bahati nzuri” (“Good luck”) they al shouted as Peter and
Gloria drove away.
“Its going to be a long evening waiting to hear any news”
sighed Gillian before she went back to serving the queue of thirsty party goers
at the smoothies stall.
“We will soon get the queue down with two of us working
together “smiled Moira.
Later in the evening Victor (the trainee window cleaner)
joined the others in the park to enjoy the new years festivities, but what they
al really wanted was to hear some news form Peter and Gloria.
As the time was nearing midnight the crowd fell silent as
one of the announcers from one of main stages in the park started the count one
down
10, 9, 8
With that a text message came through to Emmanuelle’s phone
which he read out to the others excitedly
“Baby Martina Jilly Ngono born at 11:50 pm Mother and baby
doing great”
“Yippee a baby girl” shouted Gillian and Moira
And with that the announcer shouted “midnight! Heri ya mwaka
mpya” (“happy new year”) and with a big bang, spectacular fireworks started to
fill the night sky
“Well” said Gillian to Marty “that was an exciting end to an
exciting year”
“Yes” replied Marty “and I bet 2013 will bring a lot more
exciting adventures for
Marty and Gillian the motorcycling giraffes
Lovely, Happy New Year for 2013 x
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