Joey told this story in the car coming back from Anne's parents yesterday.  It is a bot sad in that it reflects how he feels about being a bit 'different' but it is also, I think, uplifting and positive in the way that it ends.

Once upon a time there was a snail named Mike. He lived in a place where there were many animals of different kinds. Of course, most of them were bigger and faster them him. And they were always being mean to him. But he didn’t care. He had a great imagination and made all sorts of worlds from his head. He pretended but when he pretended he could see amazing things. 

So he went out on a walk one day and he met a snail just like him. Her name was Myla. She had a great imagination too. She went over to him and said ”would you like to be my friend?” and he said ‘yes because I haven’t got any friends. And you could be my only one. 
I have a great imagination and stuff’.

So they played together every day. They made great games together. The other animals tried and tried to make fun of them but it didn’t work. Their friendship was too powerful to be harmed. But they knew one thing; that the other animals were really curious about why they were so slow. So the animals went right up to them and said ’ you guys are so slow, so pathetic. There’s a giant race tomorrow and you’re going to come in last’.

‘Maybe I will but I will accept the race’, said Mike. So they had the race, of course and, like the animals said, the snails came in last place. But something very strange happened. When the animals made fun of them they said they didn’t care and ‘it’s not about winning it’s about having fun and I did it with a very special friend, Myla’.  And then the snails also said that they were not upset about why they moved so slow. ‘It’s just the way I was made’, said Mike, ‘and you shouldn’t make fun of any animal because you are all made different. You are all unique and that’s the special thing about you’. And the big elephant said, ‘maybe we shouldn’t make fun of them. it’s just the way they are made’. ‘Like you baboon’, said the cheetah, ‘you can climb trees better than I can. but I am faster than you and I have spots and you don’t. Also, your hair is longer. It’s a fact. Ha, ha, ha’.  So none of the animals were ever mean to each other again. and they all lived happily ever after. 

THE END

dictated and illustrated by Joey Juleff