Whenever Sreya and her best friend Abby wanted to go off on adventures, they always had to check with their mummies and daddies that it was okay to go off and explore.
Sometimes, Abby would ask her daddy to come along with them, because then they were allowed to go even further, and get back even later. But Abby’s daddy always had so much work to do that he’d sit at the kitchen table surrounded by paper and pens and say “Not now, Abby. Daddy’s busy.”
So when Sreya called around to visit and said that they should go down to the meadows to look for insects to make friends with, Abby was excited until she looked at her daddy sat at the kitchen table with his computer open and a big work folder” full of complicated papers.
“There’s no way!” said Abby. “Daddy’s so busy!”
“Hmmm. Why don’t we use the secret weapon?” suggested Sreya.
Abby took a sharp breath. The secret weapon… This was only to be used in extreme situations, but, she did really want to go to the meadows to make friends with insects, so…
You see there are only three things that Abby’s daddy is really scared of. Trampolines, alien frogs bigger than a house, and being sent to Tickle Prison.
Tickle Prison is the prison where you’d be tickled and tickled and tickled until they let you out.
“Dad… Sreya and I would like to go to the meadows to make friends with insects. Could you take us?”
“Not now, Abby.” said Daddy. “I’m busy.”
“Well okay then,” said Abby. “But I’m afraid there might be a punishment if we can’t go…”
Abby’s daddy looked confused. “A punishment, wha—“
“TICKLE PRISON!” shouted Abby, and began to tickle, and tickle and TICKLE her daddy.
“Make it stop! Make it stop!” squirmed her daddy, twisting and flailing. But he couldn’t get away, because once you’re sent to tickle prison - you’re trapped!
“TICKLE TICKLE TICKLE” laughed Abby, as she tickled and tickled away.
“Alright! Alright!” said daddy. “Let’s go to the meadows! Anything to make it stop, Abby!”
And so that afternoon, Abby, Sreya and Abby’s daddy had a brilliant time looking for insects in the meadows. They met a cricket called Carmichael, and a ladybug called Rosanna, and if he was being truthful, daddy needed to forget about work for a while anyway.
The next time Sreya came to visit, she had an idea.
“I’d love to go to the aqueduct,” she said. “It’s a huge bridge that carries water. The River Gurgleglug runs along the top, and the train line runs underneath. It’s amazing!”
Well, Abby liked the sound of the aqueduct, but it was way out to the west, outside of town, and so her daddy would have to take them.
She and Sreya poked their heads around the kitchen door. There was her daddy, working away on some complicated looking documents.
“Daaaad,” began Abby. “Sreya and I would love to see the aqueduct, could you -“
“Not now, Abby,” said Daddy. “I’m busy.”
Sreya and Abby looked at each other. They had the perfect plan.
“TICKLE PRISON!”
“Oh dear! Make it stop, make it stop! Okay, the aqueduct is it!”
And so that afternoon, Abby, Sreya and Abby’s daddy travelled out to the huge brick aqueduct that spanned the valley. They took photos under the massive arches, they watched a steam boat go over the top, and a goods train run underneath. And if he was being honest, Abby’s daddy needed the time away from the kitchen table and all his work.
A few days later, Abby was upstairs in her bedroom making a very big and very detailed drawing of a fairy village in the woods. Sreya couldn’t come over to play that day because it was raining outside and her mummy and daddy wouldn’t let her. Abby didn’t think that was fair, but turned her attentions back to her drawing. It was almost finished when:
“Abby! Come and help me, please!”
It was daddy, downstairs in the kitchen. But it didn't sound like daddy.
“But I’ve nearly finished my drawing!” Abby shouted back.
“Now, please!” said Daddy in the strangest voice she’d ever heard.
Abby put down her crayons, closed the book and went downstairs to the kitchen.
When she got there, she saw that daddy was in a mess. He balanced a shelf in one hand, a screw driver in the other, and he carried two screws between his teeth.
“There you are!” he said in his strange voice, and now Abby could see the problem: He had a mouth full of screws!
“What are you trying to do?” she asked.
Daddy rolled his eyes. “I’m trying to put this shelf up,” but as he said that the wood unbalanced and crashed to the floor. Daddy spat out the screws.
“Oh this is impossible by myself,” he said. "I’m going to need your help.”
Abby shook her head. It looked dangerous. “I don’t know how to put up shelves, that’s what mummies and daddies do! Where’s Mummy?”
“It’s Tuesday, she’s at work and I need your help!”
“Not now, Daddy. I’m busy.”
With that, daddy put down his tools and can you guess what he said?
“TICKLE PRISON!”
“Stop Daddy, PLEASE! I’ll help! I’ll help!”
So she was released from tickle prison, and felt very grown up as she held the screws for daddy and passed up the screwdriver when he asked for it.
Before long, the brand new shelf was up on the kitchen wall. Abby felt quite proud of it.
“You were a very good help today,” said daddy as they sat at the kitchen table with soup and toast. “But remember, I shouldn’t have to send you to tickle prison every time I need some help.”
“Why?” said Abby.
“Because when you wanted to do to the meadows to make friends with insects, and when you wanted to go to the aqueduct, I wanted to do my things, but I still went with you. So when I need you to do something, it should be exactly the same.”
Abby thought about it. That sounded fair. But then -
“WAIT a minute!” she said. “When I wanted to do both those things with Sreya we had to put YOU in tickle prison first!”
Daddy thought.
“Oh, um. Well. Let’s make a new promise. A promise that says from now on, when one of us wants a favor from the other, we do without having to go to tickle prison.”
Daddy and Abby both hated tickle prison so much, they looked at each other, and then ran into a big hug.
“That sounds like a brilliant plan!” said Abby.
And so, they signed an important looking agreement. “We will both do what the other asks of us, under pain of tickles.” They both signed it in their best writing and put it on display.
And where was it displayed?
On the brand new shelf that they’d helped to build together.
