No matter how hard she tries, Gertrude can't ever seem to fly any farther than one pond at a time. Then she has to rest.
When the Monster flies, he gets so excited about going up, that he always flies past the first pond he comes to. But he never makes it any farther than the next pond before he crashes.
The flying power of Superperson sends her Zip!Zip!Zoom! She flies over two ponds and lands in the third without even trying very hard.
Because of their flying habits, Gertrude, Superperson and the Monster sometimes have to do some careful planning if they want to go anywhere together.
There came a time when a terrible pollution invaded the ponds of the Land. The waters became cloudy and foul, and being in these waters so sapped the strength of Superperson and the Monster that they were dying.
The mysterious pollution did not harm Gertrude. She did not know it, but she possessed the amazing power to cure it. Whenever Gertrude's feathery wings kissed the surface of polluted pond, the waters cleared, the air freshened, and the birds, plants, and pond flowers returned to health.
Gertrude didn't even know she could do this. All she knew was what she heard from Superperson and the Monster--that the deadly pollution had invaded all of the other ponds. Only the pond she was in remained safe. She was terribly frightened--too afraid to move. The single clean pond where Gertrude was swimming was the only clean one left in the Land.
Superperson and the Monster knew that only Gertrude could save them. But it wasn't going to be easy to convince her to fly from her safe, clean place and into the blackened stench of a foul polluted pond. They swam away from Gertrude to the edge of the water and devised a plan.
"We have to scare her out," whispered Superperson. "We will make her so afraid to stay in this pond that she'll forget how scared she is to fly to another one."
"Scaring isn't nice," mumbled the Monster, hanging his head very low. He always had trouble with people being afraid of him because he looked scary just when he said, "Hello".
"We're not hurting," hissed Superperson, "we're scaring. There's a difference. We'll explain in the end. She'll understand."
"Well, OK," agreed the Monster, brightening up. "I am pretty good at being scary, you know. How do we do it?"
"First, we fly away," said Superperson.
"Into the pollution???" The Monster's eyes were wide with fear.
"It will weaken us, but we can make it," explained Superperson.
"Huh-uh." The Monster crossed his wings and pointed his nose horn high into the air.
"You can't expect Gertrude to be brave if you aren't brave, too," replied Superperson in her stern, reminding voice.
The Monster knew she was right. But he still didn't like it. "Well, OK. But I can't be in the pollution long."
"Neither can I. So we have to plan carefully--or we're sunk." Superperson glanced over her shoulder. Gertrude was swimming and diving. "You fly two ponds when you're excited, right?"
The Monster nodded. "If I'm going to be scary, I'm going to be excited. I can never land in the first pond when I'm excited. When I get to the first pond, I'm still going up. I could try to--"
"That's fine," interrupted Superperson. "We have to plan for what we do best. If I'm excited (and I know I will be, too) I can't depend on myself to do anything except Zip! Zip! Zoom!, three ponds in no time flat. So lets plan for that."
Superperson continued, "You fly two ponds away, I'll fly three, then what?"
"Gertrude will freak out," declared the Monster. "You know how she's been lately, never letting us go anywhere without her. She'll think we're going to die." He looked up. "She may be right."
"We're not going to die," corrected Superperson. It was her reminding voice again. "But if she thinks we are, that's great. We can be ghosts."
"Huh???" The Monster was really confused.
"Yes! We fly away. You fly two, I fly three. We land in one of those awful ponds, but just for a second. I'll transform myself into some disgusting shape. You get some slime on your horns or something. Then we race back to here with a terrible howl."
"You howl," snorted the Monster in his reminding voice. "I'm going to ROAR! She won't have a heart attack, will she?"
"No," Superperson assured him. "She'll just be so scared she'll fly down the flyway to another pond--even though it's foul."
"And she'll make it clean!" Now the Monster was really excited.
"Right!" grinned Superperson.
"And we'll do it again! And again! And again! And again!" shouted the monster, splashing the water with his wings.
Gertrude stopped her diving and swam over nervously. This whole pollution crisis had her on edge. "Do what again, and again, and again?" she asked. She twisted her head from side to side, looking at the Monster first out of one eye, then the other.
"I can't stand it another minute!" shrieked Superperson. I'm getting out of here!" She zipped into the air. The Monster flapped his wings and began his takeoff, too.
Everything went as planned.
Gertrude freaked out.
The Monster flew two ponds away and doused himself with slime.
Superperson flew Zip! Zip! Zoom! three ponds away and shifted her shape as soon as she landed. She was hideous. She turned and began to fly back. She zoomed in from the flyway on the left just as the Monster, whose roar shook every tree, was crashing in from the right.
In a terrible panic, Gertrude flew off. She crashed, exhausted, into the next pond where the water was slimy and foul, certain that she was doomed.
When Gertrude's feathery wings splashed on the surface of the polluted pond, the waters cleared, the lily pads rinsed their leaves, and the black fog dissolved into a few white wisps. Bird song rose in the crystal air.
In the pond where they had landed, Superperson and the Monster freshened up after their successful adventure.
"Let's do it again!" shouted the Monster.
"Right away!" cried Superperson. "We have to get her to clean up all the other ponds before the pollution can leak back in here."
"We'll make her think the whole place is haunted and get her to fly everywhere!" roared the Monster. "Let's go! I'll fly two!"
"And I'll fly three!" howled Superperson.
"We'll fly fierce in the flyways toward Gertrude!" yelled the Monster.
"And scare her off to clean up a new pond!" rejoiced Superperson.
"We'll save our land!" roared the Monster.
"And save ourselves!" clapped Superperson.
Suddenly it was very quiet.
Slowly they turned to face each other.
They looked a little worried.
"I think we better do a little more planning," they whispered to each other, both at exactly the same time.