Have You Seen theTick-o-click?

Hijra AlSawiHosam Hasan

letsreadasia.org

The sun was setting over the lake and all thebirds were settling down in their nests forbedtime. The Western Swamphen yawned andstretched her wings. ’Time for a good night’ssleep.’

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Suddenly, she heard a strange ticking sound.Then . . .

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Click! A huge bright light flashed in her eyes!

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The Swamphen felt dizzy and confused. Shespun in circles, not knowing which way was up.

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Then . . . Boom! She dropped to the groundand did not remember another thing for therest of the night.

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In the morning, she woke up with a headache,and tried to remember what had happened.

”Oh, yes. That strange tick-o-click came andattacked me! I must find out what it was soI can stop it from coming back.”

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She saw the masked gnatcatcher and askedhim, ’Gnatcatcher, did you see the a strangelight last night? It went ’tick-o-click’ thenflashed in my eyes like lightning!

”I did not see anything last night,” he replied.”Could it still be around here? I will keep a lookout!”

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Just then a frog jumped out of the grass.”Ribbit! Are you talking about the tick-o-click?”

”Yes!” replied the Swamphen, ”Did you see ittoo?”

”It woke me and my babies up in the middle ofthe night! I could not see for several minutesafter it flashed in my eyes.”

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So frog joined the birds as they asked othercreatures around the lake about it. Surelysomeone knew what it was. The preyingmantis hid from them at first. Usually birdswould eat her for a snack!

”Don’t worry Mantis, we aren’t hungry. Wewant to know if you know anything about thetick-o-click.”

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’Yes, it surprised me while I was putting myeggs into their cocoon. It was very rude toflash a light at me during such an importantmoment!”

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Everyone decided it was time to have ameeting. Something needed to be done tostop the tick-o-click.

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Everyone gathered together around the lake.

”What about you Crowned Crane?” Swamphenasked. ”You’ve been all over the world fromlakes to swamps, rivers, and oceans. Have youever heard of a tick-o-click?”

The Crowned Crane thought for a moment,then remembered seeing one before. ”I knowwhat it is! We’ll need to set a trap to catch it.”

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That night, the birds set a trap. They weresurprised when they caught Seagull!

”Yes, it wasme,” Seagull admitted. ”I have beentaking photographs of all the creatures aroundthe lake with my camera.”

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The birds wanted to show Seagull how it felt tobe surprised by a bright camera flash.

”Tick-o-click! Tick-o-click! Tick-o-click!”

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Seagull hated the camera flashes.

”I am so sorry everyone,” he said, blinking hiseyes. ”I did not understand how awful it felt tohave your photo taken that way.”

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From then on, anytime Seagull wanted to usehis camera, he made sure to ask first. Afterthat, everyone enjoyed getting their picturetaken and seeing the fun photographs later!

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The End

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Original StoryHave You Seen the Tick-o-click?, author: Hijra AlSawi . illustrator:Hosam Hasan. Published by 3Asafeer,https://www.digitallibrary.io/en/books/details/1385 © 3Asafeer.Released under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

This work is a modified version of the original story. © The AsiaFoundation, 2019. Some rights reserved. Released under CCBY-NC-SA 4.0.

For full terms of use and attribution,http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/