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Country: Slovakia |
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for Choice: Re-telling Translation: Very well, let's put it to the test:
”Veronica, Veronica, come here!” ”Have you got a nut?” ”Yes, we have, but not an ordinary one. It's a storytelling nut. It's got a story about you…!”
On a fir-tree, on the thirteenth floor, there lived a young squirrel called Veronica. She was affectionate and docile, but you couldn't really say that she was merry. Why not? Oh, sweet-scented fir-trees, she had her reasons! For example:- in the morning she stuck her little snout out of the nest, sniffed the wind - and immediately kootsee - kootsee - kootsee ! She coughed because of the smoke that was drifting through the wood. The so-called wood! For a long time it had not been fragrant and tingling, like it used to be in the past. The sad leaves from the grey trees were shrivelling, and dry needles from the firs, spruces and pines fell with every gust of wind. ”My nerves!” the little squirrel sighed. ”There's low pressure again!” She made some coffee and then went out to do her shopping. There was a long queue of squirrels in front of the biscuit shop. They were talking about children and the weather… ”Have they got biscuits?” Veronica asked. ”You'll have to wait,” was the answer. I won't wait, Veronica thought, I'll hop along to the hazelnut shop. But the hazelnut shop was closed. They had never received the hazelnuts from that year's crop. Veronica raced around the entire wood, but she couldn't get anything anywhere. In the end she stopped by a bird's nest and bought three eggs. At least I got something, she consoled herself, and she returned home. ”And what now?” Veronica sighed. Housework held no attractions for her, and she didn't get on all that well with the other squirrels… She hadn't yet learnt to read… Hop, we'd better leave reading aside! Let's return to what Veronica liked to do in her free time. What she liked best was to lie with her shaggy tail covering her and think about things. And as she lay thinking, slowly, ev-er-so-slow-ly she grew drowsy, till she fell asleep. She had a beautiful dream, in which she lived on the thirty third floor of a tower block…, that is to say, a tree. Now that tree was completely hollow inside, and in the empty space there was a lift. Veronica no longer had to claw at the trunk of the tree; she simply got into the lift and - ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh -she was up above! Veronica didn't like jumping from heights. She was afraid, and whenever she jumped she always had to shut her eyes tightly. But all that is not important. What's important is that this was no ordinary tree, but one which had a biscuit shop, a hazelnut shop, and a fruit-and-veg, all under the one roof. Phee-ha! - that'd be the life! Veronica smiled in her sleep, bared her front teeth, and suddenly VRRRRRR---VRRRRRR---VRRRRRR! No, our little friend is not snoring. This was some strange sound which came from outside. Veronica did not wish to interrupt her beautiful dream, so she turned on her other side and covered her ears with her tail. PAATTSS! BUKH! CR-R-RASH! ”Leaping squirrels, what's going on?” Veronica jumped. She was rudely torn from her slumbers, like in those dreams where we seem to be falling into some great depth. Veronica actually was falling, not out of a bed, but out of the fir-tree, which some men were cutting down. The vrrrrrr was the sound of an electric saw. ”I was all but killed!” Veronica squealed, as she scampered away from the fallen nest, out of the heap of broken branches, groaning twigs, wailing timber. Ah my nerves, they'll cut a tree right under a squirrel's nose… ”Human beings really are not normal!” Veronica said to herself. And afterwards she had a nervous breakdown. Wherever she went, she just cried and twitched her tail, but nowhere, nowhere could she find a new place to live. Eventually she retired to the hollow trunk of an old tree. RAP…! RAP…! RAP…! ”I'm not at home and I'm not opening up for anyone!” she shouted from her bed. ”I wasn't knocking for you, stupid!” the woodpecker laughed. He was looking for worms, pecking at the sick old tree: ”Listen, aren't you sick yourself?” ”Of course I'm sick!” Veronica whined. ”I had a nervous breakdown from a high fir-tree, nest and all!” And she started to cry again. The woodpecker felt sorry for Veronica: ”Don't take it like that!… Certainly you'll recover. You ought to change your environment, go out into the fresh air! Maybe you could go somewhere to the spas.” ”Spas?” Veronica was surprised. ”What are spas?” ”I was there some years ago,” the woodpecker recalled. ”There's a great big park, with trees from foreign countries. And there are human beings strolling the paths who have nothing else to do except feed the squirrels!” Veronica the squirrel decided to take this advice, and she went off to a spa to recuperate. At first she was nervous because she didn't know what to pack, but in the end she got her little suitcase and put in her tail-brush, her toothbrush, and three nuts for the journey. ”I hope the weather will be good there” Veronica mused, and already she was jumping from branch to branch with her suitcase in her paw. She knew that if she hurried she could catch the train to Squirrelnut Spa, which in three minutes' time would come puffing by the old pine tree.
X When Veronica the squirrel got off at the station called Squirrelnut Spa, she cried out with astonishment. All around her there was a park. And it had trees like she had never even dreamt of: big ones, with spreading crowns… The lawns were closely trimmed, the paths were swept clean, and everywhere there were beds and beds of flowers. Veronica bared her teeth contentedly and began to think about where she would stay. She stopped under a large plane tree, with her suitcase in her paw, and hesitated. ”You're new here?” An unknown squirrel bounded up to her. ”You've come too late, all the places in the plane tree are already filled.” So Veronica went on further. ”Is anyone living in this bird-box, please?” she asked, peeping into the opening carved in the wooden box. ”Of course there is, I've got this prepaid for the whole season!” Veronica twitched her tail and hopped away. She was slowly beginning to realise that life wasn't so simple even at the spa: someone was already living in every tree! Exhausted, she dragged her suitcase into the middle of the park. On the grassy lawn there was a white summerhouse. The summerhouse had a roof, and the roof had a miniature tower. It looked like a splendid bird-box, but it wasn't that, it was a little tower, finished off with a metal point and, up at the very top, a star. Veronica moved in there immediately. She strewed moss round the little room, unpacked her things from the suitcase - and she was ready to recuperate… but how do you do that? ”Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh! Here I am!” Veronica peeped from the little tower. Nothing happened… She ran along the steep roof of the summerhouse, jumped onto the carved wooden column, pitter-pattered down it - and she was on the grass. Hop… hop… And she was under the trees. There was a winding path, and a bench beside the path, and by the bench there were some holiday-making squirrels standing around. ”Hallo! I'm Veronica!” ”Welcome, little one,” an old black squirrel replied. ”They call me Mrs. Mokushka and I've been living at the spa for ten years.” Veronica introduced herself to the others and told them her life story. Then the spa guests appeared on the path. Veronica had a fit of nerves and jumped on the bench. ”What're you afraid of, human beings can't hurt you!” old Mrs. Mokushka said, laughing, and she hopped across to brush their legs… The young squirrel Veronica, hiding behind the bench, looked mistrustfully at the guests. An old lady came over to her, opened her bag and began to scatter biscuits on the ground:- ”There you are, kittens, help yourselves!” Another pair stopped by the bench, speaking in Czech:- ”The Squirrelnut Spa is fabulous! And the squirrels here… For them it's like heaven!” Meanwhile, the old squirrel Mrs. Mokushka was rubbing against the legs of a German in a straw hat. ”Schön… bitte, bitte!” he said: ”How nice… please, there you are!” A strange red nut that had fallen on the ground caught Veronica's attention. She caught it in her front paws and began to bite it. ”It's clear that you haven't yet eaten sugared peanuts!” Mrs. Mokushka pointed out. ”You can eat those right away, you know; you don't have to crack them, those are groundnuts. In fairness, you couldn't possibly know that, because those nuts don't grow in our woods… they're tasty, hey?” And indeed, Veronica found those peanuts delicious. ”And you haven't eaten almonds either, my dear!” Mrs. Mokushka continued. ”Once, when I was younger, someone fell in love with me, one of the… human beings, and every day he brought me a packet of Italian mixture!” ”And what is that?” Veronica asked, surprised. ”It's nuts and raisins coated in chocolate” old Mrs. Mokushka explained, and she bounded away. Veronica couldn't stop eating. The spa guests were diligent; they took excellent care of her. What kindness, Veronica said approvingly, and she gorged herself with fruit, sweets and biscuits. OOPH! Afterwards the evening came on and Veronica only barely managed to squeeze into her tower. ”Leaping squirrels, I've eaten too much!” she sighed, tossing in her bed. Her stomach seemed to be about to start aching. She rolled from side to side, and again and again she failed to sleep. In the end she dropped off, but she had a strange dream. Veronica woke up suddenly. Her stomach really was paining her. She peeped from the window, gazed at the starry sky and began to think. Those human beings are so strange; one day they cut down my tree and the following day they stuff me with nuts! When she fell asleep once more, she dreamt of a nut which had another, smaller nut inside it, and that one also had a smaller nut inside it… and that one… Maybe that was enough to keep her asleep till morning.
The tower in the middle of the park was first-class accommodation. There was a beautiful view, and above all there was quiet! One Sunday afternoon Veronica the squirrel had settled down for a rest, when suddenly:- Dzn… Dzn… Dzn… Dzz… aahh! The musicians were tuning their instruments for a promenade concert. The lawn round the summerhouse was strewn with white folding chairs and the spa guests began to sit down. A while later the conductor arrived. Applause, baton raised, everything went silent and… Tralalalalaah… la-la, la-la, tralalalalaah, la-la, la-la… The tones of a light waltz sounded from the summerhouse, as the little squirrel seated herself comfortably on the roof. The spa guests smiled pleasantly and Veronica was happy. Her tail, all by itself, swayed to the rhythm of the waltz, and it seemed as if she was conducting the promenade concert, and not the conductor. Suddenly Veronica had the feeling that somebody's eyes were watching her. Yes!… Amidst the white chairs there was a strange little vehicle on wheels. A boy was sitting in it. He was looking at her with smiling eyes. Suddenly:- Rap-rap-rap… Raindrops were pattering on the summerhouse roof … , and that was the end of the concert! The audience scattered, Veronica took shelter in the tower and watched the boy slowly heading off in the rain. The wheels of his vehicle left winding tracks in the wet grass. The next day it rained. And the third day also. Veronica huddled in the tower, and she couldn't stop thinking of the boy, with his strange gaze. When the weather cleared, all the squirrels came together again by the bench. Veronica, however, was preoccupied and constantly looking at the path, in hopes of seeing… Yes! It was him! The boy in the wheelchair was slowly approaching. He stopped by the group of squirrels. ”Don't be afraid!” Veronica told herself, breaking off her nervous study of the boy and bounding over to him. Very well, then, come closer and show me what you've brought me… Veronica thought, and she put on a bit of an act. The boy bent forward and put out his hand. Veronica sniffed it. It was empty! Imagine that! Insulted, she turned away and with one leap she was gone. ”Come here, little squirrel, come…” the boy called timidly, but it never occurred to Veronica to approach him again. He's an oddball, she was thinking. He'll come to me with empty hands. The boy looked at her for a while longer, and then he went away. ”I see, my dear, that you've found a friend. Congratulations!” Mrs. Mokushka said, but Veronica didn't answer her. She hid herself away in the tower above the summerhouse.
X One morning the little squirrel brushed her tail, loosened out the whiskers round her mouth and waited at the usual place. She paid no attention to the delicacies that the spa guests threw her. Those didn't interest her at all. The boy, however, was not to be seen. Feeling wretched, Veronica raced round all the paths till her wanderings took her right to the end of the park. A statue stood there, set in a bed of common flowers. A name was engraved on the pedestal: Count Alphonsus von Squirrelnut Founder of the world-famous spaSo that's why it was called Squirrelnut Spa! Veronica looked the statue over carefully, leaped on its head, and suddenly noticed that the friend she was looking for was heading towards the statue. The little squirrel tucked in her ears, hunched up and hid herself. Peep! She peeped out from behind the statue. And again she hid. The boy noticed her, smiled, and held out a hand full of nuts. Well, after all, you know what ought to be done… and Veronica bounded over to him and made friends. From then on they used to meet at the end of the park, by the statue of Count Alphonsus. Veronica told the boy her story, how she'd had a nervous breakdown after the fir-tree was cut down. The boy in turn told her how he'd been climbing trees with his friends, and a dry branch broke underneath and he fell to the ground and was all broken up. All he could hope was that he would be cured at Squirrelnut Spa. To tell the truth, though, he found it hard to spend all day sitting in that special vehicle, and so at first he looked sad as he watched the quick-moving squirrel. After some time little restless flames began dancing in his eyes. They leaped with the squirrel from tree to tree and a faith burned in them, the belief that when he returned home from his healing he also would run and jump like her. Once, on a Saturday afternoon, when Veronica the squirrel and the boy were already true friends, they shared an incredible adventure! It was a scorching summer's day and the boy wanted to go to the lake to watch the ducks and swans bathing, and the little fish that flashed here and there on the surface The boy was able to spend whole hours looking at the water. But what was he thinking about then? Only he and his wheelchair knew, and maybe also his friend Veronica. After some time she got in the habit of jumping on the metal rest of the little invalid carriage and watching in amazement where the boy, strenuously turning the wheels with his hands, would carry her. That particular Saturday afternoon he was heading for the lake in the middle of the park. Vrrrrrrrrr-wheeeeee!… he was playing at rally-driving. Veronica thought they were going like lunatics, because the path was sloping down towards the lake and the boy seemed to have forgotten about braking. Sweet-scented fir-trees, she said, panicking, that fellow, once he gets out of his nurse's sight, doesn't know what to do with himself! Human beings always have to think up something dangerous! And indeed, the gleaming surface of the lake was already before them, the wheelchair was rumbling down the path and they were hurtling straight towards the water! Ooh-eeeeee! At the last moment the boy turned his vehicle onto the path that led round the lake, but the shock and surprise of it made Veronica hop - she leaped straight into the water! CHLYUP! CR-R-RASH! The wheelchair hit the stone margin and capsized into the rushes that fringed the lake. ”Veronica!” the boy shouted, alarmed. In the water Veronica's tail was thrashing, she was clawing with her little legs and wailing for help… Help! Save Veronica!” cried the hapless boy on the ground. An oar appeared in the water. Veronica leaped on it and ran up along it into a punt. A young man whom she didn't know was sitting there, with a girl in a straw hat. ”The poor little rusty-coloured thing, she could have drowned!” the girl cried. ”I don't know if squirrels can swim or not” she reflected. ”Don't worry about her! That little lad got himself in a fix!” the young man said, shaking his head. He steered the punt to the bank, waded through the rushes and lifted the boy from the ground… ”Man, what are you at?” The boy's heart was pounding with fear: ”Where is Veronica?” Where should she be? She was shivering in the boat, huddled in a ball in the safety of a life-belt. ”I reckon when you grow up you'll be a marathon racer!” the young man growled, putting the boy back into his wheelchair. ”No… a sailor!” the boy joked, when he saw that his little friend had been saved. And the young man understood the boy's desire. He took him in his arms and lifted him into the boat. He put the life-belt round his waist, grabbed the oars and pulled away from the bank. After that, Veronica sat primly on the straw hat and let herself be carried in the punt like a genuine holidaymaker. It seemed to her that the ducklings, splashing in the mud by the bank, would die of envy… ”Just because you're at the spa, my dear, that doesn't mean you have to bathe,” old Mrs. Mokushka joked, when Veronica told of her adventure at the lake. ”It was incredible, a miracle, that you were saved!” ”A miracle?” Veronica didn't understand. She came from an ordinary wood, and she didn't always grasp very precisely the expressions used by her old and experienced friend. Mrs. Mokushka explained that a miracle is something extraordinary, something we would wish very much to happen, but it does not depend on our will, and therefore it happens only very rarely. Veronica knew immediately what she would wish very very much:- that her boy would walk like other people, that he would be healthy again… ”If you want to see something really miraculous” old Mrs. Mokushka continued ”hop into the pavilion of mirrors, next to the Alphonsus Hotel, this evening!”
X It was Sunday evening and Veronica the squirrel had no engagements. So she headed off to the pavilion of mirrors. Leading up to it there were pleasant pathways, strewn with white sand. A coloured display board stood before the entrance, with a poster saying: Dear holidaymakers! This evening, miracles on request! You are invited to a unique, one-and-onlyperformance by Peanut the magician Admission: Adults 100 crowns, children 50 crowns. There was no mention of admission for young squirrels, so Veronica dived in through an open French window, which reached down to the steps on a broad terrace. Instead of glass the windows had mirrors. ”Oh, my nerves!” Veronica shrieked, when she found herself in the corridor of the pavilion of mirrors. With rolling eyes she looked at the miracle before her: a huge-bellied squirrel, bloated with fat, was standing there and rolling its eyes, as big as walnuts, at Veronica. Veronica roused herself and scampered away with one bound. PAATTS! She hit her forehead against the mirror on the opposite wall. Dismayed, she gazed at a squirrel slim as a weasel, elongated as a misshapen dachshund. ”Scattering pine-cones, where have I landed myself?” Veronica whined in a panic. She did not realise that the corridor of the pavilion of mirrors was decked out with distorting mirrors for the amusement of visitors. Bewildered, Veronica shut her eyes, in case she might encounter some other miracle, and with one leap she jumped… Ha! She thought she had jumped out the window, into the darkness of the park. She miscalculated, however! She jumped into the darkness of a small stage, into the darkness of a still smaller black top-hat belonging to Peanut the magician, who was getting ready for his evening performance. ”I don't believe it!” rejoiced the bored rabbit who was sleeping in the top-hat, waiting for his hundred-and-first appearance. ”Have you come to surprise me? I'm glad of that, because now at least I can jump out onto the grass of the park; it seems to be nice and sappy. Good luck!” As he leaped from the top-hat he added: ”And don't forget! You crawl out of the hat at the words:- HOCUS-POCUS-MOCUS-FOCUS-KOKUS-SUSS-SUSS!”Of course, little Veronica had no way of knowing that the cunning stage rabbit had bid farewell to the lisping old magician Peanut! But when, a short while later, a buzz sounded in the hall, then applause, music, and following that: ”Good evening, my dear audienth, tonight I'm going to do miracleth at your athking…,” Veronica knew immediately that she wouldn't so easily get out of that hat. ”Oh, my nerves!” cried Veronica, shivering at the bottom of the top-hat. ”What if he changes me into that crazy rabbit, or a dappled turkey or a pigeon?” For a while she stopped noticing what was happening onstage, but when Peanut pronounced his SUSS-SUSS… she felt that something was pulling at her shaggy tail! ”That's my Veronica!” said a surprised boy's voice from the hall, and others joined in… ”Did you see that? It's a miracle! ”Look, that disabled boy jumped up on his two feet!” ”Yes indeed, for a moment he jumped out of his wheelchair and stood up!” But the nurse who was sitting beside him forcefully pushed the boy back into his wheelchair and hissed: ”I knew you'd get up to something again! In future, you'll stay in your room and not put your head out, or I'll send you home!” Veronica didn't hear what happened next. She slithered out of the white gloves of the lisping magician Peanut, ran between the rows of applauding holidaymakers, and vanished into the real darkness of the park, leaving behind her terrified images of unearthly squirrels in the pavilion's distorting mirrors. The lisping leaves in the crowns of the trees murmured something about an inexplicable miracle…
X Every summer comes to an end, and the spa season with it. The spa guests took leave of one another and forgot about the squirrels waiting for them by the park bench. Suddenly there was no one to offer even one single nut to the squirrels! ”How forgetful human beings are…” Veronica complained to her friend Mrs. Mokushka. ”Squirrels are even more forgetful, my dear…” the old squirrel said, a little irritably. ”During the summer I put away a stock of biscuits, and now I can't remember where…” Veronica offered to help her search. And so they went off to the park. The leaves had already fallen from the trees and lay like a carpet, scattered on the paths. ”Maybe they'll be in the old nest on the fir-tree!” Veronica guessed, and she ran up the trunk like a flash. Nothing. The nest was empty… What about the plane tree? Nothing. And the hiding-place in the hollow, dried-up weeping willow by the lake? The squirrel searched all corners of the sorrowful tree and afterwards, equally sorrowful, she sat by the lakeside. Yellowed leaves of the willow were floating on the surface - autumn's little golden fish. They reminded Veronica of the sunny summertime adventure. For the squirrels in the spa, the end of the season was much to be regretted. Old Mrs. Mokushka knew that when winter came the snow would fall, covering over the roots and biscuits they had hidden in the fallen leaves. Therefore it was necessary to hurry. Many squirrels packed their bags and returned home. But there was something that made Veronica remain at Squirrelnut Spa. In the search for forgotten supplies she drew her old friend to the very end of the park, to the statue. Count Alphonsus had his collar turned up and the buttons on his cloak were fastened up to the neck… Naturally Veronica thought of her boy. He must have gone back home and forgotten about me, or he's found another squirrel, and now he's feeding her hazelnuts… Veronica thought to herself, as she sat on Count von Squirrelnut's head. ”Hazelnuts, roasted chestnuts, coloured marzipan!” Mrs. Mokushka exclaimed angrily. ”My dear, if you think that stone gentleman is going to offer us something, you're greatly mistaken. I can assure you that statues have no idea what hunger means. But as for me, it's rumbling already in my stomach! That's enough of reminiscing about summer acquaintances; follow me!” Old Mrs. Mokushka raised her tail imperiously, leaped from the statue, raced through the grass and hop - she was on the branch of a tree. Veronica obediently followed her. Bukh-bukh-bukh… her heart was thumping when Mrs. Mokushka began heading towards the pavilion of mirrors. Veronica trusted human beings, but she hadn't yet ventured so close to their dwellings. Suddenly the old squirrel jumped down from the tree and hid behind the nearest bush. ”Do you see that kiosk?” She pointed it out to Veronica.” That wooden stall by the path. We'll go there to eat. It's a restaurant in the five-star class, even if there's no service…” Veronica didn't understand. She was not aware that, hidden behind the shuttered windows of the wooden stall, there were souvenirs and postcards, but above all, supplies of wafers, biscuits and nuts. Old Mrs. Mokushka's eyes gleamed with excitement. Though the stall was locked, it wasn't the first time she had gone shopping in this manner. True, even she was so scared that the whiskers on her mouth were trembling. Mrs. Mokushka looked round: silence, no one anywhere… it was okay! In three leaps the squirrels were at the stand. It took them a while to find the right crack and… shuk - they were inside! Everything was dark in the stall. Veronica ran about cluelessly on the floor. ”Up on the shelf!” old Mrs. Mokushka ordered. Veronica found great quantities of good things, laid one beside the other. It was enough just to bite a bag. The squirrels tucked into sugared peanuts. The paper rustled while the nuts disappeared into their snouts. Crunch… Crunch… When they were full, Mrs. Mokushka began to fling bags down from the shelf. ”Quick, quick, pick them up!” the old squirrel directed. They went to work. First they removed all the stocks from the kiosk, and then lodged them in the hollow of a big plane tree. ”Haven't we forgotten anything?” Mrs. Mokushka, in high spirits, checked their store. ”Oh, where are the menthol sweets, Veronica? Didn't you take them? Go back immediately! Do you know how glad we'll be of them during winter?” Veronica obeyed. To satisfy old Mrs. Mokushka, she returned once more to the stall. She slipped through the crack between the boards, leaped on the shelf, took the packet of menthol sweets and… ”Now I have you, you rusty-coloured thief!” a voice thundered. A tin box fell from on high - and the squirrel was trapped! ”Scattering pine-cones, what's going on?” Veronica wailed. The old squirrel Mrs. Mokushka waited for her in vain. The owner of the kiosk took the little thief home. Poor Veronica! The tin box became her prison for the entire winter. X The young squirrel didn't like being in captivity. She gnawed her nails - her claws rather, she ran back and forth, and when she got tired, she rolled herself into a ball and began to call up her memories… She remembered the wood which she had left when she suffered her nervous breakdown, after her fir-tree was cut down. She remembered the white summerhouse with the little tower. But most of all she thought about her friend, the boy in the little wheeled vehicle. Now she understood why he looked so sad! The wheelchair stopped him walking where he wanted. He too was imprisoned… Luckily, however, the spring came. When the weather got warmer, the spa guestsslowly began to arrive and once again they roamed the parkland paths. For a shopkeeper, the time was right. The owner of the stall opened his shop once again. He repainted it a reddish brown colour, unfolded his tables and chairs and put a sign over everything: THE SQUIRREL'S CAFEHe put Veronica in a cage behind his display window. That'd be an attraction! That'd bring custom! And indeed, the spa guests stopped by the kiosk, admired the squirrel, and bought lemonade and spa wafers and above all, plush squirrels as souvenir presents. Veronica sat in her cage and gazed at her likenesses, the plush squirrels, as one by one they made their pilgrimage to freedom. She glared at the whole world. She didn't like being in the shopkeeper's home, but it was worse still to be in the window! From her cage she had a view of a shelf full of sugared peanuts and menthol sweets! On a second shelf those plush monkeys, pardon, squirrels, were neatly ranged in a row, and on a third - postcards showing the statue of Count Alphonsus von Squirrelnut. I've jumped right into it, Veronica sighed and burst into tears. ”Aha, a squirrel!” a child's voice said suddenly. Veronica did not even look round, but only curled herself up tighter into a ball. ”Squirrel, let's see you!” the voice insisted, and it seemed to Veronica that she had heard it sometime before. She opened her eyes and…! Her boy was standing by the kiosk. He reached out to the counter and tapped a finger on the glass. ”Mister, why are you keeping that squirrel in a cage?” ”Because of you, my smart lad, to make you buy this plush one as a souvenir! Here you are, thirteen crowns, fifty hellers!” ”Well, I'd rather…” the lad hesitated, and at that moment Veronica gazed right into his eyes. ”Why, it's Veronica! My Veronica!” ”She's got a name?” The shopkeeper was astonished when he noticed that the squirrel responded. ”You can take up to three of the plush, this one's not for sale. You understand me, I keep her for advertising!” ”I understand,” the boy said, choked with sadness. ”But even so you must set her free, I'll give you all my money!” And he took three round coins from the bag which he had on his neck. The shopkeeper bit his lip, gave the boy back his crowns and handed him the cage. ”Right, it's yours!” The boy fumbled with the cage, and in a flood of delight he opened it immediately, and hop - the squirrel was free! ”Veronica, wait!” Without waiting to say thanks, the squirrel scampered to the nearest tree, and in a moment she was in its crown, leaping from branch to branch, till she disappeared in the labyrinth of parkland… The shopkeeper only made a grimace, grumbled something and slammed the kiosk shut. CR-R-ASH! The boy put the empty cage on the counter and didn't know which way to turn. Afterwards he slowly set off along the paths through the park. ”Here you are kittens, help yourselves!” ”This Squirrelnut Spa is fabulous! And the squirrels…!” ”Look, what an old mokushka… Poor thing, how she's moulted!” The new holidaymakers at the benches fed the squirrels, which ate right out of their hands: Hop… hop… a nut. Hop… a sweet. Biscuits. The boy couldn't bear to look at it. He took a deep breath and fled.
X And that's supposed to be all? But a story out of a fairytale nut really cannot end like that! No indeed… Veronica, when she had her fill of exulting in freedom, made her way to the end of the park. She waited there till her little friend, in a feverish sweat, raced up to her. When they met again, they stood silent and tense, like the first time they saw each other. What they felt at that moment they had no need to say. And what happened after? The cured boy put aside his wheelchair and made a bicycle from it. And Veronica, it seems, went back home to her wood. That's if the human beings, while she was holidaying at the spa, hadn't cut the whole wood down… (Working translation by John Minahane for educational purposes only) Activities
for use in school: 5. When the two frends are finally re-united, what changes take place
in the illustrations and how does Veronka leave the story? Is it easier
to understand the significance of the two books now? Reflection: How might children throughout Europe learn to stick together in times of adversity? NB Further literature and language-based
activities can be found in
Additional Activities prepared by Milos Ondras and Eva Faithova: Activities before reading: The front cover: By looking at the front cover of the book try to match the used proper names (Vevericka Veronka = Veronica the Squirrel, Ján Uliciansky, Peter Cisárik, Nona) with the categories connected with book publishing: The title: (Názov knihy) The author: (Autor) The illustrator: (Ilustrátor) Publishing house: (Vydavatelstvo) Practice parts of speech – mostly proper nouns. Pay attention to practising pronunciation of a consonant “c” [ t?, like English ch ild] in the words used on the front cover: veveri c ka, Uli c iansky, C isárik. Encourage pupils to name another words containing a letter (in our language it means a sound as well because grapheme and phoneme are identical) “c”, e. g. c u c oriedka = blueberry. Practise another phonetic elements specific for the Slovak language “š” [ ?, like English sh e], “l” means very soft l etc. Following forms of Slovak names and surnames try to indicate gender. A teacher could explain that most of male first names end in consonant, e. g. Pete r , Já n , Milo š . (Possible clues to different languages: Ján (Slovak), Jan (Czech), Hans (German), John (English) etc. Comparing to previous, most of Slovak female first names end in vowel – a or a diphtong – ia (Veronk a , Kvet a , Ev a , Luc ia ). This could be used in case of surnames. Male surnames end in consonant or – y, e. g. (Cisári k , Uliciansk y ), female surnames end in suffix – ová or –a (e. g. Cisárik ová , Uliciansk a ). Looking at the picture on the front cover try to guess who is the main character. Find another examples of similarities – a title and a main character in our (world) literature. The expression “Vevericka Veronka” is based on a very special sound effect called alliteration. Try to create another expressions based on the pattern: animal + first name = alliteration Discuss which animals are “cosmopolitan” = can be found all over the world. Are squirrel cosmopolitan? If yes, give examples of geographical places they could be found in. Could you find them in your town / city / village?Some animals could be found in Zoo. Name some of them. Do you know what the reason of it? (Possible homework: describe your last visit of the zoo) Visual narrative of the book p. 0 – a picture of the tree, part of which is a book. A squirrel is “going out” of the book, carrying a book with a picture of a squirrel. Try to explain possible connections, relationships between: a tree and a book a tree and a squirrel a squirrel with a book with a picture of a squirrel Helpful – read a part of the text on page 1, containing a quotation from non-fiction book The Life of Animals by Brehm followed by author's intention to create a new story, fairy tale about a squirrel. ”The young squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) is a lively, merry and thoroughly harmless little animal, which gladly lets itself be stroked and petted. It is affectionate and docile. It recognises the human being who cares for it, and will come when called.” Mr. Brehm has this to say about squirrels in his book The Life of Animals . Very well, let's put it to the test: ”Veronica, Veronica, come here!” Hop… hop… hop… Here she is! Small, reddish-brown, with a shaggy tail, parted in the middle. She sits on her hind paws and with her forepaws she begs: ”Have you got a nut?” ”Yes, we have, but not an ordinary one. It's a storytelling nut. It's got a story about… Discussing the extract and the picture (illustration) we can “pull up a curtain” of great mystery how the text is being created. A teacher could explain general narrative structure, story conventions etc. Don't forget to mention connections – relationship between text and reality, text and another text:
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