‘I’ll need Hari to come too.’
But Hari, who’d been read to since he was little, wasn’t going anywhere, so Patrick marched off behind Ramsay, complaining loudly as Carmen attempted to get back to the story:
‘Please tell me, Mr Fox, why I am so sad?’
‘It is because you need a friend! Like me, the Fox!’
And the Bear and the Fox held hands and went into the woods.
Carmen frowned.
‘Then they met Mr Snake,’ she continued.
‘Is thisThe Gruffalo?’ came a voice.
‘Ooh, is there a gruffalo?’ came several interested voices.
‘Why am I so sad, Mr Snake?’
Mr Snake uncurled his body.
‘Because you should do some breathing and yoga.’
There was a lot of confusion about this meeting between a bear, a fox and a snake and who would eat who first.
‘So they all did some breathing and yoga,’ read Carmen.
‘Snakes areverygood at yoga,’ nodded Skylar.
‘CHOMP!’ shouted the children.
‘I have MUNCHED YOU UP, PESKY SNAKE!’ said one.
‘NO, YOU HAVE NOT, BEAR: I WILL KILL YOU WITH MY LIGHT SABRE!’
‘Okay, guys, settle down.And then Mr Bear, Mr Fox and Mr Snake met Mr Frog.’
‘Why are all these animals boys?’ Phoebe wanted to know.
‘That’s a very good question,’ agreed Carmen, to a disapproving sniff from Skylar, who was still taping.
‘Now we will all think about the beautiful woods and the beautiful sky and the beautiful rivers full of fish,’said the frog. ‘And we will not be unhappy any more.’
‘Because they eat all the fish?’
‘Sssh,’ said a parent.
‘And they thought about the beautiful woods and the beautiful sky and the beautiful rivers and how they were all friends and then they had a big Christmas party and lived happily ever after with the most important gift of all – loving themselves,’ Carmen concluded.
A ring of faces stared back at her.
‘All the animals love each other?’
‘Yes. Well. I think they’re friends. And they love themselves.’
‘And he doesn’t get any real presents?’
‘But he gets the gift of love,’ said Carmen.
