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Freddy beim Rudern

Surprise at the lake with Freddy Fit and Tobi Traube

Splish splash!

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A Story with Freddy Fit by Larissa Herzl.

Splish splash! Surprise at the lake with Freddy Fit and Tobi Traube

Much like every summer, this year too Freddy Fit, along with his Nana and Uncle Birnstingl, are heading to the lake for their holidays. The week he spends there is always the loveliest time of his year and this occasion is no different, particularly because his best friend, Tobi Traube, is coming with them. Way before they set off on their travels, the two of them got together and came up with a list of all the things they wanted to do. Nana’s glasses almost fell off her nose in shock when she read through it. ‘Little ones, how long do you think we are going away for? You’ve planned way too much!’, she cried, with a wink. Even though Freddy Fit would have had no objection to an extended holiday, he and Tobi finally cut the list down to a few points. And today, on this abridged version, ‘pedalo-ing’ is on the agenda.

Right after he got up, Freddy hurtled up  to Uncle Birnstingl and Nana and told them the plan he had for today with Tobi – hiring a pedalo and heading out on the lake. ‘I don’t like the thought of you going out there alone, it is much too dangerous!, said Uncle Birnstingl. ‘Oh Uncle, I know every inch of the lake, I’ve been there a thousand times’, grinned Freddy, trying to persuade his uncle. After some to-ing and fro-ing, Uncle Birnstingl and Nana finally approved, but only provided Freddy and Tobi stayed within sight and wore life-jackets.

So ,Tobi and Freddy headed to the lake, where there was a small wooden building next to the jetty. It was there that they both hired a yellow pedalo with a slide, put on their life-jackets and climbed on board. Nana and Uncle Birnstingl stood on the banks waving to them. The two friends pedalled full of gusto so the pedalo soon got up to speed. As promised, the two stayed nearby.

In no time at all Freddy and Tobi were quite a bit away from the banks, but always within sight of Uncle Birnstingl. Nana was already settling into a lounger. ‘Come on, Tobi, let’s test out the slide’, suggested Freddy Fit and not two minutes later Freddy and Tobi had landed in the water, laughing, with a loud ‘splash’. Both of them were looking around, enjoying the sun which was beaming down from the sky, glistening on the gentle waves of the lake. Tobi suddenly screwed up his eyes. ‘Hey, look over there in the reeds! There are baby ducks! They look really agitated!’ Freddy Fit looked over to where Tobi was pointing. ‘You’re right! Come on Tobi, we have to take a closer look!’

No sooner said than done. The friends clambered back to the boat and pedalled furiously over to the reeds. As they got closer, they saw that a little duck was frantically beating its wings, swimming around in a circle and quacking loudly. ‘It almost sounds like it is calling for help!’, said Tobi worried, looking attentively all around. He suddenly saw why – ‘Freddy, look, the Mummy duck is caught in the reeds!’ Helplessly flapping about, the duck was trying to free itself, but one of her wings was stuck in the reeds. Freddy Fit and Tobi Traube looked at each other knowingly and realised straight away what needed to be done. Tobi sat down at the wheel and steered the pedalo right into the reeds. Freddy Fit leaned over the edge of the boat, as far as he could and still stay balanced, then he reached out his arms to the weakened duck. He took care not to injure her, first carefully freeing her wing, then gently getting her out of the difficult situation she was in, putting her back in the water with her little ones.

The baby ducks immediately snuggled into their Mummy and their quacks now sounded really joyful. Freddy and Tobi looked at one another happily. ‘Are we not a really great rescue team?’, asked Tobi. ‘The best’, replied Freddy beaming.

Find out more about LARISSA HERZL

Download this story (in german)

Fotocredits: (c)unsplash, pexels.com

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