Hi, I'm Zing & this is my tiny tale!

The Amazing Story of

the Zing

Written & Illustrated by Suzanne M.  Rafferty

 a yellow coal miner's canary fell in love & married a pretty little silkworm, and they lived on Puddle Row.

In a mining town called Mud Town a long time ago...

 Even the mayor gave him a blue rattle he found.

      As they happily prattled & crowed, their neighbors gathered around, welcoming him to their mud 

puddled mining town.           

It wasn't long after they tied the marriage knot, that Mr. & Mrs. Canary 

welcomed their newborn

 baby tot.

They didn't know what to call him, at least not right away. Every name that they thought of, they just couldn't say. But when he took to flight, buzzzzzing

through the air,

colorful string trailed from his

amazing string tail!

So they named him a name they prayed he would love...

He grew wings like his feathered father, & like his mother could     spin & weave.

  & called him Zing their sweet string-flinging baby boy bug!

He could cling, clang, zip, dip, flip, flop, ric-rock, & zim-zam a zing-thing-bing TRICK. Which was something no other bug could do not even if they tried really hard to.  Zing & his colorful string    was, plain & simply, an

 amazing thing!

It was as if the sky were his playground.  No one really cared...for the 

silkworm ladies could gather Zing's string, which saved them an 

                               extra chore--they didn't 

                                have to buy it from the coal 

                                            company store.

  As he grew, all up & down Row House Lane each neighbor knew when Mr. & Mrs. Canary's boy was buzzing about because the air was full of string, of this there was no doubt.  From branch to branch & every row home,       Zing made string very well known.     

 Zing loved to string.  He loved his mining town.  He loved his father, mother, all his neighbors, & they all, everyone, loved him too.  The fact was, the more love that he knew, the more string that he threw, decorating even Silk Stocking                          Lane one day in PINK & BLUE.

But...there was one person who DIDN'T LOVE Zing's string, who felt double-crossed...Mud Town's Coal Company Mining Boss. NO! Mr. King didn't like Zing string. He didn't like his ric-roc rolling or biz-bop doling string through the air. He thought it annoying. And wasn't there plenty of string already?  Why the silkworm ladies didn't even pay a penny for any.  His store was losing money...and that wasn't funny!  This string-flinging, bling-bringing bug had to stop, so he could make more

money in his coal company shop!

He couldn't wait to tell his class about his Great Grandpa Huebird. Anyone who was anyone in those days knew with all their knower & believed with all their believer that Huebird the hawk was the toughest miner anyone ever knew of. When his great grandpapa came out of the mine at the end of each day, his face was as coal black as a crow...

so they say. 

One morning Zing woke up in a snap & felt rather zappy for a bug of all things,          as he flap-flitter-fluttered his Zing stringing wings.

     Today was the day his class at school 

             would share family histories & Zing would share too.  

Why that old hawk was just as Zing would tell. A coal mining hero which he thought was really swell.

His father, who had heard it from his father, told him about the time an old mining cart tipped over and fell on Huebird & two other bird friends. 

They hollered so loud, from a mile up above the crowd that had gathered thought all the worst of.  Yes, great fear spread of their feathery fix, and they knew at that very second the terrible risk.

The cart broke his great grandpa's back & one wing,

 and had the other two miners trapped & sobbing. Yet somehow & someway his great grandpa pried that cart off the others & everyone sighed!

It was on this very morning, going to school, that Zing wasn't paying attention, thinking of Huebird and how he was cool, 

and he flew right into Link & Dink King, the coal company's sons, with a very loud...PING! 

Zing apologized as quick as a wink, said his "how-do-you-do's" before they could blink. Gave them some string, then flew away fast, so he wouldn't be late when the bell rang for class.

When Zing flew away, Link & Dink looked at each other, knowing that this string-flinging bug had to be going. They had never liked Zing.  Just like their father, they thought him a pest & with him never did bother. But...last night they had heard their Father say, "Zing-string HAS to be TAKEN AWAY!" They wouldn't do much, just give him a toss. After all their father was... 

      the King Coal Company Boss! 

So at lunch that very afternoon, Link & Dink invited Zing to play after school. "Meet us by the old oak tree. We have a game for just us three!"

Zing couldn't wait to play outdoors. They'd never ever never asked him befores.  Usually they'd just pass him by & ignore. He wasn't sure why, nor asked them what for.

But today, he was going to play with Link & Dink King, the sons of The King Coal Company boss of all things!

Kind-hearted Zing knew nothing of their plot.  Not even when they tied him from a tree in a knot.

Link called the game that they quickly made-up,

                  "Hang & Stay."

"Let's see how long Zing can stay in a tree...upside down, For a minute, an hour, or a day hanging round."

 It wasn't too bad, not a first.  So Zing thought.  But Zing was beginning to cough, twist, & thirst, and couldn't get out.  Link & Dink left laughing, making fun of poor Zing, who was stuck in the tree by his own woven string. Zing didn't know in his knower that these two were up to no good, not even

when they didn't come back, he still misunderstood.

However, Zing's father & mother knew something was amiss when Zing didn't come home from school for his after-school hug & kiss.  When his father found out about Link & Dink's trick, he turned bright yellow & his face looked sick.

That night when tiny Zing went to bed, he heard his father say, "I'd like to light them up like lightning bugs, give' em a flick, & send' em away!"

Zing thought that sounded nice, to "light-up & go for a sail," so he went...the next day...to play, without thinking twice.

But that day was worse than the day just before.  "Miner's Moss," as Link called it, was a dream maker lying on the cold, black coal floor.  "Just rub it on your hands & walla-bing life will seem in an instant--

       more grand--Rub it on!"

   Link gave the sweet-smiling command.

But the truth is that miners can't just walk

a mile out from the mine when they need an outhouse or pot.  So...it wasn't long till Zing discovered that the miner's moss was a thing he

should have left covered!

Zing's mother made him wash twenty times in

the creek, with a soap she called "Disenfecto- 

  Scrub," till he squeaked.

    While Zing's father went to Mr. King's big

house up the pike, to tell him his boys better 

stop being bullies or the

 miners would strike.

Mr. King said he was sorry, that his boys Link & Dink were truly foolhardy.  "You're sorry...aren't you boys," he said with a wink, "For making 

little Zing with miner's moss stink?"

"However!"  King added, "There is a problem."

He continued & chatted. "Zing's string must STOP, for my Shop can't take anymore loss...

& did I mention that I am the boss?" Link & Dink weren't in any trouble, of this there was no doubt. Nothing was going to stop them from finishing their plan out!