Panda Bear's Playhouse Presents...

 Ping Pong and the Panda Bear's Playhouse

Part I - The Shortcut

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  The Shortcut

It was a crisp sunny day.

It was just the kind of a day for panda bears to wander about and explore the forest. This was one of Ping Pong the panda bear’s favorite things to do. He had a knack for exploring. After all, he was the "king of the shortcut"! 

    Ping Pong always took what he thought would be the shortest way! The only problem was that he was never really very good at finding it, and he usually wound up on yet another adventure. When his family asked him how he got anywhere at all, Ping Pong proudly bragged that he always used a "shortcut". So today was going to be one of those days for sure! Ping Pong could just feel it in his chunky black paws!

The daring little panda bear put on his cap and tie and set out on his hike through the green forest. He roamed about, being very careful to pay attention to where he was going, but not where he had been. It wouldn't be long before he was wandering away on yet another journey. 

    Deep into the forest he padded. It became darker and darker, as Ping Pong strolled further into the woods. The little panda was not the slightest bit afraid. A branch drooped across his path. Ping Pong stuck his arm up to his face to protect his eyes.

  Oops! Ping Pong had stubbed his toe on a rock.

 He was soon tumbling down and around a hillside path.  

 When the dust settled, he came to rest near an old stump. The fuzzy little panda picked himself up and giggled aloud, "Now I know what a tumbleweed feels like!"

 Ping Pong looked around.

 "I wonder where I am?” he asked himself.

 "In the Emerald Woods,” a squeaky little voice whispered.

 "Hell-o!" Ping Pong called out. 

"Who’s there?" 

There was no answer. He began to wonder if he was imagining things.

 A little puzzled, the panda bear sat down on the old stump. 

  “HEY! Bear! Watch where you are sitting!”

 Panda sprang up and scratched his head as he curiously tried to locate the voice that yelled at him.

 “Who’s there?” Ping Pong repeated.

He noticed a slight rustling in the nearby ferns. 

 Carefully, Ping Pong slipped off his colorful cap and quietly approached the fern patch. In the blink of an eye he tossed his cap and covered the fern that was waving about at his feet.  

 “Aha, I’ve gotcha!” he exclaimed.

As he pulled the hat up from the ground, a little head peaked over the edge of the cap. “Hi, ya!” a sheepish little voice squeaked. “You never would’ve caught me if I hadn’t lost my glasses!”

 “Glasses, how do you get glasses out here in the wilderness?" wondered Ping Pong.  

"This is not the wilderness. This is the Emerald Woods," the little creature chattered. "I am Nuber the Hamster. I am the fix-it-upper expert around here.” 

  Ping Pong was amazed at this cute little furry being, being as it was so cute and furry. “What are you doing here in the middle of my shortcut?” asked the panda bear.

“ I live here,” said Nuber, “and you were sitting on my house!”

 “You live here?” said Ping Pong as he bent down and gazed into the stump. 

“Wow, this is a cool place!” Ping Pong introduced himself. “ My name is Ping Pong the panda bear,” he politely told the amusing hamster.

“Where are you headed?” asked Nuber.

Ping Pong gently placed the hamster down on the ground. He brushed off his cap, and plopped it back on his furry head just between his black fuzzy ears.

 “Well, I am taking a shortcut,” he said.

“Where to?” asked Nuber.

“Actually, I never really know until I get there," Panda said.

“Oh, I see,"  said Nuber. “You are lost!”

“No,” said Ping Pong. “I am on an adventure!”

 Nuber squinted his eyes as he chuckled at Ping Pong. Still the hamster couldn’t help but like the panda bear’s silliness.

“I really like your house,” said Ping Pong. “Did you build it yourself?”

 “Well, mostly,” Nuber said, as he shuffled his feet through the ferns looking for his spectacles. Ping Pong caught a glimpse of Nuber’s lenses reflecting the sunlight. He reached over and picked them up and handed them to the near-sighted little hamster.

  Nuber rubbed them on his fur and then put them back across his bright pink nose.  He gazed at the panda bear intently. “Say, you’re not just any bear are you?” Nuber asked.  “You’re that panda bear that we all hear stories about here in the Emerald Woods! You're the panda bear that takes those long shortcuts!”

 “We’ve heard a lot about you here, but no one’s ever seen you. We wondered if you were real!"  

Panda blushed with pride.

“Well, I am taking another shortcut, so I should be on my way,” said Ping Pong.

 Nuber liked Ping Pong instantly and asked if he could walk along with him. The panda bear was happy that Nuber wanted to come along, and together they strolled down the trail.

  After a short while, Ping Pong caught sight of a big wooden box in a thicket of thorny bushes.

“What’s that?” he asked Nuber.

“ It’s an old crate that some Human Bean dumped in the woods one day.  No one knows what to do with it! It is a shame to have that ugly thing sitting in our beautiful Emerald Woods”.

Just then Ping Pong got a terrific idea, and he danced up and down and even did a couple of his new tumbleweed imitations for fun!!!

“ Nuber, we could build a clubhouse out of that box.  It could be our own special place to play!”  

Nuber’s eyes grew large and filled with delight.

 “We could fix it up for sure,” said Nuber.

   “ I could get a few things from my Grammas house to help us,” said Ping Pong. If only we could find our way there, I am sure that she would let us have a few nails, a saw and maybe even a hammer.”   

Click here to continue reading:   Part II - The Project             

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