It’s 6:00 am on a beautiful summer morning. The sun is shining through Kamma’s bedroom window and it wakes her up. She was dreaming about a big bowl of cereal with a pile of fresh blueberries on it. No one else in the family is awake yet. Kamma wipes the sleep from her eyes as she makes her way into the kitchen for her breakfast treat.She fills a bowl with cereal, and tops it up with a large mound of blueberries. She is about to take a big spoonful of scrumptious berries when suddenly she hears a voice coming from her spoon.
“Hey, help! Put me down please!” Kamma was surprised and immediately put the spoonful of blueberries down on the table beside her cereal. A large blueberry comes rolling out of the pile and said, “Good Morning, my name is Blueberry Bob.” Kamma said, “Oh, Good morning, my name is Kamma. I didn’t know blueberries could talk?” Bob said, “Not all of us can talk. I just happen to be one of the lucky ones.” “Where are you from Bob?” asked Kamma.
“I was born and raised on a farm in southern Vancouver Island. All my family and relatives were picked when they got ripe but I managed to escape. Eventually I got picked up, bagged and frozen with the others. It’s a long story!” Kamma said, “Could you tell me the story? I will eat my cereal with other fruit and nuts this morning.” “Sure,” said Bob.
Well, it began about this time last year, August I think. I was still attached to the blueberry plant with my family, friends and relatives. We were all getting big, juicy and ripe. One morning we saw a group of pickers all carrying buckets and heading our way. We knew they were coming to get us so some of us tried to hide behind the leaves and branches on the plant, but they still found all of us except me.
I managed to break loose from the plant, fall onto the dirt and bury myself until the pickers left. After about an hour all the pickers had their buckets full of berries and were heading back into the main warehouse area. I stuck up my head and watched as they poured all my blueberry family and friends into large cardboard boxes. It was real sad to see them go.
I climbed out of the dirt, cleaned myself off and laid in the warm sunshine feeling happy that I hid from the pickers. Suddenly a dark shadow appeared over me and I was snatched up by a huge bird and carried high up into the sky.
“Yikes!” I screamed, but no one heard me. The bird held me tight in its claws as it flew off towards the mountains. I could see the blueberry farm far below but it was getting smaller the higher and farther we flew.
After about 30 minutes the bird carrying me circled a large tree and landed in a nest at the top of the tree. Inside the nest were 4 newly hatched birds, but they were all sleeping. I was thinking that I was to be their lunch time snack! The big bird released me inside of the nest and flew off to get more food for the babies. I remained very quiet and did not want to wake up the sleeping baby birds. I knew they would be hungry when they woke up and I was their only food available at this time. I quietly rolled myself to the edge of the nest and looked down.
It was a long ways down and I would be squished flat if I jumped. Next to me was a beautiful Maple tree and I noticed its huge leaves were in the process of dropping off and floating gently to the ground. I decided the only way out of the nest and away from the birds was to try and jump onto one of these big leaves as they fell to the ground.
I waited until I saw a leaf ready to break off then jumped onto it. As I jumped I yelled “Ahhhhhhhh” and that woke up the baby birds. I held on tight to the leaf as it gently drifted down. I looked up and saw 4 tiny heads with hungry mouths opened watching me descend.
I was about 20 feet from the ground when suddenly a gust of wind blew me sideways towards a river. A few minutes later I landed on the river and began floating down towards the ocean.
It was getting dark now and there was not much I could do except wait to see where I would eventually end up. I think I fell asleep, as the last I could remember was seeing the moon and stars come out. I woke up the next day floating out in the ocean in amongst large waves.
There were sea gulls flying overhead and a number of fishing boats around. The sun was shining bright and it was getting quite hot. I began to sweat and shrivel up a bit. I thought I should try and hide from the sea gulls before they spotted me.
I slid over the side and under the leaf into the water. It was cool and felt good. I floated for a few more hours out of the sun The waves got bigger and the sea was rough. All of a sudden a gust of wind picked up the leaf I was under and blew it away.
I was left alone now bobbing up and down in the ocean. I thought to myself, I wonder if that is why they call me Bob? It was dark now so I was in no danger of being picked up by birds. I eventually drifted off to sleep floating up and down, or should I say, bobbing up and down on the waves?
The next morning I awoke to the screams and laughter of little children playing at the beach. I guess during the night I got washed up onto a sandy beach and when the tide went out I was left on dry land. I climbed up onto a piece of a leaf I found on the beach to dry off.
Soon I saw a little girl carrying a bucket. It looked like she was collecting sea shells, sea weed, pretty stones and anything else interesting she found. She reached down and picked me up. I didn’t say a word. She said, “Hey, this is pretty, must be a blue fish egg.” She then put me into her bucket with the rest of her collection.
The bucket smelled like a salty mixture of fish, clams and seaweed. But, at least I felt I was safe in there. Soon I heard the little girl’s mom call her and say it was time to go home. They loaded up their car and we began to drive away.
They placed the bucket in the trunk of the car. Boy! Was it stinky and hot! After about 20 minutes we arrived at a nice little house somewhere out in the country. Then the parents unloaded everything and went inside. The girl took out the bucket from the trunk and carried it into her back yard. She laid all the stuff including me out on a picnic table. I guess she was trying to dry everything off.
Soon her mom called her for supper and I was left alone in amongst the other smelly things. Just as I was beginning to relax I was shocked to see a large cat jump up onto the table and begin sniffing around. He sniffed the shells and sea weed and eventually came over to me. He pushed me around with his paws like I was a hockey puck or something. He then opened his mouth and I thought he was going to eat me.
Suddenly I made a loud barking noise like a big dog and that scared him away. After supper I never did see that girl again. Her mom came out and cleared the table off putting us all into a white plastic bag. It felt like we were being carried somewhere. I heard a garbage can lid opening and then we were dumped in and the lid was put back on. I had no option but to spend the night in the garbage can with my smelly roommates.
Early the next morning I was awoken by the sound of a large noisy truck. It was a garbage truck coming to pick up the garbage. I thought to myself, “Oh oh, could this be the end of me?” I heard the lid being taken off of the garbage can and felt the bag being picked up and carried towards the garbage truck.
I saw a small hole in the plastic bag that must have been made by the sharp edge of a sea shell. There was daylight coming through. I made my way to the hole and looked out. Just as the bag was being thrown into the back of the truck, I jumped out and landed on the fender of the truck and rolled under a piece of metal molding and out of sight. The bag went into the back of the truck and it departed. I stayed riding on the outside of the truck for the next few hours as I had no idea where I was or where I was going. I kept looking out to see where I should jump off.
To my surprise I recognized a blueberry farm that was close to where I had grown up. The truck stopped to make a pick up and then I rolled off and onto the ground. The truck departed. Just then another smaller truck pulled up with a man, a lady and two small girls. When I first saw the truck I thought that the lady was driving it without a steering wheel. Then I noticed that the steering wheel was on the right hand side of the vehicle.
They went inside the office and I heard them say, they had come to pick up their organic blueberries. Soon the family came out all carrying boxes of blueberries. Even the little girl was carrying a small bag.
Suddenly she tripped on a small rock and the plastic bag of berries spilled onto the ground and all around me! The mom hurried over to help the girl up. She was not hurt. Together the mom and girl picked up all the spilled blueberries, including me, and put us into the plastic bag again.
It felt good to be with my berry buddies again! Everyone got into the truck and we departed. I got a few dirty looks from my fellow berries as I guess they had never smelt a salty stinky blueberry before. After a couple of hours of driving we arrived somewhere up island and everyone got out of the truck.
The parents carried all the berries into the house and bagged them into small plastic bags and put all of us into the freezer. It was cold, but still nice to be in amongst friends and relatives.
Over the next year, one by one a bag of blueberries were taken from the freezer and placed in the upstairs fridge to be enjoyed with deserts, breakfasts or even just as a favourite snack. So Kamma, I guess today you opened the bag of berries that I had been living in for the past year.” explained Blueberry Bob.
Kamma said, “Wow, that is an incredible story, don’t worry I won’t eat you. You can live here at my house and maybe we will even grow blueberries in our garden so you will have friends to play with.” Bob said, “Great! Thank you Kamma, that sounds perfect.”
Kamma then said, “I will just be in the bathroom washing up for a few minutes.” Blueberry Bob was left lying on the table next to Kamma’s empty bowl. He was thinking of how great things will be living at Kamma’s house. Just then Kamma’s Dad came into the kitchen. He walked over to the table and sees Kamma’s empty bowl and spots one lonely blueberry on the table. He thinks, hummm, I think Kamma missed this one I guess I will eat it. Wow, it’s a little salty!
Kamma then comes out of the bathroom all cleaned up and ready to begin making Blueberry Bob a place to live. She sees her dad in the kitchen but could not see Bob.
Kamma yells, “Dad, did you eat a blueberry that was on the table near my bowl?” Kamma’s Dad said, “Yes, but it was a little salty!” Oh Dad, that was Blueberry Bob!” said Kamma. “Who?” said Kamma’s Dad. “It’s a long story,” said Kamma.
