Tanky and Helli. Friendship Forever by Nadia Step

8/3/2019 Tanky and Helli. Friendship Forever by Nadia Step

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IkigaiBooks

Tanky And Helli

Story #1

Mystery of a little silver box. Vow of friendship.

By Nadia Step

Copyright © 2011, Nadia Step



Once upon a time, in a far away land, in a big military hangar, the roofof which reflected the bright sunshine in any weather, lived one small,but very charming tank, by the name of Tanky.«Hangar-r-r…» the older tanks would roar with the utmost

importance, referring to the big house where all of them lived.

Three hundred other massive, all grown-up tanks (his older brothers)nestled together under one enormous, metal roof. All of them hadparticipated in the most realistic war games on numerous occasionsand the roaring of their powerful engines and clattering of their irontreads could be heard throughout the military proving ground.This was a special name for a training area where tanks wouldpractice, develop and perfect their many battle skills.Little Tanky could only dream of such a life. This was all a big

fantasy, yet participating in military games was the sole purpose ofhis existence!

-Oh, - he used to sigh to his dear friend Helli; -when will my brothersfinally take me to the real training? I yearn to stand in one formationwith them and unflinchingly overcome formidable obstacles, to beblanketed in the road dust, to spend nights under the clear blue sky,to be soaked by the morning dew…

- Dreams come true, Tanky! Trust me, they do! They always do! - his

chirping girlfriend would merrily assure while the green leaves,fluttering in the hot summer wind, rustled, as if agreeing with her.There, among the tall and slender birch trees, lived Tanky’s faithfulfriend who bore a beautiful name Helli Fidget. Actually, she was fromone of the most respectable families of Army Helicopters, TheDragonflies. The family was very well known and Helli, for herrestless character and active tirelessness, even got nicknamedDragonfly-Fidget Fly or Dragonfly-Overfly.

-Of course dreams come true! They always come true! - Helli wouldsqueal over and over. Take me, for example, every day I dreamabout something and it always comes true! Always! Even thismorning, I pictured what having a digital voice recorder would be like.

I want my own digital recorder I said to myself. I was just dying tohave one! I have so many great thoughts in my head (some smartones by the way) that I need to write them down somewhere!



Notebooks are simply not big enough and my purse, look at it, ispacked!

Just at that very moment in order to demonstrate what she meant,

Helli dumped the contents of her tiny handbag onto a tree stump.

- Whoa, - Tanky uttered in amazement.

There was a lot to think about. It turned out that Helli’s little pink baghoused a ton of useful things.

The following objects covered the stump:

… A candy wrapped in a red foil… … A pair of sunglasses… … A nail… … A pink feather...… Pearl hair clips...… An empty candy box (they had eaten all the candy the weekbefore)… … A chestnut… … A bitten apple…

… A black thread ball… ... A little black box (Tanky couldn’t make out its purpose)… ... And a small silver box (Tanky also couldn’t make out itspurpose)…

While lovingly laying out the contents onto a tree stump, our Hellicontinued to reflect on her morning dream (recording device).

-I was lost in thought this morning and as I was flying over therunway, I suddenly noticed a little sliver of light coming from the field.As I got closer to it, I discovered a beautiful shiny little box just lyingthere. And it belonged to - NO ONE! I picked it up, and, to mysurprise, realized it was a digital voice recorder! Now it is in my purse.Look, isn’t it amazing? - Helli carefully took the small silver box fromthe stump.



Tanky focused his gaze on this quite peculiar object and startedanalyzing: «A digital recorder, a digital recorder, a digital recorder... Ihave information about the intercom in my database, but a digitalrecorder, for some reason, is missing. I don’t recall my older brotherstelling me anything about this... What’s a digital recorder?» - Tankybegan to slowly change his color.

This would always happen when he was about to tell the untruth. Hewished he could just boast - «Oh! A digital recorder! What a handything! » But he could not. Unfortunately, to his shame, he did not knowwhat a digital voice recorder was.

Helli knew her friend very well and seeing how the color of his armorstarted changing, quickly came to his rescue. «A digital recorder is asort of a thing that records sound, - she explained with greatenthusiasm, - Here, I’ll now press a button and you’ll hear a singingnightingale that I recorded at dawn.»

She gently pushed the button and Tanky was stunned by the beautyof nightingale’s trilling.Click!

-It’s -a crow!Click!-It's a cuckoo!Click!-And this is - my mom, listen how beautiful her voice is! - Hellishrieked with tenderness as the hoarse crackle of a Helicopter takingoff came from the digital device.-And this is- ME! - Tanky heard a subtle «buzzing» as if a bee or a flyhad zoomed by.

Tanky respectfully gazed at his friend.

He was very proud of the many talents his best friend had. Eventhough, she sometimes traded truth for fantasies, Tanky still admiredher dearly, for she was beautiful. Always!



And if she suddenly did make a mistake or got confused, (as was thecase when a whole squadron of Helicopters coming in together for alanding was interrupted by Helli, who instead of landing, for somereason soared up) she would still insist that it was them who weremistaken while she was - right. Tanky would only smile at all this,fixing his sight at her resolute, blushing face.

-Oh! A digital recorder! - was the only thing that Tanky was able toutter, respectfully shaking his armored turret.

Then they both fell silent, lost in thought for some time.

The silence was suddenly interrupted by Tanky’s timid voice. (He was

always slightly embarrassed when he had to say something first).

- Helli! Helli! Let's...- he hesitated for a second, -Helli let’s, right now,swear to be friends forever on your silver voice recorder. OK?

Helli stared at Tanky, hushed for a second or two and then gentlyreplied:

- Do you know such an oath?

-No - Tanky went silent again and stared in bewilderment at hisfriend, - but, I think if each of us speaks in turn, we will surely comeup with our own oath, and then, the whole world will repeat it as asymbol of Friendship, … or , maybe even as an anthem…? What doyou think, Helli? After all, someone needs to be the first one to thinkof such a pledge. Why not us?

-You know Tanky, I always knew there was much more to you thenmeets the eye! - Tanky blushed with embarrassment, - Let me startand you’ll continue!

The little tank promptly nodded. Helli triumphantly ascended to thelevel of Tanky’s hatch and gazing at her friend, more seriously thanever before, solemnly began:



I vow to always be your friend,In grief and sorrow with you stand,

Tanky earnestly continued:

Besides you spend a carefree day Or join you in the Milky Way.

Helli lightly picked up:

And even if we are so distant And all the stars come right between us Should I recall this lovely day

A smile on me won’t go away.

Tanky proudly continued:

Should we be scattered on this planet,If blind, or deaf, or silent you become,Your friend will always be like a magnet No matter what, he’ll always come.

Helli turned toward the sun, squinted and almost vibrating with

excitement exclaimed:

I swear to be your friend forever! To be perpetually yours! This promise will be broken -never! A dear old friend of that assures!

Tanky, also having turned toward the sun and standing on tiptoes,went further in unison with Helli:

An oath of friendship now we make! A friend’s allegiance now we take! The roads we travel shall be praised Faith, Hope and Love will always blaze!!!

Both stared at each other while catching their breath.



They stood like this for some time and the seriousness of the momentwas evident even to the tree stump, on which a pile of knick-knacks,from the pink handbag was displayed.

Impatient Helli, as always, was the first one to break the silence. -Tanky! Now let’s listen to our oath from the recorder!

Click. From the silver box first came the singing of the nightingale,then the cawing of crows, then the call of a cuckoo, then a crash androar, then the «buzzing», and finally, the voice of Helli.

Friends stood mesmerized, each reliving the importance of themoment in their own way.

I vow to always be your friend,In grief and sorrow with you stand,Besides you spend a carefree day Or join you in the Milky Way.

And even if we are so distant And all the stars come right between us Should I recall this lovely day

A smile on me won’t go away.

Should we be scattered on the planet,If blind, deaf, or silent you become,Your friend will always be like a magnet No matter what, he’ll always come.

I swear to be your friend forever! To be perpetually yours! This promise will be broken- never! A dear old friend of that assures!

An oath of friendship now we make!

A friend’s allegiance now we take! The roads we travel shall be praised Faith, Hope and Love will always blaze!!!

Helli switched the recorder off, gave Tanky a big hug and gentlystroked his crown. Our shy friend almost choked from suchtenderness, and after hoisting his girlfriend onto the commander’s



hatch, began to whirl around, picking up speed and gainingmomentum.

Their laughter and happiness infected everything around them. Livelysounds were coming from everywhere: there was a distinct chirpingof birds, melodious crunching of branches, playful gust of wind, whichreflected from a quivering stream, chirping of grasshoppers, ringing ofbluebells; nature shared the happiness with its friends.

Along with a pile of knick-knacks, a little silver box-recorder laysilently on a stump. Today, it felt like a heavenly fairy – the Keeper ofthe Great Hidden Power of Friendship. Next to it rested a little blackbox of unknown origin…

But that's another story...

Tanky and Helli. Friendship Forever by Nadia Step

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