This story was submitted by listener Tillie in response to the 2023 Spring Writing Challenge.
Lydia the Dancing Cow
by Tillie
Once upon a time there was a cow named Lydia. She lived in a big field with her mother and father. She also had seventeen brothers and sisters. Her whole life all she did was eat grass and go to the barn when it was time for the farmer to milk her. It was a very boring life.
Lydia decided that she didn’t want to just live in a field and eat grass all the time. She wanted to do something exciting with her life! So one day she broke the fence and walked down the road to the bus stop. Soon the bus came and she climbed on board. The bus driver was so surprised that she did not even ask Lydia to pay.
Lydia rode the bus to London, and she went to the theatre to get a job. The man at the theatre said to her “what kind of job do you want?” and Lydia said “I want to be a dancing cow.” The man at the theatre said, “Brilliant. You will be in a show tonight.” But Lydia said “I maybe ought to practise a bit first.” Then the man said, “All right. You can rehearse upstairs.”
But Lydia could not rehearse upstairs because cows cannot walk up stairs or walk back down again. So instead she rehearsed in the car park behind the theatre. She learned to do the cha-cha and the Green Green Grass dance from TikTok. After one week she was ready for the show. The theatre man sold five hundred tickets and lots of important people came. Chris Pratt was there and so was the King. The King also brought his dog.
At the show, Lydia danced the whole time! Human ballerinas danced with her too, and they wore black and white tutus so they would match. After the show, everyone gave Lydia bouquets of flowers and some nice hay to eat. The King gave Lydia a big prize for being the best dancing cow ever. Lydia became famous all around the world and her dreams came true.