Pre-amble to the story: Talking about taking turns.
As soon as my granny sat down to tell us a story, she would ask: “So, which story do you want to listen to?”. In response to this question my brother, Nico and I would start to shout out the stories we wanted to hear. Our shouting often became louder as we tried to persuade my granny to tell the story we wanted to hear. Then, my granny would ask : ”Who picked the story last time?”. My brother, Nico and I would then quickly start to point at each other saying “You chose last time!”. However, my granny was a wise woman and would remind us who selected the story last time by saying something like “ Let’s think about this. Erna, didn’t you choose the story about “How the Animals Chose their King?” When granny said this, we all knew that Granny was well aware of whose turn it was and that we needed to quickly step in line before she changed her mind about the story! This was indeed Nico’s turn to choose the story. I had to accept that this was his turn to choose. This time, however, Nico chose a really good story. See if you agree with me..
In my retelling of this story, I am again using the book Famous South African Folk Tales by Pieter W Grobbelaar and Sean Verster.