Scribble-Scrabble: The Old Man Cactus and the Sphinx Moth

by Janee Woodward, Jaydin Nichols, An Anonymous Student, and Pai’tyn Neal

My name is Brooklyn, and I like to do gymnastics with my tongue. 

My tongue is 11 inches long. I use my tongue to get nectar. And I am the only moth that can get into long tubular flowers. I also like to draw and paint, and in gymnastics I can do a back pink wingspring. And also a cartwheel pink wingspring.

I am a sphinx moth and I pollinate the old man cactus. 

The old man cactus is my friend, and he can grow 20–40 feet tall. Sometimes people accidentally touch his spines and get poked and he feels bad. He doesn’t want to hurt anyone. 

Sometimes I bring him ice cream from Belle Isle Beach, where I hear the ice cream truck and I smell birds and hear them chirping and I hear music from people’s cars.

One day, I flew to the beach to get ice cream for my friend the old man cactus, when on the soft sand I saw mermaids, and this is what happened next . . .

I found a starfish and I saw mermaid magic. There was a mermaid cactus who was half-mermaid and half-cactus. It opened its arms and said, “Bowwwhhh.” The magic made all of the animals come together and be friends. The fish swam with the mermaids. And there was a pretty pink bird who was pollinating a pretty pink flower. 

I got the old man cactus, who is covered in old white hair. I got him vanilla ice cream with sprinkles. I held the waffle cone on my back with my tongue wrapped around it (and I only took a few bites!).

Inside the conservatory it was hot, but the ice cream melted only a little bit because I was moving so fast. 

The old man cactus was so happy. He tried to give me a hug, but then he remembered that he was very sharp. It was a mistake and mistakes happen. 

Magic is love.