The adventures of Edgar the Bat and his sister Colette

By Collin “the Magnificent” Aaronson

All the way in Egypt where Edgar the bat lives, it’s over 109 F, which he is used to, and it’s 4:30 in the afternoon. It is a sunny day in summer and he is sad because there are many bats dying every day because of the heat. Edgar has this strange ability that makes him not get too hot and it has been passed down from relative to relative for generations. He faces the problem of helping fellow bats by spinning a weather wheel. The weather wheel is a device that makes clouds form in the sky. The only reason nobody else is manning the wheel is because it is made out of metal, which gets really hot and hurts if you touch it. But since Edger doesn’t get affected by heat he can spin it!

At the weather wheel there are two seats, one for him and one for his sister Colette. When they were younger they were play-fighting and Colette bit part of Edgar’s ear off, but other than that he’s a stout little bat. Edgars’ nose is red with little black spots; he has green eyes; Edgar has been doing this job since he was born in 2017, and as he is 4 human years now (18 bat years) the date is 2021.

One time Edgar and his sister were making clouds for the town. He was turning and turning the wheel and couldn’t help but notice the rusty parts and the moldy wooden parts. There were big panels there just in case the thing broke down, too, standing at the ready.

It was the tallest thing in the town and it needed to be the tallest so it didn’t get caught on any buildings, and so the other buildings would not deflect the winds – for, without a direct flow of weather, how was the weather wheel to work?

“Ugh five more minutes.” Edgar slapped his alarm off with his wing, and then scratched his head with the one claw that stuck out at the end of it. He always turned on Batnews at the beginning of the day. But he had slept in, for over an hour! He heard  some unsettling news:

“Live in downtown Cairo: Bats and Battinas! Right now the new tallest building is being built but will this have any affect on the weather wheel? Speaking of the weather wheel… It seems as if an operator is missing –  one of them is late to do their job of protecting the town… I wonder if something happened to him.”

“RING RING!”

“Who’s there?”

“It’s me your sister, where are you? Everyone is wondering if you are hurt and you’re making me do all the work over here!”

“Sorry, I slept in.”

“Don’t be sorry get over here now!”

“Ok here I come. Where is the remote? Whatever… I got to go. It’s not a far fly from here to the weather wheel, about 1 minute, Byee!” He dropped out of the window and sailed away.

 “Ugh… you’re finally here: did you see that they’re making a taller building than the weather wheel?”

“Yeah, why?”

“I don’t know, aren’t they not supposed to do that?”

“Whatever.” Later that day Edgar and Collete finally got home from a long day of work just to find the T.V. shorted out because Edgar had left it on.

The next day the tallest building was finished and it looked spectacular. Collete woke up Edgar and they went to work and arrived on time. What they just missed was the fact that any building taller then the weather wheel was being built, and that it even got caught on the weather wheel, but the construction bats of the town had ignored the rule and built it anyway. It was too late! Edgar and his sister were already spinning and there was a big storm on approach and it was going to make direct contact with the batborhood, killing many bats!

When Edgar noticed that, he told his sister and they both turned, gasped, their bat fur going from dark to pale. They had to press the emergency button but it was too late: the storming sand clouds knocked over the building, killing many, destroying a lot of houses… including Edgar’s!

“Edgar, what have we done? I think we’ve just done the worst thing in history!”

“Colette, what are you talking about!?”

“What will they do to us?”

“I don’t know… more or less I don’t want to know. We didn’t do anything!”

“I at least hope people are a little reasonable with what we just did.”

“We didn’t do anything wrong, Colette.”

 There was dust everywhere: you couldn’t really see anything or breathe as the dust was too thick. Edgar and Colette were hugging on each other for dear life, but the air still felt grim. You could hear little bats crying for their parents wishing they would come back, but knowing that it was no use. As I said before, the air was grim, and Edgar and Collete were stunned so that they couldn’t think straight.

Edgar and Colette flew back to their now-destroyed house hiding in the rubble. They were too scared to show their faces so they just hid. Then a rescue team showed up and saw the edge of Edgar’s wing and so they helped him but when Edgar saw  the bat’s faces he realized that they were after him to bring him in front of a group of waiting bats.

Edgar croaked out: “We are sorry for the destruction of the town: we didn’t know that was going to happen, and we didn’t try to hurt anyone. We were only trying to help! Please don’t blame this on us. Me and Collete think its the mayor’s fault because he made the building.”

Everyone turned to the mayor and he went practically gray under his glossy fur, yet some people didn’t blame him as they were still mad at Colette and Edgar. 

The next day, bats of all ages, lengths, widths, and heights gathered at a town hall. They were furr-ious! One side stood snarling towards Edgar and Colette, and another group snarled at the mayor. First, a bat who sided with the mayor took the stage and spoke:

“Good morning. My name is Jackson. I know we have lost lots today and I just want to say I lost someone too: my brother Benny! He was going to be a good bat but the two people that so-called save the day on the regular, manning the weather wheel: well, they have killed hundreds. They should be kicked out of the town and never be allowed to return!”

Then from Edgar and Colette, a mother bat strode to the mic. “I know we have lost it all, but at the end of the day that doesn’t mean you can blame our weather wheel watchers for this, even because they have been saving lives for three years now! I personally lost my baby Tommas.” She began weeping.

Edgar passed the mic to Colette. “Who is to blame here? The Cairo court of law will decide. But we hope that all of the bats that died yesterday go to heaven. They will always be proud of you. You will eventually meet them someday again.”

Everyone went off to bury their dead.