Once upon a time, there was a paperclip named Max. He had lived in the same classroom for 60 years. He was one of the very first paperclips ever made and had served his purpose very well. He was a very happy paperclip.
He really wanted to go out and see the world, and he hoped that someone would take him home from the classroom, just for one night.
Every time someone was ready to put their homework and pencil case in their bag, Max would crawl onto the table in hopes that he would be taken along, but unfortunately, never with any luck.
Max didn’t like it when it was dark in the classroom. But one evening, when the cleaning lady came in, Max heard a pair of small feet following behind her, getting louder and louder. It turned out that the cleaning lady had brought her son to work. A pair of small, slightly sticky hands reached onto the desk where Max was and grabbed markers, rubber bands, and then… him!
“Wuuuhuuuuu,” thought Max, and then, “Oops,” as he fell out of the child’s hand and off the desk. However, he didn’t land on the floor as he had expected. He got caught in the little boy’s shoelace. Phew, thought Max. “I need to hold on tight, and this can only be fun.”
Max managed to cling on. He was carried across the parking lot and then into a car. Max knew what a car was because he had seen pictures of them in books.
They drove for an hour before arriving at a zoo. Max knew what a zoo was because he had heard the teacher talk to the children about it. He decided that he might pretend to be an animal so he could stay in the zoo. That would be exciting.
First, they went to see the elephants.
“Oh no,” thought Max. “I can’t pretend to be an elephant. They’re way too big.” Max was more the size of four ants in a row.
Next, they went into another building with snakes, frogs, and some other animals that Max didn’t recognize.
‘Oh no,’ thought Max. ‘I can’t live in there because I would slide off all the animals. They’re very slippery and have no fur for me to hold onto.’
They moved on and eventually arrived at a building with a big sign that said Petting Area.
“Oh, this looks better. I’ve heard that pets are friendly and quite small and generally very furry,” thought Max. They went in and came to a cage full of hamsters. When the little boy was lifted up, Max found himself face to face with a big furry hamster, and he said, “Hi.”
“Well, hello there little guy, I’m Arnold,” said the hamster. “What are you doing here?”
Max told Arnold all about his longing for the outside world and the whole experience that had brought him to the zoo.
“Well,” said Arnold, “it sounds like you’re very good at being a paperclip. Won’t you miss your friends if you stay here?”
Max thought about the other paperclips, especially Milo, Oliver, and Oswald, and suddenly felt a little sad. They were his best friends, and he decided that he actually would miss playing with them. He had a big decision to make.
Soon it was time for the zoo to close, and Max had made his decision. He held on to the little boy’s shoelace as they all got back in the car.
The cleaning lady leaned over to buckle her son’s seatbelt, and as she did, she saw Max.
“What’s on your shoe, honey?” she said as she reached down towards Max. Max felt himself being pulled away from the boy’s shoelace. “Oh, it’s a paperclip. I’ll have to take it back to school tomorrow.”
Max sighed deeply and was really happy. He had had a great adventure and would still get to go back to the classroom tomorrow and see his friends. He nestled into the cleaning lady’s pocket and slept soundly.
By the end of the next day, he was back in the classroom and reunited with his friends. He told them the whole story about his visit to the zoo, but they laughed at him and thought it had just been a dream. They said he was silly, but Max didn’t care. He knew it had been a real adventure, one he would remember forever.
