Jean's Tummy Rumble

Jean loved the playground more than anything. It was a place of whooshing slides that made his hair stand up, squeaky swings that flew to the clouds, and the best smell of hot chips from the shop nearby. Jean was the funniest kid there. He could pull a face like a squished frog or tell a joke about a wobbly wombat that made everyone giggle until their sides hurt.

One sunny afternoon, a colourful van with music tinkling from its roof pulled up near the park. It wasn't the ice cream man; it was the Lolly Van! A friend, Chloe, bought a giant bag of rainbow gummy dinosaurs and shared them with Jean. His eyes went wide. Red ones, green ones, yellow ones! He'd never seen so many lollies all at once.

“Let’s make the dinosaurs dance!” Jean shouted, using his funny trait to make the game even better. He wiggled a red T-Rex and made it gobble a yellow Stegosaurus before popping both into his mouth. He ate another, and another, and another. The more his friends laughed, the more lollies he ate. But soon, the giggling stopped. Jean’s tummy started to feel funny. It went… rumble, grumble, tumble.

He sat down on the bench, holding his belly. The world wasn’t whooshing or squeaking anymore; it was just achy. Just then, his mum arrived. “Oh, Jean-bean,” she said softly, sitting beside him. “Sometimes, even yummy things can give us a tummy ache if we have too many. Our bodies need a little bit of everything, not a lot of one thing.” Jean looked at the last few gummy dinosaurs and knew his mum was right. He handed her the bag to save for later.

After a big drink of water and a quiet cuddle with Mum, the rumble, grumble, tumble in Jean’s tummy faded away. He felt much better. On the walk home, he looked up at his mum and grinned. “What do you call a dinosaur with a sore tummy?” he asked. “A Tyrannosaurus-wreck!” His mum laughed, and Jean knew that making people giggle felt even better than a whole bag of lollies.