“It’s work! How I hate it!
I’d much rather play!
I’d take a vacation, fly for a rest
If I could someone to stay on my nest!!”
Mayzie is a bird who is described in the very first line as “lazy.” She is in the process of sitting atop an egg waiting to hatch. Her desire here reveals more than merely a quality of laziness, however. Mayzie is expressing a fundamental unhappiness with her lot in her life which consists entirely of laying eggs, waiting for them to hatch, and raising the offspring. Mayzie is lazy, however, in that she seeks to exploit the genial nature and more solid work ethic in an elephant named Horton. And there’s the plot.
“I wish she’d come back ‘cause I’m cold and I’m wet.
I hope that that Mayzie bird doesn’t forget.”
Having agreed to take over Mayzie’s job in the hatching process, Horton finds himself ill-suited to the task. After all, he weighs a ton and that’s nothing to be perched atop a fragile egg. But the egg must be kept warm and the weather is inclement so he stakes himself to the task at hand as best he can. Meanwhile, he wonders how long Mayzie will be gone and hopes she comes back soon. And, with a little desperation, also hopes she doesn’t forget she’s got an egg to hatch.
But Mayzie, by this time, was far beyond reach,
Enjoying the sunshine way off in Palm Beach,
And having such, such a wonderful rest,
Decided she’d NEVER go back to her nest!
Fictional stories have fairly sound rules of construction. A premise is created. A conflict is introduced. And an unexpected turn of events intensifies the conflict in order to produce the narrative trek toward resolution which situates the thematic blueprint. The premise of this story could not be more simply and clearly spelled out: Mayzie has grown tired of hatching the egg and wants to take a vacation. She even makes it plain in her plaintive wish to “fly off for a rest.” The conflict is introduced by the obviously inadequate choice of an elephant to take the place of a bird. So far, so good. But what really is at stake here at this point? Horton has to keep the egg warm, perhaps until it hatches, but vacations end and Mayzie will be back to raise the chick. Except that the twist that sets the themes of the story fully in motion is the significant and serious pondering on the part of Mayzie to perhaps not come back at all. Thus, leaving Horton not only to hatch the egg, but raise her offspring. That decision, if followed through, changes everything.
