The Story of Joey Sludgedirt

In my last post I promised a story about a boy named Joey Sludgedirt. Well, almost as soon as I posted that I realized a better story would be about a KANGAROO named Joey Sludgedirt. It would be better because of at least two reasons 1) all baby kangaroos are called "joeys" and 2) it would be more fun! So...here it is.

THE STORY OF JOEY SLUDGEDIRT

Joey was a Kangaroo. He lived in Australia but he never considered what country or continent he lived in the way people do. His first home was Mom’s pouch. In fact, he thought he was somehow part of Mom. But he soon learned he was separate from Mom and that sometimes, when something called “safe” happened, he was allowed to crawl outside Mom onto the ground. His Mom always called him, “my darling Joey Jumper.” And she did this a lot when he wasn’t jumping. In fact, it was mostly while she licked a spot on his right ear.


Joey didn’t know it, but there was a whiter spot on his brown fur on his right ear. It had little brown dots inside it. His mother adored the spot but Joey would soon discover a different reaction from others.

It wasn’t long before Joey grew larger and rarely was in Mom’s pouch. He was strong enough to bound about on his own and he soon made friends with other young roos. This was fun because Joey loved to jump and bound. It was his most favorite thing to do, and he thought it was especially fun to share bounding games with other roos. But on the third day of his newfound freedom this changed. Joey's playmates started calling him “Joey Sludgedirt.” They said there was a spot on his ear that looked like a mud smear (this is what roos call sludgedirt).

Joey didn’t like the name and he couldn’t see the spot. At first he didn’t believe the other roos and he was angry with them for calling him sludgedirt. But a strange thing happened. Because the roos kept calling him the name day after day, Joey started to accept that his real name was Joey Sludgedirt. He felt…like he was worth less than the other roos. Like he wasn’t as good as them and he never would be.

His mother noticed the difference in Joey. He wasn’t the happy young roo he used to be, always carefree and ready to jump. She said, “My darling Joey Jumper, what has trapped your feet? You don’t find joy in bounding?”

“Mom,” said Joey, looking down at his large roo feet, “there’s nothing wrong with my feet. It’s…my name.”

“Your name? How can a name stop anyone from jumping?”

“Mine is…because I’m not…because I’m mud.”

“Nonsense, Joey. Your name is Joey Jumper…it has nothing to do with mud!”

Joey was puzzled. You see, he didn’t remember the time when he wasn’t called Joey Sludgedirt. But when he heard that he was Joey Jumper instead, a memory of his mother whispering the name and licking the back of his ear came into his small roo head.

Seeing Joey’s puzzled face, his mother hopped along saying, “Follow me. There’s something I need to show you.”

When they reached the river bank Joey’s mom stopped bounding and asked, “What is flowing here?”

Joey shrugged and said, “Water, of course.”

“Hmm. So you can drink it?”

“Yeah.”

“Do so.”

So Joey bent over and began lapping up the clear, cool liquid. His mother asked, “What if I said this water was sludgedirt?”

Joey smiled and said, “You could say that, but I wouldn’t believe you.”

“Why?”

“Because…” said Joey, “you can’t drink sludgedirt. It doesn’t flow like this!”

“Does sludgedirt bound?”

Joey flicked his ears and said, “No, of course not…” and he saw the spot on his ear in the reflection of the water. “Hey, it’s the spot! So that’s what they meant.”

Joey studied the spot a long time. His mother waited patiently. He turned to her and said, “You know, it doesn’t even look like sludgedirt.”

“No, it doesn’t. It’s just a silly nickname.”

“Of course!" shouted Joey. "It’s just a made-up name. From now on no matter what the other roos call me I know the truth!”

And the truth about who he really was set Joey free. Now he didn’t care what name he was called…he knew it didn’t change his true self.