The Rainbow-Loving Zebra

Children, do you know what zebras look like?

That’s right: the first thing everyone notices about zebras is that they’re black and white.

Well, everything the black and white zebras had in their black and white nursery had to be black or white. They simply adored black and white. That’s why the little zebras loved playing chess, or at least checkers. They ate white semolina pudding with black poppy seeds. And when they went on holiday, they ate white vanilla ice cream with pieces of dark chocolate. They didn’t watch TV much, but when they did, it was an old black and white one. And when they wanted to play with someone else, they joined the white herons or the black ostriches. The zebras didn’t play with other animals.

Except for Matilda. Matilda was a bit of an unusual zebra. Although she was also black and white like all her friends, she was attracted to colours. While the other zebras drew chimney sweeps, snowmen, penguins and polar bears on paper with black crayons, Matilda would have liked to draw… a rainbow. But she didn’t have any coloured crayons to do that.

“I would like to draw... a rainbow,” Matilda whispered so quietly that no one understood her.

“What do you want to draw?” her friend Aria asked in a whisper, leaning even closer to her.

“A rainbow,” Matilda said a little louder.

“Plain snow?”

“I want to draw a rainbow,” Matilda almost shouted.

The zebras stared at her incomprehensibly. Their mouths were wide open. Their eyes were bulging, too. White eyeballs and black pupils.

“But, but... that’s… c… c… crummy!”

“It’s colourful!” Matilda said the whole word fearlessly. “It’s wonderfully colourful. It’s beautifully colourful!”

“But we are zebras. Our world is black and…