Story Hour
National Repeat Day
Written by Gene B. Williams
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Danny and Nicker heard some odd noises outside the door. “It sounds like an echo,” said Danny.
Sure enough, they heard, “Are we there yet, are we there yet?”
“Almost, almost,” came another, deeper voice.
“Good, good,” said the other voice.
Tap, tap went the door.
Danny opened it and with a big smile said, “Captain Kazoo!” Danny opened it and with a big smile said, “Captain Kazoo!”
“Captain Kazoo,” repeated Nicker.
“Captain Kazoo,” repeated RePeet, the robot parrot.
“Captain Kazoo,” said Captain Kazoo.
“Come in, come in,” Danny said.
“Thank you,” said Captain Kazoo.
“Thank you,”repeated RePeet.
Captain Kazoo began to tell them about how it was National Repeat Day, but RePeet was very busy waggling his head and wings and making a mess of it.
Captain Kazoo was trying to ask the boys, “What are we going to do for National Repeat Day?”
RePeet repeat repeated, “What what are are we we going going to to do do for for National National RePeet RePeet Day Day?”
Well, RePeet was a very happy robot, as you can tell. He thought that it was a holiday just for HIM! Robot parrots aren’t very good at spelling, so he thought repeat meant RePeet. And while robot parrots may not be good at spelling, they sure are good at talking!
“Let’s go to the park,” Danny suggested.
“Let’s let’s go go to to the the park park,” RePeet repeated.
“We can have peanut butter sandwiches,” Nicker said.
“We we can can have have peanut peanut butter butter sandwiches sandwiches,” RePeet repeat repeated.
“Or … or …” Danny said, thinking about what else he could suggest, “ … we … we could …”
“Or or or or we we we we could could,” RePeet repeat repeated.
Danny, Nicker and Captain Kazoo looked at each other and started to laugh. Can you imagine what happened after that? THEY started to repeat everything they said, and RePeet repeat repeated what the three were repeating.
“I I think think we we should should bring bring potato potato chips chips,” said Danny.
RePeet repeat repeated, “I I I I think think think think we we we we should should should should bring bring bring bring potato potato potato potato chip chips chips chips.”
“And and some some pickles pickles,” said Captain Kazoo.
“Yes, yes, and and a a big big bottle bottle of of strawberry strawberry soda soda for for Emily Emily,” said Nicker.
“Hot hot dogs dogs and and buns buns with with mustard mustard and and relish relish,” said Danny.
Just one sentence is tough. Now RePeet had three to repeat repeat all three at once … and it didn’t work very well.
“And and yes yes hot hot pickles pickles yes yes and and strawberry strawberry buns buns with with soda soda relish relish buns buns a a big big mustard mustard bottle bottle of of Emily Emily for for pickles pickles and and ….”
Worse, Danny, Nicker and Captain Kazoo were having so much fun repeat repeating that they repeat repeated faster and faster.
RePeet’s beak was moving fast to keep up. It clacked. Soon he was repeating words so fast they weren’t words, and soon weren’t even repeating, just sounds that ran together in a jumble.
“Benchagon benchagon eatbrim eatbrim falony flipen gratchenmore striotoshojukeyepral ….”
His wings flapped like crazy. His head waggled so hard that it began to spin in circles. Can you just imagine it?
“Ignoreato rewiltnomerly frzzzzzzzz ….”
With the “frrzzzzz” feathers flew from his wings and smoke came from his mouth as his robot circuits heated up inside. Danny, Nicker and Captain Kazoo stopped talking – stopped repeating. They looked at RePeet in astonishment. Then they started to laugh.
Oh, my, I’m sure you can picture what happened next.
Feathers were flying. RePeet’s beak was clacking. Smoke poured out. Poor old RePeet fell right off his perch to the floor. He hopped and bumped and leaped and spun like a large, colorful jumping bean gone insane. And he sounded insane. A few words were still coming out as he tried to catch up repeat repeating what the others said before. Now it was mixed with RePeet repeat repeating the three of them laughing. He sounded like 27 loud radios all playing different stations at the same time, while crazy laughter screeched in three different voices. Sparks sparkled in the air around RePeet.
Even robot parrots have limits. RePeet reached his. You might already know this. Captain Kazoo plays great music, which everyone knows, and is also a very good scientist. He grabbed RePeet from the floor. Danny and Nicker helped hold the robot parrot more still so Captain Kazoo could open the battery door in the back. It wasn’t easy – holding a squirming, flapping, screeching robot parrot isn’t easy – but finally Captain Kazoo got the battery out.
Whew!
They spent the rest of the afternoon trying to glue RePeet’s feathers back into place. Captain Kazoo cleaned the inside, too. Nicker carefully used a toothbrush to wipe away the smoke soot from the inside of RePeet’s beak.
Finally the job was done. Captain Kazoo put in a new battery. RePeet flapped his wings twice. He turned his head back and forth twice.
“He seems fine,” said Captain Kazoo.
RePeet flapped his wings and turned his head. “Fine,” he said. “Fine.”
Captain Kazoo smiled and asked the boys, “So, what ARE we going to do for National Repeat Day?”
RePeet said, “So so what what ARE ARE we we going going to to do do for for National National RePeet RePeet Day Day?
All three looked at each other, sighed, and said – at the same time – “Here we go again.”
RePeet flapped his wings, waggled his head and repeat repeated, “Here here here here here here we we we we we we go go go go go go again again again again again again.”
Some Bonus PePeet Videos
Here are two more Captain Kazoo and RePeet videos to watch. The first is about the giant kazoo. In the second, the two pals advise you to “Keep on hummin’.”
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