José the fly and Cindy the spider hear a loud noise in the park. José flies off to investigate. José quickly flapped his wings to dry off the stickiness from Cindy's web, trying to take flight before hitting the ground. Just as he thought he might succeed, he had his second hard landing of the day. But after a couple of practice jumps, José was finally ready to fly again.

He launched towards the trucks – and the sound – on the other side of the park. He flew over flower gardens, giant rocks and even a big, blue lake. Finally he could see some commotion near a small, old wooden shed.

As he got closer, a group of humans went inside the shed. José swiftly flew in behind them, right before they closed the door. The room was small, and there were way too many big, smelly humans standing around a small square table with a little lamp. José tried to stay quiet on the wall so he would not be
discovered.

"The way I see it, we have to clean out the entire park if we want this project to work," the man with the bushy, black beard and red-checkered shirt announced.

"Yeah, but we have to be more
careful," said the short, red-haired man. "This morning was almost a disaster!"
"He's right," a third, bald-headed man said. "Someone could have been hurt."
José could see that the men were all hovering over a map of the park.
José decided on a little fly-over to see what they were planning.

"Stupid flies!" the black-bearded man growled while swinging his baseball cap around, trying to knock José out of the air. Suddenly, José was spinning around a tornado of rolled-up papers, smelly hats and sweaty, hairy arms. He narrowly escaped, flying out of a crack near the ceiling. He stopped to rest on a brown and orange toadstool to check for wing damage.

"You know what's going on here, don't you?" asked a passing beetle.
"Yeah, some crazy human is trying to kill me!" José answered.
"No, I mean what those men are
planning. Do you want to know?" The beetle continued, not letting José respond. "My cousin's neighbour said that the humans with the trucks want to tear down all of the trees on this side of the park, to build some kind of a big human nest."
"A what?" José
wondered out loud. "What's a human nest?"

"You know, a big, wooden box with square glass things, and a slanted top. I think it's called a 'hose'."
"Oh, you're talking about a house! They're wanting to build houses?" José's voice squeaked. "Thanks for the info," José yelled over his shoulder, soaring back to report to his friends in the big tree.

"Well, we'd better get the word out – if we want to stop them from destroying our neighbourhood," Cindy said, after hearing José's story. "But, how do we let everyone know?"

"What if we just tell our friends the news, and ask them to spread it through the park?" José wondered out loud.

"Yeah, that's a great idea, genius," Matty jumped in. "We all have maybe
10 or 20 friends, but there are probably thousands of bugs in the park. That'll never work."

"I could put up a sign near the lake. A lot of my friends fly there for a drink," José tried again. But Cindy loudly cleared her throat, causing José to realize the flaw in his plan. "Oh sorry, Cindy. I wasn't thinking about my non-flying friends."

By now, a gathering of bugs surrounded José, and joined the discussion. "I say we create a newspaper," Rocko, the centipede, suggested. "And we can tell everyone what José heard about the houses and other park news."

"That's a great idea, Rocko" Mary inched her way into the crowd, her thick black fur tickling every insect as she bumped her way to the front of the group. "But it'll take a lot of work, and no goofing off!" the grouchy caterpillar declared. Mary always acted tough, but her friends suspected that she was just a gentle bug inside.

"What should we name the newspaper?" Cindy asked, grabbing her knitting needles to help her think.
"I like the name Matty's Newspaper," the mantis stood on his back legs, daring anyone to not like his idea.
"I think that since José is our reporter and he'll be flying around gathering the news, we should ask him for an idea," Mary suggested.

"I've got it!" José shouted. "What about Fly on the Wall Journal since that is how I heard the news. I just sat on the wall, listening."

"Fly on the Wall Journal," Rocko announced loudly. "Fly on the Wall Journal, oh yes, I do like that name!" And he began clapping all eight of his hands. And when a centipede claps, it sounds like a stadium full of bugs cheering at a berry-rolling contest.

"José, I think it's time I showed you a few of my tricks." Matty said, resting his big, green arm on José's shoulder.

"You've got to learn to hide yourself better. Practice blending into the tree. It might help at first to pretend you are the tree." José listened intently to all of Matty's advice.

"OK everyone, if we want to get out our first edition of Fly on the Wall Journal then we'd better get to work," Mary ordered, ending José's lesson. The group of friends immediately rolled up their sleeves, slicked back their antennae and starting working on their first edition.

(To be continued...)

Written by Cathy Sewell. Illustrated by Blaise Sewell. Donated by The Curriculum Closet (www.curriculumcloset.com)