Stinkey really wants to be respected.
Stinkey was frustrated because he is jealous of Red Rose because she smells nice. One day Red Rose was talking to Stinkey. Red Rose saw that Stinkey was upset. “What’s the matter?” she asked.
“I’m upset because nobody respects me,” cried Stinkey. “Nobody will respect me, except for you.”
“You are a corpse flower. You are supposed to stink. It’s nothing to be upset about,” said Red Rose.
“But I’m the only corpse flower in the jungle,” said Stinkey.
“Why do you say you’re the only corpse flower? What about your parents?” Red Rose asked.
“My parents died, so I’m the only corpse flower left,” said Stinkey.
Red Rose said, “What about in a different part of the jungle?”
“That may work! But we are rooted to the ground,” said Stinkey.
A few days later, their roots got loose, so they pulled their roots out of the ground. Stinkey and Red Rose started to look for more corpse flowers. They searched all day and all night. But they didn’t find anything.
But then they looked in another part of the rainforest, and found a skunk. They didn’t know what a skunk was but it stunk, so Stinkey was happy.
Originally published in This Time They Hear You.