Banana and Elephant were walking the park one day and came across something that they had never seen before.

Elephant said, ‘Look, there’s a new playground over there.’

Banana did indeed look, but Elephant was standing in the way, so he could not see anything.

‘Move over, you big lump,’ said Banana.

‘Well, really, there’s no need to be personal.’, replied Elephant, grudgingly moving over.

Banana could now see the playground. It was very big. Even bigger than Elephant. There was a large concrete ring and steps up to the top.  And in the middle, there was a deep concrete bowl.  A dinosaur was standing on the top of the ring, looking down into the bowl.

‘Let’s go over and see what the dinosaur is doing,’ said Banana.

‘Okay, maybe he can see some food in the middle,’ said Elephant hopefully.

When they got closer, they could see that there was no food in the bowl. It was just plain concrete, with a few bumps in the middle.

When they got really close, Banana shouted out: ‘Hey, Mr Dinosaur! - what’s occurring?’

The dinosaur ignored them, however, and skipped onto a little wooden plank, and then glided down the slope of the bowl.  As he picked up speed, he went over one of the bumps in the middle of the bowl and flipped up into the air. The little plank had wheels underneath - it was a skateboard.  The skateboard seemed to twist under the dinosaur, and then the dinosaur was zooming up the other side of the bowl and dextrously came to a stop at the top.  ‘Alley top’ the dinosaur exclaimed.

‘Oooooohhhh’, said Elephant, ‘that looks fun.’

Banana and Elephant climbed up the steps at the side of the skatepark so that they could see better.

Again, the dinosaur whizzed across the bow, this time coming to a stop right next to the banana and the elephant.

‘Can I have a go?’ Elephant.

‘Don’t be silly,’ Banana, ‘you are much too heavy.  I’m much lighter, let me have a go.’

‘All right,’ said the dinosaur.

So the dinosaur stepped aside and the banana leapt onto the board, and in a trice, he was whizzing down the slope into the bowl.’

‘Wheeeeeeeeeeee,’ he cried out.

Elephant hrumphed down his trunk. He wanted to do it too, it looked so much fun.  But then he looked, and Banana was stuck in the middle of the bowl.  He simply hadn’t been fast enough to climb up the far side.

‘Your friend is pretty good, but I think he needs some help,’ said the dinosaur. And with that, he slid down the side of the bowl and gave the skateboard a big swipe with his tail.  This caught Banana by surprise, and he fell off the board with a thump. The skateboard zipped back up the slope to the top of the bowl, and the elephant put his foot on it to stop it.

‘Watch me, you guys,’ Elephant called out. ‘I’ll definitely make the other side with all my weight.’  But there was a problem. There was no way the big elephant could get all four feet on the board at once. Then had an idea. Standing on the board with his back feet, he reared up into the air, so that he was standing up just like the humans he had seen at the zoo.

‘Look at me,’ he shouted. ‘Here I come.’

And with that, Elephant was speeding, faster and faster, down the side of the bowl.

‘How do I steer,’ he trumpeted, though really it was too late.

There was a tremendous crump! and he flew into the dinosaur - followed by an even bigger thump as Elephant fell off the board and came down the concrete.

‘Ow, that hurts,’ he moaned.

‘I don’t think you two are really suited to skateboarding,’ said the dinosaur, who after all was not that bright and quite often stated the obvious.

‘I think you are probably right,’ said Elephant, carefully getting up and checking that all four limbs and trunk were still attached. ‘I think it would be much safer if Banana and I should just carry on our walk.’ He looked around to see where Banana had got to. But Banana had been at the epicentre of the crash and had met the full force of Elephant’s fall. His skin was now a full three feet from his body.

‘Oh dear,’ said Elephant, ‘I’m so sorry. I don’t think there’s anything to be done now, though - one can’t unmake a banana split.

And with that, Elephant climbed up out of the bowl, though he was not too sorry because he did remember to eat the banana before leaving.  After all, a banana skin could cause a nasty accident in a skateboard park.