Protector Pouques- Nano-occupation of Guernsey
This is a children's story about how the Guernsey pouques helped the people of Guernsey during lockdown and stopped the coronavirus from spreading.
This is a children's story about how the Guernsey pouques helped the people of Guernsey during lockdown and stopped the coronavirus from spreading.
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By <strong>Guernsey</strong> Gwen<br />
with help from 3 rd <strong>Guernsey</strong> Cubs
<strong>Nano</strong>-<strong>occupation</strong> <strong>of</strong> the Crownvirus 2020<br />
Introduction<br />
<strong>Pouques</strong> are members <strong>of</strong> the fairy folk in the Channel Islands. Each island has its<br />
own colony <strong>of</strong> pouques who like to live underground. They are very tiny, about<br />
the size <strong>of</strong> toddlers, and like to wear hats and green clothes.<br />
Only children can see and hear pouques. These fairy folk are quite mischievous,<br />
but they do have a kind heart. If you ask them their name, they will always say<br />
“P’tit Jean”, as they will never tell a human their real name.<br />
<strong>Pouques</strong> are shape shifters and can change into animals and rocks. However,<br />
when they change shape, adults can see them. The things they change into are<br />
<strong>of</strong>ten coloured with green or orange fur or feathers, which is a big clue that<br />
you’re looking at a pouque.<br />
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The fairy folk <strong>of</strong> <strong>Guernsey</strong> had been recovering from a sickness PV-20, and had<br />
just started to go out and about, when all the Humans started falling ill. The<br />
pouques had been sent a message to say that Gran’mère was livestreaming<br />
information on the pouques’ Facebook page. They all joined the stream and<br />
watched. A text was also sent to all their mobile phones.<br />
Once again, the Humans on the island <strong>of</strong> <strong>Guernsey</strong> are<br />
experiencing worrying times.<br />
Their parents, grandparents, and great grandparents underwent<br />
a loss <strong>of</strong> freedom which, in a way, is a little similar to what is<br />
happening with the tiny virus or nano-<strong>occupation</strong> that we are<br />
finding ourselves in today. In 1940, those Humans bravely<br />
worked together to protect each other, and they survived the<br />
war. They would be so proud <strong>of</strong> the humans today, that<br />
<strong>Guernsey</strong> stubborn spirit has risen again, with a caring<br />
community who are not hesitating to look out for other Humans.<br />
The Human leaders in charge <strong>of</strong> the island are having to make<br />
hard, difficult decisions to keep the people safe.<br />
As you know, our recent pouque virus, PV-20, meant that we,<br />
the fairy folk <strong>of</strong> this island, were locked down for a whole two<br />
months. It was only now we have witch <strong>Guernsey</strong> Gill’s potion,<br />
that we have all taken to stop us getting the virus that we can<br />
resume normal life. Now this new COVID-19 is happening to the<br />
Humans <strong>of</strong> <strong>Guernsey</strong>, and they have lost their freedom too. I<br />
know that their resilience will help to see them through these<br />
hard times.<br />
The <strong>occupation</strong> ended 75 years ago, and during that time the<br />
fairy folk <strong>of</strong> the island helped to keep the Humans safe. It is now<br />
time to do that again. I am so proud <strong>of</strong> you, my fairy folk; I know<br />
that you will not hesitate to pull out all the stops to help this<br />
island community, looking out for them, and doing what you can<br />
to keep the Humans safe in these difficult times.<br />
March 2020<br />
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P’tite Jeanne and P’tit Jean looked at each other once the message had been<br />
delivered.<br />
“Those poor humans,” said P’tit Jean to his sister sadly, “we’ve had a really<br />
horrible time and now it’s their turn.”<br />
The two pouques were quite concerned about the Robilliard children that they<br />
<strong>of</strong>ten had adventures with, so they decided to visit them to check that they were<br />
OK.<br />
Now, fairy sickness does not affect humans, so it was safe for them to help out.<br />
They took with them some very special alcohol gel that Grande Mabelle and<br />
Grand Colin had made for the fairy folk to rub on their hands when they were ill<br />
and had the virus. It was a very strong gel. Vraic (seaweed) had been gathered<br />
from the seashore and potatoes had been fermented to make the alcohol to go<br />
into the gel. The boiled seaweed was very pongy, but the fairy folk couldn't work<br />
out how to get rid <strong>of</strong> the smell and had just had to put up with it during their<br />
isolation, mainly by taking it in turns to stand upwind, away from each other.<br />
All the humans had to stay in their houses and were only allowed out to do some<br />
essential shopping and to get some exercise. The sickness was spreading<br />
through all the population and it made old people, and those who were already<br />
sick, have problems with their breathing, and sadly some <strong>of</strong> them had already<br />
died. By staying in their houses, the sickness would not be able to spread as<br />
much through the human population. This was called lockdown. Anyone who<br />
did go out had to stay two metres away from any other humans. This was called<br />
social distancing.<br />
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The two pouques each changed into a P’tite Maoue (seagull) and flew to Sammy<br />
and Jacob’s house. The two birds perched on the window <strong>of</strong> Sammy’s room and<br />
tapped with their beaks.<br />
Picture drawn during lockdown by Sami-3 rd <strong>Guernsey</strong> Cubs<br />
Sammy saw them and came across to open the window. Unfortunately, P’tit<br />
Jean Maoue didn't move out <strong>of</strong> the way in time, and when Sammy flung the<br />
window open, he fell <strong>of</strong>f into the prickly bush below. Both Sammy and P’tite<br />
Jeanne laughed. A very annoyed P’tit Jean flew back up and squawked every<br />
time he picked a prickle out <strong>of</strong> himself.<br />
The pouques asked Sammy how the family were. She told them that they were<br />
not allowed to go to school, so they were doing projects at home using online<br />
learning on the computer. The children said that it was OK, but that they missed<br />
playing with their friends.<br />
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“What project are you doing now, then?” asked the pouques.<br />
Sammy smiled. “Wait there,” she said, “and I will go and get it.”<br />
She brought back a big scrap book and the two pouques peered inside. They had<br />
changed back into their normal pouque appearance and were sitting on the<br />
window seat.<br />
“Hey, that‘s me!” cried P’tite Jeanne when she saw the drawing.<br />
“Am I in there too? asked P’tit Jean.<br />
“Yes, look!” said Sammy. P’tit Jean was very annoyed when he saw the picture.<br />
“That's not fair!” he said, grumpily, “P’tite Jeanne has a really nice portrait <strong>of</strong><br />
her, and I get a picture with a bare bum.”<br />
P’tite Jeanne laughed at her brother. Sammy had written all about their holiday<br />
on Alderney when the naughty pouques had destroyed the sea wall. P’tit Jean<br />
had been found sleeping on the railway line as a rock, with his trousers hanging<br />
on a nearby tree.<br />
“Oh, don't get into a grump,” said Sammy, “look, here is a nice picture that Jacob<br />
drew <strong>of</strong> you.” P’tit Jean looked at picture and smiled.<br />
The pouques then asked about other members <strong>of</strong> the family.<br />
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“Is everyone else alright? What about your parents, grandparents, and great<br />
grandma Betty?”<br />
“The old people all have to shield themselves,” said Jacob, who had now joined<br />
Sammy.<br />
“What’s that?” asked P’tit Jean.<br />
“They are not allowed out <strong>of</strong> their homes. My mum is doing all their shopping<br />
for them and then leaving it at the door. We talk to them using the video over<br />
the computer.”<br />
P’tite Jeanne presented the children with the fairy folk vraic gel.<br />
“Wow!” said Sammy, “you can’t buy alcohol gel anywhere now.” She opened<br />
the lid and squeezed some out, before choking. “Errg, what a horrible smell. It<br />
reeks.”<br />
“It’s good stuff,” said P’tite Jeanne, “it’s Grande pouque Mabelle’s recipe. She<br />
and Grand Colin made loads <strong>of</strong> it. It kills the virus and guarantees everyone will<br />
keep well clear <strong>of</strong> you. We can bring some more if you like.”<br />
The children wrinkled up their noses. It smelt like rotting fish. They shook their<br />
heads and politely said no.<br />
The pouque maoues flew <strong>of</strong>f. It was very strange to see <strong>Guernsey</strong> so deserted.<br />
The shops were closed on the high street and even though it was a beautiful<br />
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warm day and the tide was out, no one was on the beaches. The maoues were<br />
a bit disappointed that there was no one to poop on.<br />
“Oh look, an empty bus travelling along the seafront.” P’tit Jean was quite<br />
excited. “Come on, let’s use the bus as target practice.”<br />
The two pouque maoues took it in turns to annoy the bus driver and fire poop<br />
at the windscreen. The annoyed bus driver stopped the empty bus, waved his<br />
hands and shouted at the birds. They both squawked a laugh and flew <strong>of</strong>f. The<br />
bus driver washed his windscreen and thought to himself that this was the most<br />
excitement he had had all day. No humans were using the buses in the lockdown<br />
except those who worked at the hospitals to make people better. The key<br />
worker humans who were needed to make sure that there was electricity for<br />
the homes and food in the shops mostly travelled by car. The bus driver felt like<br />
a ghost driver, driving round the island with no people on board and hardly any<br />
traffic on the roads.<br />
The pouques looked at each other as they flew over the empty island and<br />
wondered how they could help. They remembered what Sammy had said about<br />
the shortage <strong>of</strong> alcohol gel and decided to go and get their leftover supplies to<br />
give to the humans. As they were flying across the island with the gel, P’tit Jean<br />
spotted a factory.<br />
“Look, he pointed, “that says <strong>Guernsey</strong> Seaweed Company. Perhaps we can<br />
leave it there. They will know what to do with it.”<br />
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The two pouques arrived at the big seaweed shed. They flew in through a gap in<br />
the ro<strong>of</strong>, put their vraic gel on the bench, and explored the factory. It wasn’t<br />
long before they heard noises and a key in the door. They changed into green<br />
and orange cats and padded towards the door, ready to slip out unnoticed. As<br />
the door opened, the humans walked in, followed by a vicious looking ginger<br />
cat, that immediately saw the pouques and hissed, its back arched and its tail<br />
erect and shivering. Before the pouques had chance to do anything, the cat leapt<br />
at them and the two humans grabbed them. The pouque cats froze. However,<br />
the two humans carefully put them outside and P’tit Jean and P’tite Jeanne<br />
quickly ran <strong>of</strong>f, followed by the glare <strong>of</strong> the ginger cat. As the humans walked<br />
towards the bench, they noticed the fairy vraic gel.<br />
“What’s this?” the manager, Ben, asked and picked up a little bottle containing<br />
a dark green gloopy liquid.<br />
He opened it up and squirted a bit out. They both gasped and wrinkled their<br />
noses, whilst the ginger cat meowed in horror and ran away to the back <strong>of</strong> the<br />
shed.<br />
“Phew, what a horrible smell. I wonder what’s in it?” asked Ben.<br />
The other human, who was a scientist, took the gel and put a bit into a machine<br />
that would tell her the ingredients.<br />
“Oh look!” she said, “it’s an alcohol gel made <strong>of</strong> seaweed.” She pointed to a peak<br />
on the graph. “That’s the chemical that’s the causing the smell, but I know how<br />
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to remove it.” The scientist turned to the manager. “We could make this for the<br />
people <strong>of</strong> <strong>Guernsey</strong> to protect them, but how are we going to get the alcohol?”<br />
“I know just the man,” said Ben, and he picked up his phone to call his friend,<br />
the local gin distiller. “Luke, is that you? I have got a really good idea about how<br />
you can use your distillery to help out.”<br />
Picture drawn during lockdown by Tom-3 rd <strong>Guernsey</strong> cubs<br />
Now children, I interrupt the story at this point to tell you that this special vraic<br />
gel is now available on the island. It is being given out by St John Ambulance to<br />
the people on the island who need it to keep safe in their jobs. Ben, from the<br />
<strong>Guernsey</strong> Seaweed company worked out how to make it without the smell, and<br />
Luke from the <strong>Guernsey</strong> Gin company provided the alcohol. When the pouques<br />
found out that it was on sale they went and posed for the publicity photos. No<br />
one from the Bailiwick press or ITV saw the pouques <strong>of</strong> course, but if you have a<br />
look through the special pouque-cam, you can see them.<br />
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Seaweed Ben posing at the press briefing.<br />
Let’s continue on with the story:<br />
The maoues were flying back to their home after they had visited the <strong>Guernsey</strong><br />
seaweed shed, and they saw some humans delivering shopping for the old and<br />
the sick.<br />
“Humans aren’t that bad,” smiled P’tit Jean, “they can be quite kind to each<br />
other.”<br />
The maoues went a little closer to see what the humans were doing.<br />
“Hey look!” said P’tite Jeanne, in a puzzled voice, “What are those tiny little balls<br />
with crowns on coming out <strong>of</strong> that human’s mouth?<br />
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They watched as one <strong>of</strong> the sick humans came to the door to collect her<br />
shopping. The little crown balls were being breathed out by the sick person. The<br />
birds looked around them and realised that some <strong>of</strong> the non-sick people on the<br />
street were also breathing out the same balls. They flew to the hospital and<br />
looked through the window. The air was full <strong>of</strong> the same little balls from the sick<br />
people on the wards.<br />
The pouques looked at each other in amazement – they realised that they could<br />
see which humans had the sickness because those humans were breathing out<br />
the little crown balls. They knew how important this was and headed back to tell<br />
Sammy and Jacob. They explained to her what they could see. Sammy excitedly<br />
told her mother.<br />
“Now dear, don't be silly,” said her mother, “nobody can see the virus germs<br />
which cause the sickness, because they’re just too small.”<br />
The two children were horrified and wondered what to do. The adults didn't<br />
believe them.<br />
“I know,” said Sammy, “we’ll write you some notes to drop for the people who<br />
look perfectly well but have the sickness.”<br />
The two children wrote lots <strong>of</strong> little notes and gave them to the pouques in a<br />
small bag. The pouque maoues spent the rest <strong>of</strong> the day flying around the island<br />
checking people who were on the street or in their garden and they dropped a<br />
note next to anyone who had the sickness.<br />
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They waited for the workers from the hospital to come out and also dropped<br />
notes there.<br />
Drawn during lockdown by Thomas-3 rd <strong>Guernsey</strong> Cubs<br />
The humans were surprised to get a note but as they were scared <strong>of</strong> the sickness,<br />
everyone did ask the medical laboratory to be tested. The island had its own<br />
testing lab, so it was able to cope with these new requests. The authorities were<br />
amazed that all these people with little notes had tested positive. They put an<br />
appeal out on the radio for the person who was dropping the notes. Sammy and<br />
Jacob told their parents what they had done and repeated the story about the<br />
birds.<br />
The authorities were very excited to hear this, and they knew that some animals<br />
had much more sensitive smell or hearing than humans. They wanted to know<br />
where to find the birds. Sammy and Jacob wondered how to contact the<br />
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pouques. There was no need - the two pouques had heard were waiting for<br />
them in Sammy’s bedroom. The children told them all about the news.<br />
“Why don't you poop on someone who is breathing out the sickness” said<br />
Sammy, then we don't need to write notes. Can you get all your pouque friends<br />
to help?”<br />
P’tit Jean and P’tite Jeanne flew back to the colony and explained to the Grande<br />
pouques about the request from the humans. All <strong>Guernsey</strong> pouques from every<br />
corner <strong>of</strong> the island were called to help out.<br />
The person in charge <strong>of</strong> the states, Deputy Gavin and the Chief doctor, the<br />
Director <strong>of</strong> Public health, Dr Nicola, immediately scheduled a live streaming. All<br />
the humans got an urgent text message on their phones to watch it. Deputy<br />
Gavin told every person to either go out in their garden or put their head out <strong>of</strong><br />
a window at 8pm each evening. Doctor Nicola explained that when the flock <strong>of</strong><br />
seagulls flew by, anyone who was pooped on had to immediately self-isolate<br />
and go and get tested. Grand Colin and P’tite Jean decided that they would also<br />
like to be present at the briefing as they felt that they were the important fairy<br />
folk that made this happen. The humans didn't know they were there, but all<br />
the children did. The giggled when they saw the pouques sitting on the table<br />
next to the important people, much to the puzzlement <strong>of</strong> their parents.<br />
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Deputy Gavin and Doctor Nicola at the live States streaming on Facebook,<br />
joined by P’tit Jean and P’tite Jeanne.<br />
The pouques went on crown ball patrol that very evening. In the following week,<br />
it did not take long at all for the sick humans on <strong>Guernsey</strong> to be thoroughly<br />
coated in pouque seagull poop.<br />
Picture drawn during lockdown by Finlay-3 rd <strong>Guernsey</strong> Cubs<br />
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Everyone was very keen to avoid being pooped on, and people became much<br />
better at keeping themselves isolated. This meant people stopped passing on<br />
the virus between them, and as soon as those people who already had the virus<br />
became better and were no longer infecting others and everyone was free to go<br />
outside again, with no more worries about being plastered by poop. Within two<br />
weeks they were able to open all the schools and tell the people that they could<br />
once again go out and about without worrying because now they knew exactly<br />
who had the sickness, they could keep it from spreading.<br />
<strong>Guernsey</strong> pouques are part <strong>of</strong> the Celtic fairy folk so as well as the pouques on<br />
the other islands, they contacted the following fairy folks:<br />
Irish Leprechaun Welsh Dragons Isle <strong>of</strong> Man Mooninjer veggey,<br />
Cornish Piskie Scottish Ghillie Dhu English Faerie<br />
With instructions from the <strong>Guernsey</strong> pouques, all the fairy folk got to work<br />
across the UK, it’s nations and islands, and soon everyone who was sick with the<br />
disease was identified and was able to self-isolate so that they did not spread it.<br />
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And that is the happy ending to our story <strong>of</strong> how the pouques helped not only<br />
the Humans on <strong>Guernsey</strong> defeat the sickness called the crown virus<br />
(coronavirus) in 2020, but in fact the whole <strong>of</strong> the United Kingdom and its<br />
islands.<br />
THE END<br />
This picture was drawn during lockdown 2020 by Cody - 3 rd <strong>Guernsey</strong> Cubs. Cody has drawn a<br />
picture board <strong>of</strong> the whole story. He says look for the ginger cat, people delivering food, people<br />
running too far when they are not supposed to, the empty bus and the closed school, the<br />
hospital full <strong>of</strong> patients with the virus and the people waiting to be tested and set free by the<br />
seagull poop.<br />
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