Luke Lemming was puzzled. The whole family was talking about tomorrow’s big jump.

“But why” he asked his Father “do we have to jump over the cliff?”

“Because we’re Lemmings!” growled Leroy, and that’s what we do!”

Luke walked outside, still confused. His friend, Lenny, was practicing, jumping off a large rock onto the ground.

“Exciting, isn’t it?” yelled Lenny, One more sleep, then the big jump!”

“I wouldn’t call it exciting,” answered Luke, “dying at our age. I wanted to be a teacher.”

“Age means nothing,” said Lenny, “Everybody has to jump, it’s written in the Book.”

Luke wandered away. He went and found Leonard, the smartest of all the lemmings.

“Why must I jump?” he asked.

“Do you not feel the urge to jump?” replied Leonard.

“Yes,” said Luke, “I feel the urge to jump, I’m a lemming.”

Leonard opened a large book.

“This is the BIBLE, the Big, Important Book of Lemming Edicts.

Law #1: All lemmings will jump off a cliff. That’s why you have to jump – the Bible SAYS so! Everybody else does it!”

Luke wandered sadly away, into the fields. He came across a flock of sheep, all following one another along a track.

“Why do you do what the others do?” he asked the last sheep.

“Because I’m a sheep, and that’s what we do,” it replied, and hurried after the others.

Luke sad there, thinking, and a large pack of geese flew overhead.

“Why are you following all the others?” he yelled to the last bird.

“Because I’m a goose,” it yelled back, “and that’s what we do!”

Luke went back to thinking about the Bible and the law.

His friend Lucy found him there, gazing toward the sea.

“Hey,” she bubbled, “Are you pumped about tomorrow’s jump?”

“Not really,” said Luke, “I don’t see the point of it.”

“We’re lemmings! We jump off the cliff! End of story!” She walked away in a huff. Luke went back to thinking.

That night he couldn’t get to sleep, thinking about tomorrow’s jump. He thought of the sheep, and the geese, flying by. Suddenly, he had an idea.

He jumped out of bed, went to the shed, and worked until late into the night.

He woke late, and heard the stampede. He’d slept in! He raced outside, just in time to join the very last of the lemmings rushing for the cliff. He’d brought the strange item he’d made in the night. Sadly, he watched, as up ahead of him his friends and relatives jumped to their doom. He reached the edge of the cliff, the very last lemming, and leapt.

He fell, and saw the deadly, jagged rocks far below. The large wing-thing he carried suddenly caught the air, and he stopped falling and flew away from the cliff, floating far above the sea. It worked!

“Luke…glide around the bluff…there’s a beach to land on!” He looked up, and saw several strange contraptions drifting up there with him, high in the air. Balloons, parachutes, wing things like his! Laughing, they headed for the beach and safety.

“Welcome, Luke,” said Lennon,  after they’d all landed safely. “You’re the youngest lemming yet to figure out the other way.”

“But…the Bible?” said Luke.

“The lemming law says you have to jump,” said Lotus, smiling, "it doesn’t say you have to die! Congratulations for not following what everybody else does, and thinking for yourself!”

Luke wandered off down the beach, lost in thought. He came upon a pod of whales, one had beached himself, and the others were trying hard to get their great bodies out of the water and beach themselves as well.

“Why are you following the others?” Luke asked a whale.

“Because I’m a whale,” it replied, “and that’s what we do.”

Luke smiled, and stood there at the water’s edge, explaining to the whales of the Bible, the laws, and thinking differently. The whales stopped their struggles and started to listen intently. This lemming may be right, there MAY be another way. This was someone to be listened to.