Stories From Papi

Tales of Egroj - The Stones of Edun

2008-06-28T12:51:00.004-06:00

Egroj suddenly found himself falling into Sensuois Nocnu.

Sensuois Nocnu was a dream-like place that would capture the victim for an arbitrary amount of time. Sensuois Nocnu was built by Emit. Emit was not a friend of Egroj, and was not going to release him any time soon.

Someone would have to get him out. That can happen several ways, but you are probably wondering how he got in, right? So am I.

Well, Egroj had been wandering, looking for something, but not knowing what exactly, when he came upon a nicely stacked pile of stones. As he took a closer look, he realized they were stones from the Edun Sea.

These stones were smooth, soft, warm, and kinda tingly when you touched them, especially with your tongue. Apparently, this was something to do when you were looking for something to do.

Licking Edun Stones was tricky business. One has to lick only for a moment, then stop licking quickly before the stone's tingliness overcame the "licker", and plunged them into Sensuois Nocnu.

Egroj wasn't very good at taking his tongue off at the right time, and found himself many times waking up next to an Edun Stone.

It was a good thing that Edun Stones were rare, and not laying around everywhere, or Egroj would not have been a very productive member of society.

Little did Egroj know that Emit had set this trap using the stones as bait, along a path he knew Egroj would be wandering on.

Well, Egroj unsuspectedly put his tongue on one of the Edun Stones, and as usual, held it too long, and slipped into Sensuois Nocnu.

Usually Emit would release whoever fell in after a little while, but when he realized it was Egroj, he was very happy.

Egroj woke up, this time not on the path next to an Edun Stone, but on the muddy shores of the Edun Sea. He couldn't move, so he just waited.

Meanwhile, Princess Eel was trading words with Regna. Regna was trying to force Eel to tell him where Egroj was, but Eel wouldn't tell him. He was trying to grab her, but he had very poor eyesight, and it was very easy to avoid his hands.

Also, he had to be careful not to move too quickly or strain himself.

Regna was upset with Egroj for tossing him a vial of Aeeraid, whichfell to the floor and splashed onto Regna's foot, causing sharp, bubbling stomach pains, panicked mandatory visits to the land of Teliot (if you could make it) and an immediate fear of Stoot Diuqil, who was a formidable opponent. Regan had meant to catch the vial, but with his eyes being so poor, didn't even see it coming.

So you understand why Regna was upset.

Regna promised to Eel not to hurt Egroj and she told him that she had a way to find the Anti-Aeeraid solution.

Eel took Regna into her home and found a pair of Egroj's Stnap Rednu. She rolled them up and forced them into a cup of Trop Elet.

She then dropped in a couple of drops of Rednif and watched with a smile.

She put her fingers into the cup and pulled out a vial of Regnirb.

Meanwhile, Egroj was thinking about drinking some Retaw. He had become so very thirsty. He was thinking about lifting himself up to crawl over to the Edun Sea and have himself a drink when he felt something being taken out of his Jolly Sack.

Eel had taken off the lid of the vial and dropped one drop into the cup containing Egroj's Stnap Rednu.

Egroj suddenly felt as though he was being pulled to the sky. He watched the Edun Sea with its muddy shores get smaller and smaller as he flew straight up toward the clouds.

Suddenly, the cup exploded and Egroj appeared in its place, then instantly flew up to the ceiling and stuck there.

Egroj opened his eyes and looked around bewildered, finally noticing two figures standing on the ceiling.

He rubbed his eyes to try to clear his view and see who they were, and came crashing down to the ground, right between the two figures.

Once he figured out who they were, he stood up and gave Eel a hug.

"Thank you for bringing me," he said as he kissed her on the cheek.

"You are welcome," she said.

"That sounds like Egroj," said Regna with a grunt, turning his head toward Egroj's voice.

"Hello, Regna," said Egroj.

Regna just glared toward Egroj's voice, caferul not to make any sudden moves.

Egroj took a step back. Eel reached over to Egroj's hand and grabbed out of it the Edun Stone he had been gripping so tightly.

She secretly dropped it into a cup of Retaw and held it up to Egroj.

"Egroj," she said to him with a wink. "I promised that you would give Regna the anti-Aeeraid solution, and he promised not to hurt you."

Egroj winked back at her. Regna had no idea all this winking was going on.

Egroj reached into his Jolly Sack and pulled out Rednes solution and dropped a drop into the Retaw.

"That should do it," said Egroj, replacing the lid back onto the vial.

"Here, Regna," said Eel, and placed the cup into his hand.

He drank it and immediately was gone...cup and all.

Eel and Egroj stood there in silence for a few moments.

"It's good to be home," said Egroj.

"Did you find it?" said Eel.

Egroj was already digging in his Jolly Sack, and produced a small lump of what seemed to be white clay of some sort.

"Well," said Eel. "Come on, how does it work?"

Egroj rolled the clay stuff up into a long tube and got close to Eel. He shoved one end into Eel's ear and the other end into his own.

The clay stuff was a Renetsil, and by putting it in each other's ears, they could hear what they were thinking.

Their expressions told the rest of the story.

Both Eel and Egroj looked confused, like they were listening to another language, squinting, then they looked surprised, their eyes wide open, then they both smiled.

Egroj closed his eyes and looked very peaceful, so did Eel.

Then suddenly, Eel's face became red as an Otamot.

The End

Tales of Egroj - The Gniklat Sea

2008-06-26T11:42:00.002-06:00

Leafar the Smart and Egroj had just finished eating some Azzip Revotfel, and had just sat down on Leafar’s very comfortable Chuoc Rethael.

“Well, I’ve never been there, I’ve only read about it in old books, but it’s supposed to be very beautiful,” said Egroj. “Why?”

“I’d like to show you something,” stated Leafar.

Leafar the Smart stood up and motioned to Egroj to follow. Leafar stepped out of Egroj’s way and nodded, extending his hand toward the door. Egroj walked past him and they walked toward the Denetyrf Forest.

On the way, Leafar pointed out many things that were true about the trees, bushes, rocks and wind that passed them.

“Egroj, a Tephorp has told me that something is going to happen to our town,” said Leafar. “But he didn’t say what it was…if it was good or bad.

Egroj was listening.

“I need you to find out for me,” said Leafar.

“How can I do that?” asked Egroj.

Before Leafar could answer, if he was planning to answer at all, the forest cleared and they reached the shore of the hidden and mysterious, legendary Gniklat Sea.

“This really is beautiful,” gasped Egroj, forgetting what Leafar had just said.

Leafar let him enjoy the view.

Egroj started to take off his clothes. This was normally not something to be alarmed about, Egroj was known to take off his clothes…usually for some complicated and purposeful reason, but Leafar knew Egroj’s intentions.

“Egroj,” said Leafar calmly. “Do you see the signs?”

Egroj had just untied his Jolly Sack when he turned his head and noticed a sign that he didn’t think was there when he arrived. Egroj read the sign.

“PLEASE DO NOT SWIM.”

Suddenly it seemed there were many of these signs all along the shore. In fact, Egroj realized that the whole shore was packed with the signs. Somehow he had missed them as he walked up to the shore. He figured that he had been so focused on swimming that he hadn’t even see them.

“If it is such a big deal to not swim, then why is there no fence?” asked Egroj. “Or why is this place not better hidden?”

“Egroj, a fence would take away the beauty of this place,” said Leafar.

“And the signs don’t?” demanded Egroj.

“You will not see the signs when you can see past what they are declaring,” said Leafar. “You are angry and frustrated right now, and so the signs are obvious.”

Egroj started to count the signs.

“There is no need for the signs,” said Leafar. “They merely point out the fact that you want to do the opposite. They will disappear in time.”

Leafar looked at the sun.

“I must leave you.” He said, and he left.

Egroj didn’t question Leafar’s need to leave, of his haste in leaving.

Egroj quickly turned back to the beautiful Gniklat Sea. It was a fantastic view. The Eguh Trees surrounding it so tall and majestic. The Deppac Wons Mountains on the horizon framing the breathtaking scene. The water so calm and inviting.

The signs weren’t very pretty though. And there seemed to be more and more of them at every moment. Egroj was strategising on how he could get past them

Egroj finished taking off the rest of his hot, sticky and sweaty clothes, and ran toward the sea. His plan was to dive in, but signs kept popping up and getting in his way. They seemed to be slapping at him and trying to trip him, but he prevailed…barely.

His toe made it into the water. For a moment, it was nice…just as he had expected, but then immediately, it felt like he had just eaten an Oñepalaj fruit. He was burning up inside.

As he backed away from the shore fanning himself, he noticed something happening to the sea.

The water had turned orange, and was bubbling and rolling like an overflowing pot of Klim.

Churning, waving, spewing.

Then something even more strange happened. Animals from the Gniklat Sea began popping out of the unconcealably orange water.

They were piling up on the shore. Hundreds of them.

Egroj recognized some of them from his schooling. No one had ever actually seen them before. Mostly it was just a theory that the animals existed. But apparently someone had either seen them or dreamed about them or something, because here they were.

He began to hear what sounded like voices. Yes, angry voices…coming from all around the seashore.

One of the sea animals, which had landed uncomfortable close to Egroj’s foot, began to speak directly to Egroj.

“We put those signs up on purpose,” it shouted. “You are a Tlusni!” it yelled.

“He’s over here,” it yelled to the other animals on the shore.

“You are a Tramston!” Yelled another.

“And a Nam Yllis,” yelled another.

Many other angry animals flopped over to where Egroj was standing. They were all yelling angry things at Egroj. Some he had heard before, but most had never been directed to him.

He began feeling very bad.

So bad, in fact, that he ran away. Away from he shore and all those yelling animals, and into the Denetyrf Forest. He ran straight through Leafar’s town, which seemed to be abandoned, and into the Desert of Noisser Ped. He found an Evac deep in the dessert and hid himself.

The thing about the Dessert of Noisser Ped is that Regna ruled there, and once he knew you were in his dessert, he would fill your mind with his thoughts. This was a place where true feelings were silenced by Regna. This was also a place where Emit visited often.

Emit would fool the observer into thinking that he had just arrived, while Ragna would occupy his mind with pointless ideas that were not true at all, or so twisted and complicated, that they did not resemble the truth anymore.

Egroj was stuck there. He was stuck there for a long time. Long enough for the Sreitp Menwot to come and force the good people of Leafar’s town to leave. Long enough for the remains of the town to become hills and fields and shrubbery.

Egroj became distracted by a white Kud. This Kud had been trying to convince him that he was carrying a plate of Azzip, and Azzip was Egroj’s favorite food. Egroj was not convinced. In fact, he was arguing with the Kud that he in fact was not carrying a plate of Azzip. Kuds don’t have arms, so Egroj thought his argument was better than the Kud’s.

Suddenly, a thought of Princess Eel came into Egroj’s mind. Last time this happened, Emit and Regna took it right out, but Egroj figured out a way to hide it from them this time.

Egroj pretended to be watching the Kud, and stood up and began walking.

Emit and Regna must have been sleeping, and Egroj had gotten really good at not waking them with Snoitome. So the Kud followed Egroj, and Egroj kept walking.

The thought of Princess Eel led Egroj to the edge of the dessert. As he stepped out of the dessert, he could hear the sea animals again, and that frightened him. He could feel his mind clearing up a bit.

The Kud had stepped out of the dessert as well.

Egroj’s mind was still spinning. He needed to travel to the town of Retfal. That would fix everything. But he couldn’t remember how to get there.

“Egroj,” Said a sweet smelling voice.

Egroj looked up to find that the Kud had turned itself into a wrinkled, slouched and wobbly old woman.

“Are you the Kud?” asked Egroj, looking around for the Kud.

“Not exactly,” she said. “I am Eel. Appearing to you as a Kud was so you would be distracted.”

Egroj was confused. He squinted his eyes at her, then looked around her.

“So where’s the plate of Azzip?” asked Egroj, still foggy.

The Princess didn’t acknowledge his silly question.

“When I heard that you had run into the Dessert of Noisser Ped, I went in after you,” she said.

“I battled Emit for a long time,” she said as she looked to her wrinkled hands. “But I was able to bind him momentarily so you could hear me calling you.”

“It’s really you?” asked Egroj, and he hugged her hard. He was so happy to see her.

“I’m so happy to see you,” he said.

“I know,” she said with a little smirk. “You always are.”

Eel flicked the long white hair out of her face.

“Egroj,” she asked. “Do you have the Vial of Revasyad?”

“Yes,” said Egroj. “It’s in my…” Then he realized that he had left his jolly sac on the shore of the Gniklat. In fact, he was in such a hurry he had run off without putting his clothes back on.

“You have to go back,” said Eel. “Not just for the vial.”

“I know,” said Egroj. “I know.”

Egroj stood motionless for a moment.

“Can you get it for me?” asked Egroj trying to look as pathetic as possible.

“You know I can’t,” said Eel. “Plus, I need a nap.”

Eel collapsed next to a Retropsnart tree and was asleep before she hit the ground.

So Egroj left her, walked through the empty landscape that used to be Leafar’s town, and ducked into the Denetyrf Forest, the whole time trying to block out the angry yelling of the Gniklat sea animals.

He reached the edge of the forest and had to shield his eyes from the bright orange that was the Gniklat Sea. The animals were all there. The Eguh trees were all wilting…things were not happy here. They smelled him right away and began hurling their words at him again.

He tried to hide behind a Gnidih tree, but the angry words went around it, and right into Egroj’s ears, giving his ears quite a Knaps.

He could see his Jolly Sack, and his clothes, but he couldn’t reach them without going out into the open, and those angry words hurt when they hit him.

He could hear some of the mother animals crying for their babies. He could hear baby animals crying for their mothers. He could hear father animals trying to comfort their families.

Egroj began to cry. He had done this. All because he wanted to swim.

Egroj looked up at the piles and piles of angry and helpless Gniklat sea animals and whispered, barely audibly: “I’m sorry.”

The yelling suddenly stopped. The orange sea turned clear again. The trees perked up and the signs started disappearing.

The closest sea animal, which was also the loudest, said to Egroj, “Oh, no worries, have a great day.” And he hopped back into the pool, as did the piles and piles of animals that had gathered on the shores.

The sea was calm again. It was quiet. Everything was back to normal. Oh, except Egroj needed to get dressed.

He got dressed, strapped on his Jolly Sack, and ducked back into the Denetyrf Forest, but only after taking one last look at the beauty of the Gniklat Sea. It was so beautiful with all signs gone.

As he stepped out of the forest, Leafar’s town appeared. Egroj was confused.

“Egroj,” called Leafar.

“Leafar?” said Egroj. “Why is your town here? It was gone.”

“What do you mean,” asked Leafar. “Did you go swimming?”

“How did you know,” asked Egroj.

“Swimming the the Gniklat Sea is a mysterious adventure. The sea is the Noitacav home of Emit, so the swimmer is plunged into Emit’s world for a moment, and as you know, a moment for Emit could be whatever he wants.”

Egroj was processing.

“So, you passed through our town during your adventure with Emit?” asked Leafar.

“Yes, I did,” remembered Egroj, a bit embarrassed.

“Did you see anything you can tell me?” asked Leafar.

Egroj thought about having run though the town without clothes on. Then he thought about how it appeared abandoned, then he thought about the Sreitp Menwot.

“Oh, yes,” said Egroj. “The Sreitp Menwot are coming.”

“Thank you for the warning Egroj,” said Leafar. “I must warn my people.”

Egroj said goodbye, and then immediately wondered if Eel would be waiting at the edge of the dessert where he had last seen her.

He could see a figure leaning onto the tree. It was Eel. She had picked a fruit from the Retropsnart tree and was taking a bite.

“Don’t eat that,” yelled Egroj as he accelerated his step.

But it was too late. The beautiful, flowing, sweet smelling Princess Eel had disappeared into nothingness. Well, she wasn’t gone, she was just somewhere else. That’s the effect of eating the fruit from the Retropsnart tree.

They would find each other again, they always did.

So, now Egroj had to figure out what to do next. He adjusted his Jolly Sack and wandered toward the next town.

The End

Camel Notices Something

2008-06-17T08:00:00.002-06:00

Once there was a camel who ran free in the desert, feeling lighter than air, fully refreshed and rejuvenated, his thirst completely quenched and more purposeful than ever.

But he wasn't always like this. Let me start the story over.

Once there was a camel who lived in the desert. He was fairly content. He like the way the sand dunes moved a few feet every year. He liked the adventure of looking for and finding water. He liked the way the land in front of him sometimes looked like it was a mirror.

He didn't necessarily like it when he came across his own footprints in the sand, and he didn't like it when other animals pooped in the watering holes.

Well, one hot and dry day, he awoke to find himself with a load on his back. The truth is, the load had always been there, he just didn't always notice it. You know how that is, like when something stinks, but after a while your nose sort of turns off and you don't smell it anymore.

But today, the pack seemed heavier. He didn't actually know what was in the pack, but something was jabbing him in the side, and he could hear toys and games clinking and sliding around as he walked, and some tinkling He couldn't remember if there was anything of use in the pack, but he carried it nonetheless. It's all he knew to do.

Camel stood up, grunting under the weight of the load, and decided it was time to find water.

He knew of a couple of places in the vicinity that had water, but he was up for an adventure. So he decided to brave the large dune to the East. He had heard of an Oasis a couple of days walk over the dune.

The first few hours were easier than the next few hours, and the first day was easier than the second day, but he trudged along, knowing that the water was waiting for him.

As he reached the peak of a smaller dune, he noticed a figure far off in the distance. He knew not to get excited, it would be hours before he would even know if they were walking toward each other, and then another few hours before they would meet. So Camel occupied his mind with counting games his father had taught him.

How many breaths it took to reach a certain number of steps, then multiply that by the number of heartbeats that took place for every four steps, then divide that by the number of birds he saw flying around, which would change the whole equation every time he saw another bird.

He had another one that included bones and blinking, and another that had to do with how many times he thought of the word "Mochila", which wasn't very often, but you'd be surprised...it did come up. This made for an ongoing proccess where he had to remember how many times he had heard the word. I think he was at 7. Mostly it was when he heard someone say it, although when you are by yourself for long periods of time, words can get stuck in your mind where you say it over and over, and if that happened to "Mochila", that number could climb to 500 easy.

All those hours came and went, and Camel found himself off in number land when the figure he had seen hours earlier was standing in front of him.

It was Jackal.

"Hello Camel," said Jackal. "It's been a long time."

"Yes it has," said Camel. Camel didn't like Jackal. He couldn't remember why, though.

"I see you're still carrying the load I gave you," said Jackal.

Camel suddenly remembered why he didn't like Jackal.

"Hmmff," grunted Camel as he started to step to the side to get around Jackal and keep going.

"It looks like it's made you strong and confident," said Jackal. "And happy?"

Camel though about it and he did feel stronger. And he in fact did feel confident in his abilities.

"I don't know about happy," said Camel.

Jackal laughed a little.

"Then I have something for you," said Jackal. "Something that could remind you to think about being happy."

"I don't need anything else from you," said Camel, still trying to get away.

"Well, it's obvious that you do," said Jackal as he pulled out something wrapped up in a very colorful cloth. "I'll just attach it to your Mochila."

Before Camel could protest any further, Jackal had jumped up onto the load, and attached some sort of jingly bell or something onto the load, then crawled over to the other side, scratched around a bit, lapped at what sounded like a bowl of water, and then jumped down again.

"What did you do?" asked Camel. "What is that jingling? And is there water up there?"

"It's just a little something to remind you to think about being happy," said Jackal. "every time you hear the bell, it will remind you that you are very fortunate to have a load so large and wonderful on your back. Many are jealous of your beautiful and grand Mochila."

Camel couldn't help feeling a little proud of his load, but the jingly bell was already annoying him.

"I will see you later," yelled out Jackal. He was already many meters away.

Camel was glad that he was gone. Jackal took what he wanted, and only gave if it benefited himself. He was not pleasant. Camel stood very still so the bell would stop.

Then he thought about his quest for water, and cringed at the sound as he took his first steps.

After a few hours, the bell sound would come in and out of his mind, and it was not making him think of being happy, it was distracting him from his numbers. He tried to count the jingles, but they were uneven and seemed random.

And he was nearing 100 with "Mochila". It was all he could do to think of other things.

Finally, he reached the oasis. It was fairly small, but it had shade, and water.

He got to the water's edge and gazed into the sweet, cool pool. It was beautiful. He lowered his head to take a drink, and with a loud jingle, his load slid a bit toward his head, which made Camel jolt his head upright to catch the load from falling.

Every time he tried to take a drink, his load would slide, almost falling off, and Camel would stand upright again to keep the load from falling off.

Every time, with a loud, obnoxious jingle.

Camel was getting frustrated. He would have cried if he had any tears, but he hadn't had any water for some time now.

He considered turning back and getting water from that tank of water where the level was a bit higher and he wouldn't have to lean so far over, but he knew he wouldn't make it back.

He turned back to gaze into the pool. He had a feeling this was the last thing he would ever see.

He hung his head and sighed. That's when he noticed something at the bottom of the pool of water. It looked like...he wasn't certain...yes...toys? Games? Some useless objects and small pieces of fabric? There were hundreds, maybe thousands of Mochillas sunk at the bottom of the pool. Well, maybe not thousands, but Camel was excited, and you start seeing things when you get excited.

Camel immediately had an idea. He was, after all, a very smart Camel. Without hesitating, he leaned over and let his Mochila slide off his back, and with a gurgling Jingle, watched it sink to the bottom.

He drank and drank and drank. Oh, it was really good. It was fantastic. It was the best.

As he drank, between the ripples of cool, quenching water, Camel saw that each of the Mochilas had their own little bell.

All of them were silent.

---

So, this gets us back to the part where Camel is running all happy...let's see:

Once there was a camel who ran free in the desert, feeling lighter than air, fully refreshed and rejuvenated, his thirst completely quenched and more purposeful than ever.

The End

Keep Them In and Keep Them Out

2008-03-29T07:21:00.005-06:00

Once there was a Peacock Papi who was so beautiful and colorful. He had four little peacock chickies who loved to play.

They all lived in a nice fenced in yard where there was a tree, some shrubbery and a little pond. It was a perfect little spot.

The Papi Peacock was so beautiful that every day, animals would come over and ask him to show them his train. It was so beautiful.

Once day, the cow came over and asked Peacock to show her his plumage. So he did.

While he was showing her his feathers, he looked over and saw that his little chickies were playing by the fence.

He excused himself and went to the fence.

"Hey, you guys," said Papi Peacock, "I don't want you guys to play by the fence. You can play by the pond, climb the tree and play in the bushes, but just don't play by the fence."

They apologized and went to play by the pond.

The next day, Dog brought a couple of cat friends to see Peacock's tail feathers.

While he was showing them, he saw out of the corner of his eye, that his chickies were playing by the fence again. In fact, they were playing ON the fence.

He excused himself again and went over to them.

"I thought we agreed you wouldn't play by the fence," said Papi Peacock, "And here you are ON the fence."

They apologized again and went over to the tree.

The next day, a bunch of the animals came over with cakes and chips and drinks. They had been planning a potluck for a while. While they were all talking and laughing, Papi Peacock took a look around, hoping that he wouldn't find his chickies playing by the fence.

He searched the fence line and they weren't there. He breathed a sign of relief.

Then he searched the rest of the yard for them, wondering where they were. He couldn't find them. He looked in the tree, by the pond and in the bush, and they weren't anywhere.

He started freaking out. He asked everyone who came for the potluck to look for them, but no one found them.

They looked for hours, and nothing.

After a while, they all left. They would look on their way home.

Papi Peacock cried and cried and would not let himself go to sleep, well, until he couldn't help falling asleep because he was too tired.

When he woke up, he remembered right away and started to cry again.

He slowly stood up and took a look around the yard. To his surprise, there were the chickies, right in the very center of the yard.

He rushed over to them and hugged them and kissed them and loved on them and told them how worried he had been.

"Where were you?" he asked. "What happened to you last night?"

"Well," one of them said, "We were playing by the fence, and suddenly, well, we found ourselves on the other side of the fence."

"And we couldn't find away back in," said another chickie.

So they went on to explain what happened.

It turns out that while they were on the other side of the fence, a fox came over and offered to help them get to the opening of the fence.

"Get on my back and I'll take you there," said the fox.

The chickies believed him, and got on his back.

Once they were all on his back, he bolted...the opposite way of the fence. He was taking them away.

The chickies started screaming and tightening their claws on his back. They even started pecking him.

"Stop pecking me!" the fox yelled.

But they didn't stop.

"Not until you let us down!" said the chickies.

"Fine!" yelled the fox. "Get off my back!"

The chickies jumped off his back, and the fox quickly ran away.

The chickies realized that they were far from home and started crying.

After a while, they finished crying and decided to try to walk back home.

It took them all night to walk home...foxes run very fast.

Once they got to the fence, they looked around the whole fence line, but couldn't find the way in. But instead of crying again, they decided that they would try to get up onto the fence, and then jump off in to the yard.

As they were talking about how they were going to do it, the fox appeared behind them, and he had brought his whole family... his wife, his three little fox cubs, and his brother.

The chickies freaked out and jumped higher than they thought they could, right over the fence.

Once they were in the yard, and safe from the fox family, they carefully calculated the exact middle of the yard and huddled together, shaking and trembling.

"And that's where I found you," said Papi Peacock. And he hugged them again.

"I'm sure glad you found your way back," he said.

They were too...and they never played by the fence again. Well, there was that one time that the ball got kicked over to the fence, but that's different.

The End

Why Lambs Always Land on their Back

2008-03-23T15:15:00.004-06:00

Once there was a fluffy little lamby who suddenly found herself at the very top of a very tall tree.

She didn't normally climb trees, and when she found herself up the tree, she didn't know what to do.

Since this was a new thing for her, and didn't actually know if she could climb down, she decided to sing a song.

It went like this:

I'm just a little Lamby
Singing in a tree
Not sure how I got up here
But I think I have to pee.

And when she thought about it, she realized she really DID have to pee. So she stuck her bottom out as far as she could, pulled up her tail (so she wouldn't get pee on her fluffy tail) and trickled her pee from the top of the tree.

What she didn't know is that some Piggie friends had chosen to have a picnic directly under the tree.

One of them was putting some bread on his butter, and felt a little drop.

"Oh," said the Piggie, "I think it's raining." She took out her umbrella, opened it up and went back to buttering his bread.

Meanwhile, the little lamby was relieved to not have to pee anymore, and was happy. So happy, in fact, that she decided to sing another song.

It went like this:

I'm a little Lamby
I don't know what to do
Not sure how I got up here
But I think I have to poo

And just as she said it, yep, she felt like she had to poo.

So, she wiggled her bottom a little further out on the branch, lifted her fluffy tail out of the way, and let out a stream of little pellets of poo.

Well, the Piggie friends had just finished eating their butter with bread, and wanted to move on to the baggie of potato chips. Well, they looked everywhere, but had apparently misplaced the baggie, and just as they almost decided to think that they had forgotten the baggie back at the house, one of the found it just beyond a root of the tree.

The Piggie reached her hand out from under the umbrella, and grabbed hold of the baggie.

Just as soon as she brought her hand in, there started a rat-a-tat-tat banging on the umbrella.

They decided it was the tree dropping some acorns and tore into the bag of potato chips.

Meanwhile, back up the tree, the little Lamby felt again relieved to not have to poo anymore.

So, being happy again, she decided to sing again.

Here's how the song went:

I'm a little Lamby
I might have heard a hoot
Maybe there's an owl around
But I think I have to toot

And then she realized that yes, she did have to toot.

So she scooted herself further out on the limb, and was about to push, when she slipped and fell off.

Meanwhile, the Piggie friends were looking for the whipped cream to put on the pudding. Apparently, someone had forgotten the whipped cream as well.

So, as the little Lamby fell down toward the ground, she flew past a bird's nest and a squirrel's house, then some falling acorns, and even a few little drops of rain.

Then she smashed into the umbrella, and bounced right back up into the air.

This is when she remembered what her grandmother had told her:

"Always land on your back where it's the fluffiest."

So Lamby twisted herself around as she started back down for the second time.

The Piggie friends heard the large thump on the umbrella and decided to see what it was. They closed the umbrella and put it away, then took a look up toward the tree.

They missed the little fluffy lamby as she fell right into the pudding.

The Piggie friends decided that there was nothing to see and went back to eating.

"I thought we forgot the whipped cream," said one of the Piggie friends pointing at the pudding.

The Piggie friends licked their lips, grabbed their spoons and aimed for the pudding with the fluffy whipped cream on top.

Yum!

The End

Skunk Finally Smiles

2008-03-14T08:55:00.007-06:00

Once there was a skunk who was, well, she was unhappy. I'm not sure why she was upset, but it seems like everything bothered her.

If it rained, she was bothered. It it was cold or windy or hot, she was bugged. None of her friends could actually think of anything that made her smile or laugh, and believe me, they tried.

Every second Tuesday of every third month (unless it fell on an even numbered day - which would move it to the first Saturday morning that everyone could be there), they met to talk about new ideas they could try, and failed attempts of the past couple of months.

Well, in the meantime, Skunk knew that they were meeting, and since she didn't know what they were meeting about (and was never invited),that made her very upset, and even suspicious of all her "friends".

It just seemed like everything that anyone tried to do, even in love and honest concern for her wellbeing, was seen by her as a jab, and a dagger.

Once, squirrel made Skunk a beautiful cake, and it wasn't even Skunks birthday. It was strawberry inside with little chunks of cashews inside, layered with a coffee icing, then the whole thing iced with a dark chocolate cream cheese icing, and little white flowers all over it.

Well, Skunk ate a small piece of it, and was pleasant while Squirrel sat and chetted, but once Squirrel left, Skunk threw the rest of the cake away. She thought Squirrel meant by bringing a cake that Skunk was too skinny, or was addicted to sweet food, or something...she couldn't decide. But she was upset by it.

Once, Lizzard brought her flute and played a sweet little lullaby for Skunk. Well, Skunk immediately thought that Lizzard wanted to put Skunk to sleep, so she pretended to fall asleep.

When Lizzard saw that Skunk had fallen asleep, Lizzard quietly cleaned up the kitchen and tidied up the living room. Skunk kept peeking at Lizzard when she had her back turned. When Lizzard finally left, Skunk was sure that Lizzard thought Skunk was a messy animal and couldn't keep a clean house.

There was nothing that anyone could do that Skunk wouldn't assume they meant as a negative judgement on her character.

Well, the last straw for Skunk was when Froggie invited her to a "We Love You, Skunk" party. It was even held on a second Tuesday.

Skunk didn't RSVP, but knew that they were still going to throw the party. She had the idea that they were finally going to tell her she had to leave the forest.

Well, she was right...about the party still being thrown, but not the eviction.

As the Tuesday approached, Skunk prepared to show them all. She was going to finally let them how she felt about the...and it was not going to be pretty.

It took her a whole morning, and she even skipped lunch, but she finally found what she was looking for...Hemlock.

She gathered a handfull of Hemlock seeds and took them home. She crushed them into a powder, and added a little bit of water so that it made a paste, then she put it in a little acorn shell and stored it behind the pots and pans.

On Tuesday morning, Skunk sat at her kitchen table, with the Hemlock paste in front of her. She watched the clock. She had gathered all the pictures of the forest animals and set them up on the table.

There was a picture of Skunk and Froggie from when they went to the forest fair, and a picture of Stork and Squirrel laughing at Skunk's kitchen table. There was a picture of Skunk and Lizzard jumping into the pond.

She looked them all for a long time, thinking that they were all faking their friendship with her.

On the other side of the forest, Froggie and the others were putting the final touches on the decorations. They were beautiful. Garlands, flowers, a couple of cakes, lots of punch and cookies. Some of them had even brought presents.

Stork had the idea to make a card and have everyone sign it, and everyone had done that except for Mouse. Once mouse signed it, Stork put it on the table with the presents.

Once the time had come for the party to start, Froggie wondered what was keeping Skunk. Froggie sent Grackle to fly above the forest to see if he could see her on the trails.

Well, at the time the party was supposed to start, Skunk picked up the Hemlock and put it in her mouth and swallowed it.

She felt very proud of herself. She was going to show them. She felt like they disliked her so much that she was going to teach them a lesson.

As her mouth and throat started to get tingly, she thought of how Squirrel and Lizzard had wronged her.

As her mouth filled with saliva, she thought of how Froggie and Stork had done such bad things to her.

As her muscles started twitching, she thought of how badly all the forest animals had treated her and how judgemental they all had been.

As everything in her cozy little burrow started getting darker, she thought of how satisfied she would be knowing that all the forest animals would get a dose of their own medicine.

And when her breathing became shallower and harder, she thought she would finally go to the party and see if they had finally learned their lesson, but she could not stand up, in fact, she couldn't move a muscle.

---

Grackle didn't see Skunk on the trail, and he didn't see her anywhere around her burrow. When he finally landed and peeked inside her home, he immediately knew something was wrong.

He went inside and tried to wake her, but he couldn't. He looked at all the pictures stretched out in front of her on the kitchen table and smiled.

---

They never found any trace of the Hemlock, and all thought so highly of her. They were sad that her time had come so unexpectedly, but were all so touched by the fact that her last moments were spent gazing at her friends.

There was even a smile on Skunk's face.

She was finally happy.

The End

The World is my...

2008-03-11T08:39:00.002-06:00

Once there were two chipmunks that loved each other very, very much. You could tell because they hugged and snuggled everywhere they went...sometimes maybe too much. Well, not for them, but you know how some people are...some people just don't like seeing that stuff out in public.

Anyway, these guys loved being outside. They loved to explore new places, climb interesting things and sleep anywhere they thought was safe.

They would take a weekend here or a couple of days there and go off on some fun adventure.

Then, when they returned, they would invite everyone in the forest to come over and listen to them tell of their exciting vacation.

Sometimes, the forest animals would ask them to retell stories, and the chipmunks would always oblige.

One of their favorite adventures was when they went to a beautiful place where the trees were huge, and there were massive logs everywhere. They even had a picnic on one of the fallen logs.

Another favorite was when they found a mound of large boulders piled up into an awesome place to explore.

There was also the time they hiked along a large mud pit, and they both ended up with sticky mud up to their knees.

Oh, and there was also the place where the earth opened up in a huge crack. They explored the crack all day. At one end there was a forest of thorns and vines, and in the center was a huge sink hole.

Everyone loved their stories, and they were both so good at telling them.

One day, the Monkey family invited them over for dinner. They did this every once in a while.

Once the little baby monkeys were down for the night, Mr. and Mrs. Monkey and the Chipmunks played games, sang songs, talked and laughed. They were very good friends.

Sometimes they would tell each other things that no one else knew. That's what you do with good friends.

Well, it may have been an accident how the subject of pooping was brought up, (although it seemed to be a favorite topic along with underleg trumpeting for the Monkey family).

Accident or not, the chipmunks admitted to something that surprised the Monkeys.

Monkey's side was hurting from laughing so hard.

"Well, sometimes we're just too far away from a restroom to go back!" said Mr. Chipmunk.

Monkey finally calmed down enough to ask them, "So, at the forest with the logs?"

"Yep," said the chipmunks, "we left a couple logs."

"And the the pile of boulders?" asked Monkey.

"We made our own pile." said the chipmunks.

"And the big crack?" Asked Monkey.

"Right at the edge of the sink hole." said the chipmunks.

"And the mud pit?" asked the Monkeys.

"That was a bit messy," said Mrs. Chipmunk, "I think it was the lamb burgers we ate for lunch."

Oh, they laughed about that for a while.

The Monkeys promised not to tell anyone in forest about their "adventures" during their outdoor adventures.

But whenever the chipmunks told the forest of their most recent adventure, the Monkeys would have to fight laughing out loud.

Especially when they told about their trip to the city dump. Oh, and they almost fell off the stumps they were sitting on when they told about getting pinched on some thorny bushes at loaf mountain.

They couldn't keep their snickers quiet when the chipmunks went to the lake and caught a bunch of Crappie.

The End

Blah and the Falling Blah-Blahs

2008-03-03T08:35:00.004-06:00

Once there was a blah that was very blah, and loved to blah. Of course, only when the blah was blah or blah blah, which was actually quite blah blah.

Well, one day, a bunch of blahs dropped out of the blah, and the blah was so blah that everything changed.

First, all the blah in the blah went all blah blah. Then the blah became completely blah blah, which was really a blah thing.

There wasn't anything that the blah could do about that, but that didn't stop her from becoming blah blah.

Well, the blah made lots of changes in her life to make up for the changes that the falling blah had caused.

The problem with that was that the blah had no idea how to be a blah, and the next few days, all of the blah's friends became upset with the new blah...they didn't like the new blah very much.

But, they all loved her so much, that they all decided to do something about it.

All of the blah-blah's climbed the blah with blahs in their blah blahs, and tried to put them all back, but that didn't work...the blah's kept doing what they had done before, remember, what had started the whole thing.

Well, when the blahs came down from the blah, the blah saw them and knew exactly what they were doing. She was so happy that they cared so much about them that she got all blah-blah and began to blah.

Then all the other blah's got confused by seeing the blah getting all blah-blah, and they all started to blah.

The blah's were so blah, that they began blah-ing themselves, and one even blah-ed himself against the blah. Well, the force of the blah blah-ing against the blah made a bunch of blahs fall from the blah.

When the blah realized that it was just blah falling from the blah, she blah-ed, and then couldn't stop blah-ing.

The rest of the blahs saw her blah-ing and began blah-ing as well.

They blah-ed for a while until they got hungry, and then forgot what had started the whole thing.

The End

The Hundred Babies

2008-01-06T20:27:00.000-06:00

Once there was a little girl named Sofie, and she had one hundred babies.

She had a little kitty cat baby and a furry mouse baby and a dog baby. She even had an elephant baby and a bear baby and a gorilla baby.

They were all so cute and cuddly. She loved them all so much. They all slept on her bed with her every night, and she could tell when even one of them fell off the bed.

One morning, as she hugged every one of them, the counted only 99 babies.

“Oh, no,” she thought.

She hugged them all again, and again counted only 99. She knew it was wolf who was missing.

Where was he? Sofie decided to leave the 99 babies in the care of Baby Alligator and Baby Stork, and she took Baby Snake and Baby Gorilla with her to look for them.

Baby Lamb and Baby Raccoon cried when Sofie left.

“I’ll be right back, sweeties,” she said to them.

Sofie, Baby Snake and Baby Gorilla looked everywhere. They looked on top of every rock, and under every tree. They looked in all of Baby Wolf’s favorite places, but they could not find him.

They all sat down for a rest, and just as Sofie opened her backpack to take out some snacks. She always had snacks in her backpack. But before she could open the backpack, she heard a little noise.

She knew right away that it was Baby Wolf. It was a cute little yelp, but it was a frightened little yelp.

Baby Gorilla and Baby Snake heard it too.

“Baby Wolf!” Sofie called out.

They all heard another yelp. They were close.

They followed the yelping to a small hole, and when they peered inside, there was Baby Wolf.

“Baby Wolf,” said Sofie, “Are you OK?”

Baby Wolf just yelped.

“You’re hungry aren’t you?” she asked. “I brought some Snackies.”

She opened her backpack, and was surprised at what she found…nothing.

“Hey,” she exclaimed, “I thought I had Snackies in here.”

She peered into the hole again.

“Sorry, Baby Wolf,” she said. “I don’t have any Snackies for you. You’ll just have to wait until we get you out.”

Sofie asked Baby Snake to stretch himself as long as he could and slide down into the hole. Baby Gorilla made sure Baby Snake didn’t fall all the way in.

“Now, Baby Snake,” said Sofie, “Grab on to Baby Wolf as tight as you can.”

Baby Snake grabbed on to Baby Wolf’s nose, and Baby Gorilla and Sofie pulled on Baby Snakes tail as hard as they could, but not too hard to break Baby Snake.

Baby Wolf wasn’t budging.

They pulled and pulled, but nothing.

“OK,” said Sofie. “Baby Snake, you can let go. We have to think of something else.”

So Baby Snake let go and was pulled out of the hole.

Sofie gave Baby Gorilla a hug for being so strong, and Baby Snake a kiss for being so long. But when she kissed Baby Snake, she noticed that her breath smelled like Snackies.

“Baby Snake,” asked Sofie. “Why does your breath smell like Snackies? We brushed your teeth last night, didn’t we?”

All Baby Snake could do is point down to Baby Wolf.

Sofie looked down into the hole and that’s when she noticed the crumbs all over Wolf’s nose and chin.

Baby Wolf, did you eat the Snackies from my backpack?

Baby Wolf whined an embarrassed whine.

“Oh,” said Sofie sadly. “That’s why you’re stuck.”

She sat down next to the hole to think.

“Well,” said Sofie, “I guess we’ll just have to wait until you get smaller, and then you won’t be stuck anymore.”

Then she stood up.

“Baby Snake and Baby Gorilla?” She said. “You guys stay here and I’ll be right back.”

She kissed them before she left, and reached down into the hole and rubbed Baby Wolf’s nose.

Sofie was back in a flash with all the babies following her, and a backpack full of Snackies for everyone. They all played and ate and took naps next to the hole where Baby Wolf was, including him in all the games they played…as well as they could.

Later that evening, when some of the babies had fallen asleep, and it was fairly quiet, a very loud and muffled honking sound came from the hole where Baby Wolf had been all day, and then suddenly, Baby Wolf popped out of the hole. His toot has dislodged him from the hole.

Everyone laughed and hugged and kissed Baby Wolf.

Baby Wolf licked Sofie all over her face. She knew he was sorry for eating the Snackies without asking.

I don’t think he did it again.

The End

Monkey Loses Mouse...Again

2008-01-03T14:54:00.000-06:00

Once there was a little monkey who had a mouse for a best friend. She loved the mouse, played with it every day. Fed it, watered it, cleaned it's cage, everything.

Well, one day, the mouse died. It was a sad day. Monkey cried and cried.

Actually, she didn't cry at first because she didn't know what "died" meant.

Well, Papi Monkey told her that the mouse wasn't going to breath or eat or move around anymore. She still didn't cry. Not until Papi Monkey told Little Monkey they had to put it in a plastic bag and throw the mouse away.

Oh, then she cried and cried.

Well, Papi Monkey suggested that Little Monkey write the mouse a goodbye note. She did. It was very sweet. It said "I love you mouse" and "Goodbye".

They folded it up and took a shovel and the plastic bag with the dead mouse in it to the backyard.

Papi Monkey picked a spot next to a Live Oak and started digging. There were roots all over the place, but he was able to make a hole about a foot deep.

Maybe it was less than that.

Anyway, Papi Monkey opened the bag with the dead mouse in it and whew, was it stinky.

Papi Monkey told his little girl that when something dies, it starts to rot. Just like when she accidentally dropped an apple core into the couch and they found it all moldy and soft and stinky a couple of weeks later.

Just like when they forget to put the garbage out on trash day and have to wait a whole nother week, and it stinks like crazy. It’s because the garbage has things in it that are rotting.

They talked about how flies like to eat rotten stuff and they lay their eggs in the rotten stuff and the baby flies are born and they are called maggots. Eww!

Little Monkey dropped the folded up note into the hole and Papi Monkey dropped the dead mouse into the hole. Actually, they looked at the mouse first, then dropped it in.

Papi Monkey put dirt over the hole and they went inside. Later that night, Little Monkey asked how deep Papi Monkey could dig, and Papi Monkey said he couldn’t dig too deep. Maybe a few feet.

Little Girl monkey asked what would happen if he kept digging…if he could. And Papi Monkey took out their “Earth Ball” and tried to figure out where they would end up if they kept digging.

The answer was “Somewhere in the ocean”.

Little Monkey then asked about what kind of animals lived in the ocean, and they talked and talked about fish and sea horses and plankton and whales and coral well into the night.

Papi Monkey was suddenly woken up by a scream coming from outside. He found himself on Little Monkey’s bed, but Little Monkey was not there.

He ran out of the house and found Little Monkey standing next to the Live Oak tree, pointing to the ground.

When Papi Monkey reached his daughter, he saw that the place where they had buried her little mouse was disturbed. In fact, the mouse was gone. Little Monkey found her note a few feet away, in the direction of the deep forest.

Papi Monkey explained that he should have dug a deeper hole and that some other animal had come and taken her mouse away.

“Why would anyone do that?” she asked.

“Well,” said Papi Monkey carefully. “To eat it.”

Little Monkey’s face got all scrunched up and looked like she was going to throw up.

Papi Monkey took her hand and they climbed the tree house and listened to the wind for a while.

They didn’t talk about eating a rotten dead mouse.

The End

Beautiful Danger

2007-12-28T10:36:00.000-06:00

Once there was a sweet little Cat who lived in a house with some humans. She was white all over and so soft. Her little whiskers were so delicate and her tail so agile and smooth.

She was quick and glorious, graceful and sharp, cunning and gentle.

The house she lived in was in the mountains where it snowed all the time. The house was surrounded by lush pine trees, large boulders, winding paths and breathtaking views. She loved it there.

One day, her humans left her alone. They told her it would be a few days before they got back. They were going into town to get supplies for the long winter.

“Don’t go into the forest,” they told her. “We will leave this window open, but you could get lost out there.”

She agreed. There would be no reason for her to go anywhere. Just outside to poo or pee and then back inside to get warm.

The day after the humans left, a huge blizzard hit and almost buried the little house. Some snow even came in through the open window.

A few days went by and she expected the humans back at any moment, but they didn’t come. They didn’t come for many days.

Some of the snow had cleared, but the side of the house with the front door on it was still buried, and there was no sign of any visitors. The house was as still a chewed piece of gum sticking to the floor.

The little white cat sat at the window and stared out for hours at a time. This became her sole pastime.

One morning, there was movement in one of the pine trees. At first, the little cat thought it was just snow falling off a branch, but within the hour, she saw it again.

This was the most excitement she had seen in a week, so she stared even harder.

The movements came every once in a while, but she couldn’t make out what it was.

At one point she thought she saw the most beautiful pair of eyes she had ever seen. They were a mesmerizing deep green, outlined in a hypnotic dark mist.

This intrigued her and she decided to walk outside to check it out.

When she hopped off the sill onto the cold, crunchy ground, something moved quickly in the area where she had been watching earlier.

She carefully tip-toed across the yard toward the edge of the tree line. There were no sounds except for the occasional creaking of branches in the wind.

Something moved again in the trees.

The little white cat stopped in her tracks. Something was out there.

Slowly, she made out the eyes she had seen before. They were gorgeous. They attached themselves to her heart and reeled her in. Then she could make out a nose and a pair of ears, then whiskers. It was another cat. She was sure of it.

This excited her very much. She took a few steps and meowed and purred. Then took another few steps.

The other cat moved forward a few inches.

“Maybe he’s lost,” though the little white cat as she took another more confident step.

She meowed again.

The sound that came back was not a meow. It was not a purr either. It was more of a hiss and a scream, but the little white cat barely had any time to be frightened, or even think about running back into the house.

---

When the humans finally returned, they found no trace of their little white cat. The window was still open and there was still some food in her bowl.

The End

Badger's Incentive Program

2007-09-16T13:55:00.000-06:00

Badger stumbles upon a very effective way to motivate his employees.

Badger needed a job. He was good at many things, but none of those things could make him any money. He was good at sports, playing video games, cooking and other interesting things.

He decided to apply at the local telemarketing company. It was not a fun job, but Badger was really good at it. H was good at everything.

During his first few weeks, he saw many opportunities for advancement, and he was such a good worker, he challenged himself, and achieved his goals very quickly.

Suddenly he found himself in management. It would take him longer to advance from this position than it had been taking him, but he took on this position the same way. He worked as hard as he could, encouraging his crew with incentives and pats on the back. They really liked him. He made them all want to do better.

Well, one of the incentives he implemented was a Friday Breakfast Taco for everyone who tried their hardest. Basically everyone got a taco, but it was a morale booster.

Badger reminded everyone as he passed their cubicle about the Taco Guy coming at the end of the week.

Badger walked around all day with his clipboard and his headset, and randomly, he would plug into the phone to listen in on the conversation.

He knew this made his crew nervous, but it was a requirement. He made jokes and distracted his crew to get their mind off of things. Badger didn’t want to make them nervous, he just had to listen in. You know, “This call may be monitored for quality assurance purposes.”

Well, one Tuesday morning, Beaver had created a masterpiece consisting of a turkey and Monterrey Jack Omelet, topped with fresh cilantro, diced tomatoes and Ranch Style beans. Yum! His family was so grateful to him for cooking for breakfast. It was a treat. Badger left for work satisfied and happy.

As you can imagine, though, this was doing a number on Badger’s tummy. Later in the day, there were all sorts of rumblings and gurgles coming from Badger’s mid-section. He even had a few “False-Starts” to the bathroom. He was having a rough morning, but he just kept pushing through.

His day was going the same as every other day, visiting cubicles, making notes and listening in on conversations.

In the middle of one conversation, the pressure in his tummy was demanding to be released. He was attached to the phone system through the headset. Just as he released the headset from the phone jack, a little bit of bottom air leaked out.

His eyes grew large. He was sure no one heard it. Would it smell? He waited a few moments.

Yes. It smelled. He had to think quick.

He began to take deep breaths through his nose, and popped his head up from the cubicle, looking around for something.

He leaned over to the next cubicle over and asked,

“Did the Taco Guy come today?” and to another who had just hung up from a sale,

“Is it Friday already? Still smelling something in the air.

Everyone around him started to take deep inhalations, trying to smell if the Taco Guy was here.

Someone spoke up, “I think he is here. I smell Chorizo and Egg”

Another chimed in, “Man, That’s making me hungry.”

Everyone smelled deeply, taking in as much of the aroma as they could.

Badger announced, “I’ll go check, you guys get back to calls.”

As Badger walked across the large open area, between the rest of the cubicles, he let a little controlled amount of his inside air every few feet.

When he came back and announced that it must have been someone’s lunch in the refrigerator, everyone groaned in disappointment.

The rest of the day was fairly regular.

Although, after lunch everyone could have sworn they smelled potato chips.

The End

The Computer Monkey

2007-09-09T13:31:00.000-06:00

A monkey finds something in the forest.

Once there was a little monkey who found a computer next to a tree in the forest. He poked it and tasted it and slapped at it, as you’d expect any monkey to do.

He was very attracted to the large and smooth flat surface, and the little light in the bottom corner.

You can imagine his surprise when he pushed the button and the large smooth surface turned into a colorful, flickering, multi-colored, beautiful object of mystery.

After some time of staring into the colorful surface, he began wanting to do something with it. His eyes found a funny flat object connected to the flat colorful surface thing. It had a bunch of little shiny block on it that were painted with tiny little pictures.

The monkey started to poke each of the little blocks with his stubby, fat fingers, and the colorful flat surface began to change. Each time he pushed one of the blocks, a tiny little picture, the same as was painted on the little block, appeared on the flat surface.

Oh, this kept him busy for a long time. He was enjoying the way that the pictures formed lines and then when they got to the far right, they would start again at the left (not that he knew his left from right).

He got so excited he wanted to take it home to show his children. They would not believe him if he just told them about it. They’d think it was another one of his silly stories.

He took a tight grip on the large box with the shiny flat surface and pulled, but it was hung up on something. It seemed like it was tied to a vine or something that came out of the back of it. He yanked and yanked until it came loose.

But just as it came loose, the colors disappeared. He put the box down and poked at it and tasted it and screamed at it, but nothing happened. He became so frustrated with it that he picked it up and threw it down the hill. It bounced and crashed at the bottom of the hill. It might have exploded.

That’s when the monkey noticed the orange vine that had been tied to the box. He decided to follow it to see where it took him.

It took him through the forest, under a log, through a small creek, under a wooden fence, through a large flat concrete parking lot, in through a window, and into an office full of cubicles, then around a maze of cubicles to a small desk with a leather chair with a smaller computer on the desk. There was a painting of a dog.

It looked comfortable, so he sat down in it.

Suddenly, a large upright walking man with clothes on rounded the corned and threw some papers on the desk in front of the monkey.

“Get these done!” said the man without looking at the monkey.

The monkey screamed, which was echoed by some of the workers in the neighboring cubicles. Then it went quiet.

The monkey looked through the papers and moved some to the side, held up one of them with corrections on a design layout, and got to work.

He ended up tweaking a few website designs and making a couple of blog entries before the day was through, and he finally got home.

When he did get home, he was right, his children just thought it was another one of his silly stories.

The End

The Snake and the Coquis

2007-08-26T23:03:00.000-06:00

A snake settles down with a group of Coquis who are perfectly happy, and tried to change them to suit her own agenda.

Once there was a fun loving, sometimes-wild bunch of Coquis that lived in the most lush and deepest part of El Yunque, in Puerto Rico.

They lived and played close to a very high waterfall that was just the perfect temperature, and kept the rocks and large leaves around the falls perfectly moist.

They were so happy, they called to each other and sang to each other all day, and all night.

In fact, almost every night, they would have a Baile, and the local Cuatristas would come out and play plenas and meringues, salsas, and sometimes Una Bomba.

They were very happy.

One day, a snake was transported all the way from a far off land. He had fallen into a truck shipping Platanos, and then put on a boat, and sailed to Puerto Rico. Once on the port, the box of bananas with the snake in it was carried onto a small truck and driven all the way to El Yunque.

Well, the snake slithered all the way to the deepest, most lush part of El Yunque, and found the Coquis in the middle of a cena eating Sancocho.

They invited Snake to join them, but it was insect Sancocho, and snake did not eat insects.

Snake decided she wanted to stay, and the Coquis were happy to have her.

She liked the music they played and the dances, but she did not like the awful, irritating noise they made.

Every night, she would bury herself in the dirt, or climb a tree to get away from the racket, but she could not get away from the sound.

Snake decided to call a group meeting.

For some reason, a rumor started and the Coquis thought Snake was going to make a Lechon Asado, so the Coquis made Arroz con Gandules, Tostones, Pasteles, Cuajo and some Bacalaitos.

There was no Lechon Asado, but there was enough food for everyone, so they all ate, and then Snake called the meeting to order.

“I have some ideas that would make your lives better, but I need to know that you will support me,” she said.

Well, all the Coquis became so excited they started cheering. They though Snake was going to organize parties and have Festivales and maybe some Artesanos come in and teach them all crafts. So, of course they all supported her.

“Well, then,” she continued. “The first thing I need to change is that you all not make your noise at night. I need to sleep, and I can’t sleep with all that “COQUI! COQUI! COQUI!”

All the Coquis became quiet.

“We can’t do that,” one said. “It’s how we are made.”

The others agreed.

“Well,” said Snake” If you can’t do this one simple thing, then maybe you are not ready for my program.”

The Coquis thought Snake was very smart, and seemed to know what she was doing, so after some deliberation, they agreed.

“Good!” said Snake. “Now for the next item of business…”

Snake went on to explain that she was very busy, and she was going to need everyone’s cooperation. She would, in fact, throw a couple of parties, but instead of being free like they usually were, all the Coquis had to pay. She made the Cuatristas angry with a rude comment, and so they stopped coming to the parties. She found other orchestas, and they were good, but they cost money too.

Another strange thing started happening too. Some of the older Coquis stopped coming to the parties and hanging out at the waterfall. In fact, for some reason, no one had seen those Coquis anywhere.

Every couple of weeks, another of the Coquis went missing.

Everyone assumed that they stopped coming because they just had to sing their beautiful Coqui song, and so they left the area to go sing where Snake could not hear.

Others had a suspicion that Snake had eaten them.

Snake asked one of the Coquis to prepare the area for a dinner party that was to happen the next afternoon. The Coqui went home and planned and made the centerpieces, called her friends and asked them to help with lights and table dressings, and was up till the very early morning.

When she woke up and carried what she could to the area where the dinner party was going to be, Snake had already set up the tables and decorated them.

“Well it didn’t look like you were going to do it, so I did it myself…I can’t count on anyone!” said Snake.

Snake did this often. She would ask someone to do something, and then end up doing it herself. She never delegated, although all the Coquis were willing to do whatever needed to be done.

Well, one day, Snake wrote a note and stuck it to the trunk of a Flamboyan.

It read: “Everyone must from this day forward, refer to me as Madam Vibora.”

The Coquis did not like this, and no one ever did it, except when they were talking about things she had said or had done.

A couple of them wanted to talk to Snake, I’m sorry, Madam Vibora, but whenever they said something to her, even it was constructive, Madam Vibora turned the criticism on the Coquis and claimed that she “always had to do everything”, and “No one helps me”, and “I’m very busy”.

The Coquis had a secret meeting to figure out what to do.

Although they came up with many solutions that would make Snake want to leave, they knew it was not right to do anything that would make her feel bad. They didn’t want to be mean or hurtful, so they decided not to do anything.

Well, you might not know this, but when Coquis are upset or stressed out, they sing.

Actually, who am I kidding, they sing all the time. When they’re hungry, fed, sleepy, happy, stressed, anything. Really.

What I’m trying to say is that the Coquis were about to explode. They had been very careful with not singing and calling out to each other so as to not bother Madam Vibora, but they couldn’t hold it in for very much longer.

One day, it happened.

At first, there was just one “COQUI!” sounding out. Then others followed.

Then, before you knew it, all the Coquis were singing and calling out and not caring if Madam Vibora could sleep or not.

This frustrated Madam Vibora so much. She tried to quiet them. She yelled at them and threw rocks at them, but the Coquis were so loud, (and so small) she couldn’t bother them.

Madam Vibora freaked out. She got so angry that as she yelled at them to stop, her fangs came out and she struck at one of the Coquis and swallowed her in one gulp.

All the Coquis went silent for a moment. They couldn’t believe what they had seen. Madam Vibora said nothing. She looked away from the judging eyes of all the Coquis.

Then, a distant sound came wafting in through the large green leaves of the lush rain forest. It was a Cuatro, a pandereta and a Guiro, and it was playing a Plena.

The Coqui playing the Cuatro sang:

Sana, sana culito de rana
Si no te vas hoy
Te iras mañana

The Coquis sang along as loud as they could, and Madam Vibora couldn’t stand it any longer.

She left El Yunque. In fact, she got on the next ship off the island.

The Coquis went back to living and playing as they had before Snake came along.

The truth is, the Coquis learned something from Madam Vibora. It was basically what NOT to do.

The Coquis elected a new president, and the group grew in quantity, but more importantly, in quality.

THE END

Here is a translation of some of the words used in this story.
Coqui: the common name for several species of frogs that live only in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands
El Yunque: the rain forest in Puerto Rico
Baile: a dance
Cuatrista: a musician who plays a cuatro
Plena: folkloric music of Puerto Rico
Merengue: A type of lively, joyful music and dance that comes from Hispañola.
Salsa: a Cuban style of music
Bomba: a musical style with wild dancing and African type drumming
Platano: plantain
Cena: a meal
Sancocho: a stew
Lechon Asado: roasted pig
Arroz: rice
Gandules: pigeon peas
Tostones: Flattened and fried plantain
Pasteles: a plantain-dough wrapped meat pastry
Cuajo: soup made with tripe
Festivales: a festival
Bacalaito: deep-fried codfish and flour appetizer
Artesano: a native artist
Orchesta: an orchestra
Flamboyan: a flowering tree
Vibora: a viper
Cuatro: a 4, 8 or 10 stringed instrument
Pandereta: A Hand Drum
Guiro: A percussion instrument made from a hollow gourd with notches in the side.

Sana, sana culito de rana
Si no te vas hoy
Te iras mañana:

Heal, heal, Bottom of a frog
If you don’t go today
You will leave tomorrow

The Long Lost Shark

2007-08-19T20:11:00.000-06:00

This is Part Four of a Four Part series (The Red Map of Captain Gato, The Marooned Cat, The Privateer Mouse, The Long Lost Shark)

Once there was an old blind woman who held a door open to her small cabin in the middle of a forest, on an island the shape of a ring with a lagoon in the center of it.

She was holding it open for a cat with a rope tied to its tail. At the end of its tail was an empty bottle of rum. Well, it didn’t have rum in it. It had a rolled up parchment and a necklace with a marble attached to it.

A mouse was riding along on the old woman’s shoulder. The cat and the mouse were tired, wet and a little confused. For some reason, the old woman thought it was not a coincidence that the cat and the mouse had found each other.

What did she mean about “finding each other”. Thought the mouse and the cat.

Once inside, the old woman found a small vial with no inscriptions on it, unscrewed the top, and let the mouse lick the opening. Almost instantly, the mouse grew into a little girl, and the old woman wrapped her in a large quilt.

The cat had been watching in amazement. He had for a moment, on the beach just minutes earlier, though he had been looking into his daughter’s eyes when he looked into the mouse’s eyes. He now knew it had in fact been his daughter. He rubbed up against her legs and purred loudly.

The old lady untied the bottle of rum from the cat’s tail and uncorked it. She shook out the map and the marble necklace. She twisted the marble and it opened up. It contained a fine red powder. She took out a pinch and rubbed it on the cat’s nose.

The cat began sneezing, and with every sneeze, grew larger and larger into a full-grown man.

The old woman wrapped him in a quilt as well, just as the little girl realized it was her father.

“Father!” she said as she ran to him. “It’s you!”

“Yes, dear.” He said as he hugged her tight. “You’ve done well.”

“I had no idea, Father!” said the little girl.

“Nor did I!” said her Father.

They all hugged.

“Let’s have a look at the map,” said the old woman. “Is it still intact?”

“Oh,” said Father. “I’m afraid I’ve ruined it.”

She unrolled it and smelled the large wine stain, and then she put her tongue to it.

“I can fix this,” said the old woman. “Did they figure it out?”

“It looked like they did,” said the little girl.

“Did either of you get a look at the solution?” she said as she found a dark glass bottle from a top shelf with some letters and numbers written on it. She rubbed her fingers across the label and smiled.

“I think I did!” said the little girl. “Right before Father tried to knock me out of the chandelier.”

“Sorry about that,” said Father.

The old woman poured the liquid over the map, and the red stain disappeared.

“The red ink on the map is Lawsone your father brought from India,” said the old woman. “It will not be affected by the liquid. Can you read the map now?”

“Yes,” said the little girl and her father in unison.

“OK, sweetie,” said the old woman to the little girl. “See if you can recreate what you saw.”

The little girl took the corners and folded them over, pulled the inside out and reversed the edges and suddenly, they were looking at a cube made out of the map.

The woman felt the box-map.

“Oh,” said the woman. “This is correct. This is how I remember it. It’s been so long.”

She studied it, as did Father. They both smiled.

“What is it?” said the little girl. “What is the map for?”

“Well,” said Father. “A long time ago, your mother drank something I had brought home from a far off land.”

“Is that what killed her?” asked the little girl.

Her Grandmother looked toward her Father as if she could see.

“Well,” said Father. “Not quite.”

The little girl was confused.

“You told me she died a long time ago,” said the little girl, “When I was really young.”

Her Father put his hand on her shoulder.

“This map,” said the old woman, “Will lead us to the liquid.”

“Liquid?” said the little girl.

“It’s somewhere on the island,” said her Father. “It was so long ago. Your mother made this map when she hid it.”

“Mother hid the liquid? Why did she hide it?” asked the little girl. “Wait a minute, what does it do?”

“Well,” mumbled her father. “It changes you into an animal of some sort.”

“What kind of animal?” asked the little girl as she looked around in the trees. “Like a monkey or a squirrel?”

“Well, no,” said her Father. “Your mother was turned into … a shark.”

“The shark in the lagoon is your mother,” said the old woman.

“She’s been in the lagoon the whole time?” asked the little girl.

“Yes,” said her father. “but now that we have this map, all we have to do is decipher it.”

“Can I see her?” asked the little girl.

“No,” snapped the old woman. “She would not have wanted you to see her like this.”

The little girl sulked, then sat up.

“This liquid can turn her back?” asked the little girl.

“Yes,” said her Father. “I had brought it home from a journey and tried it on myself. Your Mother and Grandmother had the hardest time getting me to come back to shore. Apparently, the shark is a volatile animal and cannot be easily told what to do. They finally got me to drink it again to reverse the effects, and she decided to hide it.”

“She made a map just in case,” said her Grandmother.

“In case what?” asked the little girl.

“Well, my batch was not the only batch,” said her Father. “There was a pirate named Captain Tiburon who wanted my batch. The same merchant who sold me my batch had also sold the Captain some.”

The little girl sat down as her father went on.

“He had used up most of his by attacking cargo ships and apparently found out that I had bought the rest of the batch, and he wanted mine. He was a bad man. He had attacked and plundered thousands of merchant ships. Sailors were afraid to step onto any ship headed for the open seas. No one knew how to stop him, but they knew he was almost out of the liquid. So we all knew his time was running short.”

He took a deep breath and went on.

“We heard he was on his way, and your mother hid our liquid so he wouldn’t find it, and made the map. One day, he found us, and after a brief scuffle, the last little bit of his liquid was knocked out of his hand, and fell right into your mother’s mouth.”

“Oh, no!” said the little girl.

“I had no idea where your Mother had hidden the liquid, so he left,” said her Father. “But he had swam to the island as a shark, then turned himself into a man on shore, so he had no boat to get back to his ship which was anchored just beyond the lagoon. He was very irresponsible with his liquid.”

“No one has seen him since,” said her Grandmother.

“Did mother…eat him?” asked the little girl.

“We don’t know,” said her father.

They all sat quietly for a moment.

“A few weeks after that is when your grandmother arrived to live with us,” said Father. “Just in time, too, I was getting lonely on this island.”

Grandmother smiled.

“So, how did you know these other pirates were going to come and steal the map?” said the little girl.

“Well,” said her father. “Every few weeks, I’d go to shore and talk about a great treasure left by Captain Gato. I’d make sure everyone was interested and talking about it. I knew that if I had everyone interested, someone would take the bait.”

“What bait?” asked the little girl.

“One day, as I was on shore,” said her father, “I bumped into a man I had not seen in a great while. He was called “The Professor.” He was a very smart man. I knew that if he got a look at the map, he could figure it out. I was right. I just had to get him to show us, and he did, didn’t he.”

“Well let’s get looking at the map!” she exclaimed.

They studied the map for hours. Father’s memory was failing him. Even with the map folded into a cube, he was still befuddled by the landmarks.

“Your mother was very smart,” said Father. “She sure made sure we couldn’t find the liquid very easily.”

“This tree looks familiar,” said the little girl. “But it looks smaller than I remember. And this rock has something about it too, but again, it looks so much smaller than when I remember seeing it.”

“When do you remember seeing these things?” asked her Father. “I’ve never seen these things on this island.”

“I think I saw them when I was a mouse,” said the little girl. “When I was riding in the hem of the pirate’s leg on the way back to the beach.”

No one spoke for a few moments.

“Well,” said Father. “Do you think you can remember which way they took you to the shore?”

“I think so,” said the little girl.

So they left the old woman in the cabin and hiked through the forest to the beach.

They reached the beach much sooner than the little girl expected to.

“It seemed longer when the pirates brought me,” said the little girl.

“Well,” said her father, “Let’s go back and take another look at the map.”

The little girl took a long look into the lagoon. She thought she saw a dorsal fin rise above the water, but she couldn’t be sure.

They got back to the cabin.

“So, Father,” asked the little girl. “How did you end up as a cat?”

“Well,” said Father. “After your grandmother arrived, we occupied ourselves looking high and low for anything that could help turn your mother back. We gathered different potions and liquids from all over the world, but nothing had worked.”

“That’s when we thought of the idea to find someone who could figure out your mother’s map.

“It was your grandmother’s idea to turn me into a cat so The Professor would take me on his ship.”

The little girl was impressed.

“When you talked about the treasure, did you say there was loads of jewels and gold,” said the little girl.

“Oh, yes,” said her father. “I knew he’d be interested in the booty.”

They laughed at his ingenuity, and the gullible pirates.

“Wait a minute,” said the little girl. “How about you make me into a mouse again, Grandmother, and I get into your hem, Father. Maybe I have to be small to see what I saw.”

“That is a great idea!” said her father.

“Doesn’t fall far from the tree!” said the grandmother as she unscrewed the lid of the vial and let the little girl drink from it.

Instantly, the little girl emerged from the pile of her clothes on the floor and jumped onto her father’s hem.

Father ran outside with the map in hand, showing it to her daughter every once in a while.

“Wait!” said the little tiny mouse voice. “Here’s the rock.”

He looked down at where he was standing, and there it was; a very small rock with a hole in it that looked just like the one on the map.

Then a few inches away from the rock was the tree, which was actually just a twig stuck in the ground.

Father’s eyes widened.

“I think I remember what to do!” he yelled.

He pulled the stick out of the ground and pushed it deep into the hole in the rock, which opened a small door in a nearby tree.

Inside the hole in the tree was yet another vial filled with a small amount of liquid. Father tried to grab the vial, but his hand was too big and the door in the tree was too small.

“It’s too small!” said Father. “I can’t get it.”

“Let me do it,” said his daughter.

Her father carefully picked her up and put her into the doorway in the tree. The mouse took hold of the vial as her father held on to her tail and pulled her out.

---

When Father finally returned to the cabin with her Mother, the little girl was not a mouse anymore, and was sitting on the rocking chair on the porch.

The little girl leapt from the chair and flew down to her mother and hugged her so tight, and then hugged her father.

They laughed and cried.

“Mother,” said the little girl. “Come see grandmother. She’s inside!”

“Grandmother?” wondered her mother as she turned to Father. “Who’s in the house, dear?”

Suddenly, the door flew open and there stood grandmother, but she was not her usual sweet, calm self. She had a large rifle in her hands and was pointing it directly at the little girl.

“I’ll be taking the shark liquid,” she said in a strange raspy voice.

Father took the liquid out from his breast pocket and held it up.

“Here it is,” said Father. “It’s yours.”

“Captain Tiburon!” said Mother. “I knew you’d be back.

“You’re not my grandmother?” said the little girl.

“Sorry sweetie!” said Captain Tiburon. “You’re a good girl. Now step aside and no one gets hurt.”

He walked slowly past the little girl and toward Father, holding his aim on the little girl.

“I lived on the island for a few weeks after our last meetin’, then found my way back here,” said the Captain. “You labeled your potions very well. It didn’t take me long at all to find the one that made me look like this.”

“I thought she was your mother,” said Father to Mother. “I’m so sorry.”

Father held the liquid out as far as he could, and Captain Tiburon snatched it and backed up toward the beach, away from the family.

When he got far enough away, he quickly turned and ran toward the beach.

“It’s over,” said Mother. “We won’t be seeing him for a while.”

They turned to look for their little girl, but she had gone.

“Where’d she go?” the wondered and began looking toward the house.

They found an opened vial with no inscription on it lying on a pile of clothes.

“Oh, no!” said Father.

They both turned and ran to the beach.

When they got to the beach, Captain Tiburon was drinking some of the liquid. They could not see the mouse anywhere. Suddenly, a rock flew up from the ground and knocked the vial from Captain Tiburon’s hand.

Captain Tiburon turned into a shark and fell into the water. The vial that the stone had knocked out of Captain Tiburon’s hand fell onto a rock on the beach and smashed into a million pieces.

They watched the shark’s dorsal fin swim out into deeper waters, and then disappear.

He was gone, and he would never be turned back into a man.

The little girl’s mother and father ran and picked up the mouse and kissed her and hugged her.

They took her home and made her a little girl again.

That was the day they threw away all the potions that turned people into animals.

Except for the bird one. Flying around like a bird was fun.

The End

The Privateer Mouse

2007-08-12T20:41:00.000-06:00

This is Part Three of a Four Part series (The Red Map of Captain Gato, The Marooned Cat, The Privateer Mouse, The Long Lost Shark)

A little girl needs to keep her eyes on a very special map, and a cat makes it difficult.

Once there was a little girl who lived on an island in the shape of a circle with a lagoon in the center. She lived deep in the island, in a little wooden bungalow on stilts, with her blind grandmother.

Her father lived there too, but he had left a few months ago on a mysterious journey.

The last thing her father said to her was: “Don’t forget to feed the cat.”

This was strange because they didn’t have a cat. She thought it was some old proverb that she would have to think deeply about to understand.

The other strange thing was that he and her grandmother exchanged words just before he left as well. He handed her a folded parchment, and she handed him a necklace with a small vial on it the size of a marble, with a cat’s eye engraved on the front and a small bag with small objects in it.

He left, the little girl cried and the grandmother comforted her.

Their little house was very well lit during the day, with the curtains drawn and the sun shining through, but dark and quiet and only candle lit at night.

One night, after maybe 70 or so days after her father had left, the island alarms went off. Well, they weren’t exactly alarms, although they worked like alarms.

See, there was a shark in the lagoon, and when the shark noticed intruders, it became frenzied, since nothing much traveled through the lagoon. When the shark became frenzied, the local mosquitoes would swarm, hoping for a blood meal. Once the mosquitoes swarmed, the native animals would complain and start to move so the mosquitoes wouldn’t have a place to land.

Once the native animals began complaining and running around the cabin. The little girl and her grandmother knew someone, or something, was visiting.

Sometimes it was a lost seal that had made it into the lagoon, or the shark accidentally ran ashore trying to beach itself, but every once in a while, it was human visitors.

Grandmother heard the voices first. She quickly stood up, went to her drawer in the small Spanish writing desk, and felt around for a tiny little vial. There were no engravings on this one.

“Darling,” she said to the girl. “Touch this to your tongue.”

The girl trusted her grandmother with all her heart, and didn’t hesitate. As she touched the opening of the vial to her tongue, she was instantly turned into a tiny little brown mouse.

A tiny brown mouse emerged from a pile of little girl’s clothes on the floor.

“Do not be afraid,” said the grandmother. “If they’re here for the map, hop onto the hem of one of the men and go with them. Don’t let the map out of your sight.”

The grandmother sat down in her rocking chair facing the front door.

Five men rushed in the house with a bang. They turned over tables and broke things. They were yelling and making all sorts of ruckus. The Grandmother quieted them by telling them they were rude to knock over all her stuff. The rough men apologized and picked up a table and righted a vase.

One of the men said something about a map.

The mouse watched from her hiding place as her grandmother handed one of the men a parchment with a red string around it. It was the parchment that her father had given her before he left.

She jumped out from where she had been hiding, ran across the floor and hopped undetected into the hem of one of the men.

She peeked out to see her grandmother smiling at her as they left. Some of the men picked up the tables that were still knocked over and straightened some of the relics they had moved.

The men ran through the forest toward the beach. All the little mouse could see was rocks and sticks and fallen leaves.

The mouse found herself on a little jolly boat, then on a large ship. It was a pirate ship. She held her position in the hem until she saw her chance.

The man she had caught a ride on had sat down to eat at a large dining room with the rest of the crew.

The mouse jumped out as the man scooted his chair into position under the table, and ran across the room, up the bookshelf, across a rafter, and down onto the chandelier that hung directly above the middle of the table.

The chandelier swung back and forth with the movement of the sea. She settled in.

The men ate a large feast. They ate cheese and wine and bread and fish and chickens. They were al yelling and hollering. They were celebrating.

When the men finished eating, they cleared an area of the table and spread out the map.

She was directly above the map.

She was startled when she saw that one of the men was wearing the necklace that her grandmother had given her father, and it was not her father. What was this about? She purposed herself to get the necklace back as soon as she could.

She sat patiently for some time. The men were loud and ruckus, laughing at intervals and even throwing food at one of the crew.

That’s when she noticed the cat. One of the men tripped over the cat, almost sitting on him. The cat narrowly escaped being sat on and shot up the same bookshelf the mouse had used to get to the chandelier.

Maybe he hadn’t noticed her. She was right, at first. She sat very still. Something in her was very afraid of the cat.

Then she felt his eyes.

The movement of the boat swung the chandelier toward the cat. The cat was reaching out his paw. Then the chandelier swung away from the cat. The mouse was very happy when the chandelier swung away from the cat.

She swung back and forth for some time. It was very stressful. And not just for her. It looked like the cat almost lost his balance a couple of times reaching for the chandelier. The mouse caught a glimpse of the cat’s eyes and felt something strange, almost as if she knew the cat. But she had never seen that cat in her life. Not as a mouse or as a girl.

The mouse saw something in the cat’s eyes that made her feel something deep inside of her.

Well, then it happened. The cat lost his balance.

The cat reached out too far, the chandelier caught the cat’s claw, swung him off the bookshelf, and onto the table, where he knocked over a glass full of wine, right onto the map.

Everyone around the table stood up and yelled. One of them grabbed the cat by the scruff and took him out of the room. One of them picked up the cup that had spilled while another dabbed the map with his sleeve. The map was ruined.

There was some yelling and some complaining, and then some quiet.

Slowly, the men left the table. The map was left as it was. Soon, there was no one in the room, except for the mouse. Yelling and gunshots from frustrated men came through the door.

The mouse dropped down from the chandelier and quickly folded up the map, rolled it in a small roll and stuffed it into an empty bottle of rum.

She pushed it out the door and toward the rail. The men were so distracted that she rolled it past several of them without being noticed.

She was about to push the bottle overboard, when she remembered the words of her father.

“Remember to feed the cat.”

She remembered that the words he had spoken to her the night he left were strange, with her not owning a cat. She decided to do what her father had told her to.

She ran back into the dining room, foraged around for table scraps, found a fish, and took it in her mouth to the stern. She had heard one of the men say he had tossed the cat overboard on a dinghy, tied to a line.

The mouse found the line, climbed down with the fish in her mouth, and tossed the fish into the cat’s dinghy, then for some reason, thought it would be a good idea to chew through the line.

As she took the last nibble, the cat drifted away, and the mouse ran up the line to the deck again.

Once on deck, she found her way through the ship’s scuppers to the dormitory. She found the man whom she had seen wearing her father’s necklace sleeping in his bunk.

The necklace was still around the man’s neck.

She carefully climbed onto the man’s chest, unhooked the necklace and started back to the edge of the bunk.

Just as she reached the end of the bunk, one of the other men noticed her and started yelling.

“Mouse! Mouse!” he yelled. “Get the cat!”

She quickened her step, although she knew they wouldn’t find the cat, took the necklace back up the scuppers to the deck, dropped it into the bottle alongside the rolled up map.

She corked the bottle and shoved it off the deck, overboard into the ocean, then jumped in after it. She landed a few feet away from it, swam toward it, climbed on top of it and held on.

As she drifted, hoping she would drift to shore, she heard the captain yell “Weigh Anchor!”

The ship disappeared into the dark night.

She couldn’t tell how long she had been adrift, but suddenly, she struck ground. The sound of the bottle scraping along the sandy beach was music to her ears.

She waited for one more wave, hopped off the bottle, and pushed it the rest of the way.

She rested on the shore for a while. She was happy to be on shore, but she was sad for the cat. She was also thinking about the necklace. Where was her father?

The sound of the lapping waves and the occasional seagull was suddenly overshadowed by a “Meow”.

The mouse sat up and looked around, and saw in the distance, off shore, the cat in the dinghy.

The cat had made it. He’d be on shore in a matter of minutes.

The mouse was not sure whether to be happy to see the cat or run for her life. This was, you might remember, the cat that was going to dispose of her when they met at the chandelier.

She decided she’d take a chance. She waited on shore until the dinghy tumbled onto the shore.

The cage toppled over and opened, and the cat tumbled out. Right in front of the mouse.

After shacking the water off his ears, the cat noticed the mouse and bowed down as low as he could in front of the mouse.

The mouse nudged the cat to get up and had a good look in his eyes. For a second, the mouse thought she was looking into her father’s eyes.

The cat couldn’t help but think of her daughter as he gazed into the mouse’s eyes.

They both shook their heads as if they were shaking something off of their whiskers.

The mouse suddenly ran off and came back with strands of rope that had drifted onto the shore. She tied one end of the rope to the bottle and the other end to the cat’s tail. The cat was not happy about this, but he felt he owed her his life, so he went along with it.

The mouse motioned to the cat to follow her, and he did.

They hiked into the forest just beyond the beach, through thick undergrowth, over some fallen logs, over a small river, up a steep hill, and then the forest opened up to a small clearing with a small cabin in the far end.

The cat and the mouse made it through the clearing, up the steps and onto the porch.

There was an elderly woman waiting for them in her rocking chair on the porch.

“Well, well, well,” said the old woman. “You found each other.”

The cat and the mouse both looked at each other not knowing what the old lady was talking about.

“Well, come on then,” said the old lady. “Let’s get inside and get you two cleaned up.”

The mouse hopped up onto the old lady’s long dress and climbed up to her shoulder.

The cat, still dragging the bottle of rum with the map and the necklace inside, followed closely behind, careful not to get stepped on, or stuck outside.

Next: The Long Lost Shark

The Marooned Cat

2007-08-05T12:39:00.000-06:00

This is Part Two of a Four Part series (The Red Map of Captain Gato, The Marooned Cat, The Privateer Mouse, The Long Lost Shark)

Once there was a cat that had found himself at a very busy merchant port. He did not know how he had ended up there or where he was, but he knew one thing, he was hungry, and he had a necklace on with a marble of some sort attached to it.

He made his way to a dock where a bunch of seagulls were flying circles. He knew that’s where he’d find food. He was right, but the seagulls were greedy and pecked at him and pushed him and shoved him. When he finally did get something in his mouth, a couple greedy seagulls snatched it out and flew off.

This happened twice. The second time, he angrily jumped at the bird, missed, and fell off the dock headed for the water, only to be caught by a strong hand.

The man that caught him looked very smart. Later the cat would come to find out the man was called “The Professor.”

“Hey, there,” said the Professor. “You were almost fish food. Let me get you out of here and into some grub.”

The Professor took the cat onto a ship and into the quarters. A door was shut, a plate set out, and a few morsels placed on the plate.

“I’ll be back with some water,” said the Professor. “You’ll be safe here from them gulls.”

The cat ate and fell asleep before the professor came back with the water.

The cat woke up from a long dream of being carried off on a cloud and dropped on a strange port, then put on a ship setting sail to the West.

The funny thing was, that was not a dream at all. All that had happened. He was no longer in a ship at port. He was in a ship on the sea.

Once he got his sea legs, he explored the ship at every opportunity. He found a couple of mice (which he disposed of rather quickly) and those pesky seagulls gave up their hope after a few miles from shore and flew back.

Everyone on board wanted to pet the cat. Every hand on board saved table scraps for him. The whole crew really, really liked having a cat around.

The cat would follow the crew around. He attended every captain’s meeting, he was in the kitchen tasting the day’s menu, he watched from the poop deck as the crew swabbed and hoisted the sails.

One day, in one of the meetings called by the captain, the cat overheard some talk of a treasure, and a mystery. The crew had gathered around some small bones, short lengths of string and a few smooth stones. They had laid them on the table that had been cleared of the leftovers from a surprisingly tasty fish stew.

The cat hopped up onto the Professor’s lap and had a peek over the edge of the table.

The objects on the table seemed familiar, but he couldn’t be sure. He needed a closer look.

He wiggled away from the stroking hand or the Professor, and walked around the objects on the table.

You’d think the crew would jump to get the cat off the table and away from their mysterious objects, but no one objected.

See, the finding of the cat was seen by the whole crew as a sign of good things to come, so when the cat hopped up on the table, they all hoped, maybe even expected, that the cat was about to do something extraordinary.

As far as the cat could tell, they were just a bunch of small bones, short pieces of string and a few smooth stones, so, after not too carefully stepping on them and around them and over them, he hopped back off the table to find something to eat.

The crew sat deathly quiet for a long time. They couldn’t believe what they were looking at.

That night, the cat was given fresh fish, fresh fruit, and all the milk and cheese and bread he could eat. The whole crew was making a big stink over the cat.

The sails were hoisted, the anchor was weighed, and the location of the sun changed.

Later that night, the Professor came and explained everything. He explained that his paws had carefully rearranged the stones, string and bones to mark a location not far from where they were.

This news was definitely surprising to the cat, but not as surprising as when he realized that he could understand what these humans were talking about. In fact, he had understood them the whole time he was on board.

The Professor was half talking to the cat and half just talking to himself. He had no idea the cat was listening intently to every word.

In fact, when the Professor talked himself to sleep, the cat swept his paw across the Professor’s nose, waking him suddenly, as he wanted to hear more. The Professor, none the wiser as to having fallen asleep and being woken up by the cat, started again where he had left off in the telling of the Mysterious Booty of Captain Gato, and that they were headed to the location marked by the cat’s paws earlier that evening.

The location was an island the shape of a ring with a lagoon in the center of it. This is where the Red Map of Captain Gato could be found. Well, at least that’s what the string and bones and sticks revealed.

There was something so familiar about the name “Gato”, but the cat couldn’t put his finger…I mean, paw on it.

One day, the ship dropped anchor.

The cat watched from the deck as a few of the crew rowed away in a small dinghy toward the shore of a small island.

That’s when the Cat discovered that the necklace with the marble attached to it was missing. The Professor must have taken it off while the cat was sleeping. He searched the whole ship, but found nothing. THE Professor must have been wearing it.

The ship was quiet.

The cat decided he would spend the afternoon in the kitchen. He fell asleep before long and was awakened by laughing and yelling and singing coming from the next room.

He made his way into the room where everyone had just finished eating.

He walked past the First Mate who slipped him a small piece of cheese.

Then the cat rubbed the Swashbuckler’s legs and received a soft scratch between the ears.

Suddenly, there was a roar of laughing, then bones, wads of bread and half eaten pieces of food came raining down on the cat.

The cat was about to purr in pleasure at receiving such a wonderful meal when the Swab almost stepped on his tail. He moved it out of the way just in time to see the Swab fall square on his back side, and then gathered up some of the food from the ground and hid under the table.

The cat was getting kicked and stepped on by boots and feet, so he darted out from under the table. He was about to slip out the door when The Professor suddenly snatched him up.

The Professor pet his head, then laid him down gently on the floor.

The cat quickly jumped up to the top of the bookshelf behind the captain. He’d be safe from kicking feet and chair legs way up there.

That’s when he spotted the mouse. He could hardly believe it. How could this mouse have gotten past his keen sense of smell, his cunning sight and his quick reflexes? How long had he been on board?

He must have come back with the crew from the island. Oh, this would not do.

The mouse was sitting rather innocently in the chandelier above the table, swinging with the movement of the ocean.

The cat stretched its paw, reaching for the mouse, as the chandelier and mouse swung toward him, and then as the chandelier (and mouse) swung away, he rebalanced himself.

The men around the table became quiet, and the cat reached again for the mouse in the chandelier.

The mouse didn’t seem to notice the cat and his antics.

Suddenly, one of the cat’s claws caught onto the chandelier and pulled him off the bookshelf, almost missing the captain’s head, knocking off his tricorn.

The cat swung right over the table and lost his grip, falling directly onto the table, knocking over a glass of red liquid.

Someone grabbed him by the scruff and took him outside before he knew what was going on.

The cat couldn’t get the mouse out of his mind. He needed to get back in that room.

But he would not be doing that any time soon.

They put him in a cage on a small dinghy, tossed him overboard at the end of a line, and left him there.

He was there for such a long time.

Finally, he saw something moving at the top of the line. Something was crawling down the line. It was the mouse, and he was carrying something.

The mouse stopped just short of paws-length from the cat, and threw a fish into the dinghy. The mouse looked familiar. Not familiar like he had just seen her, but something else. It was something with her eyes. He lowered his head to thank her for the fish.

Then the mouse ran up the line a few feet and started gnawing at the rope. She was cutting the cat free. The cat wasn’t sure he wanted to be cut free, but he couldn’t do anything about it, so he sat and watched the mouse gnaw the rope. She made short work of it, and before long, the cat was drifting away from the ship.

The mouse scurried up the rope and out of site onto the dark ship.

The waves slowly drifted the little dinghy away from the ship. As the cat watched the dark silhouette of the ship move away, he heard some yelling from the ship. He thought he heard someone yelling “Mouse, Mouse!”

The Cat wondered if the crew had caught and killed the mouse, and was surprised that he felt sorry for the mouse.

After a few moments, he heard the captain yelling “Weigh Anchor!”

The cat’s meow could not possibly have been heard over the sound of the anchor being pulled up.

“Hoist the main sails,” came the captain’s voice over the water. It was much quieter now. The sails went up, filled with wind, and the ship gained speed, moving further and further away from the tiny dinghy, and the lonely cat.

The ship became darker and smaller, and was swallowed by the middle of night.

Once it was gone, the sea was quiet except for the distant lapping waves and the wind.

No one knows, except for the cat, how long he was adrift. It probably felt longer than it actually was, but he saved his fish for as long as he could hold out. The cat felt very grateful to the mouse that he had at one point wanted to dispose of.

Next: The Privateer Mouse

The Red Map of Captain Gato

2007-07-29T22:25:00.001-06:00

This is Part One of a Four Part series (The Red Map of Captain Gato, The Marooned Cat, The Privateer Mouse, The Long Lost Shark)

Some pirates find their way to a map, but once it's in their possession, they can't figure out how to read it.

Once there was a group of pirates looking over a map on a large table in the middle of a ship. They had just finished eating what looked like quite a large meal. There were fish skeletons and chicken bones and apple cores and cheese rinds. There were used napkins and breadcrumbs and grape stems everywhere. It looked like they had just eaten a feast.

The truth is, they had just eaten a feast. They were celebrating finally having found the sought-after map to Captain Gato’s treasure.

The problem they were having now was that no one could figure it out.

“Avast, you scallywags!” said the Captain. “We’re in need of everyone’s brains.”

“Even mine?” said the Swashbuckler.

“Arrg!” said the Captain. “Even yours Matey!”

Everyone quieted down.

“We’ve been traveling far and yon for this here map,” said the Captain. “And to find out that it’s unreadable is chappin’ me raw.”

“Let me have a look at it,” said the First Mate.

The map was on an old parchment paper, with fold lines crisscrossing it in every direction, and the markings and drawings were all in red ink.

He looked at it up and down, left and right, and scratched his head.

“This looks familiar!” he said as he pointed to a red drawing of an island shaped like a ring with a lagoon in the center.

All of the pirates groaned.

“That’s where we dropped anchor this morning,” said the Swashbuckler. “So that’s where we are now. That’s why it looks familiar.” And he threw his hat at the First Mate’s head.

“Arrg! Shiver me timbers,” said the Captain. “We’ve established that it all looks familiar. Sit down.”

“I’ll have a go at it,” said the Old Seadog.

He turned the map toward him, and then turned it again, then again.

“I’ll be losing me grub for all this turning!” said the Swab.

They all laughed loudly and threw leftover food at him. He lost his balance a bit and almost stepped on the ship’s recently acquired cat, fell backwards and landed square on his backside.

They all laughed again.

“Belay that laughin’!” yelled the Captain. “You’re all flirting with kissing the gunner’s daughter if you don’t apply yer brains to this mess.”

“Cap’n!” said the Swashbuckler. “Ain’t no one on this ship that can figure that map out.”

“We did not come this far for nothing,” said the Captain.

“Maybe we should go back to shore and ask the old woman if she knows how to read it,” said the Lookout.

“No, don’t you remember, she was blind,” said the Captain. “And she didn’t …” He stopped mid-sentence. “Wait a minute! If you’re down here, who’s keeping watch?”

The lookout stared at the Captain for a moment, then rushed out the door as quick as he could.

“Any more great ideas from you mongrel dogs?” said the Captain.

“Maybe the old hag didn’t give us the right map? Maybe we should go back and torture her for the real map,” said the Old Seadog.

“I’m not going back in there!” said the Swashbuckler. “I won’t risk losing my arm or leg in those shark infested waters.”

See, just earlier, they had rowed in to the ring island and were attacked by a hungry shark. The shark grabbed onto an oar and almost pulled the Young Lad in. By the time they reached the shore, the shark had almost tipped the small jollyboat over and made the crew fish food.

On the shore, they were attacked by mosquitoes the size of seagulls that left welts the size of chicken eggs.

Once past the shore and into the trees, a low menacing growl and movement in the trees quickened their step until they reached the small cabin set up on stilts. The windows were all shuttered closed and the roof sagged.

Once inside the dark candlelit house, all they found was an old blind woman rocking in her rocking chair, surrounded by objects gathered from around the world. Some were dark and mysterious, while others looked like everyday objects.

The pirates pushed over tables and broke vases and jars and threw down bookshelves before they finally spoke to the woman.

“You don’t scare me,” she said in a crackling little voice. “So you can stop breaking my stuff.” She paused and seemed to look right at the Captain with her blind, sunken in eyes. “It’s not very nice. I have to clean all of this up, you know.”

“Sorry ma’am.” said the Captain to the surprise of the crew.

“Can I help you?” said the Old Woman.

“Oh. Yes. We want Captain Gato’s map!” said the Captain in his most earnest, voice.

And he was about to threaten her, when she produced a folded up parchment with a red string tying it closed.

“Here you go,” she said as she handed it over. “Now, before you leave, could you pick up some of those things your clumsy crew knocked over?”

They cleaned up a little, but left most of it. They felt bad, but not as good as they felt about having the map.

That’s why they had a feast when they got back to the ship, and then after the feast, the Captain quieted them all down to try to figure out how to read the map.

“We can’t go back,” said the Captain. “We left a mess. She’ll have us all swabbing her deck and her porch and cleaning her bathroom. No, we can’t go back.”

“Let me have a look at the map,” said the professor.

The professor had picked up the cat and was petting it on the head. He put the cat down gently and the cat hopped skillfully up to the top of the bookshelf behind the Captain’s chair.

“Have any of you swabs looked on the back of the map?” he said as he turned it over.

“Sink me!” said the Captain.

There were red markings and portions of islands and even an “X” marked boldly in red in the corner.

All the pirates leaned in closer.

“The Professor’s using his deadlights, mateys,” said the Captain. “Move back, give him some room.”

The Professor put on his small round glasses and picked up the paper. It was dead quiet except for the creaking of the ship.

He took the corner with the tail of a fish drawn in red and folded it over so it matched up with a drawing of the head of a large fish. Then he took the corner with the butt of a sword drawn on it in red as well, and folded it over to match the rest of the knife drawn on the other side.

“Shiver me timbers!” whispered the Captain.

The Professor then took the last two corners and folded them together to form a sort of a pocket, and where the two corners met, suddenly, everyone saw that the two corners put together made a drawing of the fiercest looking wild cat none of them could have ever imaged, and it being drawn in red made it all the more fierce.

Some of the pirates sat back a little further in their chairs.

The Professor went on. He took the middle of the map and brought it forward, and when he dropped the map on the table, it had folded itself into a box, with all the parts lined up, and the “X” plain as can be.

“Bring me some light!” said the Professor as he leaned in on the curious box-map. “Interesting.”

“What do you see?” said the Captain. “Does it make sense?”

The Professor had picked up the box-map.

“Well, it looks like we’ve been searching in the right area, but I can’t make out these landmarks,” said the Professor. “I’ll need to study it.”

At that, he put the box-map back on the table.

Suddenly, the cat jumped over the Captain, knocking off his tricorn. The force knocked the chandelier away to swinging, and the cat landed right on top of a cup of red wine, sending it crashing, and spilling it’s redness all over the box-map.

The cat was quickly grabbed off the table, but it was too late.

The professor inspected the map and the red wine had ruined the map. Parts of the map were stained red, and there would be no way to decipher between the red ink and the wine.

“Can we wash it off?” said the First Mate.

“No!” said the Captain. “It will smudge it even further.”

Oh, they were so upset. Some of them went outside and shot their guns. Some of them just yelled as loudly as they could. The Captain just slumped in his chair.

“Arrg!” he said to himself.

The cat was put in a dinghy tied to the aft and thrown overboard.

There was not much talk for many hours on that boat. The only sound was from one of the crew who had seen a mouse snooping around in the dormitory.

The crewman ran to the line that was tied to the aft of the ship to fetch the cat. He didn’t like the idea of a mouse running around on board.

Something must have gotten the cat, though. When they pulled in the line, the dinghy and the cat were gone.

They never knew the reason why the cat pounced onto the table, but every hand was sad that he was gone. They had just meant to punish the cat, not drown him.

The cat was found on the last port the ship was docked to by The Professor. The very same day, the Captain left port and set sail for the ring island in search of Captain Gato’s map.

Next: The Marooned Cat

Robotic Ladybugs

2007-07-22T13:08:00.000-06:00

Monkey builds the most wonderful thing imaginable, a robotic ladybug, but something goes wrong.

Monkey loved ladybugs. He liked the way they looked. He liked the way they felt when they walked on his arm. He liked that they were so small and cute and red.

He would do anything for a ladybug.

He just loved the way the ladybugs all had their own personalities and favorite things to do. Some didn’t like to walk on Monkey’s face, some did. Some liked hanging out on Monkey’s cereal bowl, some didn’t. Some liked to fly all day long, some just walked. There was always one or two that would buzz around Monkey’s ear and he was convinced they were telling him “I love you”. He wasn’t sure, but he wanted to believe it.

Well, each year, the ladybug population kept getting lower. So much so that Monkey couldn’t find ladybugs as easily as he could before. He’d ask everyone around to search their own garden for ladybugs and trade his belongings with anyone who brought him one.

He traded a ball for a ladybug, a chair, some food, silverware, anything he had.

He was running out of stuff, but he had an idea. He was very smart.

He began gathering little colored rocks and small sticks and twigs and flower petals, pollen, sweet smells and honeysuckle dew, raindrops and happy thoughts, and one day closed his front door.

He put a sign on the door that read, “PLEASE DON’T BOTHER ME!”

People came to his house and knocked on the door, but Monkey would not answer.

It seemed like months that he was closed up in there. Everyone was talking and speculating. Strange sounds were coming from Monkey’s house.

One day, after a series of explosions, Monkey’s front door opened.

Everyone in the forest rushed to see what Monkey had been up to.

Monkey came out of his house with his arms out wide, and hundreds of ladybugs flew out from inside the house. The ladybugs flew around the area and around the animals that had gathered.

They flew in formations and patterns around all the animals and then landed in perfect lines in front of Monkey.

The ladybugs were, well, different. They were shinier than regular ladybugs, and they had a strange whirring sound. Like mechanical or something.

“What are these?” asked Skunk.

“I’ve created a robotic ladybug,” said Monkey. “They are beautiful, aren’t they?”

Monkey pointed to Skunk, and all the ladybugs flew over to Skunk. Skunk squealed with glee.

Then Monkey pointed to the top of the tree, and all the ladybugs flew up to the top of the tree.

Monkey then held his hand open and one ladybug came and landed in the palm of his hand.

“Everyone quiet down,” said Monkey. “I want you to hear this.”

Monkey then pushed on the back of the ladybug and a little tiny ladybug voice said:

“I LOVE YOU!”

Oh, everyone freaked out. In fact, they all wanted one of their own.

Monkey then proceeded to trade the robotic ladybugs back for his stuff. He got his chair back and his plates and silverware back and his pillow. He had enough robotic ladybugs to get everything back, and even traded for some stuff he had been wanting for a while, but didn’t have anything to trade for it.

Everyone that had a robotic ladybug loved it. They would press the backs of the ladybugs all day long, and the ladybugs never tired of saying “I LOVE YOU!” The animals would point to things and the ladybugs would follow their directions.

Some of the ladybug owners had learned how to train the ladybugs to do stuff for them, like carry their groceries or help them dig holes.

Monkey had created a really cool thing that everyone loved.

Of course, once the initial “wow” was over, most of the ladybug owners went on with their everyday lives. Many robotic ladybugs ended up on windowsills and mantles and dusty shelves with nothing to do and no one directing them to do things.

Monkey too had tired of his robotic ladybugs. He liked his robotic ladybugs, sure, but something was wrong. They were all the same. They all followed directions perfectly, but they all waited for directions. None of them did anything on their own. This was making Monkey kind of sad. He wasn’t sure why it was making him sad, but it was. He wanted the old ladybugs back. The ones that did unexpected things. The ones that sometimes left for long periods of time, but then came back.

Monkey decided to call them all back home. He dug out his main robotic ladybug controller and pressed the red button. (He had installed a callback function in the artificial intelligence design).

In a matter of minutes, all of the robotic ladybugs started arriving and flying into Monkey’s house.

Once the last one had arrived, he closed the door and put the sign that read, “DON’T BOTHER ME!” back up.

Well, as you can imagine, once everyone realized their ladybug was gone, they stomped over to Monkey’s to demand they get their ladybug back.

They banged on his door and rang his doorbell and yelled out for him to come out.

Suddenly, after a series of small and colorful explosions, (and I think a scream of pain from Monkey) Monkey’s door opened, and out bellowed large amounts of white smoke. Monkey stood in the doorway with a larger smile on his face than ever before.

When the smoke cleared, a few ladybugs flew out of the house. One flew up to the top of a tree, one flew over to Skunk and landed on her arm, and a couple flew out and took off down the path. No one is sure where they went.

Hundreds of ladybugs did not come out of Monkey’s house. This was not the same as it was before. The animals of the forest realized their ladybugs weren’t coming back.

“Give us our ladybugs back!” demanded Squirrel who was normally very gentle and polite. “I’m sorry, I mean, um, what’s going on, Monkey?” she said in a softer voice.

“I’ve fixed them,” said Monkey.

“Mine didn’t need fixing,” said Beaver.

“Neither did mine,” said Squirrel.

“Mine did everything I asked her to,” said Cow. “I liked that.”

“Well,” stammered Monkey. “I had made a mistake. I made them all the same.”

“What’s wrong with that?” called out Stork.

“I wanted to make friends,” said Monkey. “Not workers.”

Everyone shook their heads and complained, but they all had a feeling inside that he was right.

“Hey,” said Skunk suddenly and loudly. “This one’s messed up.”

Everyone turned to her. She was pushing on the back of the ladybug that had landed on her arm.

“It’s not saying anything!” said Skunk.

They all looked at Monkey.

Monkey shrugged his shoulders.

“That was one of the functions I took out,” said Monkey. “Along with Forced Proximity Bonding, Control Dependency and Noncognitivism.

Everyone was confused. They had no idea what those things meant. Monkey was too smart for most of them.

Monkey saw he had confused them.

“But I enabled some other functions,” said Monkey. “Like Self-Preservation, Intuition, Earned Loyalty and Autonomy.

That didn’t work. Everyone was still confused.

“What he’s saying,” said Beaver. “Is that we’re not getting out ladybugs back.”

Monkey heard more complaints, and they all started to leave.

“Actually,” called out Monkey. “You can have them back, but you can’t force them. You are welcome to come inside and pick one, but I’m not guaranteeing they will go home with you. They can be your friend, you just have to be friendly to them.”

He wasn’t sure anyone heard him.

He stood in his doorway as a few more ladybugs left and went every which way. A couple of ladybugs stayed around. One landed on his arm, and another perched on his ear.

The one on his ear was buzzing ever so gently and sweetly. Then Monkey heard the ladybug say something.

“I LOVE YOU!”

Monkey smiled. He hadn’t imagined it this time.

The End

One-Third of Monkey's Life

2007-07-14T13:55:00.000-06:00

Little Georgie has been having some crazy dreams, and tries to tell his parents, but they are just annoyed by them, so he tells his friends.

Once there was a little boy named Georgie who came home one morning from his friend’s house with a wonderful and sad story.

He had found a pretty little blue egg with pink spots at his friend’s house, and when he asked his friend's parents if he could keep it, they said he could.

Oh, he was so happy he skipped all the way home with it in his hand. Well, a bump in the sidewalk tripped him and the egg flew out of his hand and smashed on a rock.

He told his Momma and his Poppa this wonderful and sad story and they looked at each other and smiled.

“That’s a sweet story, honey,” said his Momma. “Now run along and play.”

“You are so creative,” said his Poppa. “You’ll be a writer some day.”

They thought he was making it up.

“It really happened,” he said to them.

“Now, son,” said his Poppa. “Don’t make this into a lie.”

“It’s not a lie,” said Georgie. “I can show you where the egg broke.”

They reluctantly agreed to go view the egg remains, but when they got there, there was nothing to be seen.

Georgie got a few spanks on his bottom for lying.

The Momma and the Poppa walked away leaving the little boy rubbing his sore bottom.

“You know, every morning he tells me his dreams,” he heard his Momma say. “And I know he’s making it up on the spot. There’s no way he can remember such detail.”

“We can’t have him be a liar,” said his Poppa. “If he starts telling you his dreams again, you just stop him. Don’t let him finish.”

Georgie sat on the rock where the egg had broken as Sam walked up and sat down next to him. Sam was the boy who lived at the house they were sitting in front of.

“Hello, Sam,” said Georgie. ”How are you today?”

“I’m OK,” said Sam. “My dad asked me to clean up a broken egg on the sidewalk. I just finished.”

Georgie smiled at his friend.

“Do you want to hear what I dreamed about last night?” asked Georgie.

“Sure,” said Sam.

Georgie told him about a monkey that found an egg in a tree, but as he was running home, a tree root tripped him and the egg broke, then a snake came and ate it.

Sam Loved Georgie’s Stories. They made him feel like he was asleep and dreaming.

They hung out for the rest of the day.

The next morning, Georgie had the most amazing dream about a monkey that caught some tadpoles and put them in a bucket. He accidentally left the bucket full of water and tadpoles next to his Poppa’s bed, who stepped in it when he woke up from his nap. He started telling his Momma the dream, but she stopped him abruptly.

“Sweetheart,” said the Momma. “I don’t want to hear your story. Please go outside and play.”

The little boy was confused. He went outside and found his friends Sam, Angie and Elizabeth playing in a tree and told them instead. They loved it. They all felt the same when hearing Georgie tell his dreams. It made them all feel as if they were asleep and dreaming about what Georgie was telling them.

Georgie’s stores were getting so good that some of his friends actually fell asleep as he was telling them.

A few days later, Georgie’s Poppa came into Georgie’s room. Georgie was reading about airplanes.

“Did you leave the toilet seat up?” asked his Poppa.

Georgie noticed that his Poppa’s bottom was all wet, and the look on his Poppa’s face was really upset.

“Well, I think I saw a Momma and Poppa frog in the bathroom looking for their babies, maybe it was them,” said Georgie, even though it was Georgie who had left the toilet seat up, not the frogs.

Well, the Poppa was very smart, and he could tell that it had been Georgie, not a frog family.

Georgie’s bottom was sore for the rest of the evening.

The next day, Georgie told his friends about that night’s dream. It was about a mailman who had gotten lost in the forest while delivering mail. Every time he got a clue as to how to find the way out of the forest, his mailbag got heavier and heavier. When he finally looked into his bag of mail to see why it was getting heavier, he found that it had all turned into bars of chocolate. He became so happy that he started delivering bars of chocolate to everyone in the forest.

As the children were listening to Georgie’s dream, they started noticing some strange things going on. Sam looked down and noticed that his legs had become a long tail. Elizabeth noticed Sam’s tail and tried to tell him but her all-of-a-sudden large teeth tied her tongue. Angie didn’t notice any of what was happening to her friends. She found she had a very fluffy black and white tail, and was playing with it.

Georgie finished his dream and everyone was back to normal.

Later that week, Georgie was playing outside and his Momma called him in for lunch. His Poppa came into the house holding the piece of rusty metal.

“Who left this piece of rusty metal at our doorstep?” asked Georgie’s Poppa.

“I think it was the mailman,” said the little boy.

Georgie’s Poppa didn’t believe him.

Georgie was having trouble sitting lately.

He went outside to find his friends, and found them playing with some rocks.

Sam, Angie and Elizabeth were there, and so was Bobby.

“Has anyone seen Frankie, Toby and Serena?” asked Georgie.

“I think they’re over at my house playing with Toby,” said Elizabeth.

“Let’s go over there,” said Georgie. “I had another dream last night and I want to tell everyone.”

They all followed Elizabeth to her house. When they got there, Elizabeth and Toby’s mom had made them some cookies and Hawaiian Punch.

“I’ll come out and let you know when lunch is ready,” said Elizabeth and Toby’s mom.

As they sipped their punch and nibbled their cookies, Georgie started telling them his dream.

He told them about a group of animal friends that had gathered in an opening in the forest. One of the animals was telling a story. It was a Monkey.

As the Monkey told the story, all the other animals were falling asleep. There was a snake, a skunk, a squirrel, a rabbit, a turtle and two little bear cubs.

The monkey’s story had put them all to sleep, when the monkey clapped his hands.

“Wake up!” yelled the Monkey.

All the little animals woke up in a jolt.

“What’s the big idea?” said Snake. “You frightened me.”

“Me too,” said Skunk. “You made me spray a little.”

“Oh, pew, Skunk!” said the little boy bear cub.

They all got up holding their noses.

“I’ve got to go,” said Rabbit. “I think it’s time for dinner.”

“Good story,” said Turtle. “Do you think Georgie’s parents will ever believe him?”

Monkey smiled.

“I don’t know,” said Monkey. “I’ll finish the story tomorrow.”

As they left the area, each on their own path, Momma Bar came out from between the trees.

“Monkey,” said Momma Bear. “I called your parents and they said you could stay for dinner.”

“OK, thanks.” Said Monkey.

“YAY!” said the little bear cubs. “Can he spend the night too?”

Monkey liked eating at the Bear’s house. They put honey on everything.

The End

Elephant's Backpack

2007-07-08T22:25:00.000-06:00

Elephant uses his backpack to have some fun with his friends.

Elephant, Cow, Rabbit and Mouse are sitting at the table.

“Well, that was weird,” says Mouse.

“I’m still confused about it,” said Rabbit. “Someone unzip the backpack. I’d like to take a look at that carrot again.”

“I’ll get it,” said Cow. “I want to look at the crumpled up little note again. The writing looked familiar.”

“Um, you guys,” mumbled Elephant.

They all look at Elephant, whose eyes were as big as dinner plates. He was pointing outside with his trunk.

“What is it?” asked Mouse.

They all look outside to where his trunk is pointing and see THEMSELVES in the garden.

They see Mouse and Rabbit walking toward the guesthouse, and Cow, who has pulled up a carrot, is handing it to Elephant. Elephant looks around as if he’s looking for someone, and then does something to the ground.

“Oh, no, not again!” exclaims Rabbit.

They all get up from the table. Elephant grabs a backpack that’s hanging on the chair and they rush out the door.

Elephant looses the shoe he was in the middle of tying on the way out, but keeps going with only one shoe on.

Outside by the garden, the animals they had seen are gone. Rabbit is looking down at Cow who is looking around for a carrot to pull up.

Elephant is looking down at Cow as well, smiling.

“Pull it out, Cow. See if it’s a good one,” said Rabbit.

“I’m doing it,” said Cow.

Cow tugs on the carrot, and it comes out easily. It’s huge.

“Look at this,” exclaims Cow.

“It’s huge,” says Rabbit. She was drooling a little.

“Hey, look over there,” yelled Mouse.

They all look at her. She was pointing to the guesthouse, and the door had just closed.

“Who’s in the guesthouse?” asked Rabbit.

“Let’s go see!” said Cow.

Mouse and Rabbit start toward the guesthouse. Cow hands the carrot to Elephant.

“Put this in your backpack,” said Cow.

Cow takes off toward the guesthouse too.

Elephant is left holding the carrot, and instead of putting it in his backpack, looks around to make sure no one is looking, and puts it back into the hole in the ground it was pulled out from.

He pushes some dirt around it and looks back at the house, then hurriedly runs off toward the guesthouse.

Mouse and Cow get to the guesthouse, and there’s no one in it. They sit down at the small table staring at a glass with water in it.

Rabbit is looking around the trailer as Elephant walks in.

“There’s no one in here,” says Rabbit.

“Who put this water here?” asks Cow.

Mouse takes the water and drinks from it.

“Oh, yuck!” says Mouse. “It tastes like water from the bathroom sink.”

Elephant SIGHS, takes off his backpack and begins fishing around in it.

“Hey, look, someone’s in the tree house!” says Rabbit. “It’s Cow. And she’s waving at me.”

“But Cow’s right here,” says Mouse. “I’m very confused.”

They all look out the window except for Elephant who has taken out a bottle of water and is filling up the glass on the small table.

“Let’s go check it out,” said Cow.

“And hurry,” said Mouse. “Maybe we can catch them this time.”

“Catch who?” exclaimed Rabbit as she ran out the door.

Elephant puts the empty bottle back into his backpack.

“Come on Elephant,” said Rabbit as the door swung open. “Hurry.”

They all ran toward the tree house.

Elephant opened the door all the way and holds it there for a second while he looks back at the garden, then lets go and runs away quickly.

At the tree house, Mouse, Rabbit and Elephant look up at Cow who has climbed up and is looking down at them.

She reads a note on a crumpled up piece of paper.

“What does it say?” asks Mouse.

“It says:” says Cow. “LOOK TOWARD THE GUESTHOUSE.”

“What does that mean?” wondered Rabbit.

Cow looked up toward the guesthouse.

“Hey, look!” exclaimed Cow.

“What is it, Cow?” asked Mouse. “What do you see?”

Cow sees Cow, Mouse and Rabbit walking toward the guesthouse. Then Elephant runs into view.

“I see US,” said Cow. “We’re walking toward the guesthouse. We’re going past the guesthouse and into the main house, and Elephant only has one shoe on.”

“Cow, get down here,” yelled Mouse. “Let’s try to catch them.”

“Catch who?” asked Rabbit again.

Cow is still looking up toward the guesthouse. Suddenly she looks down at Elephant.

“Elephant,” said Cow. “You just waved at me.”

“Well, wave back,” said Elephant.

She looks back out past the branches and waves back.

“Oh,” she said. “You’re gone.”

“Come down,” said Rabbit. “Hurry!”

Cow crumples up the paper and throws it down to Elephant.

“Elephant,” said Cow. “Put this in your backpack.”

Cow throws the crumpled up little piece of paper to Elephant.

Elephant catches it and waits until Cow has made it all the way down and they all start off toward the guesthouse, all except for Elephant. Instead of putting the crumpled up piece of paper in his backpack, he throws it back up to the tree house, and it doesn’t make it. He tries again and it lands just inside the tree house.

“Come On Elephant,” yells Cow. “Hurry.”

Elephant turns and runs out from under the trees.

The group of animals walks past the guesthouse to the main house. Elephant trails behind. Just before he gets to the guesthouse, he turns around and waves at someone in the tree house.

Once inside the main house, they look everywhere, but can’t find anyone. Elephant is acting like he is looking under the rug and under the couch pillows, but he’s not really looking at all.

Mouse suddenly stops.

“Everyone, SHH,” says Mouse. “Be quiet. SHH. What’s that noise?”

Everyone gets quiet.

There’s a sound of a faucet in the bathroom.

“The bathroom!” yells Cow.

They all run around the corner to the bathroom.

When they get to the bathroom, there’s a bottle of water propped up in the sink getting filled up with water from the faucet.

“Who left this here?” wonders Rabbit. “Am I the only one creeped out here?”

“This is really strange,” says Cow.

Cow turns off the faucet and takes the bottle out of the sink.

She drinks some and hands it to Rabbit, who drinks a little.

“Mouse, do you want some?” Asks Rabbit.

“No, thanks,” declines Mouse. “I don’t like the taste of the water from this sink.”

Rabbit shrugs her shoulders and hands the bottle to Elephant.

He finds the cap on the counter and closes the bottle as the rest of them go to the kitchen.

“Let’s go sit down,” says Cow.

“Elephant,” said Rabbit. “Bring your backpack over here. Let’s see if we can decipher any of this from those things we put in there.”

Elephant puts the filled bottle in his backpack and fishes out an empty one, unscrews the cap and props it up in the sink. Then he turns on the faucet and leaves the cap on the counter.

He then walks to the kitchen and puts his backpack on the kitchen table.

“Hey, Elephant,” says Mouse standing up. “Here’s your shoe. It’s right here by the door.”

Elephant takes it and sits at the table. He starts to tie his shoe when something catches his eye outside the window.

“Well, that was weird,” says Mouse.

“I’m still confused about it,” said Rabbit. “Someone unzip the backpack. I’d like to take a look at that carrot again.”

“I’ll get it,” said Cow. “I want to look at the crumpled up little note again. The writing looked familiar.”

“Um, you guys,” mumbled Elephant.

They all look at Elephant, whose eyes were as big as dinner plates. He was pointing outside with his trunk.

“What is it?” asked Mouse.

They all look outside to where his trunk is pointing and see THEMSELVES in the garden.

They see Mouse and Rabbit walking toward the guesthouse, and Cow, who has pulled up a carrot, is handing it to Elephant. Elephant looks around as if he’s looking for someone, and then does something to the ground.

“Oh, no, not again!” exclaims Rabbit.

The End

Rabbit Tells A Story

2007-07-01T23:07:00.000-06:00

Rabbit tells a story about a Monkey reading a story about a story.

One day, Rabbit woke up and wanted to tell someone a story. Strangely though, he couldn’t find anyone that had time to listen.

He went walking, almost deciding to tell himself the story, when Little Skunk met him on the path.

“Little Skunk,” he asked. “Do you have time for a story?”

“Sure I do,” said Little Skunk, and plopped down right in the middle of the path.

“Great, well, once there was a dog,” he said.

“Can it be about a monkey?” interrupted Little Skunk.

“Sure,” said Rabbit.

“Once there was a Monkey who lived in a tree,” said Rabbit. “He had many friends.”

One day, a fox came up to him and asked him if he could borrow his ball. Monkey was about to let him when he decided to ask him for a favor in exchange for the ball. He asked the fox to find him a ladybug. The fox left to get the ladybug and Monkey sat back down in his comfy chair to continue reading his book.

At this point, more forest animals had gathered on the path, listening to Rabbit’s story. Raccoon was there, Squirrel, Otter and his little girl, Bear and Wolf, just about everyone showed up.

Rabbit was pleased, so he continued.

“Monkey’s book,” continued Rabbit. “was about a ladybug who was telling a bedtime story to her little babies. She had twenty babies, and they all loved hearing her stories.”

Tonight’s bedtime story was about a funny Rabbit who was telling a story to a bunch of forest animals in the middle of a path.

“There were so many animals sitting there listening,” said the ladybug mother, “that they had completely blocked the path, and Elephant was on his way to the pond for some water. He obviously could not get by, and no one seemed to have noticed him. They were all listening so intently to the rabbit’s story.”

The elephant tried to get their attention, but it didn’t work. He tried to climb a tree, but the tree branch cracked and he couldn’t get a good grip.

The elephant then took out his map of the forest to see if there was another way around, but there wasn’t, well, not one that wouldn’t take half a day.

He tried to tiptoe around the animals, but his feet were so big, that he couldn’t get by, and the animals were so enthralled with the story, that none of them moved to get out of the way. It was as if they were statues. In fact, when he was tiptoeing around the animals, he accidentally stepped on Beaver’s tail and flattened it a little. But Beaver didn’t flinch.

“He won’t notice,” thought the elephant.

So the elephant decided to listen to the rest of the story, and then when everyone got up to leave, he would go on his way. So he plunked down in the path at the edge of the group with the rest of the animals.”

Fox, who had brought the ladybug he had asked for, suddenly interrupted monkey. Monkey closed the book and lowered a little basket. After fox had placed the ladybug in the basket, Monkey dropped the ball down to Fox.

Monkey loved ladybugs. He liked how it felt when they walked all over his arm and head. He opened up the basket and carefully picked up the ladybug and put it on his arm.

But something was wrong. This ladybug didn’t want to crawl around. In fact, this ladybug was sad, and crying even.

“What’s wrong?” asked Monkey.

“Well,” said the ladybug. I was telling my little babies a bedtime story, when all of a sudden, I was taken away from them and brought to you.”

“Well, that’s horrible,” said Monkey suddenly remembering the book he had been reading.

He hurried over to his comfy chair, opened the book to the page he had been on, and yes, in fact, on the next page, the momma ladybug was inexplicably taken away from her babies by what looked like the paw of a fox. He turned the page and the picture showed all the babies crying for their mother. Some had fallen out of their cribs and some were just standing there crying. There were teddy bears, blankets and binkies all over the floor. It was chaos.

“What is that book?” asked the ladybug.

“Well,” said Monkey slamming the book closed quickly. “It’s a book about, well, a mother ladybug who was telling a story to her babies when she was inexplicably taken away from them.”

He looked away from her because he felt guilty.

“What happens on the next page?” she asked as calmly as she could.

“I don’t know if you should see this,” said Monkey.

“Oh, please show me. I must know what happens,” she pleaded.

“Well, OK,” said Monkey. “Why don’t you sit down and I’ll finish the book for you.”

She sat down on the arm of the comfy chair and listened intently.

“I’ll start here,” said Monkey.

“Inexplicably, the mother ladybug was taken away from her babies.” Then the next page says, “Once the babies realized their mother was gone, they cried and cried. Some of them fell out of their cribs, and they cried until they fell asleep.”

“Oh,” said Ladybug. “Let me see the picture.”

She looked over the picture.

“Well,” she said. “The picture shows little Bobby falling out of the crib, but that happens almost every night, so it’s a little misleading. And they always cry when I leave the room, they’re still so young, but they fall asleep fairly quickly, and all that stuff on the floor is just embarrassing, if I had known, I would have cleaned up a bit. They make it seem so chaotic and devastating. They’ll be OK. So what happens next?”

Monkey turned the page, peeking at it first just to make sure it was OK, it was fine.

“See,” said Ladybug. “They’re fine, they’re sleeping.”

They looked through the rest of the pages and the babies woke up, made themselves some breakfast, let themselves outside to play, shared their toys, didn’t have too many tantrums, and essentially had a pretty good day. They even put themselves down for a nap. Mother Ladybug was actually quite proud of them.

Then the last page, a Monkey brings the mother ladybug back and everyone’s happy.

“Oh, that ends well,” said Ladybug.

“OK, so I guess we better get going,” said Monkey. “I’ve got to get you back to your babies.”

“Yes, let’s,” said Ladybug.

Monkey climbed down the tree holding Ladybug carefully, took her back to her home, said goodbye and went back home to his tree.

“The End,” said Rabbit.

“What?” exclaimed Little Skunk and a couple of others. “That’s the end? What happened in the mother ladybug’s story where the rabbit was telling a story and the elephant couldn’t get by because of all the animals in the path?”

“Yes,” said Squirrel, ”she didn’t finish her story.”

“Well,” said Rabbit. “I don’t really know.”

“I’ll tell you what happens,” said a large trumpeting voice from the edge of the group of animals sitting on the path. “Everyone stood up and got out of the elephant’s way so he could get a drink from the pond.”

Everyone agreed that was a good ending to that story, so they stood up, got out of the way for elephant to get by, and then went home.

They all thanked Rabbit for his story.

Beaver couldn’t figure out what he had done to hurt his tail, but he was fine.

Rabbit went home and went right to sleep. Telling stories made him sleepy.

The End

What Is the Secret Code?

2007-06-24T22:39:00.000-06:00

Papi Otter teaches his daughter about strangers with the help of some friends.

Once there was a little girl Otter, and her Papi took her to the market one day.

There were fruits and vegetables and sticks and rocks and nuts and people and sounds and smells. It was wonderful. They even had a little playground.

While her Papi was looking over some fish, the little Otter girl decided she wanted to go play in the little playground.

“Papi,” she asked. “Can I go play in the little playground?”

“Sure, sweetie,” he said.

“By myself?” she asked as sweetly as she could.

“Well, OK,” he said to her. “But let’s talk about something first.”

He sat her down at a bench.

“You are old enough to go play by yourself,” said Papi Otter. “But I want to tell you about the secret code.”

Her eyes opened up wide.

“Secret code?” she yelled, then looked around and put her hands on her mouth. “Secret code?” she whispered.

“Yes,” said Papi. “Here’s what I want you to remember: if anyone comes over to you while you are playing and says to come with them, you ask them: ‘WHAT IS THE SECRET CODE?’”

“Oh, wow,” she said excitedly.

“And only then will you know that I sent them to get you or go with them or something. You can trust the person who knows the secret code,” explained Papi. “If they don’t know the code, you scream as loud as you can and run away screaming.”

“Neat,” she said. “Papi?”

“Yes?” said Papi.

“What IS the secret code?” she asked him.

“Well, you can pick it,” said Papi. “And tell it only to me.”

She thought about it for a moment, and then leaned in to tell Papi in his ear.

“COWIE!” she whispered.

“OK,” said Papi. “Go on and play.”

She skipped off toward the playground. After only a few minutes, she came back. She was sweaty and out of breath.

“Papi,” she asked. “No one has come and asked me to go with them.”

“Well,” said Papi. “That’s a good thing. You know, it probably won’t ever happen that I need to use the secret code.”

“Oh,” she said, and skipped back to the playground.

Just then, Skunk walked up to Papi.

“Hello Otter,” said Skunk.

“Hey, Skunk,” said Papi. “It’s good to see you.”

“Same here,” said Skunk. “You here with your daughter?”

“Yes, I am,” said Papi. “Hey, would you mind helping me out with something?”

“Sure,” said Skunk. “What’s up?”

“OK,” said Papi as he pulled out an alligator mask from his back pocket. “Put this mask on and go find my little girl. She’s in the playground. Ask her to come with you, say I told you to get her.”

“OK,” said Alligator…I mean Skunk. And he walked over to the playground.

“Hello little girl,” he said to Little Girl Otter. “Your Papi said to come with me.”

Little Girl Otter’s face got serious.

“WHAT IS THE SECRET CODE?” she said very loudly.

“Uh,” skunk looked around for Papi Otter. “I don’t know.”

And the little girl otter started screaming and screaming and running around and making crazy faces and flapping her arms all over the place.

Papi Otter came running up to her.

“OK, OK sweetie, quiet down. It’s OK. You did good.”

“He didn’t know the code,” she said hugging her Papi.

“You did good,” said Papi.

“Can I keep playing?” she asked.

“Sure,” said Papi. “Go ahead.”

Papi thanked Skunk, who was not sure what had just happened.

Just then, Rabbit hopped up.

“Hello, Otter,” said Rabbit.

“Hello, Rabbit,” said Papi. “How are you today?”

“Oh, fine, fine,” said Rabbit. “Thing are great.” Hey, was that your little girl I heard screaming like a crazy otter?”

“Yes it was,” said Papi. “I’m trying to teach her about strangers.”

“Oh, really?” said Rabbit. “Can I help?”

“Sure,” said Papi with a smile. “Here, take this Gorilla mask and go find my little girl. Tell her that I asked you to get her for me.”

Rabbit put on the mask and hopped over to the playground.

“Hello little otter,” said Rabbit as he spotted Little Girl Otter. “Your Papi told me to get you and come with me.”

Little Girl Otter stood straight up and said loudly, “WHAT IS THE SECRET CODE?”

“Oh,” said Gorilla…I mean Rabbit. “Sticky Claws!”

And the little girl otter started screaming and screaming and running around and making crazy faces and flapping her arms all over the place.

Papi Otter came running up to her.

“OK, OK sweetie, quiet down. It’s OK. You did good.”

“He didn’t know the code,” she said hugging her Papi.

“You did good,” said Papi.

“Can I keep playing?” she asked.

“Sure,” said Papi. “Go ahead.”

Papi thanked Rabbit, who was politely, but quickly leaving the area. He was a bit embarrassed.

Just then, Bear walked up behind Papi Otter.

Papi Otter sniffed the air.

“I’d know that smell anywhere,” said Papi Otter turning around to greet him. “Bear, what’s up, man?”

“Hey Otter,” said Bear. “Whatchadoin’?

“Oh,” said Papi. “Just teaching my little girl about strangers.”

“That’s fun,” said Bear. “Can I help?”

“Sure,” said Otter. “Go find my little girl in the playground and tell her to come with you. Tell her I sent you. She’s going to ask you a question, and you tell her “COWIE”.

Well, as it turns out, Wolf had been watching the whole thing, and was listening intently for Papi Otter to reveal what the secret code was, because he was hungry. And he just happened to have a bear mask in his back pocket.

So once he heard Papi Otter say the secret code, he got up quickly, strapped on his mask and walked over to find Little Girl Otter.

Bear and Papi Otter were still talking, so Wolf thought he had a few moments.

Wolf walked up to Little Girl Otter, put his hand on her shoulder and spun her around.

“Hello, Little Girl Otter,” he said quickly. “Your Papi asked me to come and get you, so you need to come with me, and hurry.”

Little Girl Otter stiffened and got very serious.

“WHAT IS THE SECRET CODE?” she said loudly.

“COWIE!” said the Wolf. “Now let’s go, we’ve got to hurry.”

“Oh,” she said.

Little Girl Otter stood on her tippy-toes and looked around for her Papi, but she couldn’t see him.

“OK,” she said hesitantly. “Let me get my shoes on, I left them at the slide.”

“No time for that,” said Wolf excitedly, and he grabbed her tightly and turned to leave.

Little Girl Otter knew Bear. He had been over to Otter’s house often to cookouts and family nights, but something was wrong with him.

She didn’t let him take her. She dug her heels in the ground.

“Bear, you smell different,” said Little Girl Otter.

“Come on,” said Bear…I mean, Wolf. ”We don’t have time for this.”

“No, really,” said Little Girl Otter. “You smell like Squirrel and Lamb, not fish and berries.”

“Well, maybe you are coming down with a cold or something and your smeller is off,” said Wolf.

“No, I can smell fine,” she said. “What did you eat for breakfast?”

Wolf was getting very anxious. His tail was twitching like crazy.

“Oh, I don’t know,” he said, trying to look like he was trying to remember what he had eaten for breakfast. “I had some, uh, fish and, uh, some berries, yeah, berries.”

“Really, what color were the berries?” said Little Girl Otter.

“What color?” asked Wolf. “White. Now let’s go.”

Now Little Girl Otter was certain something was wrong.

“Do you mean Mistletoe?” she asked. “Did you eat Mistletoe berries?”

“Yes, yes, that’s it,” he said angrily now, but he didn’t even know what Mistletoe was. “Enough questions! Get your shoes. Hurry up.”

“But Mistletoe is poisonous,” she said as she wiggled out of his grip.

Wolf, realizing he had been found out, decided to try to grab her and make a run for it, but just as he lunged for her, Bear grabbed him by the ears.

Bear just happened to have finished talking to Papi Otter and had come over to find Little Girl Otter.

“What’s going on here,” said Bear smelling with his large nose. “Wolf, what are you doing with a bear mask on?”

Little Girl Otter hid behind the slide. Just then, Papi Otter grabbed her and hugged her tightly. He had followed Bear and was planning on hiding behind the slide to watch, and grabbed her as soon as he realized what was going on.

“I’m so sorry sweetheart,” he said to her. “I sent Bear, but that’s not bear.”

“I know it’s not Bear, but who is it?” asked Little Girl Otter.

Just then, Bear grabbed Wolf by the ears to take him outside, and Wolf’s mask fell off.

“I’ll take care of him,” said Bear as he carried Wolf out of sight.

“Papi, how did he know the secret code?” asked Little Girl Otter.

“I was careless, and I didn’t realize who was listening when I told Bear,” said Papi Otter. “We’ll have to pick another secret code.”

“OK,” she said. “I don’t want to play anymore. Can we pick a secret code on the walk back home?”

“Sure,” said Papi Otter. “Let’s go.”

Papi Otter took his daughter’s hand and they left the market.

“What is Bear going to do with him?” asked Little Girl Otter.

“I don’t know,” said Papi Otter. “I don’t know.”

The End

What You Want Me To Bee

2007-06-17T14:14:00.000-06:00

A flower wants to be everyone's favorite color, but finds it harder than it sounds.

Once there was a nice field of flowers. Right next to the field of flowers there was a forest. Just inside the forest, there was a clearing where the sun trickled in for a couple of hours a day. Right in the middle of that clearing was a flower.

It was a very pretty flower, as most flowers are.

One day, a butterfly visited it.

“Hello Butterfly,” said the Flower.

“Well, hello,” said the Butterfly. “You look very pretty today.”

“Why, thank you,” said the Flower. “How sweet of you.”

“Oh, you’re welcome,” said the Butterfly. “Do you mind if I drink some of your nectar today?”

“Oh, please,” said the Flower. “By all means.”

As the butterfly was resting its wings, the Flower asked it a question.

“What is your favorite color?”

“Oh, I think it’s red,” said Butterfly.

“Then I’ll make myself red tomorrow,” said the Flower.

“Oh, you don’t need to do that,” said the Butterfly. “I like you just as you are.”

“Well, I would like to, since it’s your favorite color,” said the Flower.

“Then I’ll see you tomorrow,” said the Butterfly.

They said goodbye.

The next morning, the Flower had managed to make itself red. It’s very hard work for a flower to change its color. The Flower used up so much energy changing her color; she accidentally slept past the sunrise.

She was very tired, but also very excited. She waited all day long for the Butterfly, but the Butterfly did not come.

Instead, a Hummingbird came and hovered in front of her.

“Hello Hummingbird,” said the Flower.

“Hi there,” said the Hummingbird. “Do you mind if I drink some of your nectar?”

“Oh, of course not,” said the Flower. “Please do.”

While the Hummingbird was drinking, the Flower asked it a question.

“What is your favorite color?” asked the Flower.

“Oh, I really like orange,” said the Hummingbird.

“Well then,” said the Flower. “Tomorrow, I will make myself orange.”

“Oh, you don’t need to do that for me,” said the Hummingbird. “You are very pretty in red.”

“I would really like to do it for you,” said Flower.

“Well, how sweet,” said the Hummingbird. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”

They said goodbye.

The next morning, the Flower again managed to change its color. This time to orange.

It is hard work for a flower to change its color, and this time, the Flower used up so much energy making herself orange, that she accidentally slept until the sun was right above her.

She was tired, but also so excited to show the Hummingbird, but the Hummingbird did not come back.

Instead, a Bee landed on her petals.

“Hello Bee,” said the Flower.

“Hi,” said the Bee. “Hey, can I have some of your pollen?”

“Sure,” said the Flower. “Take all your legs can carry.”

And while the Bee was gathering pollen, the Flower asked it a question.

“What is your favorite color?” asked the Flower.

“Oh, I like all colors,” said the Bee. “Red, orange, yellow, pink, purple, all of them.”

“Oh,” said the Flower. “I’d like to try to make myself all those colors for you. Will you come back tomorrow and see me?

“You don’t have to do that for me,” said the Bee. “I think your color is great.”

“I would really like to do it for you,” said the Flower.

“That is so nice of you,” said the Bee. “I’ll come back tomorrow.”

They said goodbye.

That night, the Flower tried and tried to make herself all those color. It was hard enough to change into just one color. She just couldn’t do it, but she tried all night long. She collapsed, exhausted as the sun was about to come up.

She slept all day. In fact, she had used up so much energy trying to change her color that all the color drained out of her petals.

The Butterfly came back to see her, but couldn’t find her.

The Hummingbird came around looking for an orange flower, but did not spot her.

Finally the Bee came by. He buzzed and buzzed in circles. He remembered exactly where that beautiful flower had been the day before, but all he found was a wilted, grey-brown, dried up flower whose petals had fallen off.

He was hungry, so he buzzed away.

The Flower lay there motionless. She had no energy left. Even the sun that trickled in through the trees above her didn’t notice her. Neither did the other flowers in the field next to the forest. They went about their business laughing and giggling and attracting butterflies and bees and hummingbirds, as if nothing had happened.

A cow strolled into the area, slowly lowered her nose to the brown wilted flower, sniffed it a couple of times, and then ate it.

The End

Squirrel's Stolen Acorns

2007-06-08T21:09:00.000-06:00

Squirrel has a problem, Bunny helps.

Once there was a little girl squirrel. She was sweet most of the time, but sometimes she was a little greedy.

See, she would sit there, perfectly fine, minding her own business, maybe even playing with her own acorn. Then someone would walk by playing with another acorn, and she would have to have the acorn the other animal was playing with.

You know, I‘ll say it again, she was a very sweet little squirrel, but this just surprised everyone.

Her parents tried everything. They tried writing names on acorns, they tried giving her all the acorns she wanted, they even tried redirecting her with chocolate cake or Hawaiian Punch, but nothing worked.

She was making for herself a huge stockpile of acorns in her room. Not her own acorns, mind you, but everyone else’s.

One day, Momma Rabbit and Bunny came to visit. While Momma Rabbit visited with Momma Squirrel, Little Squirrel took Bunny to her room.

Little Squirrel had cleaned up her room and taken out just one acorn to play with.

“Would you like to play with my acorn?” asked Little Squirrel.

“No thank you,” said Bunny. “That’s very sweet of you.”

Little Squirrel was confused. Why didn’t Bunny want to play with the acorn? It was shiny, smelled good and not too heavy.

Little Squirrel was about to ask Bunny what was wrong with the acorn when Little Raccoon walked by on the path.

Little Raccoon was rolling an acorn down the path.

“I’ll be right back,” said Little Squirrel, and scurried out the door.

Little Squirrel spoke to Little Raccoon for a moment, and returned toting Little Raccoon’s acorn.

Little Squirrel shined the acorn a bit and then took it to the closet.

“Excuse me while I put this away,” said Little Squirrel.

When Little Squirrel opened the closet, Bunny saw that it was full of acorns. In fact, some rolled out and Little Squirrel had quite a hard time keeping them all in. She finally closed the door after pushing some in with her feet.

“I was going to ask you something,” said Little Squirrel, “but I can’t remember what it was. What was it?”

Suddenly, Little Squirrel’s attention focused on some movement outside. It was Grackle, and he had an acorn in his mouth.

“Excuse me,” said Little Squirrel. “I’ll be right back.”

Little Squirrel ran outside and spoke to Grackle for a few minutes, then came back toting Grackle’s acorn.

Little Squirrel shined the acorn a bit and took it to the closet.

She opened the door, and this time, there seemed to be fewer acorns in the closet. She didn’t have such a hard time closing the door. She thought there had been more acorns in there, but she could have been wrong.

Little Squirrel turned from closing the door and before she could say anything to Bunny, Little Skunk walked by with an acorn in his paws.

“Excuse me, Bunny,” said Little Squirrel. “I’ll be right back.”

Little Squirrel ran outside and spoke with Little Skunk for a few minutes, then came back, toting Little Skunk’s acorn.

Little Squirrel shined the acorn a bit and then took it to the closet.

This time, she was sure there had been more acorns in there. In fact, she could have counted how many acorns were in the closet, where as before, there were too many to count.

She shut the closet door and turned to Bunny.

“Has anyone been in here other than you?” asked Little Squirrel.

But before Little Bunny had a chance to answer, Ant, who was carrying a surprisingly large acorn, distracted Little Squirrel.

“Oh, my. Excuse me, Bunny,” said Little Squirrel. And she ran outside to speak to Ant.

She came back in toting Ant’s acorn, shined it up a bit, and took it to the closet.

Little Squirrel was surprised to find that there were no acorns in her closet.

“Oh, no!” she said. “What happened to my acorns?”

Bunny was still sitting in the same place she had been the whole time.

“Bunny,” asked Little Squirrel, “Did you take my acorns?”

Little Squirrel looked all around Bunny, but didn’t find any acorns.

“No, I didn’t take your acorns,” said Bunny.

Little Squirrel was confused.

“Can I play with that acorn?” asked Bunny.

“Uh, sure,” said Little Squirrel, very confused. “Here you go.”

Bunny took the acorn, and when Little Squirrel wasn’t watching, Bunny threw it out the window.

“What happened to your acorn?” noticed Little Squirrel. “It’s gone too!”

Squirrel was so confused she began to cry.

“Oh,” said Bunny. “Don’t cry Little Squirrel. We can find you another one.”

“I don’t want another one,” said Little Squirrel. “They weren’t mine anyway.”

Bunny was happy to hear that Little Squirrel had realized the error of her ways.

Little Squirrel stopped crying.

“In fact, I think I do want to find another one,” said Little Squirrel. “I want to find a bunch of them.”

Bunny sighed, maybe Little Squirrel hadn’t changed.

“I want to give acorns back to all my friends for all the acorns I took from them,” said Little Squirrel.

“Oh,” said Bunny, happy again. “In that case, come outside with me.”

Bunny took Little Squirrel outside and around the corner of the house.

There, standing next to a huge pile of acorns, right under Little Squirrel’s bedroom window, were Little Raccoon, Ant, Little Skunk, Grackle and actually, quite a few others.

Little Squirrel looked over to Bunny.

“Did you do all this?” asked Little Squirrel.

“We all did,” said Bunny.

“Well,” said Little Squirrel. “I get it. It was not fun or nice to have my acorns taken from me. I’m sorry I did that to all of you. I won’t do it again.”

They were all very happy to hear that.

Little Squirrel handed out acorns to all her friends and they all had an acorn party.

While they were all having a great time bowling and playing hoops, Little Squirrel noticed that Little Frog was playing with something she had never seen before. It was glowing and moving around Little Frog’s head so gently and peacefully. She rushed over to him and watched it for a long time.

“What’s that?” she asked Little Frog.

“It’s a firefly,” said Little Frog.

“Ooh,” said Little Squirrel, “Can I have it?”

The End