A Thanksgiving Tale: Chapter 1

Once upon a time, a baby turkey named Gobbles was hatched on Josiah Pruitt's farm. He was pretty cute as a baby, but as the weeks passed and his brothers and sisters grew feathers and got bigger, Gobbles just looked almost exactly the same as he did when he was newly hatched. The only new change was he grew one big feather on his tail, but other than that, he still had the appearance of a baby turkey.

When it became clear that Gobbles was not going to get any bigger, he decided it was time to go out and make his fortune. He tied a little gray work rag around his shoulders to use as a shawl, tied a piece of useful string around his tail for later, and set out on his way.

The morning that had started out sunny, blue, and bright soon became overcast and treacherous. As the winds tugged on Gobbles' shawl and cold rain started to fall, Gobbles looked desperately all around, but could see nothing but a cluster of hazy dark trees in the far distance. He closed his eyes and sat miserably in a puddle, resigning himself to his fate. He opened his eyes, looking back the way he had come, when suddenly he stopped and squinted. Sure enough, not ten feet behind him was a pumpkin patch! Was it possible he had passed all of those pumpkins without even noticing?

Since there didn't seem to be anything else to do, Gobbles ran over to the biggest pumpkin in the patch. As he leaned against it to catch his breath, he was astonished to feel that it was warm! He walked all the way around it, and saw that the pumpkin had been intricately carved to look like a house. It even had a working door with a wood-grain pattern carved. Gobbles knocked, listened for a response, and hearing none, he entered the pumpkin.

When Gobbles stepped inside, he gasped. Not only was the pumpkin carved like a house on the front, but on the inside, it was a fully furnished little room! And with nicer furnishings than those of farmer Josiah Pruitt's house at that. Gobbles wrung out his dripping shawl and hung it up next to the candle-fireplace, and inspected his surroundings. A steaming dish of cooked corn was set on the table with a card written in scrawling handwriting "A place of rest for the weary traveler." Gobbles flipped the card over as he chewed a piece of corn. After dinner, he settled down into the warm little bed with an orange patchwork quilt and inspected the card again. He yawned and said, "Well, thank you whoever," and fell asleep to the sound of rain thudding on the roof of the pumpkin.

Have you any dreams today?

"Have you any dreams today?" The man in gray suit said. 

"I'll pay you very handsomely, give them to me instead.

"I'll hide them in this vault right here, where they'll be safe and sound.

"And then you'll live quite practically, feet firmly on the ground.

"Dreams can shatter easily, could break your heart in two.

"And so that's why I'm willing to collect them all from you.

"But sir," I answered, in protest, "My dreams bring hope to me.

"Though all my dreams might not come true, they offer 'what could be'."

Impulse, Remorse, and Redemption

Once there was a baby carrot growing in a small, well-kept garden patch. Although  living underground in the dirt was quiet and warm, she was excited for the day she would be born. Because, you see, this little baby carrot who was so peacefully still at the moment had a secret. This baby carrot, whose little smile revealed a row of razor-sharp fangs, had grown with teeth.

The harvest time had soon come. The gardener was a kind old man, and was picking sweet carrots that morning to go into his wife's dinner salad. Up came one carrot, two carrots, three carrots, OW!! The gardener dropped the baby carrot, whose first impulse to being dragged out of the warm dirt was to bite the gardener's hand. The baby carrot fell into a pile of grass and weed clippings, next to a shiny blue beetle. 

The carrot immediately felt regret for what she had done. The beetle crawled close and smelled the carrot. "Well, now don't you look delicious!" The baby carrot with the row of sharp teeth frowned. "I'm a bad carrot." The beetle was just about to take a bite when the gardener reached through the clippings and squashed the beetle with a hand spade. "That must have been what bit me. Bugs have been getting all over my crops this year!" He picked up the carrot and said,"Now YOU don't belong down there! You're going to brighten up a salad for me and the Missus!" The baby carrot smiled with her row of fangs and felt a happy glow inside of her. She knew that she was where she belonged, teeth and all. 

The end.

Spoonbricks*

I have been super busy lately, so here is a story I wrote a year or so ago in my other blog... It fits in much better here anyway!

The spoonbricks were so excited for the family reunion! Spoonbrick family reunions only happened when they had to build a house for someone, and then they all stayed in the walls until someone decided to tear them down. In fact, they actually were a little in denial when someone wanted to tear down their building.

They would wait for the construction crews and equipment to arrive, and only when a wrecking ball and crane drove too close to the building would one of the spoonbricks would yell "Run for it!" and they'd all chaotically bounce out of the wall. Since the spoonbricks made up the wall, the roof would soon collapse after they bounded out of the scene in a big cloud of dust. But all of that would happen years down the road, if ever, and today was a joyous day to build!

"Come on, spoonbricks! We've got a job to do!" Said one of the brave spoonbricks. The excited spoonbricks gracefully hopped and leaped the long distance to the open lot where the house would be built. As they traveled, they all sang "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh," starting at a mid-range pitch and ascending, kind of like Ariel in The Little Mermaid, but it was a whole group of them and they weren't always in unison.

When they finally got to the building site, the brave spoonbrick said "Happy family reunion, everyone! Let the festivities begin!" All the spoonbricks began stacking themselves into a wall. Even though no one was directing them, they all knew what to do. The spoonbricks also had this classic prank to play on the top row of spoonbricks.

When the first spoonbrick on the top row jumped up there, the whole wall jiggled and quivered. "Woah!" It shouted. Then the second landed next to it, and the building wiggled and wobbled like Jello. "Uh oh, I don't like the looks of this," it said worriedly .
By the time the fifth spoonbrick tried to get on top, the whole building was violently swaying and lurching back and forth so hard that it flung half of the spoonbricks into a nearby field. "Haha, good prank, everyone," the seasick spoonbrick said as he threw up. "Yes, yes, that was awfully funny, but we're behind schedule, so let's move!" the brave and slightly cranky spoonbrick from the nearby field said.

The spoonbricks worked quickly and made up on lost time. It wasn't before long that they had built the new home and were singing their song that they always sang when they completed a building:

"We are fam-i-ly! I got all my spoonbricks with me! (Repeat Chorus many times)"

And they were family. And sometimes, that's all you can say.

THE END



*Spoonbricks are pretty much how you imagine them. A brick that has a spoon in it. Or on it... or something.

Watch Where You're Going!

Once upon a time, there was this short bald frog named Jed. He was walking along, enjoying the sunny spring day, strolling down a green, grassy hill.

He was closing his eyes for some reason as he walked, and so he didn't see the bent up soda can someone had littered on the ground in front of him. "Gahh!" Jed shouted (and then his voice echoed several times) as he tripped over the can. He did a flip in the air, and then another, and another, flying higher and higher into the air as he flipped in a circle until he was just a little speck that you could barely see.

THE END

Apple Pip

Greefy was an unusually privileged apple seed. Most apple seeds share their apple home with up to fifteen other pips, and therefore learn not to be selfish, or to have a bad temper. Greefy on the other hand had lucked out somehow and was the only seed living in his entire apple. Unfortunately as a result, he was pretty much a spoiled brat.

"Ahhh, this is the life," Greefy said as he put on his sunglasses. Little did he know that some hungry guy had just picked his house up for a little snack. The man licked his lips and took a bite. "HEY!" Greefy cried. "WHAT HAPPENED TO MY WALK-IN CLOSET?? I JUST REPAINTED THAT!" He wiggled and wriggled his way to the outside of the apple and popped his head out. He saw the man's teeth crunching up all of his shoe and tie collection. It was too much. Greefy knew what he had to do.

He jumped out of the apple and fell on the ground. Greefy snarled, and spun around in a little circle and then slithered under the dirt. Straining, with all of his angry might he became a sprout in mere seconds. "Ahaha it's working! It's working!" He strained some more, and became a sapling, then a full blown tree!

"HEY YOU," Greefy bellowed, now the size of a large tree. "STOP EATING MY HOME!" He started to throw apples at the man, who ran away pretty much as soon as Greefy started talking. Greefy realized really soon that he would no longer ever be able to live in an apple again, and that maybe he had hatched that plan too hastily. "Way too hastily," Greefy thought as he looked at big smelly dumpster that was right next to where he had grown.

THE END