Storytelling Week 14: The Three Brothers

There once were three brothers. They all three were adventurous, studious, brilliant young men who were trying to fight their way into the world of business.

The three of them decided that it was wise to go all in together because there is strength in numbers.. as well as less business risk. They looked into a variety of options for their business and decided on an industrial equipment sales company that would distribute as well as repair manufacturer equipment to smaller "mom and pop" companies. The three of them drew up a business plan and got to work.

Half a year down the road, the business was up and running. The three of them had poured all their effort into the structure of the company as well as into building up a broad clientele base. The oldest brother saw a ton of potential in the company and had been in charge of the legal side of the business. When it came time to divvy up the profit, the oldest brother greedily thought it the right time to tell the other brothers they had been "written out," meaning that they were not owners of the company and therefore would receive nothing for their work.

Enraged, the other brothers fought him in court, but to no avail due to the eldest brother's infallible contract work. The two of them counted their losses and set to work again, their entrepreneurial spirit as alive as ever. The middle brother proposed a new business, one that managed, bought, and sold real estate properties. Seeing the potential, the younger brother agreed. They both made a promise that they wouldn't let the same thing happen that had the last time. They hired out a contract lawyer to do the work.

So they set to work, and the business was again up and running within the first year. After they had acquired enough properties, the middle brother turned over a new, yet ugly leaf. It turns out that the contract lawyer that was hired to do the work had been paid off by the middle brother to write the youngest out of the contract. The same thing happened again. When it came time to reap the reward of their hard work, the middle brother kicked the younger one out.

Dejected and hurt after being kicked out of two businesses he had rightfully started, he set down and rethought his approach to business-building. He analyzed the markets like never before, and tried to combine that with all of his passions. He started out, this time with no other business partners, to build his very own outdoor adventure store. It would offer access to all extreme sports, renting out equipment, as well as selling high-end retail.

Again, the business thrived within the first year. The youngest brother was happier than ever, and found himself almost glad that he had been thwarted by his oldest two brothers.

Five years later, the youngest brother had grown his company into an empire, with store locations all around the nation. The market turned unfavorable and the middle and eldest brothers had been "wolfed" by the downturn. By the end, the youngest brother was the only one still standing, taller and happier than ever.

Image Credit: Real Adventure

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Author's Note: This story is based on the Three Goslings from the Italian Fairy Tales book written by Thomas Crane in 1885. This story is also very well known in the states as "The Three Little Pigs." Here, I gave it a modern twist by changing the pigs into three brothers, and the wolf into the volatile market. I thought instead of dying physically, as the goslings did in the story, I would have the brothers' careers die instead. In this day and age, some people would argue that that death is just as bad (although it isn't). I like that the third brother combined his passion for business and passion for adventure and opened an outdoors store; this is something I hope to do one day, too!

Storytelling Week 13: Desserted.

"Scoot it over towards me!" Brady directed, indicating with his hands the stool that stood between him and his older sister Jamie. 

"No, I think this is right!" Jamie responded. Getting on her tippy toes and stretching her legs as far as possible, she was barely able to reach the first step on the bottom of the stool. Climbing up step after step, she had made it to the very top of the stool. Extending her hands as far as possible, they came just short of the cookie jar.

Earlier that morning, the toddlers' mom had spent a few hours making all kinds of baked goods for the party they were hosting that night. She forbid Brady and Jamie from touching them until the party, something about "spoiling" something or other. However, the kids just saw this as a challenge. They watched as she placed the last of the cookies in the tall, crystal jar and scooted it to the back of the counter. Bring it on, Brady thought. He was already devising a plan.

Mom had gone back to her room to 'work on bills', which the kids knew really meant that mommy was taking a nap. By their approximation they had around thirty minutes to retrieve the cookies. Their first attempt being to take the stool out of the pantry and see if Jamie was tall enough to reach the jar.

She wasn't.

"What are we gonna do now?" Brady asked. "That was my best idea!"

"I know! Let's see if we can get one of the stools from our bathroom and put it on top of this one!" Jamie exclaimed excitedly.

They ran to their bathroom and took one of the stools they used to see the mirror when they brushed their teeth. Lugging it behind the two of them, they came to the kitchen and pondered how they were going to get it on top of the other stool. In the same manner as the first time, Jamie climbed as high as she could on top of the first stool. Brady did his best to shove the other stool as high up as he could, managing to also climb on top of the first stool. The two of them, while balancing together, managed to lift and place the second stool on top of the first. The best news? The top of the second stool was even with the countertop!

Jamie began to climb as Brady tried to stabilize. She got about halfway up, but accidentally took a step a little too far to the left, throwing Brady off balance, and sending the two of them toppling down to the tile. The commotion was too much- and Mom came running out of her room.

"WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING?" she was breathing hard and fast. "Oh..." she said quietly as she digested the situation. Then she began to chuckle and chuckle and chuckle. "Not today, you two!" And with that remark, she swept up the cookie jar and put it in the very top cabinet- forever out of the reach of her two little cookie monsters. (Well, until that night anyway!)

Image Credit: The Cripple Gate

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Author's Note: This story is based on The Fox and the Grapes from the La Fontaine Aesop's Fables unit. The original story is short and sweet:

Rosy and ripe, and ready to box,

The grapes hang high o'er the hungry Fox. —

He pricks up his ears, and his eye he cocks.
Ripe and rosy, yet so high! —
He gazes at them with a greedy eye,
And knows he must eat and drink — or die.
When the jump proves to be beyond his power —
"Pooh!" says the Fox. "Let the pigs devour
Fruit of that sort. Those grapes are sour!"

I like this idea of having something that is so sweetly desired almost dangling in front of your face, and then realizing that it isn't going to happen. When I first read this I immediately thought of my cookie jar days, and knew immediately that it would be a fun story to write. Obviously, the cookies represent that grapes and the toddlers represent the fox. It was just out of reach for both stories! Not really a central theme or lesson, just a fun story!

Storytelling Week 12: I'm Banking On It

Arian was a young, attractive, and hard-working twenty-three year-old. She worked part time for J.P. Morgan as a bank teller, as well as was finishing up her Masters in Counseling from SMU. She was the most genuine and honest girl in the world. 

Her and Carter had been dating for almost three years now. They met at the bank where she worked when they were both juniors in college. He graduated with a degree in Sales and Entrepreneurship and his one-man startup business he started the week after graduation has turned into one of the most successful small businesses in Dallas.

Carter fell in love the moment he met Arian, and knew he wanted to marry her immediately. Though he could afford one from Tiffany's, her dream engagement ring was a simple gold band with a simple small diamond on it. She also absolutely loved surprises, so he knew he had to go big since her ring was so small! But surprising Arian proved to be no easy task.

He knew that popping the question at a fancy dinner wasn't really what she would want, so he took a different approach. 

His office building was right above the bank where she worked, and she would occasionally come help him out with the smaller tasks if she had some time off. One day, she went up to visit him and asked if she could help in any way before work.

"Yeah, actually, I need to put something in my safe at Chase downstairs," Carter said in a pretend stressful tone. He handed her a briefcase full of signed documents and legal papers that are integral to the operation of his business. 

Taking them downstairs, Arian realized that she didn't actually have clearance to the safe itself, even though she worked there. I'll just get my friend that does have clearance to do it later, I don't want to stress Carter out. She left the briefcase under her desk and went back to do some teller work.

Minutes later she got a call from Carter. "Hey honey, were you able to get the documents put in my safe? They are really important!" 

She didn't want to stress him out, but had to be honest, "No, sorry Carter, I don't have clearance. I'll have to get my coworkers to do it later."

"Is there any way you could ask now? I just really need to make sure this is done right away." Carter said, his plan working perfectly. By this time, he was downstairs peeking around the corner. Ready to spring into action.

Arian approached her coworker, asking if it was okay to deposit Carter's briefcase even though she doesn't have clearance. Her coworker knowing all about the plan, told her she could go ahead and deposit it herself. Carter was right behind her, and got to watch everything play out perfectly.

Arian went to his safe, about the size of a microwave, and typed in the code. It opened with a click, and sitting right in the middle was a picture of her and Carter with her dream engagement ring with a short note telling her how much Carter loved her. She began to cry and turned around to see Carter down on one knee. 

"YES!" she screamed as all of her office mates clapped and cheered!

It may not be the most romantic, but it sure surprised and was perfect for Arian!

Image Credit: Etsy

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Author's Note: This story is very loosely based on The End Of Arthur from the King Arthur unit, original story written by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H.J. Ford in 1902. In the original story, King Arthur asks Sir Bedivere to throw his sword Excalibur into the nearby lake. He doesn't want to do it, but tells the King he did. King Arthur knew he didn't and told Sir Bedivere he HAD to go throw the sword into the lake. I wanted to kind of use this same concept, where Carter asks Arian to do a task for him that takes a few times to accomplish. That's basically the only thing I kept the same, though. I wanted to write a happy story where there is a happy ending and the story is more relatable. Where, in the original story, everyone dies. 

Storytelling Week 11: Pigless in Wonderland

First of all, these clothes are ridiculously itchy. You would think that these people would realize that one, I'm not a baby human because I have a giant snout and fuzz all over my soft, pink body, and two, that I don't need clothes on because... I have fuzz all over my soft, pink body. The only problem is that I don't speak their language so I can't tell them any of this.

I've always lived in Wonderland, and I've never heard of any place more, that is, until this little blonde girl came from the outside. She just waltzed right into our house and struck up conversation with my caretakers. Although her audacity was surprising, I was thankful for her being there because it led to my escape.

How did I get there in the first place, you might ask? I grew up on a farm just past the Mad Hatter's house. I lived with my mom and a few other sows, along with three confused cows and a very snoody cock. We all pitched in with the work that needed to be done, and it happened to be my day to go out and collect hay for that night's dinner. I ventured a little too far that day and crossed paths with two senile old women, they presumed I was helpless and against my will took me back to their twisted cottage.

I'd been there for a full two weeks before that Alice girl showed up. As soon as she walked in, I knew it was my chance. So I screamed as loudly as possible to her for help, although she kept calling my pleas for help loud "grunts." I didn't care what she called them as long as she got me out of there eventually. Then the strangest thing happened.

BANG! The kitchen pot clanged against the back wall, and narrowly missed my right ear. I screamed even louder, but the woman holding me paid no attention. The cook kept throwing anything and everything our direction, sometimes making painful contact with an exposed hoof or belly. Finally, the woman stood up and launched me into the air towards the girl.

Alice caught me, but not without effort. I contorted my body every which way to try and get free, but nothing worked. She held tightly until I figured I should just go along with the ride. Thankfully Alice didn't stay long, and she carried me outside. Her eyesight was up to par and she was able to realize that I was, in fact, not a human baby.

"You're a pig!" she exclaimed. I grunted back.

"A pig has no place in a house like this with women of this nature," she softly said as she bent down and let me free. With a squeal of thanks, I ran off towards the farm. My family is NOT going to believe this.

Alice and the pig.

Image Creds: Wikimedia Commons

Storytelling Week 10: Cat and Mouse

It had been a while since Mama and Papa Mouse had a baby mouse around. The first two... well... they were eaten. They were eaten by IT. 

Ever since the Cat learned of its dominion over the entire house, he had made it clear that no one else was welcome. He paid no mind to the established, cosy residence of the Mouse family. He had paid no mind that they had been living there long before his grubby paws crossed the threshold. He had paid no mind to the sound of their tears after he made the first two Mouse family babies his dinner. 

Mama and Papa Mouse had enough of IT. Once they discovered they were pregnant for the third time, they were determined that this baby would survive. They concealed its birth by holding it close to their bodies when they traveled, making the baby almost undetectable to IT.

Doing this ensured that Baby Mouse grew up healthy and strong. He kept growing and growing, so much that it made it difficult to conceal him as the family traveled. One day, he lagged slightly behind and Cat spotted him! Outraged that something had slipped right under his nose, determined was he to make this Baby Mouse turn out like the last two!

Cat went to work on rigging up traps and coming up with various schemes on how to catch Baby Mouse. First, he decided to set out some cheese underneath a propped up stack of books. Whenever Baby Mouse came near, he would tug away the prop and the books would fall on top of Baby Mouse. He waited patiently for his foe to come near.

Baby Mouse was and extremely brilliant. He noticed the peculiar placement of the books and the cheese. Wanting the cheese badly, but wanting his life more, he decided to make a lasso-of-sorts and grab the cheese away from the books. Before cat knew it, the cheese had disappeared as he heard a few contented squeaks from Baby Mouse's direction. 

Cat kept making traps similar to these, and Baby Mouse kept fooling him. Until one day, when Cat came up with a foolproof plan. He decided to make a slide going straight from the Mouse residence to the drain in the bottom of the sink. Baby Mouse knew it was a trap before he stepped onto the slide, but he also had a plan.

Going down the drain he slowed himself so that the landing into the sewage system would hurt less. There, he wandered until he found a giant Mouse neighborhood! His parents had told him of its existence, and he knew it was time for them to band together and defeat IT. 

In the middle of the night they coated their paws with the remnants of a rubber cement can that had floated its way down the river of sewage. Using its adhesive properties, the band of mice climbed their way up the drain into the battlefield. Huddling up behind the coffee maker, they waited until dawn to execute their... plan.

The next morning Cat came out to remove the slide from the drain on the sink, and right when he bent down to unfasten it, the mice bombarded him. Cuts and slices from teeth all over took Cat down in an instant. Right as he was drawing his final breaths, Baby Mouse came up and told him that he knew about all of the attempts on his life. He told him family would stick together and help family, and it was time for the terror to end once and for all! Cat breathed his last as his vision of Baby Mouse blurred through his slowly closing eyes, the words swimming in his dizzy mind.

Perhaps one of the most famous cat and mouse couples around! 

Image Cred: Animated TV

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Author's Note: This story is loosely based on one from Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson in 1929. In the original story, titled The Jealous Uncle, there is an Uncle who kills his nephews for no reason. After he had killed two, his wife tried to conceal the third-born by pretending he was a girl. Eventually, the uncle found out and tried every way he could to kill the boy, but the boy was too smart. Outwitting the uncle, he eventually gave in and was put in a box to drift out to sea. The boy landed in a far away, receptive land and built up strength. He later went back and defeated his uncle for treating him and his parents so poorly. This story is kind of similar in that I have a rivalry between two characters, one on a power trip and one that is humble and seemingly unable to defeat the other. It was the first thing that came to mind for a story, and whenever you've been trying to come up with an idea for almost an hour, you go with the first thing that comes to mind!

Storytelling Week 9: That's a Sappy Story!

A long time ago there was a people group called the Sapitun tribe. They lived deep within the forest in the eastern part of modern-day Texas. They were large in number and even larger in pride.

The hunters of the group would go out every morning with their hand-crafted arrows and tusk-mounted spears to catch that night's meal. At the time, there was a famine in the land and food was the most precious commodity- something every warrior was reminded of when they heard the deep cries of their children as bellies would rumble incessantly. 

The most respected of the hunting group was a man called Tibaro, and he led his pack of warriors deeper than they had ever gone before into the forest. Every once in a while, they would catch a bird or a spare hare, but nothing substantial enough to feed their people.

Tibaro was in the lead, and he spotted a thicket of brush off in the distance from which smoke was rising up into the atmosphere. That's strange, there are no people for miles around here. But his curiosity led him to go inside.

Immediately upon entering his head started spinning as the thick smoke filled his lungs. After a few minutes of being paralyzed by the fumes, he heard a booming voice.

"Tibaro, you have led your people well. But this famine is strong and will not end for many more moons. I have a proposition for you," the voice offered.

"Anything to spare my people," the desperate tone showed through Tibaro's voice.

"I can make sure your people are provided for every day for the rest of their lives as long as you and your warriors agree to protect my forest every day for the rest of your lives," the booming voice got louder as it spoke.

Thinking that protecting the forest is something to which his warrior tribe was already accustomed, he agreed immediately. 

"Good. Tonight at moonlight you will see the forest change in a way you have never seen," said the voice, "there will be new fruit and places for animals to come feast."

Tibaro led his group back to their home sites, going to sleep soundly knowing that when he woke up that there would be new fruits that would have appeared.

That night, however, as soon as moonlight struck, Tibaro and all of his warriors were transformed into countless varieties of trees, sprouting fruits and berries this forest had never seen. When the women and children arose the next morning they were delighted to discover this transformation!

They looked at the biggest, thickest of the new trees and discovered a thick, amber substance that leaked from around the bark. These are the tears of Tibaro as he realized he would be protecting the forest by providing it from his branches. This is where tree sap originated.

Tibaro's tears, also known as tree sap.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

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Author's Note: I wrote this story based on the Tejas Legends Unit  from the book When the Storm God Rides: Tejas and Other Indian Legends from the early 20th century. This particular story is not based on any one story from the unit, rather, I chose to follow the same style of all of the story. Each legend tells the story behind a different nature phenomenon, such as woodpecker's tails and the colors of certain flowers. I chose to use the same theme, but twist it to tell a story about where tree sap comes from!

Storytelling Week 7: The Repercussions of Entitlement

The daughter sat under her cream-colored, lace curtain as she heard a soft knock at the door. Her princess room was a dazzling shade of magical pink that made her skin look a little softer as the paint reflected off the walls. She opened the door to her father standing there as he scooped her up and asked if he was late to the tea party.

Delighted, she hurried to prepare a tea party for her handsome 'prince,' for she did not know he was coming today! She carefully set out the plastic china that she had received for her seventh birthday, and pulled out a way-too-small chair for her father to sit on. And so the tea party was in session!


The daughter wanted to make sure that her father had the warmest reception, so she offered up her finest Earl Gray, gave him the choicest of biscuits, and gave him her favorite lace handkerchief. He seemed pleased with the honor she showed him.

                                   

Earl Grey tea in raw form.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Conversation flowed, pleasantries exchanged, and the father asked his daughter if she had any books he could read her. She happily ran to her white bookshelf and picked up her favorite picture book, proudly holding it out to her father.


Little did she know that in the time it took her to pick out the book, something had shifted in her father, as it always did. He was no longer smiling.


"Not that book."


Terror entered as the tone shifted in her father's voice; she walked back to the bookshelf and picked up a different book, desperately hoping that he would snap out of it.


"You've got to be kidding me. No one wants to read that book to you. You have the worst taste in books."


She hated when he lost patience. She never knew when she would get her 'prince charming' or her 'worst nightmare' father. She tried once more to hand him a book they had read together a thousand times.


"Whatever, I'm done with you. You aren't worth my time."


Inwardly pleading for the prince charming part of her father to come back she fought back tears, praying that if nothing else he would at least leave before it escalated.


“Wwhat do you want fwom me, Daddy?” the daughter trembled.


“Oh now you ask what I want? I want you to shut up and stop bothering me.” the father boomed.


He took one more glance around and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him. The daughter gasped a sigh of relief and desperation. She didn’t know what it was that he wanted, or how she was to please him; all she knew was that she was terrified and that she shouldn’t play around with her father.

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Author’s Note: This story is based off The Dragon-King story from The Chinese Fairy book ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens in 1921. In the original story, the ape king has secured his immortality and he goes to find a weapon worthy of his greatness. He goes to the dragon-king that lives nearby, and the dragon-king receives him well and shows Sun Wu Kung his best weapons. None of them satisfy Sun, and he demands better. He then finds a weapon he likes, and then demands a set of armor. This story really changed my opinion of Sun because I felt that he was extremely rude, showing up to a stranger and demanding that the stranger give him the best of the best gifts. The dragon-king did his best to satisfy, but at the end of the story he was left trembling in fear of Sun Wu. In my story, I set it up as a father and a daughter as the main characters. The daughter represents the dragon-king and receives her father (Sun) really well, but at the end he turns selfish, rude, and causes the daughter to fear his volatile actions.

Week 6 Storytelling: Tar-Baby Fights Back

Author's Note: I am choosing to put this at the beginning because I think it will really help whoever is having to read this! I chose to rewrite The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story (from the Brer Rabbit unit) from the story Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings written in dialect by Joel Charles Harris in 1881. I attempted to write in similar dialect, which was an extreme challenge. In the original story, Brer Fox makes a baby out of tar and Brer Rabbit comes up and tries to talk to him. He ends up getting mad and hitting him and getting his hands stuck. My story was the same up until this point, but then I made Tar-Baby come to life and teach the rival pair of Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox a lesson by leaving them with their hands stuck together with tar at the end!

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Brer Fox was tired o Brer Rabbit playin all dose tricks on him all da time, he got 'im an idea. He know Brer Rabbit was gon be com hiss away, so Brer Fox got hisself som dat tar en made a baby.


First he crafted some dem legs en arms, en den he placed dem onto da body. He made a lil baby face en even put a hat he got from ol Sis Hen on topo da baby. He quickly placed da Tar-Baby on da sido road jussin time. Brer Fox hid in da bushes behind da Tar-Baby so he could see er'din happen.

Brer Rabbit was com down da road when he see da Tar-Baby sitting der.


"Mawnin fren! Goodun wedder today righ?" No response from de Tar-Baby. Brer Fox lay low in de bushes silent.


"I said mawnin' to yer..." Brer Rabbit sezzee. "Can you not talk er nuttin?" No response from de Tar-Baby. Brer Fox lay low still.


"Are yer deaf? Do yer need me to talk louder? I kin if yer wan'!" yelled Brer Rabbit. Tar-Baby sez nuttin. Menwill, Brer Fox still lay low.


"Are yer one o dem rich ones? Are yer too gerduh talk to simple folk like me?" sezzee him. Tar-Baby jus sat der silent. Brer Fox lay low even still.


“I’m gon lern yer a lesson, yes I am. You need ter lerna talk to ‘spectubble folk like me!” So Brer Rabbit reared back as far he cud, tryin ter lern Ter-Baby a lesson by stickin him a good un.


SLAM! An jus like dat Brer Rabbit wen an got his hand stuck right der in da Tar-Baby. He got so mad dat he slam his other fist righ in de odder side o dat Tar-Baby. Whadduyer know dat Brer Rabbit gon get his odder fist stuck too! Menwill, Brer Fox is tryin ter keep all his chuckles inside as he watch all dis happen.


Brer Rabbit had his last nerve and reared back ter smack de Tar-Baby right in der head with his own. Jus as he was bout ter do dis, Tar-Baby stood up. Brer Fox watch in ‘stonishmunt. Tar-Baby stood a whole head higher den Brer Rabbit.


Tremblin’ Brer Rabbit sez, “Tar-Baby, I’m sorry I din know yer wer listnin der whole time ter me. Why din you respond?”


“I know yer wuz gon try to hit me cuz I know bout yer temper. Dis way after yer hit me I would have yer hands all tied up!” sezzee Tar-Baby. And lo and behold he wuz right! Brer Rabbit couldn’t move his hands cuz dey were all caught up in de tar.


Jus den Brer Fox comes out of de bushes. “How did dis happen, Tar-Baby? I was tryin ter play a trick on ‘im and yer gon played one on me!” sezzee.



Den Tar-Baby grabbed Brer Fox and pulled ‘im over ter where Brer Rabbit was. Tar-Baby took bo der hands and sum of his ver own tar and put it right der in tween and ‘roun der hands. Den he wriggled loose from both Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox.


Tar-Bab walked away from bo dem and left dem standin der in middle of de road, walking han-in-han an hatin err secon of it.

Brer Rabbit and Tar-Baby

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Storytelling Week 5: A Love to Produce

It was a little after noon one breezy June day, and she sauntered in so unsuspectingly. Careful, she was. Taking care to gather everything she needed, she packed each item efficiently around her. It was time. She grabbed a hold of her rod, pushed with all of her might and was off.


He’d arrived that same day. The ship he had came off was crowded, with others like him and many of different color. Although he was of the same descent, he looked different than even his own kind, rejected in a way. He wasn’t too sure about his new station, and hoped it would be different. It was a new place with new dreams. Would he be chosen for greatness?


She started at a good pace, occasionally stopping to take in her surroundings, sometimes even taking samples. She seemed to be on a specific mission- she would pick things up and examine them closely, only to put them right back or to grab even more samples. She neared the area where he was standing, clueless that she was so proximal to her destiny.


He was in a room with all of his comrades, this room much different than any other he’d ever seen. There were people all around, curious they seemed. It had been a long time since he had seen a people like this. Feeling uncomfortable about his obvious inability to measure up to the guys next to him, he tried to shift to make himself more attractive to those who happened to glance his way. Several people had come by and tried to interact with him, only to look away quickly or to have their face go sour at the sight of him.


It was at that moment she saw him. She’d sworn to never deal with his kind. She’d been around those similar, and didn’t like her dealings with them. But how could she resist? He wasn’t the best looking in the bunch, no, but there was a sort of magnetism about him that demanded her interest.


In came Enemy, under the cover of “just doing his job.” He watched as Enemy swept in like a hawk, giving a fatal blow to another guy only a few rows down. Enemy’s hand neared, and fear swept over him like a rushing wind. No, not today. I will be chosen for greatness- I will not end my days like this!


She saw Enemy trying to destroy her love. “NO! STOP!” she cried. Not today, Enemy can not destroy this love that can so easily produce these deep feelings in her. Reaching out her hand, she barely stopped Enemy from coming in with the deadly kill. Looking right at him, she teared up at the thought of losing her love.


Enemy backed off. She gladly reached for that perfectly-sized, rough-in-appearance, deep-green avocado that had caught her eye from across the produce section.

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Author's Note: This story is loosely based on The Girl and the Thief from the book Twenty-Two Goblins translated by Arthur W. Ryder and illustrated by Perham W. Nahl in 1917. Granted, the original story wasn't about a woman who laid eyes on a perfect avocado, but the basics are the same. 

The original story talks about a girl who swears she will never marry. At that time, a thief came and plundered the city, taking everything and killing many. The thief was finally caught and was being dragged to slaughter whenever the girl saw him for the first time. She immediately fell in love with him, and swore that if they didn't let him go she would kill herself rather than live lovesick. He ends up dying and she was going to burn herself on the funeral pyre with him when the favor of the gods allowed him to live. They lived happily ever after. In my version, the thief is the avocado (unloved by those around him) and the girl is the woman who spots the avocado. The Enemy in my story represents a grocer who is just doing his job in removing the produce that doesn't look appealing to customers! I thought this was a fun, creative way to rewrite this already-fun story!

There he was, the perfect avocado that caught her eye from across the store.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

Storytelling Week 4: The Floor is Lava!

The boat rocked and reeled on the stormy seas as Sinda and his crew tried their best to dampen the impact. It proved to no avail, seeing as seconds later a screeching howl indicated the instantaneous deterioration of their not-so-faithful ship. Clinging to the wreckage, Sinda yelled for his crew to do the same. The stores eventually calmed and the current swept the crew away, praying for life as their fates lay at the mercy of the sea.
There were about fifteen crew members that managed to survive, but the shipwreck proved to be the least of their perils. After days they ended up landing on an uninhabited island that was hostile and unwelcoming. Coming onshore they were just grateful for dry land underneath their soles. After resting and consuming what was left of their stores, the crew now explored their new home. Every direction gave them sight of jagged ebony that made it near impossible to walk at a favorable pace, and no one had ever seen anything like it.
Rumble. Rumble.
The crew trembled. "What is going on that the earth itself mocks us with laughter?" Sinda thought to himself. At that instant, steaming red liquid shot out of a remote orifice in the mountain. It flowed in every direction, consuming any vegetation that dared spring up since the last eruption. The crew sprinted for safety, but found no place that served as a respite from the hungry red lava. Sinda spotted a colossal boulder and screamed for his crew to run to safety. Only eight of the men made it in time.
The eruption endured, and the crew was trapped.
The wreck caused the crew to lose all of ther food stores, save that which was in the pockets of the men, and those were minimal at best. The lava kept flowing, the men kept waiting. Starvation came and took another of the men.
Sinda knew that he had to make a plan if he and his crew were to be spared. He began to study the rock around his, noticing the makeup of it was rather platy and resistant to destruction from the lava. He then studied the flow streams of the lava, and calculated a careful path back to the edge of the island where they first landed. He knew it was a long shot, but what else could he do? He picked up a rock off the ground and carefully began chipping away at the edges of the boulder until pieces the size of a plate chipped off. He was chipping off plates one-by-one, and after giving six to each of the men he was chipping away at his own plate. He hit a little too hard, and just as the last plate came off the boulder cracked and began to disintegrate.
"GO!" yelled Sinda.
The crew had no choice but threw the plates down and began their surfing career. Luckily, the lava wasn't flowing too fast, so most of the crew could maintain their balance. One man, however, was not  so lucky, and fell into the burning lava. At his amazement, Sinda and the five remaining crew members made it back to the ship wreckage, quickly grabbing ahold and flinging themselves into the water. They didn't realize that the island that offered safety from the sea would bring even greater peril.
The crew was back at sea, and to their astonishment a ship came by within the first few hours of being afloat. Hospitable crew it was, to take in Sinda and his mates. Upon arriving home, Sinda swore he would never dare such a task again.
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Author's Note:  This story is based on Sindbad's Third Voyage from The Arabian Nights' Entertainment by Andrew Lang illustrated by H.J. Ford in 1898. In the original story, Sindbad and his crew, much like Sinda, get shipwrecked onto an island. Their enemy in the original story is a giant that eats one of their crew members every night. Sindbad comes up with a plan to escape the giant’s lair and a few of his crew manage to escape to the rafts in the sea.
The two stories aren’t exactly the same, but I will be honest, I didn't know how to rewrite any of Sindbad's voyage and still maintain that sense of adventure that are in the original stories. I tried to keep a few things the same, such as the dangerous shipwreck and escaping just in the nick of time. I also decided to leave it in a dangerous, adventurous setting. Changing the main threat from a predator like a giant to a more natural force makes this story unique. The picture of the lava has now significance other than the fact that it looks menacing!
I also found that in many of Sindbad’s voyages, he just so happens to come across favorable situations- so I made this happen at the end of my story as well by them happening to come across a ship to take them so safety.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Storytelling Week 3: Grief Ain't Brief

The beginning of August carried with it a soft breeze that hardly cushioned the effect of the blazing sun on Ody’s skin. Looking around him, Ody took in the scenery: the summer sun was setting over the cerulean tops of the standard stark white Greek houses. His best friends stood by his side with bittersweet countenance as they knew their time abroad was drawing to a close.

It all started with a spontaneous airline ticket purchase into Venice, Italy. Three weeks of adventure unfolded before them as they backpacked the coast of Croatia, hiked the Alps, and caught a fairy over the deep waters of the Adriatic Sea to land them in Greece the last few days of their journey. The very next day they were to catch a plane back to Houston, away from their dreams and into the ‘real’ world. It was at this time that Ody got the call.

“Ode, it’s your father. I know you are abroad, but I had to call. It’s…”

“Dad? What’s going on?” said Ody, detecting the tone in his father’s voice.

“Your mother, Ody. Your mother is gone. We found her late last night. She was missing you so she went to your favorite spot, on the mountain behind the pasture, just to feel closer to you. She must have misstepped… and… she fell quite a ways down. She didn’t make it.”

This dialogue went on for a few more minutes when it seemed that there was nothing left to say. Ody booked a flight from Houston to his home in Oregon, resolving to meet his dad at the airport the next evening to figure everything out. Until then, Ody had to get through the his last night in Greece.

His friends did their best to comfort him, but really just served best when trying to distract his mind. That night, Ody’s sleep proved to be even more unrestful than being awake.

He was back at home, walking through the pasture with a blanket and journal in tow, heading for his fort. It was his favorite place to go while growing up. He was climbing the final stretch of the rocky trail, the fort’s tree in sight. Inside, he sat with his journal open, wanting to write but not knowing where to begin.

He heard a noise and saw his mother climbing the ladder to get inside; she must have followed him. He leant her a hand and pulled her up to the seat next to him.

“What’s troubling you?” his mother asked.

“Mom, I… don’t know. Why did you leave? How could you leave? What am I going to do?

“I didn’t know that when I had left for Europe I would never see you again. It’s my fault. I should have warned you not to come up to the fort alone, it can be dangerous.” Ody sobbed.

“I know, son, I know. I didn’t want to leave, I really just missed you, that’s all. Promise me that when you return, you’ll hug our family extra tight for me.”

At that instant, Ody woke up in the night. Plagued by his dreams, but a small part of him thrilled he was able to get another glimpse at his mother’s face, no matter how counterfeit. 

And so it began, his journey of grief. He didn’t realize that as he was leaving the journey of his dreams, he would be arriving to an entirely new journey, one he never hoped to begin. The journey of grief and loss.

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Author's Note: This is a very loose version of the story in Homer's Odyssey, translated by Tony Kline in 2000, called The Spirit of Anticleia. In the original story, Odysseus and his men have traveled all over the earth, conquering many beasts and all kinds of evil. He finds himself traveling to the underworld to seek the advice of a friend that had passed, and there he sees the spirit of his mother, Anticleia. When he had left his home in Ithaca, his mother had been alive. He first discovered her death through visiting the underworld. 

While greek mythology may seem hard to translate into real-world terms, I wanted to do something about the impact of losing a mother. While a majority of people can't relate to cyclops’ deaths, and being enchanted by princesses, most can relate to the sting of death in one way or another. That is what I hope to have conveyed through writing the story. No matter where you are in your journey of grief, you can feel for Ody, who has just begun his own.

On a completely random sidenote, I decided the setting for this story based on the exact trip a friend and I are taking to Europe this summer. We will be flying into Italy and out of Athens after three weeks of adventuring over there. This fact made it a little more interesting to write, although I am praying against it being any sort of foreshadowing for my life!

Santorini, Greece.

Image Credit: BlogLovin'

Storytelling Week 2: Phaethon's Plight

Payton sat in the middle of his entrepreneurship class daydreaming about how he could become the next CEO featured in Forbes. Sipping up the drool as his professor concluded that day’s lecture, Payton gathered his stuff and beelined for the exit. Catching up with a few of his classmates as they headed towards the student union, Payton announced how he was going to follow in his father’s footsteps and start his own multibillion dollar corporation by the time he was thirty, his words dripping with pride.

Accustomed to his claims, his classmates rolled their eyes as they quickly dispelled Payton’s dreams. “Pay, you cannot be serious. You are the bottom of the class, scraping by to barely graduate this year. We want you to do well, but you must face the music. You are an average businessman who is not capable of competing on Wall Street. You don’t even have a job yet! Also, you say that your father is the CEO of Sun Corporation, but we’ve never seen you interact with him. Once again, we want to call your bluff; drop the facade and drop the dreams. We’ve seen you with your father, who runs a local coffee shop, which is not exactly the multimillion dollar company about which you frequently boast.”

“Guys, seriously? I’ve told you a million times that Mer’s Mocha is owned by my step-father” Payton rebuttled, “my real father is the CEO of Sun Corp. Just you all wait, I will prove every single one of you wrong and create the most successful business you’ve ever seen.”

The truth is, Payton had never met his real father, if that even was the truth. He did live with his mother, Clemmy, and step-father Merop; it was the only life he had ever known. He called his mother later that evening and questioned her legitimacy about his birth father. Fed up with his inability to accept her story as truth, she counseled him to go visit his father at Sun Corp.

Determination in tow, Payton booked a ticket to Chicago and went straight to the Sears tower where Sun Corporation is headquartered. After annoying the secretary, he was given the favor to at least speak to his father’s assistant. After pleading with the assistant to at least check the authenticity of his story with his father, Payton was told to wait outside of the top floor corner office.

The doors opened wildly and a man tall in stature with thick golden hair exclaimed, “Payton! My son, I thought I would never see you again! What brings you here? How did you find me?” Fas, short for Phoebus, is his name; he started Sun Corporation from the ground up and has been named the most successful CEO in Chicago.

“I came here to find out if it was true- that you really are my father. I am studying business at Harvard, and had to find out if it was in my blood,” replied Payton.

“Oh Payton, yes it is absolutely true. I want to help you! In fact, anything you need my help with you just let me know and I promise I will do everything in my power to make it come to fruition,” said Fas.

“I want to run my own branch of Sun corporation in New York. I want to be the CEO of that branch and prove to my classmates that I am successful and powerful,” demanded Payton.

Fas’s face fell. Everything but that. It wasn’t that he didn’t want the best for his son or worried about the wellbeing of his company, rather, that he didn’t see the qualities in Payton that are necessary to run a giant corporation. Payton needed to grow and mature, and learn the business for a while before taking on such a daunting task. He explained this to Payton, but it’s as if he was talking to a brick wall. Never had he regretted a promise so much.

“Son, you need to grow more, learn the business a little bit. Right now, you wouldn’t succeed easily. There are too many other businesses out there gunning for you to fail! Because I made a promise, I will do this for you. But I truly advise you to not choose this path. I don’t want your career to be ruined before it even starts!” Fas admonished.

A man of his word, Fas set up a branch of Sun Corp. to launch in New York starting in May when Payton graduated. Payton was to be the CEO and operate this branch as an independent branch of the company. The fate of Payton’s career was in his own hands now.

(In honor of my recent trip to Chicago) The city of Chicago as seen from the Navy Pier at sunset. Self-photographed on January 19, 2015.

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Author's Note: This is a retelling of Phaethon and the Sun from Ovid's Metamorphoses Unit (books 1-4) and translated into English by Tony Kline in 2000. The original story is based on Sun, the immortal god of the sun, reuniting with his son, Phaethon, for the first time since he was born. Phaethon wants to prove to his classmates that he was born of a god. Upon reuniting, Sun grants Phaethon one wish. Phaethon wishes to drive Sun's chariot of fire for one day, but Sun admonishes Phaethon to pick something else. In the following story, we see how Phaethon is not ready for such power. This story, however, ends on a note of impending destruction. I chose to put this in a business-like setting because it seems to be easily correlated to Phaethon and the Sun.

Storytelling Week 1: 'Greedom' is not Free.

Times were tough. It seems as if desperation was the only readily available snack, and hunger had become a faithful friend of all.

King Greed knew that the kingdom would not survive if the appropriate measures were not taken, so he summoned his servant named Mouse.

“We must go out and search for food so that our kingdom can survive.”

So King Greed and Mouse set out on a long journey in search of food. After many days and nights they arrived in a land they have never seen before. Upon arriving, they found fields with organized rows of green plants. They decided to open the plants up, and discovered golden pods of nectar.

“Alas, Mouse, we have found that for which we have searched far and wide! All of this food can be ours” exclaimed Greed.

Mouse reared back his head to chomp down on the newly discovered food. Right before making contact, a rush of wind met them. It came from a magnificent chariot driven by a weasel. He wore a robe of purple velvet that cascaded down over the edge of the rail inches above the ground.

“I am King Wisdom, and this is my land. I see you have found the corn plant for which my kingdom is famous. I overheard your saying this food can be yours” he said, directing his gaze to King Greed. “Friends, I am sorry to say that I cannot let you take this for yourself. You can have whatever you can carry in your bags, but that is all I will allow.

“Thank you for coming to visit my land, and you are welcome back to visit any time. I must go back to my duties, now.”

With a sudden rush, King Wisdom’s chariot lurched forward and he disappeared in an instant.

Mouse began to fill his pockets with corn, and turned away once this had been accomplished. King Greed, however, looked at Mouse and told him that he was a fool for believing King Wisdom.

“He will have no idea if we take more than our share! Look at those horses in the distance; we can tie hundreds of sacks to them and take them back to our land” said King Greed.

Mouse felt uneasy because of the warning King Wisdom had given him. But the corn was incredibly refreshing after not having eaten for so long. He just couldn’t pass up this opportunity, and King Greed was convincing. Mouse went and untied the horses that were at a house nearby and began filling up all of the sacks he could, with his master’s approving gaze.

Once all of the horses were loaded up, King Greed and Mouse decided to go back to their own land with all of the corn they had stolen.

Right before reaching the edge of King Wisdom’s land, a guard noticed them as foreigners. The guard quickly sent for King Wisdom and stopped King Greed and Mouse from leaving.

Not long after, King Wisdom arrived on his chariot. Once King Greed and Mouse had come into his sight, he immediately knew what had transpired. Disappointed, he addressed the two:

“I know what you have done. I told you that you were allowed some, and you took a hundred times that. I am disappointed in you both. You are no friends of my land, and for punishment I will keep you both imprisoned here until you are even hungrier than when you arrived. Only then will I let you return to your land.”

Defeated, King Greed and Mouse were tied up and taken to the prison nearby.

Just when they thought no more misfortune could come, they discovered that their jail cell had a window that overlooked fields and fields of corn.

The view from the jail cell window.

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

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Author's Note:

This fable is called The Mouse and the Weasel from Aesop for Children, by anonymous, illustrated by Milo Winter (1919). In the original text, a hungry mouse encounters a bag of corn. He finds a small hole and wiggles his way inside. After eating more than his share, he discovers he can't get back out because his belly won't let him leave. A weasel comes by and figures out what happened to the mouse, giving him little sympathy for his greed.

I loved this fable in particular, because I feel like greed is something that the world pushes on us from an early age. Something can be innately good, but if you have too much, even good can be bad. It mimics one of my favorite Proverbs:

If you have found honey, eat only enough for you, lest you have your fill of it and vomit it.

Proverbs 25:16

In America especially, where materialism is rampant, greed can lead us after the pursuit of money and pleasure. But a pursuit that is left unchecked can quickly turn into our ruin. This fable has been rewritten with a bit of a creative flare, turning greed and wisdom into people. I feel like this allows me to look at it as if my decisions are capable of being heavily influenced by these two things, and I must ensure I am always aware of to which I am listening!