Story Time: Who’s Afraid of the Dark?

It was a dark and stormy night.  A cliché I know, but true.  No one in the apartment but me and the baby, my 5 month old niece.  She was supposed to be asleep in the room at the back of our home.  Nope, she was crying instead, wailing more like it.  It was different however, which is why I walked down the hall a little faster than normal.  People who have spent some time around a baby tend to know what’s wrong by the way they cry.  I’ve spent enough time with her to know that wasn’t a cry because she just wanted her teddy.  It was a cry of absolute terror.

I got to her and tried to calm her down, but she continued to cry.  This was confusing, there wasn’t anything in the room, at least not that I could see.  That’s when I noticed the room itself appeared to be shaking.  Why I didn’t immediately notice this I’m not sure, but it did appear to tremble.  Then I realized it wasn’t the room.  It was the lights flickering, quite violently in fact.  I decided to quickly move the baby to the living room, not that there was any real danger to her, right?

From the living room I could see the light from the back room continue to flicker and then start to fade.  It faded into complete darkness.  This flickering and fading traveled pass the bathroom and down the hall, spreading to all the lamps in each room of the formally well-lit apartment.  The darkness was spreading quickly, and coming toward us.  As the darkness drew closer, her screams grew louder.

It came closer and closer…

…she got louder and louder…

…Closer and Closer…

…Louder and Louder…

…Closer…

…Louder…

…Closer…

…Louder…

…and then…

 

 

 

…Silence.

Happy Halloween!

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Story Time: Of Boys and Stuff Toys

This is a story about a little boy who loves stuff animals.  Really loves them.  He has a special shelf in his room built by his grandpa where his entire collection lives.  All except his favorite, a stuff bunny his grandma made for him when he was two years old.  This bunny has long floppy ears and a soft huggable body, perfect to cuddle with when the boy goes to bed.  When he sleeps, the boy dreams wonderful dreams of going on adventures with his bunny.  He had one where he was the captain on a ship and his bunny was his first mate.  They sailed all around the world together.  In another dream, the boy was a brave knight and his bunny was his faithful squire.  The little boy liked to take his bunny along with him during the daytime too.  Grocery shopping with his parents, the swings at the park, the doctor’s office, his bunny went everywhere with him.  Everywhere except one place, to school.  It wasn’t that he wasn’t allowed to bring his bunny to school, other kids brought toys to school all the time.  It was because the boy next door once told him that boys aren’t supposed to play with stuffed animals, they’re for girls and babies.  The boy next door is 4 months older so he knows better, at least that’s what the little boy thought.  So the little boy was afraid that the kids would laugh at him and call him a baby if he brought the bunny to school.  And so, everyday before he left for school he would sadly wave bye-bye to his bunny, wishing he could take him with him. 

There was another boy who recently moved in across the street.  He was much older than the boy next store, and went to a bigger school too.  One day, the little boy’s mother asked the older boy to walk him to school since she had something important to do that morning.  This made the little boy very happy, the older boy was so cool.  The little boy did still feel sad though when he waved to his bunny, still wishing he could take him with him.  “Well, why don’t you?” said the older boy.  The little boy was surprised to hear that.  He told the older boy everything he had been told about stuffed animals.  Then the older boy surprised him again.  “I have a stuffed bear,” he said.  He pulled it out of his backpack and showed it to the little boy.  It was light brown with a blue ribbon around its neck and was small enough to fit in the older boy’s hand, such a cute little bear.  He told the little boy that he took it to school everyday because it was good luck, especially during practice (he is on the basketball team).  “Do you think that makes me a baby?” asked the older boy.  The little boy shook his head, and immediately ran to grab his bunny.  So when they got to the little boy’s classroom, he and his bunny waved bye-bye to the older boy and his bear.  That day only one kid laugh at the little boy, but he didn’t mind.  He was too busy playing with his bunny and the other kids to even notice.

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Story Time: Strange Auntie

There once was a little girl who had an aunt whom she called Auntie.  She loved her Auntie very much.  Auntie lived close enough for the little girl to walk over all by herself and that’s what the girl did, every day.  The little girl loved it at Auntie’s house.  In the small yard there was a garden full of the most interesting and unusual plants she had ever seen.  Inside, you could see all of Auntie’s dolls.  They were all so very beautiful and sometimes Auntie let the little girl play with some of them if she promised to be very careful.  Auntie had a room that was full of almost nothing but books about practically everything there is, at least the little girl thought so.  The little girl loved Auntie’s sewing room the most.  Auntie made all her clothes there and they were the best.  So colorful and flow-y, she looked like some of the flowers in the garden.  “Auntie Flower”, the little girl thought with a smile.  Auntie also cooked foods she had never heard of but were always good, made up funny stories that made the little girl laugh until her stomach hurt, and let her play with Ferdinand, her pet ferret.  It was always so much fun at Auntie’s house.

One day when the little girl was on her way to Auntie’s, she passed by some bigger kids.  They were talking about the little girl’s Auntie which made her happy at first, until she realized what they were saying.  They were saying how weird Auntie was and that her house was kind of creepy.  The little girl was shocked.  No one had ever told her that her Auntie was “weird”.  She didn’t want to have a weird aunt.  So she ran the rest of the way to Auntie’s house and told her what the kids said.  Auntie thought for a moment, and then with a small smile said “I love you so much that I will change for you, but what should I change?”  Then she thought again.  “Should I stop collecting my beautiful dolls?” asked Auntie.  The little thought about this, then replied, “no, I love that about you.”  With a grin Auntie asked, “should I stop making all my lovely clothes?”  To this again the little girl replied, “no, I love that about you.”  This continued on and on.  For everything Auntie asked, the little girl had the same reply.  Until finally Auntie asked, “is there anything else I can change?”  The little girl tried to think of something, but couldn’t.  That was everything.  Then the girl said, “no, because I love you just as you are.”  Auntie was happy to hear this and so was the little girl.  Having a “weird” Auntie isn’t a bad thing after all.

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Happy Halloween

What a Treat

Halloween is here with trick-or-treating tonight.
So I’ll tell you the story of a man named Dwight.

Dwight’s fondest wish was to give out some treats
that would be the best most brilliant on his street.

He would fill his bowl with all sorts of goodies galore
that would leave the children begging for more.

He went in search for them, the best he could find.
With the sweetest and sugary-est, surely he’d shine.

And with his bowl full of crunchies, he set his place near the door,
Set ready to welcome the trick-or-treating hoard.

First came one ghost, then a princess and such.
Seeing the bowl, they made such a fuss.

Until a vampire shouted from up the way
which made the children scurry away.

Apparently Mrs. Johnson from up the street
was giving out apples and Oh! what a treat!

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Story Time — To Be a Princess

Updated 6/13/2023

Once upon a time there was a little girl who loved to wear pretty dresses.  Dresses with lots of ruffles, lace, and pretty ribbons that seemed to float in the breeze.

She liked to spin around while wearing her lovely dresses, and she felt like a graceful swan gliding across the water.  But mostly she felt like a beautiful princess as she twirled about in her dream world. 

One day the little girl was twirling around in her best dress.  It was her favorite one, all white with the loveliest of lace and a tiered ruffled skirt. 

Her head was so full of thoughts and dreams of swans and princesses that she didn’t notice several other little girls had approached her.  They were all wearing “fashion” jeans and t-shirts for the most popular TV shows. 

Most of them started giggling at the little girl in her pretty dress and teased her.  No one dresses like that except babies they thought.  This made the little girl so upset that she felt like crying and running home.

Instead she took a deep breath and held her head high.  Princesses were too dignified to let mean little girls see them cry.  So she gracefully walked on until she was out of sight, then the tears burst out and she ran home.

She got home and hid in her room.  The tears continued until her mother came in and asked what was wrong.  When the little girl had finished telling her story, her mother asked her a strange question.  Will the little girl stop wearing her pretty dresses and dress like those other girls?  This puzzled the girl, why would she want to dress like those mean girls?  She didn’t like jeans and those t-shirts all looked the same, plus she loves her dresses way more.  Why would you wear something you didn’t like?  When the girl told her mother this, her mother smiled. 

The next day, the little girl went out again this time in her second favorite dress.  A pretty sky blue dress with puffy sleeves and a lovely sash. 

Suddenly she notice one of the girls from yesterday coming toward her wearing one of those horribly “trendy” outfits.  She started to get scared that the girl would laugh at her.

But then the girl remembered the talk she had with her mother.  All the girls could laugh as much as they wanted she thought, it won’t stop her from dressing how she wanted. 

But the girl from yesterday didn’t laugh at her, she very quietly said that the dress was pretty and so was the one from yesterday.  This surprised the little girl, she didn’t know what to do. 

For a second, she thought about saying something about how ugly this girl’s jeans were, but then she would be like those mean girls and princesses are better than that.  So using her best princess-like manners, she said the nicest thing she could think of.  Thank you. 

Now there are two little girls who love to wear pretty dresses.  Dresses with lots of ruffles, lace, and pretty ribbons that seemed to float in the breeze.  And the little girl feels more like a princess now than ever before.  A strong, kind and beautiful princess.

Update: After years of pondering and what not, I finally adapted this simple story into a full-fledge book.  It is available here on Amazon as a Kindle ebook.  I am still working on the paperback and hardcover versions. Please check it out.

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