Once, hundreds of years ago, there lived a giraffe named Clope who did not like his long neck. He found it most impractical. He wished his head could be closer to the ground. He was, you see, a rather social, most very extroverted giraffe, and most of the animals with whom he was acquainted dwelt […]
Mr. Harding’s Hopefuls
Once, there was a man, named Mr. Harding, who made a business of working with light. He placed electric twinkling bulbs in old raspberry jam jars with tiny brass cranks and sold them to his customers – the township’s children. Every morning, Mr. Harding drove his cart to the corner of Second and Main, where […]
Stories, Soup, and Sewing Needles
This story begins within the walls of a castle, with the birth of a mouse. A small mouse. The last mouse born to his parents and the only one of his litter to be born alive… His ears are too big,’ said his sister Merlot. ‘Those are the biggest ears I’ve ever seen.’ ‘Look,’ said […]
The Beautiful Place
Once there was a girl who wanted, more than anything, to sail around the world. It is a strange wish. A wish for an extraordinary thing. She stands at the window of her house, at the very edge of her village, staring out into the sea. She waits for her father. But she knows that […]
The Given
There are a few left who still remember the war. They speak of faint, childhood recollections – images harbored in their minds of their fathers, setting sail across the dark expanse for the unknown shore. They are proud of their ancestors, and rightly so. Those men were heroes. Now many years later, their children gather […]