Petra and Her String

This is another story inspired by my young niece. Some days, she likes to take string and tie it from cupboard to cupboard in the kitchen to make a maze, while her mom is making dinner- maybe a future engineer at work. It makes quite the web and makes it difficult for those in the kitchen to travel around without having to duck and leap over the string. 

I noticed in re-reading this that some of the format is a lot like one of the stories I just posted, so I hope I'm not falling into a style trap but I guess that's part of the process. Again, it's a manuscript for a picture book, and I'm not sure if it all makes sense without the visuals but this is the first version.

                                     Petra and  Her String

                                                                by Victoria Simpson

 

Petra liked string. She liked to tie up the kitchen cupboards and watch people pass.

One day, she sat on the sofa.

“Let’s tie up the pencils,” she said to her cat.

And so, the cat and Petra chased the string into the hallway… and they tied up all the HBs. Erasers and all.

Petra stood very still.

“The chairs look kind of loose,” she said.

And so, she went around twice. She went in and out, and up and down. The chairs were now very tight.

“Kind of like a family,” Petra smiled.

It was a very bright day with lots of sun. The rays came in through the glass in the door. 

“Let’s tie up the sand buckets,” said Petra.

And so, she got 37 balls of yarn from the shed-her mom was learning to knit- and Petra wove them up and down and in and around. She made a pyramid. 

And then, since she had so much yarn, she ran around the block and down the street. She tied up all the cars.

She crossed at the crosswalk and did the bicycles. And then the scooters. And then the stop signs and  the recycling boxes and the garden hoses, and the dirty shoes, and the mailboxes and restaurants and pumpkins, and finally, all the houses.

“There we go,” she said.

It was kind of quiet. The cars went by one at a time.

When people came home, things were different. Nobody could eat. Nobody could sleep. 

And so, they went fishing in the river for dinner. They played cards. Some people acted out t.v shows. Other people played tug-of-war

and did tight-rope walking. Some people juggled rocks and sticks and acorns and while they were all tied up, they felt kind of free.

“This is nice, we should do it every day,” said Petra’s friend Sam.

“I agree,” said Petra.

Then, they sat by the river and had dandelion tea. And everyone watched the water.

And when it was time to go in, they felt quite good. Except for one small thing.

Petra sat on the porch and smiled.

“Anyone have some scissors?”

Keziah Sharpens Pencils

 

I’ve been having some fun with my five-year old niece, coming up with new ideas for some short pieces. These are two stories- one is about sharpening pencils, and the other is about facing some fears, at the pool. It was fun to share ideas with a fresh, young imagination. The spaces in the first one are to mark each page.

                    KEZIAH SHARPENS PENCILS

                            By Vicki-Keziah’s aunt 

                                (Victoria Simpson)

Keziah was sharpening pencils. They were all  dull. 

 

“They need to be sharper,” she said.

“Ok,” said her Aunt Vicki. “But don’t sharpen too long.”

“But I have a lot of pencils,” said Keziah. 

And she sharpened and sharpened. 

She sharpened all afternoon.  

 “You need to stop!” her Aunt Vicki said. 

But Keziah said, 

“I can’t- I have A LOT of pencils. I’m going to be sharpening all day and all night for two days to

get this done, and I won’t be able to stop for food or water, or to go to the bathroom.”

“But then you’re going to disappear in all the shavings!” said her Aunt Vicki.

Keziah was called to dinner. “I’ll be right back,” she said. “Don’t worry. Please watch my pencils and

make sure that no monsters, or elephants get them.”

“Ok,” said her Aunt Vicki. 

And so, Keziah went to dinner-it was her grandfather's birthday- and she ate everything BUT her 

broccoli. She came back and kept on going. 

She sharpened all day, and all night and while she was working, her Aunt Vicki wrote this story. 

Keziah ate left-over ice cream and cake with sprinkles and icing.  

And so that she didn’t get too thirsty, she drank raindrops at night and the dew from flowers.  

And sometimes her Aunt Vicki let her go to the bathroom.  

And finally….

after two days……

… she could draw this picture. 

                                       

  

                             KEZIAH VISITS THE POOL

                                    by Victoria Simpson

Keziah sat on the grass. She was very hot. She wanted to go swimming. 

“Then jump in,” said her Aunt Vicki.

“I WOULD but I can’t,” said Keziah. “I think it’s pretty obvious that it’s really likely there’s a very big sea monster waiting at the bottom of the pool. If you care to notice.”

“That could be,” said her Aunt Vicki.

Keziah moved to the edge of the water. She looked in.

“Hey, SEA monster!” she yelled. “This is a POOL- get out and go back the way you came!”   

And so a GIANT sea monster with many legs and two tails and fifteen ears jumped out of the water and onto the deck. He got water everywhere.

“See,” said Keziah. “I’m usually right.”

“Could you please move? You’re stepping on my towel,” Aunt Vicki said to the monster. 

He moved to the right. 

Keziah stood there in the sun. It was still very hot. 

“Well, it looks like the coast is clear,” said Aunt Vicki. “Everything’s safe.”

“Not really,” said the sea monster. “Not if you count the wild orangutans. They’re all still here.”

Aunt Vicki looked doubtful.

“This is a pool-there aren’t any monkeys around.”

 “Not monkeys- orangutans,” said Keziah, nodding. “And yes, there are. Obviously you can’t see them because you’re reading, but they’re here. They’re hanging from the trees!”

“That’s right,” said the sea monster. 

“Really,” said Aunt Vicki. 

“Sure,” said Keziah, and she took a step across the patio. 

“Ok, crazy orangutans-ok, great APES, that’s it! Everybody down! Everyone out of the branches!”

Keziah and Aunt Vicki and the sea monster waited. And then fifty-seven orangutans dropped from the pines and landed on the ground.

“Really? FIFTY-SEVEN?” said the sea monster, surprised. 

“It’s hot,” Keziah explained. “EVERYONE wants in the shade.”

 “EVERYONE. And I can still see them. And I’ll tell you-I’m coming to get you!”

And so, she took a long walk. She got the snake out of the garbage, and the tiger out of the recycling and the rats out the filters. She got the dragons out of the bushes, and the three-toed porcupines out of the snack box. And then she got the genie out of the sunscreen, and the snoring armadillo to come out of the shower.

 “That’s much better,” she said. 

The armadillo scratched his ears.

“It IS really hot,” he said.  

"Time to go SWIMMING!"