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?”