This weekend I asked for suggestions for this week’s Trifecta topic. Toenails, and later knees and elbows were the suggestions offered. Trifecta’s challenge for this week was to use the word flight, defined:
3a : a trip made by or in an airplane or spacecraft b : a scheduled airplane trip
I was only going to do this for the challenge, but it fits my Bedtime Story stuff too much to not put it in that category as well.
Peanuts?
Please check all large trunks.
I was on time at first. In fact, I was a bit early, so I thought I’d grab a cup of coffee. As I started walking toward the coffee shop, something brushed my elbow.
Stop Daddy! That tickles.
You wouldn’t believe what it was. The biggest purple elephant I have ever seen.
There’s no such thing as a purple elephant.
I thought the same thing. I couldn’t imagine how it had gotten past security. Still, there it was, and that wasn’t the weirdest part…on its toenails were two pairs of dancing mice. I think they were square dancing, but I was so surprised I forgot to ask.
Silly Daddy, mice can’t talk.
Oh yes, I suppose they can’t talk. Hmm. Well, just as I was about to turn around and get my coffee, the elephant happened to notice the mice dancing on its toenails, and that’s when things really got crazy. The elephant screamed like a little girl.
I don’t scream!
Not tonight, thankfully. That elephant screamed like you did when you saw that spider. Then, he stood on his hind legs and started trying to shake the mice off his feet. Instead of flying off, they clung on for dear life and when he put his feet back down, they ran right up his legs, behind his knees…
Stop tickling me! Stop Daddy! Stop.
Then right up on his back. The purple elephant hadn’t seen where the mice went and he turned around and around looking for them. Finally he gave up and started walking back toward his gate, and the mice started dancing on his back.
Elephants and mice can’t be on a plane!
I hope the pilot noticed, before they all tried to sneak on board. So that, my princess, is why I almost missed my flight.
I love you silly Daddy.
I love you sweetie. Goodnight.
Night Mommy.
Your daddy is silly. Goodnight baby.
Elephant dear?
Sure beats traffic.
Ohhhhhhh! Loved this bedtime story at midnight! Sure was better than that terrible and “no fun” traffic excuse! Nicely done!
Thank you! I read it to my kids last night. It was fun to write and to read.
You Rock!! 🙂 I have been waiting for this and it is well worth it. A big smile with my coffee. You have talent. Thank you….
Thank you so much Mary. The knees and elbows really helped so much. The whole thing was too much fun. I’m seriously thinking about illustrating and publishing it as a picture book.
I loved this story. Nicely done! Reminds me of the joy of tucking the little ones in.
Thank you Lumdog. Tucking them in is a really special time, and they soon grow to old for it, so it is nice to remember.
Lovely
Thanks Ruby
I love silly Daddy. I am a silly Daddy. Silly Daddies are the best!
Yes they are!
I sort of have silliness down to a fine art.
I was going to tell you to never lose that art, but I have a feeling you wont. 😉
Oh, I could be not silly if I really wanted to.
Why would you want to though? You are so good at it.
I could do it for a few minutes… just to try it…
love this story! 🙂 I can hear the happy giggles of the little girl. This reminds me of that children’s story “I saw it on Mulberry Street” or something.
Thank you so much. I might get my kids to illustrate this and then we can try to get it published. It would be fun, even if it gets rejected a million times.
It is a lovely story and the illustrations, I can imagine, are hilarious and endearing. I’d love to have a copy of that book.
If we do it, I’ll probably post at least a few of the drawings on here, and we might make it into an ebook. We could scan the pics in, and amazon has a thing where they won’t print hard copies unless someone actually orders them. If we self published, we could very easily and inexpensively create a real picture book. Sorry, I’m in dream mode. 😉
Awww… Lovely, creative, and just so wonderful a bedtime story!
Thank you so much. It was a lot of fun to write.
This was great. I love how it shows how much that relationship is valued to take the time to make up a story like that rather than just go with the mundane.
Thank you so much, and you know that little girl will never forget those minutes with her daddy.
Nice story. I actually found myself smiling by the end. I bet the kiddos love it!
My kids liked it. I want them to illustrate it, and we could self publish it together. Even if we don’t, it’s a fun story.
We’re seeing the softer side of Hobbler lately, and I think it’s a side that suits you. This was really great. Having read some truly zany children’s stories as of late, I can appreciate this as a good one.
Thanks! The softer side is fun to write. I’m sure that there is plenty of the darker stuff in their too, but I loved writing this one.
We loved it Hobbsie. Really a good story, and a good night story as well. (kids)
Well told, Hobs. We really did appreciate it and so did my kids – trying to figure it out and all, LOL!! And the ending was so sweet. I wish my father had been like that. (thoughtful face – need that in a ‘smile icon’, LOL).
Keep it up. I think you have the makings of a great writer of shorter bed-time stories – the best kind for us adults 🙂 Doesn’t take so long to tell ’em to the kids and ‘we’ can get back to our TV show or “sumthin”. (kids added that ‘sumthin’, meaning art & play.)
Take care, have fun, be good, SMILE. It’s another day.
Thanks Jeff, I’m glad you liked it. These stories have been a good way to get things out of my head without giving too much personal stuff out. This is the second of the stories that doesn’t really reflect in some way one of my deeper issues. This one, and the very first one I wrote, were just plain fun.
🙂 Just plain fun stories are good for the soul as well, Hobbsie!! They can make you feel good. We wrote some like that. Did you ever read “Enlightenment” we wrote? http://jeffssong.wordpress.com/2011/08/24/enlightenment-a-fiction You might like it. Dark end and all, LOL!!!
I don’t think I’ve read it. I’ll check it out in just a few. Thanks Jeff!
Sweet and fun — well done!
Thanks Annabelle!
How could a person NOT love a story about a purple elephant and mice? You write great bedtime stories!!
You are too sweet. Sometimes I wonder why everyone sucks up to me, and then I remember I am a cripple. 🙂 I really did love this story though.
Yeah, that’s exactly why people are nice to you. Because you’re a cripple. The fact that you’re supremely talented is completely irrelevant. 😉
Cripples never know if people really like them, or if everyone feels sorry for them. It’s good though. Keeps me from getting too big of a head.