Short Stories

Dinosaurs in my Tummy

"What do you want to play today, Boo?" I sat on the living room floor with books, stuffed animals, pillows, and blankets scattered all around. 

Boo picked up a black bag, reached inside, and pulled out a stethoscope. "I think I will be a doctor today," he said. 

"I think I will be sick," I lay down on the couch. 

Boo carefully put the stethoscope in his ears and walked to the couch. "What is wrong with you today?" he asked. 

"Well, Doctor Boo, my tummy is not feeling very good at all."

Doctor Boo nodded seriously and climbed up on the couch to sit on me. Carefully, he placed his stethoscope on my tummy and listened. 

"What is it?" I asked.

His eyes became very big and serious. "Dinosaurs. They are very hungry and want their lunch, that's why they are not happy and making your tummy hurt. I need to get them out." He climbed down.

"How will you get them out?"

"I will suck them through your feet," he said. "I need to take off your slippers."

"Okay. How will you get the dinosaurs out through my feet?"

"Don't worry, they'll come out," he said and took off my purple and green slippers. Next he stuck his stethoscope to the bottom of my foot and make a sucking sound for a long time. "There you go," he said. "They are out."

I looked at the three dinosaurs standing with Doctor Boo and Baby beside the couch. "What should we do with them? We aren't allowed to have dinosaurs in the living room and Mom will be home soon."

Boo tapped his finger with his chin and thought. "How about we feed them snack so they aren't so hungry and then let them outside to play?"

"Good idea," I said. Boo, Baby, three hungry dinosaurs, and I went to the kitchen. We used four loaves of bread, seventeen bananas, and two jars of peanut butter to sandwiches. Then, Boo thanked the dinosaurs for coming and asked that they would stay out of my tummy. We let them out back door and waved good bye. After shutting the door I put Baby down. She lay on the floor, rubbing her tummy. 

Doctor Boo and I looked at each other. He got his stethoscope and listened to her tummy. "Uh-oh," he said. 

"What's in there?" I asked. 

"Elephants."

Following the Water's Road 

Some days the walls inside are too close together. It's not as if they mean to squeeze the rooms smaller, they just get lonely and need to move in so they can hear each other. Walls don't speak very loudly. Rather than stop their conversation and push them back to their proper places we go outside; that way they can talk as quietly as they like and we won't interrupt them. Sometimes walls need their privacy.

It was a cool day, the day the walls needed to talk, so we bundled up and went to the park for a walk. Hats, coats, boots, and mittens piled out of the van followed by a single stroller and blanket. Once Baby was tucked in properly against the wind, Boo and I took charge of the stroller and followed the sidewalk.

It had rained a lot the night before so there were puddles everywhere. "Watch out for the crocodiles," Boo said, stepping around a big puddle in his camouflage boots.

"I will," I said. "Look at the water over there, Boo, what do you think lives in it?" We both looked through the trees to the ditch beside us. The water was moving swiftly.

"Oh, whales and crocodiles and sharks and ducks," Boo said.

"You're probably right," I said.

"Why is all the water down there?" Boo asked.

"Because that's where the water can move; it's like a road for the water."

"Can we follow the water road?" Boo asked.

"Yes." I said.

We walked across the bridge and then pushed the stroller down the hill until Boo's curiosity took over and he let go to walk beside the water road. You can never be sure what you might find near a water road so I took a seat on a rock beside the stroller and waited. Boo climbed over fallen trees and rocks and stepped in lots of puddles, keeping a weary eye out for crocodiles. He threw three rocks into the water and was about to throw a forth when a loud ribbit! sounded.

Boo screamed in surprise, lost his balance in the mud, and fell into a giant puddle. He sat still for a minute and then began to laugh. I laughed too. He got up, trying not to fall again, and walked toward me.

"I'm all muddy now," he said.

"I know. Shall we go home and get cleaned up and have some cookies?" I asked.

"Yes," Boo said.

When we got home, Boo took a bath and I got out some cookies and milk. Thankfully, the walls had finished their conversation and were standing back in their normal places. When everybody was cleaned up and warm again we sat down for snack. Dad came in and asked how the park was.

"We followed the water road," Boo said.

"And what did you find?" Dad asked.

"Well," said Boo. "Sometimes by the water road you will find crocodiles and sharks and ducks and whales. But we didn't find those things. Today we found a frog and mud, but who knows what we'll find tomorrow."

Just to Kill a Fly 

These days it seems like children all either want to become movie stars or world class athletes. All, it seems, except one little boy by the name of Tommy McFarland. Tommy didn't want to be a millionaire or journey to the ends of the world. His main task in life was to make his father proud. How would he do that, you ask? By pleasing his mother. And what was the best way to please his mother?

            By killing flies.

            Flies were Mom's sworn enemy. They appeared in the spring when Mr. Yancy started spreading fertilizer in the field across the road and they didn't leave until the pumpkins were harvested.

            Saturday was an especially bad day to be a fly. Because Saturday was when great aunt Mildred came for tea with some of her great-aunt-type friends--the type that wear big hats and smell weird. Mom told Tommy he was to kill all the flies in the living room because great aunt types disliked flies just as much as she did.

            With such a serious charge before him Tommy stood in the living room with his swatter in one hand and a tissue in the other. Mom hated live flies and Dad hated dead ones laying about; between his two tools he could please them both. The living room had tall windows on either side of the fireplace and lace curtains. The walls were adorned with flowery wallpaper and the ceiling was painted light blue. A white couch set, rocking chair, coffee table, and two end tables made up the furniture in the room with a very tall lamp that hung over the stuffed chair like a dog about to drool.

            Tommy had twenty minutes before the great aunt types were to arrive. He used his time wisely, smashing all the small winged beast he could find.

            "How's it going?" Mom came in and set down an iced chocolate cake on the coffee table.

            "Oh good." Tommy said. He brandished his weapon, a swatter made of a long steel handle with a flexible square piece of plastic on the end, and struck a fly on the end table beside the couch.

            Mom jumped. "Well they will be here in about 5 minutes so you better make sure you pick up the bodies and skedaddle."

            "Yes Mom, I'm almost done."

            Mom smiled and left to get her cups, saucers, and teapot.

            Tommy turned to follow Mom, satisfied that his work was complete.

            Buzz

            He stopped, every inch of his body tuned to the noise he hoped against hope he hadn't heard.

            Buzz

            He turned ever so slightly and saw the culprit; the biggest, ugliest fly he had ever beheld in his entire eight years of breathing. It ceased its loud hum and landed upon the bookshelf to Tommy's right. He raised his swatter and struck.

            Buzz

            Tommy frowned and began to follow the creature in a most frustrating dance around the room.  The fly would land and the boy-warrior would strike, only to discover that his prey had evaded him again. He was so intent on destroying the beast that he became careless in what he struck; furniture, books, the piano, a picture on the wall, the fireplace. He stopped. The fly had landed on Mom's chocolate cake.

            Tommy bit his tongue in concentration and crept slowly toward the fly.  He raised his swatter, took a deep breath, and struck with all his might.  The explosion forced him to step back. He blinked and then gasped, horrified. There was cake on everything--even the blue ceiling. Worst of all, Mom stood in the doorway. He opened his mouth to explain, shut it, and licked his lips. Chocolate.

            "Thomas Anthony!"

            "The fly..."

            Ding dong  

            Tommy looked wildly at Mom. The great-aunt-types had arrived.  

            "Go use the garden hose and I'll give them tea and cookies in the kitchen. We'll clean this up later." Mom said.

            Tommy ran out the back door. He started the hose and Dad turned the corner. He looked up  and Dad let out a deep belly laugh.

            "Did you get the fly?" Dad asked.

            "I think so."

            "Good man." Dad slapped him on the back and then took him into town for ice cream. Perhaps he didn't make Mom happy, Tommy supposed, but Dad sure smiled when he told the clerk why they needed to buy stain remover and so long as Dad was smiling it was good enough for him.