I opened a door into the classroom. There was one room for every age group and, unfortunately, I was supposed to be teaching the youngest age group. Just letters and numbers, the lead Intercepter told me. I was grateful they could speak English. Even at this early point in their life they were the same height as me, pea-green faces with large round eyes peeping at me through their brown clothing. They sat at desks in rows. If I had replaced the green creatures with slouching humans, with little imagination I could imagine the classroom like one in Earth.
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I stepped back against the dark space and felt a wall. It was cold and unyielding. There was a vibration, like I was moving, only I didn’t know where and that bothered me. After a few seconds doors opened like in an elevator and too-dark turned to too-bright. When my eyes adjusted, I was staring into a ring of creatures I had never seen before.
On my watch time goes in a circle
Each second forming a sector of the one with
Infinitely many sides, where sixty seconds squared equals
Nothing very important.
I stepped out of my space vehicle. Planet Ilta! After three weeks of flight I had made it outside the Milky way. Looking towards the horizon, I noticed an object floating in the sky. It seemed too far away to see, but my Helpfulnesses, whom I had enlisted to help me on my vacation, were still getting things set up. I might as well check it out and take a walk. As I walked towards the object, the ground gave way under my feet, as if it were on springs. I had not imagined Ilta to be like this and it was hard to keep my balance. I jumped, tentatively, then in bigger bounds. It was far easier then walking. I hopped around, feeling the air. It was cool but not uncomfortable. I held out my arms and tried to get used to the environment. The ground was bright purple, so intensely colored that it seemed to radiate color. There were no hills, but flat purple ground stretching out as far as I could see to meet a neon yellow sky. It hurt to look at such a bright color, so I kept my gaze down. And there were the strange objects, which I noticed as I walked, always floating and bobbing in the air. They were like round things with wings. Some smaller ones were flying and buzzing around my head, and I ducked as one passed right over me. “Sorry!” a voice said.
The final installment of this thrilling adventure of Maple the gray squirrel!
“Goodness, child, you know I don’t eat nuts,” Shelby exclaimed as I presented my gift.
I realized my mistake. “Well–they’ll look pretty anyways. That’s what they’re for, actually. Display nuts.”
Maple, the gray squirrel, has returned for another adventure. Read her first story here. Maple’s friend, Stringy, has requested Maple’s help on an adventure, and she accepts. He plans on going into a house at night. Read the first part of this story here , the second part of her story here, and the third part of her story here!
“Stringy,” I moaned. “Not tonight. Please don’t go in tonight.”
“I just want to see,” he explained patiently. “It’s not like I’m going to chew through their sofa. Just look around, see how they live. Shelby, can you and Maple get through that open window? I’m taking Footprint to help me chew through this screen door.”
Don’t you agree?
To grow wild in a field, then be bit to the roots by a cow or or a goat
Digested, brought back, chewed as a cud Continue reading
Maple, the gray squirrel, has returned for another adventure. Read her first story here. Maple’s friend, Stringy, has requested Maple’s help on an adventure, and she accepts. He plans on going into a house at night. Read the first part of this story here and the second part of her story here!
It was dark. I shivered and shifted my position from where I was sitting in a tree. I wasn’t used to being out so late at night, and I felt jumpy, like I was doing something my instincts hadn’t programmed. Stringy had told me to meet him, Footprint, and Shelby below this tree. We would have a planning meeting. They would come, he promised, as soon as the streetlights went on in the evening. The streetlights had buzzed to life a while ago, and I was still waiting. The quiet neighborhood had stilled around me and the night had settled like a blanket over the houses. Still I waited.
You feel it putting
on pants, and realizing
they are your brother’s.
Once, at the store, I was wandering
And from behind a rack of clothes popped
like a Jack-in-the-Box
a little girl with tiny gold earrings Continue reading