Keith's X-mas 2007 stories

These short stories were written as gifts for my nephews and niece, for Christmas 2007.

 

The biggest girl in the whole world - For Anika

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Rebecca. Rebecca was looking forward very much to becoming big girl. There were some big girl things she could do, like going down the slide by herself, but there were many, many more things she wanted to do.

Then, one day, when digging in the sandbox, she dug very deep and found something strange. It was a small copper bottle. Rebecca pulled it out and wiped the sand off of the bottle. To her surprise, the moment the bottle was clean, the lid popped off of the bottle and smoke started to come out. Rebecca quickly dropped the bottle and backed away. When the smoke cleared, Rebecca saw a small genie standing next to the bottle. The genie said "Congratulations! For freeing me from the bottle, you get two wishes!"

Rebecca had heard about genies before, but in all the stories, they gave people three wishes, not two. So Rebecca asked the genie "Mr. Genie, don't you mean three wishes?" The genie sighed and shook his head. "No, only two wishes. You see, I'm still a little genie, so I can only give out two wishes. But in only a few thousand more years, I'll be a big genie, and I'll be able to give out three wishes!"

Rebecca thought about it and said "OK. For my first wish, I want to be a big girl!" The genie asked "How big do you want to be?" and Rebecca replied "I want to be the biggest girl in the whole world!" The genie said "OK. I'll cast a spell that will make you start growing and growing. What's your second wish?" Rebecca couldn't think of another wish, so she said "I don't know." The genie said "That's OK. Just call my name when you think of what you want for the other wish and then I'll come right back. My name is Raphrazakabratlemakapkappoppopfizz! Can you say that?" Rebecca tried, "Ra-phra-za-ka-bratle-ma-kap-kap-pop-pop-fizz!" The genie said "Close enough. Are you ready for the getting-bigger spell?" Rebecca said "Yes!" and then the genie cast his spell. Rebecca tingled all over. She could already feel herself getting bigger!

After the genie left, Rebecca went around and did all the big girl things in the playground, the slide, and the swingset and the monkey bars. Then she went home. Her mother was surprised to see her. "Wow, Rebecca, you look like you have grown several inches since lunch!" By dinner time, Rebecca was so big that she could reach all of the kitchen cabinets. Her mother said "Since you are such a big girl now, could you help me and your father with making dinner and setting the table?" Rebecca was very proud. All that evening, Rebecca was reaching up to the high shelves and helping in the kitchen.

That night, when Rebecca went to bed, she found that she had gotten much too big to fit into her bed, so she had to go to sleep on the floor. Her mother kissed her good night and said, "I guess we'll have to buy you a bigger bed, since you are such a big girl now.

The next morning, Rebecca had a hard time. She was so big that she banged her head on the doorway of her bedroom. At the breakfast table, Rebecca had to sit all bent over to keep her head from touching the ceiling. She was much bigger than her parents. Still, that day, was pretty good. She was able to reach up and help a cat down from a tree, and she could jump all the way over the sandbox.

When she was walking home that evening, she noticed that she was still growing. She had grown so much that she could stand on her tip-toes and look in her bedroom window. There was no way she would fit in her bedroom now! Rebecca's mother read Rebecca a bedtime story and put her to bed in the back yard in a giant bed made out of a dozen quilts laid on the ground.

The next morning, Rebecca woke up very early, because of some strange noises; there were sirens and people yelling. So Rebecca stood up, stretched, and looked around. She saw that she had kept growing more and more all night! Now she was so tall that she could easily step over all the houses in the neighborhood. That was a good thing, because she could also see what all the yelling was about; a tall building had caught fire and there were still people in it. Rebecca was a very big girl now and she knew just what to do. She reached down and picked up a swimming pool and then carried it, carefully stepping over the houses, until she could dump the swimming pool over the burning building. All the people were amazed to see such a huge girl suddenly walk up with a swimming pool and put out the fire! When Rebecca started helping the people out of the building by carefully picking them up and putting them on the ground, they were very happy! Everyone started cheering. "Hooray for the giant girl!"

Rebecca enjoyed this very much, but she also decided that it was time to call the genie back. All this growing was getting to be too much! Rebecca was starting to get worried about accidentally stepping on cars or people! So, Rebecca called out "Ra-phra-za-ka-bratle-ma-kap-kap-pop-pop-fizz!" and poof!, he appeared.

Unfortunately, the genie appeared, looked around near Rebecca's ankles and then disappeared again.

Rebecca called out "Ra-phra-za-ka-bratle-ma-kap-kap-pop-pop-fizz!" again and this time, when the genie appeared, she said "Hey, up here!"

The little genie looked up and up and up. He looked up so far that he fell over on his back in surprise that she was so tall! "Wow", said the little genie, "you are definitely the biggest girl in the whole world". Rebecca said "I'm a bit too big! I don't fit in bed, I can't sit on my father's lap, and I'm starting to get worried about stepping on people! I wish I were small again!"

The genie raised his hands to cast his spell and then asked "Do you want to be the smallest girl in the whole world?" Rebecca thought about it, and then said "No. I just want to be Rebecca-sized. I think my own size is just about right. I'm going to grow to my own size with no more magic, thank you."

The genie cast the spell, and Rebecca-the-normal-sized-girl ran all the way home to see her parents. And that is the story of the biggest girl in the whole world.

The bear who wrestled everything - for Ryan

There once was a little bear named Wilbur. He lived with his parents in a forest near a bend in a stream. Wilbur was a very energetic little bear. He loved climbing trees and running. But most of all, he loved wrestling. One day, he said to his parents, "Mama, Papa, I'm going to wrestle everything in the forest!"

Mama bear said "Please be careful!" and Papa bear said "Good luck!", then Wilbur went into the forest to wrestle everything.

First, Wilbur decided to wrestle a berry bush. He ran up to the berry bush and hopped on it. Ouch! The berry bush had lots of little twigs that poked Wilbur all over. After a few minutes, Wilbur decided to stop wrestling the berry bush. As he walked away, he noticed he was all covered in crushed berries, so he licked them off. They tasted very good, so Wilbur thought things were going well, even if he could not wrestle the berry bush.

Next, Wilbur saw a log laying in the forest, so Wilbur ran over and hopped on the log to wrestle the log. Back and forth Wilbur squirmed and pushed and pulled, wrestling with all of his strength! Soon Wilbur was panting hard. The large log had not moved at all. It was a very big log and Wilbur was still a very small bear. "Still", Wilbur thought, "if I'm on top of the log, instead of the log being on top of me, then that means I won!" So, Wilbur did a victory dance to celebrate winning the wrestling match with the log and then he went looking for more things to wrestle.

Soon, Wilbur saw a squirrel. He said "Hey! Do you want to wrestle?". The little grey squirrel said "No!" and ran away. Wilbur said, "But I'm going to wrestle everything! That means I have to wrestle you!" and then he ran after the squirrel. The squirrel said "Silly bear! You would squash me!" and ran up a tree. Wilbur still wanted to wrestle the squirrel, so he started to climb up the tree after the squirrel.

Up and up went the squirrel and up and up went Wilbur. Wilbur was still a little tired from wrestling the log and the tree was very tall, so Wilbur decided to rest a little while and try to wrestle the squirrel later. He slid down the tree and took a short nap in the shade of the big tree.

When Wilbur woke up, he head voices down near the stream. There were a couple of beavers swimming around in the water, putting thing finishing touches on a beaver dam. Wilbur was not very good at swimming, but he could walk along the top of the dam to reach the beavers. Once he got to the middle of the dam, he called out to the beavers "Hello beavers! Do you want to wrestle?" The beavers called back "Hello little bear! We can not wrestle right now, we need to go get more sticks and mud." then they swam away.

Wilbur didn't want to swim after them, so he looked around for more things to wrestle. Then he realized that he was standing on something to wrestle; the beaver dam! He had wrestled a log and won, so why not wrestle the beaver dam? With that thought, Wilbur grabbed hold of the top of the beaver dam with all four legs and started to push and pull and wrestle with all of his might! A beaver dam is much bigger than a log, but it is made of small sticks glued together with mud. A beaver dam is no match for a determined little bear.

Soon sticks and mud had been tossed all over. Wilbur was sitting on the dry side of the dam, huffing and puffing and trying to catch his breath. He was pretty sure he had won his wrestling match with the beaver dam. He could even hear it sighing, and it was sort of sagging a little... Uh oh!

With a big "Whoooooosshhhhh!" the dam gave way, broke apart, and let all the water through. Swoooosh! Wilbur was picked up by the water and washed down stream, tumbling and swirling. Soon he was washed all the way back to the bend in the stream where his parents lived.

So Wilbur climbed out of the water, sputtering and snorting water out of his nose. His mother was very surprised to see him climbing out of the stream. "What on earth happened to you?" she asked. His father just chuckled and said "Well, I guess you couldn't wrestle the water, could you, Wilbur." Wilber said "Nonsense, Papa; I won at wrestling the water, so it cleaned the berry juice out of my fur!"

Mama bear sighed and papa bear laughed. Then they both helped to dry Wilbur off. Wilbur had had a very busy day, so mama bear and papa bear gave him dinner and put him to bed. And he slept very well.

And that is the story of Wilber, the little bear who wrestled everything.

Moving day and the log - for Daniel

When your father and I were very young, about your age, we lived in Huntington, West Virginia, where we were born. We liked it there very much. Our house had a flat concrete area by the garage where we would ride our tricycles and we had a long curved driveway.

Our father, your grandfather, got a new job and we had to move. Your father and I thought the packing was interesting and fun. The whole house was turned upside-down and everything was packed away into boxes. It was like everything in the house was being boxed up as presents. Then a truck came and all the boxes were loaded onto the truck. We thought loading the truck was fun too. The house looked big and empty with all the boxes and things gone.

Then it was time for us to get into the car and drive away. Before, it was like a game; putting things in boxes and moving the boxes around. But when the time came to get in the car and drive away, your father and I decided we didn't want to move. We liked the house and we had never lived anywhere else. So, we decided to stop the move. we ran over to a big stick that was in the yard and the two of us picked it up. We carried it over to the driveway and put it across the driveway, so the car could not leave. With the stick there, we could not drive away, so we would stay in the house.

Then our mother, your Oma, she told us that all the food and all the dishes had gone away with the truck. Our father, your grandfather, told us that all our toys and clothes had also gone away in the truck. Your father and I thought about this a few minutes. we decided that it would be a good idea to go to where our food and clothes and toys were, instead of staying in the empty house. So, we walked over and moved the stick from the driveway back into the yard.

Then we got into the car with our parents, your grandparents, and we all drove away to our new house.

The story of Nikola Tesla - for Liam

Nikola Tesla was born in the Lika region of Croatia in 1856, back when Croatia was part of the Austrian Empire. He was a very smart man, but also a little bit crazy. He went to school a couple of times, but he got bored easily and dropped out of school every time. The problem was that he remembered every page of a book after looking at it only once. So he would read the whole textbook in the first week of class and then he didn't want to stay any longer.

Nikola moved around a lot, looking for interesting work to do. First he moved to Budapest, Hungary, to work for a telegraph company. The telegraph was very popular before telephones were invented. The telegraph could only send beeping noises instead of your voice. So people would spell out messages with the beeps and send the message over the telegraph. For example, "bip bip bip beeep beeep beeep bip bip bip" means "SOS", which is a way of saying "I need help".

After working for the telegraph company, Nikola went to work for the Continental Edison Company, an electric company in Paris, France. He thought it was very interesting to work for the electric company, so he moved to the United States to work for the Edison Machine Works. Thomas Edison was a famous and successful inventor, so Nikola was very excited to work for him. Unfortunately Nikola and Thomas did not get along. They were both very smart inventors, but they did things in very different ways. Eventually, Nikola had to leave because he and Thomas kept arguing with each other.

After that, things were very hard for Nikola. He had so many ideas that nobody could tell which ideas were really good and revolutionary and which ideas were just plain crazy.

Nikola would invent devices just to see what they could do. One time, he made a big magnet that pulled on the metal in buildings and he made all the buildings around his laboratory swing back and forth. Another time, he used an entire power plant to make giant arcs of artificial lightning. Later, he accidentally made a small earthquake by putting steel poles deep into the ground under his lab and then using magnetism to pull the poles back and forth. All the lightning and moving buildings and little earthquakes and such made his neighbors very nervous.

When the neighbors wanted to talk to Nikola about all the strange things that were happening, they found that Nikola himself was a little strange. He would walk around the block three times before going into any building, he would stay in hotel rooms only if the number could be divided by three, and he always wanted three napkins with his dinner. Also, he refused to talk to anyone who wore pearls. Like I said, Nikola was very smart, but also a little bit crazy.

Still, Nikola believed in himself and he eventually succeeded in inventing many things that changed the world. He invented AC, that is "Alternating Current", generators, which means he invented the way we get electricity today. He also invented a radio, a radio-controlled submarine, a new kind of X-ray device, and many more things. Nikola helped to make the world the way it is today with all the things he invented.

So, you see, believe in yourself and you can make some pretty wild ideas come true.

The story of Matteo Ricci and his Memory Palace

Matteo Ricci was born in 1552 in Macerata, Italy. He became a Jesuit priest and then went to India. After living in India for four years, he went to China.

Many of the other people who visited China at that time thought it was much too hard to ever learn to read and write the Chinese characters, but Matteo had a secret weapon for learning; he had a Memory Palace.

A Memory Palace is a place you build in your mind. It takes hard work but can be very beautiful. Picture, in your mind, a big building. You are standing outside the building, and looking a the front doors. Picture the front door and really think about it. What does it look like?

Ever since Matteo was very young, he had spent at least thirty minutes every day, building this building in his mind. He would picture every detail and, in his mind, he would walk though the building.

Close your eyes and think of your house. Try to mentally walk through the rooms. Even though you are here at Oma and Grandpa's house, can you picture your bed room? Can you picture the the living room, and the kitchen? Just as easily as you can do that, Matteo could walk through his memory palace. Everything in the Memory Palace was something Matteo had put there, in his mind. Everything had meaning, too.

In order to put all the complicated Chinese characters in his mind, Matteo added a big art gallery to his Memory palace. On the door to the art gallery, he put the Chinese character for language "文" "Wen".

Matteo started slowly, right next to the door, when you come in, he put a big white canvas. In the very middle of the canvas, he put the symbol 中, which is just a box (口) with a line (丨) through the center of it. That was his way of remembering that 中 means "center".

Next, he imagined a picture of a woman resting under the roof of a barn. He imagined as many details as he could, making the light a golden, warm, afternoon sunlight, and the woman very relaxed. As part of the picture, he imagined the painting labeled with the Chinese character 安, which means "tranquil". In this way, he could remember that the character for "tranquil" (安) is made by combining the character for roof (宀) with the character for woman (女).

In this way, Matteo created one imaginary picture after another, slowly building up to pictures to help him remember very complicated chinese characters. For example, the character for "love" (愛) became a picture of a hand reaching down (爫) to cover (冖) a heart (心), slowly (夂).
Can you see all these pieces in the character for love? 愛

Matteo enjoyed adding more and more pictures to his imaginary art gallery and he would wander through his imaginary gallery often. In this way, he managed to learn the thousands of Chinese characters he needed to learn in order to be able to read and write Chinese.

Eventually, Matteo became famous in China as a great scholar and he translated many things into Chinese. He was even allowed to visit the court of the Emperor of China, which made Matteo the first Westerner to ever be invited into the Forbidden City.

All this was possible because of the beautiful palace Matteo had built in his memory.

Page Last Modified: 2007 12 21, 16:43:01

 

 

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