Carmelita Stories 14-26

Summer was coming to an end.  Minnie, Mannie and Moe had had lots of fun over the summer including many days at the Hillsmere pool with Grandma Lin, Grandpa Rich, and Carmelita.  The progress they’d made in swimming had been amazing.  Minnie started the summer swimming only about half-way across the pool and was now swimming many laps doing the crawl and backstroke.  So too Mannie.  Moe was a little behind Minnie and Mannie.  He’d started out holding onto the side of the pool but was now ducking his head underwater, diving under the ropes and tip-toeing into the deep end without a noodle or a floaty.  All three could now jump off the diving board – doing cannonballs and pencils again and again.  That was lots of fun.  The end of the diving board was a lot closer to the water than the top of the pilings on the pier at the beach that they had jumped off of while on their beach vacation.

One day at the pool during adult swim there was an older girl doing beautiful dives off of the diving board.  She’d stand toward the back of the board instead of walking out to the front edge.  Then she’d take three steps forward and come down on the end of the board, raise her arms over her head as the board bent down and fly straight up into the air.  In the air, like a dolphin, she’d bend her head down, lift her legs, and shoot into the water head-first with barely a splash.  Next she walked to the end of the board, turned backwards, and balanced on her tippy-toes.  Slowly she brought her arms to her sides, bounced her legs and sprang into the air.  Then she arched backward to bring her feet up over her head.  Again she slid into the water head first with only a tiny splash.

The girl got on the board again and again.  Each time she did something different – always entering the water head first with her arms stretched above her head and her toes pointed together toward the sky –a swan dive where she spread her arms and arched her back; a jackknife where she quickly bent and touched her toes;  a front flip where she rolled her body into a ball and turned a circle; a back flip;  and a one and a half dive where she rolled in the air so fast Minnie could barely see her arms and legs and then slipped into the water with barely a splash.  While Minnie imagined herself turning in a perfect circle above the board the lifeguards blew the whistle.  Adult swim was over. 

 “Bird Poop” shouted Mannie who ran off the board and made a huge splash with a cannonball.

“Bird Poop” shouted Moe who ran off the end leaning forward and then hit the water, splat, flat on his belly.

“Belly Flop!” laughed Mannie.

“Ow”, said Moe, “Not funny.”

Minnie was annoyed by her noisy brothers.  They had snapped her out of her daydream.  Grandma Lin had been watching.  “Maybe it’s time for you to learn to dive head first, Minnie” said Grandma.  I can help you get started but doing beautiful dives like that girl takes lots of practice.

“Oh Grandma Lin” said Minnie “Would you teach me, please?  I want to do a swan dive.”

“Well” said Grandma Lin “First you have to learn just to go off the diving board head first.”

Grandma Lin had Minnie walk to the end of the board, sit and lean head first over the water with her arms held up over her head.  Minnie tried but slid off the board landing knees first.  She tried again, this time landing belly first.  Mannie giggled.  Minnie gave him a nasty look.  Moe too watched Minnie’s diving lesson.  He had watched the older girl and thought it would be super-neat to do flips off the board instead of cannonballs…even though cannonballs made a bigger splash.  Carmelita also watched.

Eventually, after lots of tries, Minnie learned to tuck her chin and roll forward so he went head-first into the water, first sitting and then standing at the end of the board.  Mannie and Moe joined in and pretty soon they were also going in head first most of the time.  Soon it was close to the time that they had to leave.

“But I still haven’t learned to do a swan dive” said Minnie.

“That will take more time to learn than we have today” said Grandma Lin, who was worried that everyone needed some snacks and a rest.  

“I’ll help each of you with one last dive before you have to be out of the pool” said Carmelita.

“Me first” said Minnie.  And she got on the board.  The as Carmelita watched and winked a magic wink, Minnie took three graceful steps and flew up into the air.  She arched her back and spread her arms like wings.  “I’m a swan!” thought Minnie.  Then she tucked her head and slid into the water without a splash.

“Me next” said Moe excitedly. “Carmelita, will you help me do a flip?”

“OK” said Carmelita “But I don’t want you shouting or making funny noises.  That’s not part of diving.”

Moe took three steps down the board and bounced into the air.  “Bird Poop” he shouted without thinking.  Oops.  Carmelita frowned and Moe crashed into the water with a huge cannonball splash.

“What did it tell you?” said Carmelita.  “No shouting.  Didn’t you believe me?”

“Gee” said Moe.  “I forgot. I’m sorry.”

Next was Mannie’s turn.  He asked Carmelita to help him do a jackknife dive.

“Remember what happed to Moe” said Carmelita. “I don’t want to hear “bird poop” when you dive.  

“OK” said Mannie as he bounced into the air off the end of the board.  “Doodie”, he shouted.  Carmelita was more than a little annoyed by Mannie’s trick.  She frowned and winked a different magic wink making Mannie’s arms and legs stretch out before he hit the water on his belly with a loud smack.

“OW!” cried Mannie holding back some tears.  “That hurt.”

“Great belly flop”, giggled Moe.  “Best-est ever.”

Carmelita waited and then said “I’m sorry Mannie, but you and Moe both have to learn to listen and to do what you’re told.  Now each of you may try again but with no shouting.”

And so, with the help of Carmelita’s magic winks Mannie did a smooth jackknife dive and Moe a perfect flip.  Then it was time to get out of the pool for snacks and a rest.  And Grandma Lin promised to teach them a little more the next time they came to the pool.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.

One day Minnie, Mannie and Moe asked Carmelita to ask Grandma Lin if she would take them to her glass studio and teach them how to make beautiful pieces of fused glass.  They knew that Grandma Lin had done that with Gray and Quinn and Wesley, as well as with Maggie and Paige.  Together, Minnie, Mannie and Moe had decided that it would be really nice to make Carmelita a Christmas present out of glass. (Minnie, Mannie and Moe always called Grandma “Grandma Lin” since she wasn’t their real grandma.)

Carmelita said “Well, I won’t ask Grandma Lin for you.  You can ask her yourselves. She’s very nice and surely she will say yes if you ask politely.  But remember, she may not be able to do it right away since she may be working on her own glass projects.”

“OK” said Minnie, Mannie and Moe, “But you have to magically make us big enough to pick up and arrange glass pieces and to look into the kiln if Grandma Lin agrees, since we’re really tiny people.”

“I will do that. I promise.” Said Carmelita.

So the next time Grandma Lin sat quietly in the living room, Minnie, Mannie and Moe called her over to where they sat on the shelf.  Mannie was chosen to ask and he was a little nervous since they’d never directly asked Grandma Lin for a favor before.  He was a little nervous.

“Remember to ask nicely” whispered Minnie.

“Grandma Lin, will you bring Minnie, Moe and Me to your studio and teach us to make glass?” Mannie asked excitedly.  Minnie elbowed his ribs.  “Please”, he added.

“Why certainly” said Grandma Lin.  “I’d be happy to do that, especially since you asked so nicely.”

“Great” said Moe, “We want to make a Christmas present for…”

“Shhh” said Mannie and Minnie. “You-know-who is right here and she’s probably listening.”

“When can we do it?” asked Minnie.

“Well” said Grandma Lin, “you have to wait until my projects that are in the kiln have melted and cooled.  So how about tomorrow?”

“Wonderful” they all said together. “Carmelita has promised to make us big enough to choose and arrange our own glass pieces and to look into the kiln.”

“Don’t worry about that” said Grandma Lin. “I have lots of small pieces for you to use and I can always lift you up so you can see what’s inside the kiln.”

Then Grandma sat down on the couch to read and Minnie, Mannie and Moe talked about what they would make for Carmelita.  “We should make something with stripes,” said Mannie.  “I think it should have flowers and a butterfly”, said Minnie.  “It should have a blaster,” said Moe.  “No” said Minnie “Carmelita is a girl and girls don’t like blasters.”  “Un-huh, some do” said Moe.  “Unh-Unh” replied Minnie. “I’m a girl and I should know.”

Mannie said “How about a Christmas tree?”  “Yeah”, said Minnie “with Butterfly ornaments.”  “And a blaster on the top” said you-know-who.  Minnie rolled her eyes.  Clearly the couldn’t agree about what to make for Carmelita at that moment so they agree to each think about it overnight.  They were sure that Grandma Lin would help them decide the next day if they couldn’t agree among themselves.

That night Moe dreamt that he had grown big enough to go to the glass studio on his own; and he’d climbed out of their basket and crept into the studio.  There he’d found all of the pieces of black and silver glass and put them together to make a giant blaster.  Then he took pieces of green glass that he cut into the shape of green bullets that would shoot out of the blaster.  And as he put the pieces together the blaster grew bigger and came alive.  I had arms and legs like Optimus Prime and red laser eyes.  It climbed into the big kiln to cook all by itself; and then climbed out and shot green glass bullets at all of the other pieces of glass in Grandma’s studio.  Glass was shattering and the studio was a mess.  One piece of sharp glass hit more above his eye and gave him a cut on the forehead.  Then the blaster monster aimed a green bullet right at Moe where he stood in front of the window; and… Moe woke up.

In the morning, Minnie noticed some blood on Moe’s blankey.  And Mannie saw a cut on Moe’s forehead.  “Looks like you scratched a bug-bite in your sleep,” said Mannie.  “You need some bacitracin and a band-aid.”  Moe looked back at Mannie but didn’t say anything.

Soon Grandma came in and said they could all come to the studio to work since she had taken her latest work out of the kiln.  As they came upstairs, as promise, Carmelita changed them into full sized people so they’d be big enough to pick up glass pieces and tools and to look into the kiln.  

Grandma said that there were rules to follow including handling glass pieces carefully, keeping everything on the table, and picking up when done.  “When you get a cut from the glass,” she added, “no crying – just get a bandaid and put it on the cut.  The she looked at Moe and said, “I see, Moe, that you already know about bandaids.”

And so they went to work.  They quickly agreed that they would make a glass Christmas tree as a gift for Carmelita.  Mannie was in charge of making the tree; Minnie would make butterfly ornaments; and Moe would make whatever would go on the top.  Mannie thought the tree should be made of green and black stripes but when he looked through Grandma’s box of extra pieces he could find very little black glass and no green at all.  “That’s funny,” said Grandma, “I thought there were lots of black and green pieces.  Oh well, I’ll just cut some more.”  And she pulled out a new sheet of green glass and cut pieces for Mannie.

Minnie, Mannie, and Moe all worked hard.  Mannie pieced together a pretty tree and Minnie made butterflies to fuse to the branches.  Moe worked quietly in the corner not telling anyone what he was making nor letting them see until he was done.  But when he finished, he had made a pretty star out of white glass to go on the top.

“No blaster?” asked Minnie.  “Naw”, said Moe, “I decided it was a bad idea.”

They put their tree carefully into the kiln and admired it before Grandma closed the lid.  “We’ll look at the finished piece tomorrow,” said Grandma. “I’m sure it will be beautiful and Carmelita will love it.  Now time for cleanup.  And, by the way, great job at being careful – no cuts!”

So Minnie, Mannie, and Moe went about cleaning up their mess and carefully throwing too small scraps of glass into the trash.  When they were done, Grandma took a last look around.  Under the window a piece of glass glinted in the sunlight.  She picked it up.  It was a piece of green glass shaped just like a bullet.  “Strange,” she said, “I don’t remember cutting any green glass in that shape.  But…oh, well…we’ll find a use for it another day.”  And she tossed the piece into her scrap box.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.

One day, Mannie found he had a loose tooth – on top, in the front.  He discovered it one morning when he bit into an apple slice with honey on it and his tooth pushed forward just a little.  Minnie had already lost three teeth.  Moe hadn’t lost any and didn’t even have a loose one.  Mannie thought Moe might be jealous when he told him so he kept his loose tooth a secret.  But he was pretty excited.  All day he used his tongue to push the tooth back and forth to make it looser.  He worried that if the tooth fell out during the night he would lose it; and if it fell out during the day he would swallow it.  In either case, he wouldn’t have it to put under his pillow for the tooth fairy.

For the next several days Mannie pushed his loose tooth back and forth and back and forth with his tongue.  The tooth didn’t seem to get any looser.  He started to bite into his food with just his side teeth.  This was OK with skinny food like carrots and French fries but difficult with sandwiches and quesadillas.  While he was trying to bite a hamburger with his side teeth one day, Mannie decided it was time to make his announcement.

“Why are you biting wierdly?” Moe had asked.  “I have a loose tooth” Mannie replied. “It wiggles when I bite and feels funny; and I don’t want to swallow it.  Anyhow, it doesn’t seem loose enough yet to fall out on its own.”

“Then let’s knock it out” said Moe.  “I’ll punch you in the mouth.”

“No Thanks” replied Mannie.

“Better still, bite into corn on the cob.”  Moe grabbed a piece from the refrigerator and plopped it onto the plate next to Mannie’s hamburger.  Mannie picked up the corn and bit down with his front teeth.  The loose tooth bent forward and stopped painfully. “Ow” said Mannie as a little dot of blood spread onto the corn.

“I have a better idea” said Minnie. “Eat some chewy candy and it will stick to your tooth and pull it out.”  She reached for her now nearly empty Halloween candy bag and pulled out an old Snickers bar.  “This will be perfect” she said. “Besides, I don’t like Snickers so you can have it without trading me.”

Mannie really wanted to lose his tooth and he like Snickers so he took the candy and bit directly down with his loose tooth.  The sticky caramel grabbed the tooth and tugged on it as he chewed.  Suddenly he felt something hard fall between his other teeth.  With his tongue he carefully pushed the hard thing onto his plate.  He didn’t want to swallow it if it was his tooth.  It fell next to his hamburger and corn – a hard old peanut from the Snickers bar.

…but Mannie’s tooth was definitely looser.

“I have an even better idea” said Moe.  “Grandpa told me about it.  He says that you can tie one end of a string to a loose tooth and tie the other end to the handle of a door.  Then you slam the door and yank out the tooth.  I’ll find some string” added Moe, heading for the kitchen junk drawer.

“Did Grandpa tell you he actually did that?” asked Minnie.

“Not exactly.  But he must’ve…he’s really old and I’m not sure they had dentists.  Anyhow, Grandpa also told me that they’d take a pliers from the shop, grab the tooth and twist it out” said Moe who had been unable to find any string in the drawer.  He started to head for the toolbox.

“Just wait a minute” said Mannie.  I don’t think I want you playing dentist in my mouth with Grandpa’s pliers.”

“Okay” said Moe – clearly disappointed.  “You’ll just have to wait until the silly thing falls out on its own.  Then you’ll probably lose it.  So no tooth fairy for you!”

Mannie went to bed wondering if his loose tooth would ever fall out.  He wiggled it back and forth with the tip of his tongue, and then with the tip of his finger.  And with each wiggle the tooth moved more and more.  Eventually Mannie fell asleep and had a dream.  He dreamt about a boy with a loose bottom tooth.  The loose tooth grew bigger and bigger each time the boy wiggled it.  Soon it grew out of his mouth and pointed up.  Just before the giant tooth grew up into the boy’s nose, Mannie woke up.  He felt his tooth and looked in the mirror to be sure it hadn’t grown really long.  His tooth was no bigger but it was a little looser.

At breakfast all he could eat was mushy cereal and yoghurt.  And all he could think about was when his tooth would come out and whether he’d lose it so he’d have nothing to show the tooth fairy.  He got a tiny box from his treasure shelf and put it in his pocket … just in case.  Carmelita noticed Mannie wasn’t eating his toast.  “That’s because he has a loose tooth” explained Moe and Minnie together. “And he’s afraid to bite something hard because his tooth will fall out and he’ll swallow it and he won’t have it to show the tooth fairy” added Moe in a single breath.  Mannie blushed.

Carmelita smiled and silently went about cutting an apple into slices and covering them with peanut butter.  “Here Mannie”, she said gently. “Bite these, chew carefully, and feel around with your tongue before you swallow.”  Mannie did just that and, lo and behold, the tooth popped out and landed on his tongue.  “It’s out!” he shouted.  He stuck out his tongue to shoe Moe, Minnie and Carmelita a sticky blob of apple and peanut butter with a tooth on top like a candle on a cupcake.  “Yuck” said Minnie.

Mannie scraped the blob off his tongue with his finger and flicked it to get the peanut butter and apple off.  And guess what?...  The tooth flew off his finger along with the food and skittered under the dishwasher – out of reach.

Tears welled up in Mannie’s eyes.  “Oh No! It’s lost!” he cried.  “I lost my tooth and I didn’t even swallow it.”  “What’d I tell you?” said Moe. “No tooth fairy for you.”

“Don’t worry” said Carmelita.  Losing a tooth means you’re growing up which is reason to be happy, not to cry.  You’ll have many more loose teeth before long.  Anyhow, the tooth fairy just happens to be a friend of mine so I can tell him what happened.  In the meantime, Mannie, let me borrow your little box.”

Well you know the end of this story already…

Mannie went to bed that night and discovered the little box with his tooth inside under his pillow.  He hugged his pillow and went to sleep.  In the morning the tooth was gone and in its place was a shiny silver coin.  That same morning Moe woke up and discovered that his tooth, the one on top and in the front, was wiggly.  Mannie headed for the toolbox to get the pliers.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.

2013 was about to end.  Carmelita, Minnie, Mannie and Moe had come to live at Grandma and Grandpa’s in Annapolis 1 and ½ years ago.  Carmelita could remember how busy they’d been in that time; how many things they’d done; how their lives had changed; and how they’d grown – except for not getting any bigger.  And she could remember what fun they’d had.

She wondered whether Minnie, Mannie, and Moe remembered all those things and whether they realized what lucky little people they were.  Were it not for Grandma and Grandpa coming into Mr. Snyderman’s gallery in Philadelphia that hot summer day in 2012, they might still be under Mr. Snyderman’s spell and stuck on his shelf.

But here they were, instead, in Grandma and Grandpa’s living room looking forward to each visit from Quinn, Gray and Ashby…visits that gave them new life and adventure and leaving them, like Grandma and Grandpa, a little tired afterward but with lots to remember.

Carmelita decided that it would be good to sit down with Minnie, Mannie and Moe and to try to remember at least some of their adventures.  So she had them climb out of the little basket on her hump and sit around a little table.  She gave each a mug of hot chocolate with marshmallows.  Moe found a cookie in the pantry and dropped it into the bottom of his mug – it was the last one.  Carmelita had a glass of egg nog.

“Let’s go around the table.  Everyone think of something really good that has happened to us and remind the others,” said Carmelita.  “Mannie, you go first.”

“Well,” said Mannie, “I remember we went on a pirate ship where we fought pirate Pete and found pirate booty and drank grog.”

“And I remember going to Quiet Waters Park for the first time and the playground, and the turtle pond, and the dog park.” Said Minnie.

“I got the last cookie and put it in my hot chocolate” said Moe without thinking very carefully.

“You what?” shouted Minnie and Mannie together.

“That’s not what I meant about remembering something good” said Carmelita with a frown as she magically produced two small cookies and dropped them into Minnie and Mannie’s mugs.  “Think of something else, Moe”.

So Moe remembered the Halloween when they went on a scary hayride at the pumpkin patch; and when Old Silo the horse pulled them to the barn where Carmelita surprised them with cider and donuts.

It was Mannie’s turn and he remembered when they first went skating at the ice rink in Quiet Waters.  Then Minnie reminded them of the Christmas Eve a year ago when, while they waited up for Santa, Moe lit a fire in the fireplace.  Then Mannie put out the fire with the milk they’d poured for Santa’s snack so Santa wouldn’t burn himself when he came down the chimney.

Moe recalled going to the dentist and getting his bad breath fixed; then facing forward in Carmelita’s basket when they went on their trip to Colorado to see Uncle Jason, Aunt Kory and Maggie, Paige, and Wesley.  And being a little frightened going first on the chairlift and the alpine slide; and deciding that he really preferred facing backward and going third.

Then came last summer and Minnie, Mannie, and Moe all remembered visits with their cousins, playing at the beach, swimming in the pool, learning to go off the diving board and jumping off the pilings at the end of the dock.  “Bird Poop! was what we shouted”, recalled Mannie.  “Yeah”, said Moe with a smile. “Enough of that”, said Carmelita.

Minnie reminded Mannie and Moe what fun it was to make glass in Grandma Lin’s studio and Mannie remembered losing a tooth for the first time.  Then came Thanksgiving and visits from cousins; and Christmas again – this time without a fire in the fireplace to roast Santa when he came down the chimney.

“So,” Carmelita concluded, “the last year and more were really pretty wonderful.  Despite my magic, I can’t tell what 2014 will be like for all of us.  But I imagine it will be filled with fun and adventure.”  (Moe silently figured it would be his year to lose a tooth.”

Now as Carmelita, Minnie, Mannie, and Moe sat and talked about their memories of the past year, Grandma Lin and Grandpa Rich listened and thought about all the things that Quinn, Gray and Ashby had done in 2013.  And they decided to make a list.  Here is what they put on that list:

• At the beginning, Quinn and Gray sharing a bedroom which was fun at first.

• Quinn’s 6th birthday

• Quinn finishing kindergarden at Bethesda Elementary

• Gray learning to ride a bike

• Going to Deep Creek Lake with Grandma and Grandpa

• Hiking up Sugarloaf mountain with Ashby on Grandpa’s back

• Beginning having the house remodeled

• Cousin Wesley’s visit and boat rides to the pirate restaurant

• Joining the Old Georgetown swim club

• Tubing with Daddy

• Quinn starting first grade at Bradley Hills Elementary

• Gray being top dolphin in Mrs. Silva’s class

• Gray’s 5th birthday

• Finishing having the house remodeled

• Having separate bedrooms again

• Thanksgiving with Jack, Caroline, Ben, Lilly, Kate, and Will

• And, finally, Christmas with Gramps, Nana, and Grandma Lin and Grandpa Rich (and Santa)

• AND BIGGEST AND MOST IMPORTANT…getting a new brother, ASHBY

2013 was a special year.  We’ll all hope 2014 is just as special.   HAPPY NEW YEAR

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.

Moe awoke one quiet morning with sunlight pouring through the window over the piano and extending in broad rays to the little basket on Carmelita’s hump.  Minnie and Mannie were still asleep.  Moe looked around the room and thought how lucky he and Mannie and Minnie were to have ended up right there, in a big comfortable room where Quinn, Gray and Ashby and sometimes Maggie, Paige and Wesley would visit; where they could listen to Grandma playing the piano and watch Carly sneak onto the couch for morning naps; and where they too could listen to stories about themselves and their adventures.  Moe didn’t know whether Carmelita shared his sense of good luck since she was magical and could make things happen that he and others couldn’t.

As he enjoyed the morning sunlight and the quiet, Moe thought it would be nice to hear a story about Grandma and Grandpa instead of hearing another story about Minnie, Mannie and himself.  So he decided to suggest that idea to Minnie and Mannie as soon as they were awake.  They could then ask Carmelita to put the idea into Grandpa’s mind before he next sat down to write a story.

When Minnie and Mannie woke up, Moe couldn’t wait to share his idea.  “That would be great,” said Minnie.  “Sometimes I get tired of hearing about what we do.  And we hardly know anything at all about Grandma and Grandpa.”  “Can we discuss it after breakfast?” said Mannie.  “I’m hungry.”  “OK Mr. Grumpy,” said Moe, who wasn’t going to let Mannie’s morning grumps spoil his idea.

So after Mannie had some cereal, and some yoghurt, and a cheese stick, and some cinnamon toast, they quickly agreed that they wanted to hear a Grandma and Grandpa story; and that they would ask Carmelita to magically plant that idea in Grandpa’s head.

“But Grandma and Grandpa have lived a long time and they probably have lots to tell,” said Minnie.  “We can’t ask for a story about everything or it will never end and we’ll never get to sleep.”

“So how about the story of how they came to Annapolis?” suggested Moe.  “How about a story about raising Jason and Rob?” thought Minnie.  “How about a story about how they met?” said Moe.  “That can’t be too long.”  “Great.” said Mannie.  “We’ll learn about how they met.”  Mannie was happy for a decision since he was getting sleepy again after his big breakfast.  And so they agreed that they would ask Carmelita to suggest this to Grandpa using her magic.  Carmelita smiled when she heard the idea, clearly showing that she liked it too.

One morning a little later on, Grandma reminded Grandpa that Quinn, Gray and Ashby would soon be coming for a sleepover.  “Better be thinking of a Carmelita story,” said Grandma.  “I have been,” responded Grandpa.  “An idea came to me yesterday for a different kind of story…on not about Minnie, Mannie and Moe.  It will be a surprise for everyone although I suppose that you already know it.

And here is what Grandpa wrote.

One day long ago and far away there were two teenagers named Lin and Rich.  They were both fifteen and were in high school.  They went to different high schools and didn’t know each other.  Both Lin and Rich liked to write.  One summer, because they liked to write, they went to a special program for teenagers at the University of Michigan to learn to become better writers.  The teens in the program also had to take care of their own rooms, do their own laundry, and learn to help each other out.  One night there was going to be a special dinner.  Rich decided to wear his best shirt which needed to be washed and ironed.  And Lin decided to wear her nice shorts which also needed to be washed and ironed.  After doing his wash Rich realized that he’d never ironed anything in his whole life, let alone his best shirt.  So he decided to first practice ironing someone else’s clothes.  After doing her wash, Lin figured that she had much better things to do with her time than ironing, so she agreed to let this boy she didn’t know iron her shorts for practice.  

Rich took took the iron and slid it across the top of Lin’s shorts until the fabric was smooth and unwrinkled.  Then he flipped the shorts to do the other side only to find that he’d pressed wrinkles into the bottom.  So he ironed out those wrinkles only to find new wrinkles now pressed into the other side.  And so it went -- with Rich making new wrinkles under the iron each time he turned Lin’s shorts over, again and again.  Lin watched, giggled quietly, and then turned to her writing.  Another girl, Betsy, also watched.  Betsy was good at ironing and she soon decided that Rich would never finish ironing Lin’s shorts and never even get started on his own shirt.  So Betsy took over, quickly finishing Lin’s shorts and then Rich’s shirt for him.  Rich then gave Lin’s freshly ironed shorts back to her figuring that Lin would think he was some sort of a cool hero.  But instead of calling him a hero, Lin and Rich for some reason they can’t remember started calling each other turtles.  For the rest of the writing program, whenever they saw each other they’d ask “Are you a turtle?”  And each would answer “You bet your sweet (bad word) I am.”   So they became turtle-friends.

After the writing program ended, Lin and Rich went back to their different homes and different friends.  Rich would sometimes come visit Lin at her home which had a huge lawn and was on a lake.  Her Dad had a motorboat and a sailboat which Rich thought helped make Lin a special friend.  Rich would bring along his friends, Bruce and Murray, which didn’t help Lin to make Rich a special friend.

Two years went by and Lin and Rich each went off to college in different places.  During the Fall of their first year in college, Rich contacted his turtle-friend to ask her to come to a New Year’s party with him.  They would both be home for winter vacation.  Ling agreed.  But before the New Year started, Rich went skiing, fell, and hurt his knee.  He had an operation and was in the hospital.  So he called Lin and told her he couldn’t bring her to the New Year’s party.  And she went to another party with another friend and had a really bad time. “BORING,” she said.  Well, it turned out that Rich got out of the hospital early and went to his party on crutches with Bruce and Murray.  The next day Lin brought Rich a gift to say “Get Well” and “No Thanks” for breaking their New Year’s date.  It was a little red devil with a sign that popped up to say “Go to (bad place).” 

Then Rich knew that Lin was no longer a turtle-friend but a truly special friend.

And many, many years later they are Grandma and Grandpa. 

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.

It had been a very long, very cold, and very snowy winter.  Minnie, Mannie, and Moe had to stay home on too many days.  They’d played together, watched TV, read books, told stories and fought.  They had spent way too much time together and, let’s face it, they were as tired of each other as they were of the cold weather.  Carmelita could tell.  Anybody could tell.  If one of them gave another a funny look it could start an argument and lead to tears.

We need to get away, they complained.  

“Where would you like to go?” asked Carmelita?

“To a beach” said Minnie.  “On a wilderness adventure” said Mannie.  “To a city with museums” said Moe.  And then they started to squabble about what trip would be the most fun.

“It sounds like you want to get away from each other” said Carmelita.  “That’s right” said Minnie.
“Great idea” said Mannie.  “I agree” said Moe.  

“Well, we’ll see” said Carmelita noting that getting away from each other was the first thing that Minnie, Mannie and Moe had agreed about for weeks.

That night, after Minnie, Mannie and Moe were all asleep Carmelita came and woke up Minnie.  “Minnie” she whispered. “Do you really want to go to the beach?”  

“Yes, Yes!” said Minnie out loud.  “Sshhh” said Carmelita. “Quietly pack your bathing suit and let’s go.”

“What about Mannie and Moe?”  “Sshhh” said Carmelita again. “Be quiet and let them sleep.”

So Minnie grabbed her bathing suit, sunglasses and some sunblock and climbed alone into the basket on Carmelita’s back and in an instant they were at the beach.  The sun was hot and the waves lapped against the sand.  Minnie played in the water.  She sat under an umbrella and read a book.  She napped on her beach towel.  She had cold watermelon and got to pick where she and Carmelita went to eat.  Her Choice!  All by herself.  No argument.  And she could choose what to eat…chocolate chip pancakes with extra whipped cream.  But slowly, as night approached and the sun turned red and settled behind the ocean’s edge, Minnie started to wonder what Mannie and Moe were doing; and whether they were missing her;  or were jealous that she was at the beach while they were at home in the cold and snow.

“When do we go home?” Minnie asked Carmelita.  “Whenever you’re ready” said Carmelita.  But Minnie wasn’t quite ready, yet.  The next morning Minnie played a game at the arcade and splashed briefly in the water but she was missing Mannie and Moe.  “I’m ready to go now” she told Carmelita and next she knew Carmelita was tucking her back into her bed at home where Mannie and Moe were still asleep.

Next Carmelita woke Mannie.  “Do you really want to go on a wilderness adventure?” she whispered.

“Do I ever!” said Mannie, almost shouting with excitement.  “Sshhh” said Carmelita.  Pack a bag quietly and don’t wake the others.  “But what about Minnie and Moe?” asked Mannie.  “Don’t worry” said Carmelita.  “They didn’t want a wilderness adventure, so this is your chance.  Let’s go river rafting!”

“Wow” said Mannie as he climbed alone into the basket on Carmelita’s back.  And in an instant they were at the edge of a noisy rushing river.  “This is your river guide.  His name is Jacob” said Carmelita, introducing Mannie to a man with a long beard and a big leather hat.  “Have fun.  I’ll meet you at the landing downstream since I’m a camel and rivers are too wet for me.”  Then Carmelita disappeared.  Jacob gave Mannie a life jacket, had him climb into a yellow rubber raft, and shouted “hold on tight” over the noise of the rushing water.  They were funneled into the rapids.  They crashed around big boulders, twirled in whirlpools, and were soaked by big waves that splashed over the edge of the raft and filled it like a wading pool.  Mannie could hardly speak because it was so exciting and scary.  Soon the river quieted and they glided to a beach where Jacob made a campfire.  They cooked hot dogs, climbed into their sleeping bags and lay under the stars.  Mannie could hardly sleep as he thought about how Minnie and Moe would love to be with him.

In the morning Jacob said they could pull out of the river at Early Landing or try to run the Devil’s Rapids.  Mannie thought the Devil’s Rapids were something he could share next trip with Minnie and Moe so he decided he could stop at Early Landing.  And there waiting was Carmelita.

“Have fun?” She asked Mannie.  “Did I ever!”  “Ready to go home?”  “Yes.”

And in an instant Carmelita had Mannie back in bed at home where Minnie and Moe were fast asleep.  Soon Mannie was back asleep himself.

Finally Carmelita woke Moe.  “Waaa?” said Moe sleepily. He was particularly hard to wake up.  “Sshhh” said Carmelita.  “Don’t wake up Minnie and Mannie.  But if you want to go visit museums in a city, now’s your chance.  Quietly pack a bag and we’ll go to Washington where we can go from one museum to another for as long as you like.”  “As long as I like?” said Moe. “That’s incredible!”

And as Moe climbed alone into the basket on Carmelita’s back, he wondered where to start – Natural History with dinosaurs and whales; Air and Space; History; Art; Indians; or big Monuments.  But before he could even decide he found himself climbing the long staircase to the museum with a huge elephant behind the door in a big hall called a rotunda.  To the right were the dinosaurs and Moe wandered slowly looking at the giant skeletons of Tyrannosaurus Rex and Brontosaurus.  After studying the dinosaurs, it was off to the Ocean Exhibit with the Gray Whale skeleton and the giant squid; then upstairs to Gems and Minerals which, Moe thought, Mannie would really like.  And to the butterfly house which, Moe realized, would be more fun to share with Minnie.  After lunch Moe crossed the Mall to the Air and Space Museum where he saw lots of old planes, and rockets, and space capsules.  Up in the air inside the building was the Spirit of St. Louis, the first plane to fly across the Atlantic Ocean.  Moe imagined he flew that plane with Mannie as co-pilot.  When he was done seeing the Air and Space museum, Moe was tired.  He was ready for dinner and bed.  He slept in a hotel room with two beds where he could jump from one to the other.  In the morning he planned to see the American Indian museum and visit the Sculpture Garden with the crooked house.  Minnie, he knew, liked the crooked house.  As nice as it was to travel just with Carmelita, Moe soon missed Minnie and Mannie.  He signaled to Carmelita that he was ready to go home.  And so, again in an instant, he found Carmelita tucking him back into his bed with Minnie and Mannie sleeping soundly nearby.

The next morning Minnie, Mannie and Moe each quietly wondered whether they should tell where Carmelita had taken them and what they had done.  But each worried that the others would be jealous since they hadn’t been given the opportunity to come along.  But how could each keep his or her trip a secret?  Minnie knew Mannie and Moe would soon notice her new suntan.  Mannie figured Minnie and Moe would see the river rocks filling his pockets and shoes.  And Moe thought it wouldn’t take long for Mannie and Minnie to find the museum maps and folders in his backpack.  But that morning the sun was shining, and it was warm, and they were happy to play together without any arguing.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.

One morning, Minnie, Mannie and Moe were talking.  Quinn, Gray and Ashby had come to visit and spend the night and baby Ashby had clearly spotted Minnie, Mannie, and Moe in their basket on Carmelita’s back.  He had smiled at them, pointed, and shouted something but none of them had understood what he said.

“It sounded something like BAW,” Mannie had noted. 

“And he’s walking so much better than on previous visits,” observed Minnie.  

“Yeah,” agreed Moe. “He can even climb down the stairs into the living room by himself now, which worries me a little since he might crash into us.  He’s still pretty clumsy.”

“We can’t let ourselves worry about that,” said Minnie. “Grandma and Grandpa do watch him pretty closely.”

“I think we should meet him,” said Mannie. “If he knows us, then he’ll be more careful with us when he’s nearby.”

“I know,” said Moe. “Let’s invite him for a play date.”

“And how, exactly, are we going to do that?” asked Minnie.  “It’s not as if he can climb into our basket with us.  He is very big even if he’s still only a baby.”

“Carmelita can help with that!” said Moe. “And I’m sure she will if we ask nicely.”

“Well first we have to ask someone if he can play with us at all.” Said Mannie. “And we need to be clear that that doesn’t mean play with us like he plays with those Russian dolls.  I mean, he can be rough.”

“Well, he belongs to Quinn and Gray,” said Moe. “We’ll ask them.”

“We can’t ask them.  They’re his sister and brother.  He doesn’t belong to them.” Said Minnie.  “We need to ask his parents.”

“But they’re not here now.” Said Moe.

“Well how about asking Grandma or Grandpa?” suggested Mannie. “They take care of Ashby when he’s here and, besides, we all live in their living room.”

That afternoon, after Ashby went for his nap and Quinn and Gray were told to play quietly by themselves, Grandma Lin came into the living room to lie down with her book.  This was their chance to ask her if Ashby could come for a play date.  Since it was Moe’s idea in the first place, Minnie and Mannie insisted that Moe make the invitation.  Moe couldn’t recall anytime that they had ever directly asked Grandma Lin for a favor but Moe summoned his courage, cleared his throat with a little cough, and called “Grandma Lin, Grandma Lin” in a tiny voice.

Grandma Lin looked up from her book aware that it was very unusual for Minnie, Mannie or Moe to call to her.  “What is it Moe?  Is something wrong?”

“No, nothing’s wrong at all,” said Moe. “Minnie, Mannie, and I were just wondering if we could have a play date with Ashby; so he could get to know us.  We’d like to invite him to our basket if you say it’s OK.  We’re sure Carmelita will help if we ask her nicely even though she’ll have another little person on her back for a while.”

“Why that would be very nice and I’m sure Ashby would love it,” said Grandma. “But are you sure there’s room enough in there for the four of you to play?  Maybe you could ask Carmelita if you could climb down and play with Ashby on the living room floor.  We can put Carly outside so she doesn’t get excited and spoil your fun.”

“Great” said Minnie, Mannie, and Moe together but they weren’t sure whether it would be better for Ashby to come into the basket or for them to climb out.  “We’ll ask Carmelita.”  And so they did; carefully adding a “please” to their request.

You know, Carmelita was secretly thrilled that Minnie, Mannie, and Moe were reaching out to make Ashby a friend. “That’s so nice of you,” she responded, “especially when you add ‘please’ to your request.  I will help but let me talk to Grandma Lin about the best time and place.  And remember, Ashby is pretty grumpy after his nap so you’ll have to wait until he’s awake and has had his milk.”

And so Grandma Lin and Carmelita arranged for a play date later that afternoon.  They agreed that it would be better for Carmelita to help Minnie, Mannie, and Moe out of the basket and onto the living room floor since Ashby might be frightened about going into the basket; and on the floor they’d all have more room to move about.  Carly would be put out in the yard.  Grandpa, Quinn, and Gray would ride bikes to the playground.  And Grandma would go off to the study to work on e-mail.  Carmelita would supervise.  Mannie especially liked the plan since being on the living room floor would give them room to get out of the way if Ashby tripped.

After his nap and his bottle, and after getting over the grumps, Grandma put Ashby down on the living room floor and moved quietly to the study.  Carmelita helped Minnie, Mannie, and Moe out of the basket making each grow twice as big as Ashby as they got onto the floor.  Ashby looked at them with amazement.  Where had they come from?

“Hi Ashby.  We’re Minnie, Mannie, and Moe,” they said together. “We live here in the living room and we want you to be our friend.”

“BAW” shouted Ashby.

“What did he say?” Moe asked Minnie.

“BAW” said Ashby even louder while holding up Carly’s blue and orange rubber ball.

“I think we need some more help here.” Said Mannie. “I guess he wants to throw the ball but we don’t have Quinn and Gray here to tell us if that’s right.”

Carmelita winked her magic wink.

Ashby smiled. “Hi guys,” he said clearly.  “Would you like to play catch with my ball?”  I love balls.”

“Sure,” said Mannie and Moe who moved together over by the piano and rolled the ball carefully to Ashby.

I’ll watch,” said Minnie, positioning herself on Ashby’s blanket on the floor.”

“Bom Bom” said Ashby with an upset voice.

Carmelita winked again and the words “that’s my blankey” came clearly out of Ashby’s mouth.

“I understand,” said Minnie who moved herself over by the marble game on the round table.  There she picked up a shaggy golden stuffed animal.

“WuWu! WuWu!” said Ashby.  Minnie looked puzzled and Carmelita winked a third time.  “That’s MY doggy,” said Ashby, “but, you know, I’m going to share him so you can cuddle while I play ball.”  At which point Ashby turned and threw the ball to Mannie and Moe.  They weren’t prepared to catch it and the ball hit the piano and bounced back toward the marble game.  “Uh, Oh” Minnie, Mannie, Moe, and Ashby ALL thought together.  But Carmelita winked a fourth time and the ball bounced harmlessly onto the chair next to the marbles.

“Having fun?” asked Grandma. “I brought you some carrots and hummus to share.”  Carmelita quickly and quietly winked a fifth time.

“Thanks, Grandma…and this is great,” said Ashby. “I have three new friends.”

“Wonderful” replied Grandma as she turned to go back to the study.

Minnie, Mannie, Moe and Ashby dived into their snack with Ashby dipping carrots, licking them, and then offering them to each of his new friends in turn.  Grandma Lin sat back down at her computer and started to type.  Suddenly she stopped.

“WHAT DID ASHBY JUST SAY?” she thought to herself just as Quinn and Gray returned from the playground. “Quinn and Gray, I can hardly believe it but Ashby just spoke clearly about his playdate with Minnie, Mannie, and Moe.  Come listen with me.”

So all three went quickly to the living room together.

“Ashby,” Grandma said “Tell Quinn and Gray what you just told me about your three new friends.”

Ashby looked up and smiled. “BAW” he said as he pointed to Minnie, Mannie, and Moe who were sitting on his blankey and sharing his stuffed doggy. “Bom, Bom; Wu Wu”.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.

One night, just before bedtime, Mannie was talking to Moe.  “Moe,” he said, “do you realize that Quinn, Gray, and Ashby get bedtime stories every night?”  “And so does Wesley”, added Moe.  “And we never get a bedtime story.  In fact, Grandpa’s always telling stories about us!  I think he should tell US a story about THEM…or about Carmelita.”   

“So why don’t you ask Grandpa to tell us a bedtime story?” asked Minnie. “I bet he’d be happy to tell us a story that no one has ever heard before.”

“You know what I’d really like to hear?” said Mannie.  “I’d like to hear Carmelita’s story.  Maybe she’ll tell us about herself one night.”

“I bet that would be a long story.” Said Moe.  “Too long for one bedtime.  So maybe we could hear her story over many nights.”

“Let’s ask,” said Minnie.  So they did; and to their surprise Carmelita said that she preferred for Grandpa to tell her story.  She could help out with some facts but she thought it would be very interesting if Grandpa used his imagination to tell her story.  “That way,” she thought, “it might be more exciting than if I told it myself.”

“Will he be able to tell us about where you came from?  And how you came to America?  And how you got your magical powers?” asked Mannie.

“Will he tell us about Africa?  And the Sahara Desert?  And the camel caravans that carry treasure?” asked Moe.

“Since it may not be part of the story that Grandpa will tell you,” said Carmelita, “let me first give you some facts about by family.  First you must know that there are two types of camels – one hump camels and two hump camels.  One hump camels are also called dromedaries.  They are pretty common. They live in Africa. Two hump camels are called Bactrian camels and are quite rare.  They come from Asia.  You can see that I have two humps, so I’m Bactrian.  My family came from place called the Gobi Desert which is in a bigger place called Mongolia, which is part of a very big country called China.  Now Grandpa can tell you the rest.  Just remember, he’s using his imagination.”

Carmelita’s Story.

Not so long ago but very far away, Carmelita’s parents, Abel and Josephine, worked carrying heavy loads of spices and silk across Mongolia from cities in China to cities in a part of the world called the Middle East.  Carmelita’s grandparents and her great grandparents had done the same thing, as did all of her camel ancestors for as long as anyone could remember.  But since trains now came across Mongolia camels weren’t used much.  So Abel and Josephine had little work to do and very little money.  They decided to move to a big city in China where, they thought, they could live in a zoo and entertain children who came there to see animals.  They headed for a famous city called Shanghai.  Carmelita was not yet born, but she had started to grow in Josephine’s tummy at about the time that her parents decided to move.

The trip to Shanghai was long and tiring for Abel and Josephine.  They walked for hours, and days, and weeks since camels couldn’t ride in cars, trains, or airplanes.  They had little to eat; and slept out of doors since they didn’t know any camels who could share their barns or shelters.  When they finally got to the Shanghai zoo, they learned that there were already Bactrian camels from another family living there.  There was no room for Abel and Josephine.  The zookeepers were very nice, however, and they fed and sheltered Abel and Josephine until they were rested and healthy.  Then the zookeepers learned that a zoo in California, in a big city called Los Angeles, would like for Abel and Josephine to move there.  That would mean a long boat trip across the Pacific Ocean.  Josephine was excited that she’d get to move from China to America.  But Abel wasn’t so sure it was a good idea.  He worried that the man who told them about the Los Angeles zoo might be a trickster.  But mainly he was worried about the boat trip since he was pretty sure he’d be seasick the whole way.  Josephine really wanted to go so Abel and Josephine agreed that Josephine, with baby Carmelita growing in her tummy, would go ahead to Los Angeles.  Once they were settled in the zoo, the Abel would come join them.

The trip wasn’t so bad, but after she arrived in Los Angeles, Josephine learned that the man who had brought them over the ocean really was a trickster.  He had no place for them at the zoo and he put them in a circus.  Josephine was sad and mad; and she was also glad that Abel hadn’t come along and gotten tricked as well.  But with Carmelita growing bigger and bigger inside her, she had no choice but to join the circus with the hope that people there would be kind and helpful.  Some were and some weren’t.  The ringmaster of the circus wasn’t nice at all.  But he realized that with Josephine pregnant and about to deliver a baby camel she couldn’t be used for heavy work or trained to do circus tricks.  So Josephine mostly carried visitors to the circus on a saddle between her humps around a small ring.

Josephine, who was extremely kind, quickly made friends with other people and animals at the circus.  She developed a special friendship with a magician from Arabia who was excited to have a two humped Bactrian camel join the circus since they were the camels that had brought neat things from China to his home in Arabia.  Maybe it was even Josephine’s parents who brought him a magic lamp from China when he was a child.  He still had the lamp which, he claimed, was the source of his magical powers.  He kept it in a special treasure box.  Josephine also made friends with the circus acrobats and clowns; and with other circus animals including the elephants, lions, and horses.  She in fact soon learned that all her human and animal friends were a family held together by their dislike for the ringmaster and the animal trainers who were bossy to all of them.  “The ringmaster and his trainers will be mean to you as soon as your baby is born”, Josephine was warned repeatedly.

Carmelita was born in a pile of straw in one of the circus wagons.  Everyone was happy and excited.  Needless to say, Josephine was happiest of all.  Even the ringmaster was happy.  He figured that Josephine could now carry more circus visitors in a basket instead of just one in the saddle between her humps.  And baby Carmelita would be a new circus attraction.  She would be trained to kneel or bow or dance and, as she grew bigger, to also carry circus visitors on her back.  Carmelita was assigned a trainer who shouted at her and cracked his whip.  That made Josephine very angry.  So she bit the trainer.  All her friends cheered but the ringmaster decided to punish Josephine by locking her away from Carmelita.  The ringmaster put Josephine in a wagon with a large sign saying “Dangerous Animal, Stay Away”.  But everyone at the circus knew Josephine wasn’t dangerous, she was protecting her child just like any other good mother.

Carmelita went to the magician from Arabia to see if he could help Josephine escape.  “Maybe you can bring out your lamp and use its magic to help Josephine get out from the locked wagon”, suggested Carmelita.

“No need for magic,” said the magician who pulled a big ring of keys out from under his cape.  We just need to find the right key to unlock the lock.  But once Josephine is out, she’ll have to get away from the circus.  In fact, you’ll both have to get away from the circus because the ringmaster will be even angrier than he was before.  And he’ll think of new ways to punish you.  Getting you away quickly and safely will require some real magic.”

Then the magician took his key ring over to the wagon where Josephine sat unhappily.  He tried one key, then another, and another.  They didn’t work.  As he tried a fourth key, they heard footsteps and a voice saying “Hey, get away from there.  That’s a dangerous camel.”  Fortunately the fourth key worked.  The lock snapped open and in a flash the magician and Josephine disappeared from behind the wagon.

Now the magician pulled out his lamp.  “Time for some real magic, since you’ve got to get away fast.  So, Josephine, you can rub the lamp four times and each time you’ll get to make a wish.  But for the wishes to be granted, they all have to be kind – not mean. Better hurry-up.”

“OK” said Josephine. “But it’s hard to make four wishes without getting to think about them.  I can make wishes for Carmelita while I think about what I want most for me.  Number one: I wish Carmelita will be sweet, gentle, and loved by everyone. Number two: I wish Carmelita will have a safe and happy home in the country of her birth.  Number three: I wish Carmelita will have magical powers of her own so she can help others like you’re helping us.”  And with each wish she rubbed the lamp.  Nothing seemed to happen.  Josephine started to wonder about whether the lamp was really magical.

The magician smiled and said “These things will come to pass.  But Josephine, you need to make your final wish since time is running out.”  

“OK,” said Josephine, “I wish to be together with Abel once again.”  She rubbed the lamp a fourth time and, poof, Josephine was instantly back in Shanghai and together once again with Carmelita’s daddy.

As for Josephine’s other wishes, well you know they all came true…  So, Minnie, Mannie, and Moe it’s time to brush teeth and go to sleep. 

“But that’s not how the story ends.” Said Mannie. “It can’t end that way. What about US?”  

“Yeah,” said Moe. “How did WE meet Carmelita?  And how did she get us to Philadelphia?”

“That’s another story for another night,” said Grandpa. “Once again, BRUSH TEETH. GOODNIGHT, and NO TALKING AFTER THE LIGHTS ARE OUT.”

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.

It was a warm summer afternoon.  Grandma and Grandpa had taken Carly on a trip to the park.  They had left the back door open to let a breeze freshen the kitchen but had forgotten to completely close the screen.  Carmelita was taking a nap and Minnie, Mannie, and Moe were all a little bored sitting indoors.  A fly wandered in through the open screen door and buzzed their heads.  Since the screen door was just outside their view, the arrival of the fly suggested that the door had been left ajar.

“We’d better go close the screen door so more flies don’t come in the house”, said Minnie.  So all three climbed down out of the basket on Carmelita’s back and trudged across the living room rug to where the screen was left open.  But all three together, trying with all their might, were unable to close the door.  As they rested to catch their breath a gentle breeze blew in from the outside.  The sun had dropped enough that it wasn’t too hot.  So Minnie, Mannie, and Moe decided to wander out onto the porch instead.

Then they saw it.  It was hidden out of sight behind the back wall of the house.  It loomed high over the lawn with a big black net.  The TRAMPOLINE!  Why hadn’t anyone told them it was there??  They rushed over to the corner of the deck but stopped at the top of the stairs realizing that the bouncy surface of the trampoline was too high off the ground for them to jump onto to it.  

“Wait,” said Mannie, “I see a ladder.”

“And if we climb on each other’s shoulders we may be able to make it up, step by step,” said Moe.

“Do you think Grandma and Grandpa will mind?” asked Minnie.

“No, of course not!” said Mannie, although he wasn’t entirely sure of that. “Besides, there’s a big safety net so we can’t get hurt and we’ll be done before Grandma and Grandpa get home and before Carmelita wakes up.”

“I don’t know,” said Minnie.  But the temptation was too great and soon all three were at the base of the ladder.  Moe climbed onto Mannie’s shoulders and Minnie then climbed up onto Moe’s.  They made it onto the first step; and in that fashion they climbed all three steps of the ladder and plopped through the netting and onto the trampoline.  They all paused to catch their breath but then began jumping wildly, each trying to make the others fall down.  Moe seemed especially good at making Mannie and Minnie lose their balance.  Then they jumped really hard to see who could get the highest.  Mannie won.  He is the heaviest.  They tried seat drops, knee drops, and somersaults.  Soon all three collapsed giggling in the corner. 

“Enough” said Minnie.  “I’m tired and a little dizzy.”

“And I’m thirsty” said Mannie.

So all three climbed down the way they came up except this time, at the bottom step of the ladder, all three made a big leap down onto the grass.  

“Let’s go over to the garden and find some juicy berries to help quench our thirst,” suggested Moe.  “I can see that the blackberries are mostly ripe.  Too bad the strawberries seem to be gone, they grow along the ground and would be easy to reach.  We’ll have to climb a bit to get to the blackberries.”

“Watch out for the thorns,” said Minnie.  But Mannie and Moe were already climbing the berry branches, grabbing big dark berries and staining their hands and faces purple from the juice.

“Here,” said Mannie, tossing a big berry down to Minnie.  She wasn’t ready and it fell with a splat onto the brick path in front of her.  Purple juice bounced onto her face.

“Thanks for that!” said Minnie. “I’ll get my own.”

“Suit yourself,” replied Mannie, “But better hurry before Moe eats all the ripe ones.”

Moe at that point had three berries in his mouth and one in each hand.  He wasn’t paying any attention to what Mannie and Minnie were saying.

“Ow,” said Mannie.  “I just got a big scratch.”

“Look out,” said Minnie as a big bumble bee hovered in front of a berry blossom right next to Moe’s outstretched hand. “It looks like it wants the berry you’re reaching for.”

“Bumble bees don’t eat berries,” said Moe, “but maybe it’s a good idea for me to climb down anyhow.  I don’t want to make it angry and get stung.”

Soon all three were standing at the base of the berry bushes with purple tongues, lips and fingers…and some scratches from the thorns on each of their arms and legs.  The sun moved out from behind a corner of the garage and it quickly grew hot.  So they ducked under the giant leaves of the pumpkin plant for shade.  The orange pumpkin blossoms smelled sweet and in the shade they cooled quickly.  

“Let’s see what else is growing.” Said Mannie. “This is really interesting.”

“Look over there,” said Moe.  “Tomatoes climbing a giant metal fence.  Bet you can’t climb that, Mannie.”

“Bet you’re right”, said Mannie.  “I don’t even want to try.  But look, there’s the top of a carrot sticking up from the dirt.  I wonder how long it is.”

“We can pull it up to find out,” said Moe and soon both of them were tugging with all their might on the carrot’s green top.  It wouldn’t budge.

“You shouldn’t be doing that,” said Minnie. “I know the carrots were planted for Grandpa and he won’t be happy if you’re pulling them out of the ground…unless you plan to keep it a secret by eating the whole thing.”

“I guess you’re right again,” said Mannie who let go of the carrot top suddenly.  Moe was just as suddenly off balance and his feet slipped forward.  He fell backward, landing in a round hole just the size of his butt that neither he nor Mannie had noticed when they grabbed the carrot’s top.  Moe’s butt wedged in the hole.

“Help me, I’m stuck” shouted Moe.  Mannie giggled.

“Serve’s you right,” said Minnie.  But both Minnie and Mannie grabbed onto Moe’s arms and legs to try to pull him out.  Just like the carrot, Moe wouldn’t budge.

“Maybe we’d better get Carmelita to help get you out,” said Mannie.

Just then Moe felt a big shove from behind and he was out of the hole, followed by a big furry head with a big snout and tiny beady eyes.  “Help from Carmelita??” the creature said. “Who’s Carmelita? Who cares? I want to know who are you?  And why you’re plugging the door to my tunnel with your smelly butt?  And why are you in my garden?  Don’t you realize that I live here?”

“We’re Minnie, Mannie, and Moe,” the trio said together. “We live in the house with Grandma and Grandpa.  Carmelita is our guardian.  You don’t want to mess with her.  She’s magical.  And we know this isn’t YOUR garden.  It’s Grandma’s garden.  Are you digging here and eating her vegetables?”

“HA,” said the furry creature. “I’m Lester, chief mole around here.  And I can tell you don’t know a lot about moles.  Me and my buddies don’t give a hoot about Grandma’s vegetables.  We’re here for the worms!  Lot of tasty worms in this garden put here by a boy and girl who come to visit.  The more worms they put in, the fatter we get.  I don’t imagine I can interest you in a big nightcrawler, can I?  Naw, I can tell from the berry juice on your faces that you don’t like worms.  HA, HA.”  Lester laughed meanly and backed Minnie, Mannie and Moe toward the edge of a garden timber.  Now he was mostly out of his burrow.  He sniffed them with his long snout.  He had feet like paddles and long dirty nails that he used for digging.  “Um,” Lester said, “I wonder if any of you might taste a little like a worm.”

Minnie, Mannie, and Moe edged further back toward the edge of the timber, ready to jump down out of the garden bed if Lester came closer.  Then there was a sudden shadowy movement over their heads.  Lester pointed his snout up to smell what was overhead since he could barely see at all with his little beady eyes.  But the odor he sensed was enough. “Hawk!” he cried and he turned and dove into his tunnel.

The hawk swooped down.  Then it grabbed Minnie, Mannie, and Moe in her claws and gently lifted them up over the lawn.  “You really should’ve told me that you were going out to the backyard,” the hawk said in a familiar voice as it gently set them down next to the back door.  “Now go inside and be sure to shut the screen tightly so flies don’t get in.”  Then, poof, the hawk was gone.

Minnie, Mannie, and Moe came through the door, shutting the screen door tightly as they had been told to do.  Inside, an obviously wide-awake Carmelita sat smiling.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.

Janice lives up the block from Grandma and Grandpa.  She’s a big jolly woman who smiles and laughs quickly; and doesn’t seem to worry a lot about anything.  Janice just got a sailboat.  It’s a little sailboat called a Sunfish with a striped triangular sail.  The hull of the sailboat isn’t much bigger than a paddleboard.  It has a well where you can put your feet.  The well also gives someone a place to hold on when the boat tips or heels in the wind, which it does frequently. Sunfish sailboats are best when the water is warm because when they’re sailed water splashes up over the passengers.

Janice’s Sunfish was used.  The rudder was a little loose, the sail a little ragged, and the hull a little dirty from being stored under somebody’s oak tree for a year or two.  But it was inexpensive and since Janice hadn’t had much experience sailing (in fact, she’d been on a sailboat exactly once before) she hadn’t wanted to spend a lot of money.

Mannie had wandered alone onto the dock next to the boat ramp one morning when Janice showed up with her sailboat for the first time.  It was hot that morning and there was a soft wind blowing across the open water that made it much cooler when one was on a boat.  Mannie watched Janice unload the Sunfish from her trailer and drag it into the water.  He watched Janice pull up the sail, drop the rudder into its slot, and push away from the ramp.  Mannie desperately wanted to go out for a sail and to enjoy the cool breeze on the water.

While her boat was bobbing next to the dock, Janice noticed Mannie watching her.  “Care to come for a ride?” Janice shouted out to Mannie. “But I have to tell you that I’m not much of a sailor; so you’re likely to get wet.  You know how to sail?”

“Sure!” replied Mannie, answering the first question about whether he wanted to come for a ride.

“Terrific” answered Janice, thinking that Mannie had answered the second question about whether he knew how to sail. “You can give me some pointers.”

So Mannie jumped off the dock and down into the well of the sailboat.  There was plenty of room for him despite Janice filling most of the space with her large body. “Ready for some excitement,” shouted Janice as the Sunfish caught the light breeze and moved away from the dock. “Whee!”

Because Janice was heavy the boat tilted toward where she was sitting and Mannie had to hold tightly to the edge of the well just to keep from falling into her lap.  As the boat picked up a little speed it leveled off.  Soon they’d crossed the mouth of the creek and were headed directly toward the marina pier. 

“Don’t you think we’d better turn?” asked Mannie nervously as he imagined crashing into one of the big sailboats tied to the pier.  “Why I guess so,” responded Janice who with a laugh jerked the rudder toward her, pivoting the little Sunfish in the opposite direction.  Suddenly the sail was in Mannie’s face and he couldn’t see a thing.  The boat leaned way over on its edge because Janice and Mannie were now on the same side the boat.  “Guess we didn’t do that right,” said Janice.

 “I think we have to sit on the other side of the boat,” said Mannie, his voice muffled by the sail. “Great idea!” said Janice who lumped herself around to the other side of the well.  The boat leveled.  Mannie also switched sides which didn’t matter much since he was so small and light.  Gradually Janice and Mannie figured out how to move in the boat.  For a while they sailed back and forth across the creek nearly missing several other boats and buoys but eventually getting the hang of turning the Sunfish and shifting their weight with each turn.  “Time to quit,” said Janice, and they pointed the Sunfish toward the ramp which they hit with a lurch, almost sending Mannie into the water.

“What fun!” Janice declared.  “Thanks for the help, Mannie. You’re a great little sailor.  And you know what? I’m a little too tired to haul this boat home now.  So I’ll leave it here by the ramp.  Feel free to take it out later on if you like.  Invite your friends.”  And Janice, smiling and chuckling, trundled up the hill and back to her home for a rest.  Mannie was thrilled.  Sailing was fun.  And Janice had said that he was a great little sailor.  When he thought about it, he had gotten the hang of it quickly.  Easy really.  A piece of cake.

 “Absolutely NO WAY,” said Minnie when Mannie asked if she wanted to go back on the Sunfish with him.  “You go sailing once, manage not to fall off the boat and drown, and now you’re the big skipper.  That’s crazy.  And even if I trusted you to know how to sail, it’s getting cloudy and the wind is picking up.  So you’re likely to get caught in some rain.”

“But this may be our only chance,” said Mannie.  If we don’t go now, Janice will come back and haul the boat back to her house.  “What about you, Moe?  Ready to come out?  It’s a piece of cake.”

“Ok,” said Moe who was easily caught up by Mannie’s enthusiasm.  “A piece of cake,” he repeated to himself.  

“We’d better go quickly,” said Mannie. “Minnie’s right about the weather.  The sun is going behind some clouds and we don’t want to get caught if it starts to rain.”

“I stlll think it is a bad idea,” said Minnie. “But, if you two insist on going, remember life jackets and a cellphone.  With life jackets, if you fall off the boat you’ll float.  And if you have problems you’ll be able to use the phone to call for help.”

“Okay, if you insist.” said Mannie recalling that Janice hadn’t made him wear a life jacket and hadn’t carried a cellphone when they’d sailed earlier. Mannie and Moe hurried back down to the boat ramp.  With lots of effort together they managed to push the sunfish back into the water and hoist the sail.  Immediately a gust of wind caught the sail and pushed them out into the open water -- a lot faster than what had happened earlier with Janice.  Then a wave splashed over the bow and filled the well of the boat with seawater.  Moe held on.  He was already grateful for the life jackets.

In the open water the wind was stronger.  It got behind the boat pushing it out across the mouth of the creek and away from the marina.  They were headed toward a little beach near the mansion that Grandma called the castle.  The branches of a big tree jutted out of the water in front of the beach. The clouds darkened.  Mannie pushed the rudder to the right and to the left but the boat wouldn’t turn, it just kept moving toward the branches in front of the beach.  More water splashed over the bow.  Moe and Mannie got wetter and then cold.  The wind picked up some more.  

“Time for Carmelita’s magic,” said Moe fearfully.  “What?” said Mannie.  He couldn’t hear Moe’s words

over the sound of the wind.  “Time for Carmelita’s magic,” shouted Moe again, starting to panic. 

“Time to duck,” said Mannie as one of the tree branches swept low over the deck of the boat.  Moe and Mannie ducked just in time.  The branch caught the sail leaving a big rip and spinning the boat.  Then another gust of wind blew it up onto the beach.  And just as they landed on the sand, there was a bright flash of lightning, a boom of thunder, and a gush of rain.

Moe pulled the cellphone out of his pocket and called home.

“Minnie, you were right.  Please tell Carmelita we need her help,” Moe shouted when Minnie answered.

He was frightened and starting to cry. “We need her to stop the storm, and fix the sail, and bring us

 home, and dry us off, and make this so it never happened.  Please, tell her fast.” 

Moe ended the call and the two boys then waited on the beach, well away from the mast of the boat

and the trees behind them which they knew could attract lightning.  They got soaked.  But eventually

the rain stopped and the sun came back out.  A passing fisherman saw them stranded on the beach and

towed them in the Sunfish back to the boat ramp.  The same fisherman helped Mannie and Moe pull the 

boat out of the water and lower the torn sail.  Mannie suspected the fisherman might be Carmelita in 

disguise but decided he wasn’t. Then Mannie and Moe dragged themselves back to the house.  Mannie 

worried about how he would explain the torn sail to Janice.  Moe wondered why Carmelita hadn’t 

rescued them.

Once inside and dried off, questions popped out of Mannie and Moe. “Why hadn’t Carmelita stopped

the storm?  Why did she let them get soaked in the rain?  Why hadn’t she just brought them magically

home instead of letting a fisherman tow them?  Why? Why? Why?”

Carmelita, for once, didn’t smile.  “My turn for questions,” she said. “Why hadn’t Mannie and Moe

listened to Minnie?  Why did they let themselves think they knew how to sail a boat?  And why didn’t

they pay attention to the change in the weather?  They needed to learn that using magic isn’t the

solution to most problems.  Being smart and careful was better.”  “But,” she added, “I’m really thankful

that you’re both all right.  And as for the torn sail, a little magic will certainly fix it -- but only AFTER you

apologize to Janice.”

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.

“I can’t wait!  I can’t wait! I’m so excited! Oh My God, I’m so excited, I can’t wait!”

“Cool it, Moe!” interjected Mannie.  “You’re shouting and I’m right next to you.  What can’t you wait for?  Do you have to pee?  I guess if you’re that desperate you could lean over the edge of the basket… but I suspect that Grandma and Grandpa would be pretty upset with you if you did.”

“Very funny, Mannie,” replied Moe. “You know very well what I’m excited about.  I just learned that Maggie, Paige, and Wesley are coming to Annapolis.  They’ll be here soon.  It’s been about a year since we last saw them.  So many stories about us came from that visit that I can’t wait to learn what this visit will mean for us.”

“Their visit isn’t about us,” added Minnie. “It’s for them to see Grandma and Grandpa, and go tubing, and kayaking, and paddleboarding, and do ropes and say goodbye to summer.”

“And maybe see some jellyfish,” added Mannie.

“Another joke,” responded Moe.  “What’s with you, Mannie?  Aren’t you happy about the visit?  Seriously, we need to think of some ways to entertain them so they’ll have a good time.”

“Isn’t that Grandma and Grandpa’s job?” said Mannie.

“Well yes,” replied Moe.  “But Grandma and Grandpa will mostly think of things for them to do outdoors.  Since we spend our time here in the living room, we should have some ideas about what to do inside when they’re resting or if it rains.”

“I know they like games,” said Minnie.

“Precisely,” said Moe. “We’ll make up a game that they’ve never played.”

“I have an idea,” said Mannie as he glanced down at the marble puzzle on the round table.  “We can invent a new game with the marbles.  It can be a combination of marbles and soccer, since Paige and Wesley are good soccer players.”

“What about Maggie?” asked Minnie. 

“She can play too,” responded Moe.

“No, isn’t she a good soccer player also?”

“Well, maybe she is…or was, but now she plays lacrosse.  So we can make up a game that combines marbles, soccer, and lacrosse.  I will be really cool.” Moe started to imagine how the game might be played on the living room carpet. “We need a name for it.”

“I know, we’ll call it laxerbles,” suggested Mannie.  

“Laxerbles it is.  Perfect.” Agreed Moe.  “Now one goal will be under the piano and the other opposite it, on the stairs to the hall.  It will be us against them.  We should have an advantage since they’ve never played before.”

“Wonderful,” said Minnie.  “You forget that we’ve never played it before either.  No one has.  We haven’t made it up yet.  Do you think they might just have a teeny-weenie size advantage?”

“We can take care of that with the rules,” said Moe. “Or we’ll ask Carmelita to make us just a big as they are for the game.”

“Let’s require pots for helmets!” said Mannie who loved all sorts of headgear.  “It could be rough and we have to be sensitive about head injury.  Maggie’s already had a concussion.”

“Interesting choice, Mannie,” said Minnie.  “Could that be because you already have a pot on your head?  Shall we call our team the potheads?”  

“See Moe,” said Mannie.  “I’m not the only comedian.”

“OK, OK” said Moe “Let’s make up the rules. A marble can be the ball.  No wait, since there are three players on each side there should be three marbles played all at once.  The idea will be to kick the marbles to the goal moving one marble at a time.  And they have to go under the couches.  That will give us a size advantage since Wesley, Paige and Maggie are way too big to run under the couches.”

“They should love that,” commented Minnie.  “And where does the lacrosse-part fit in?”

“Hmmm,” said Moe. “I know.  Everyone has to carry a stick.  When you’re trying to score a goal, you have to kick the marbles like soccer.  When you’re trying to defend a goal, you use your stick like lacrosse.  Ready to practice.”

So Minnie, Mannie, and Moe climbed down onto the living room rug and up onto the round table.  With all three on the table it started to tip over.  Carmelita gave a quick wink and the table righted itself with three marbles dropping neatly out of the puzzle tray and onto the rug.  Mannie gave one a kick with the front of his foot.  The marble moved only an inch. “Yeow,” he cried, “that’s hard.’’ Mannie bent down to rub his sore toes.

“You have to kick with the inside of your foot,” said Minnie.  “Watch.”  Minnie pushed the marble with her instep.  “See, painless.”

“But you didn’t really kick it, Minnie.” Said Moe.  “You noodged it.”

“Noodged?” replied Minnie. “Do you mean nudged? Noodged, nudged, whatever.  The important thing is that it didn’t hurt.”

“Yeah” said Mannie.  “And the marble didn’t go anywhere either.”

“Watch me,” said Moe.  He ran forward carefully swinging the inside of his foot at the marble in front of him and missed.  He fell backward onto his butt.  His head hit the carpet and his pot helmet clanged and rolled under the couch. Needless to say, the marble didn’t move.

“Way to go, Beckham!” exclaimed Minnie.  “I guess that shot didn’t hurt your toes.  Am I right?”

Moe tried again, making contact but managing to roll the marble only a few inches under the couch where it came to rest next to his helmet.  Carly got excited and started to bark.  So Minnie, Mannie and Moe held their ears until Grandma managed to sush Carly with a treat.

“You know,” said Moe reluctantly, “I think Laxerbles isn’t a very good idea for a game.”

“I agree with you, said Minnie “maybe for the first time ever.”  

“No argument” added Mannie who continued to rub his sore toes. “But Wesley, Paige and Maggie will still be here and we need to be able to entertain them with something.”

“I’ve heard that they like to play cards”, said Minnie. “Maybe we should offer to play a card game.”

“Do you know how to play any?” asked Mannie.  “Gin Rummy? Poker? Uno? Sets?”

“Well, no, no, no and no” replied Minnie. “But I could teach them Old Maid.”

“I’ll bet they’re already good at that”, said Moe. “So we need invent a new card game.   One that they’ve never played before.  We’ll make up the rules.  That way we can have an advantage…”

And so they talked on and on about what they could do to entertain Maggie, Paige, and Wesley during their visit.  Carmelita listened to their discussions and arguments until she couldn’t stand it any longer.  Finally she spoke up.  “You know what I think?” she asked them.  “I think you’re all just trying to think of a way to make sure that Wes, Maggie, and Paige will pay attention to you.  You know that when Quinn, Gray, and Ashby visit they’ll always say hello, ask how you are, and wonder what has happened since they last visited.  And you’re worried that Paige, Maggie, and Wesley won’t notice you.  Well I’ll talk to Grandpa and together we’ll figure out a way to make sure that you’re noticed.

And she did.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.

One late summer morning Minnie and Moe were trying to think of something fun to do.  They didn’t want to go too far away since they both were feeling a little lazy and tired.  They didn’t want to do something that they’d done a lot already, like go to the playground.  And they both thought it was still too hot and muggy to jump on the trampoline.

Mannie listened as they talked over some possibilities.  He offered some suggestions.  Maybe a trip to downtown Annapolis for a ride on the water taxi or an ice cream cone.  Neither Minnie nor Moe were very interested.  Maybe just going down to the pier by the boat ramp and throwing a line in the water to try to catch a fish.  Moe thought that was a possibility but Minnie didn’t want to deal with worms for bait.  Finally Mannie said, I know, let’s go to the pond at Quiet Waters and feed the turtles.  He remembered that Maggie, Paige, and Wesley had gone there with a bag of cat food and fed not only turtles but fish.  And then Quinn, Gray and Ashby had done the same thing.  Even little Ashby had thrown handfuls of food and watched the turtles gobble it up.

“It’ll be great”, said Mannie.  “Paige and Wesley told me how cool it was to see all the turtles swimming hungrily under the bridge; and to see the fish pop up from the murky water and snatch a bite of food away from the turtles.  In no time, they’ll be swarming around right under where we stand to feed them.”

“That does sound like fun,” said Minnie. “We’ve seen the turtles before but we’ve never fed them.  And I know Grandma and Grandpa have a lot of cat food left over that I’m sure they’ll be happy to share.”

Moe was a little uncertain.  He liked the idea but didn’t want to admit that he found the big turtles in the pond a little scary.  He and Mannie and Minnie were, after all, little people.  Moe imagined slipping between the boards of the fence along the bridge, falling into the water, and getting gobbled by a giant turtle.  One little slip, he thought, and he could plunge into that yucky water where one couldn’t see the fish until they lunged with big open mouths.  What if he fell into the pond and was mistaken for cat food?

Mannie could tell that Moe was a little unhappy with his idea.  Moe wouldn’t say what bothered him but Mannie had an idea that it had something to do with the scary big turtles.  And, to be honest, Mannie was also a little frightened of the big old turtles with their long necks and huge heads. But Mannie wasn’t about to let his worries hold him back.  “Turtles are slow,” he told himself. “And I’m a fast swimmer.  Besides, no one is going to fall into the pond.”

So Minnie, Mannie, and Moe got Carmelita to agree to take them up to the park and leave them near the bridge over the pond.  They took the opened bag of cat food that Grandma was happy to share and off they went.  As soon as they arrived near the pond, they climbed out of their basket and onto the bridge.  Minnie dragged the cat food bag out all by herself.  When they were in the middle of the bridge, they found that they could stick their heads between the boards of the railing and look down into the pond below.  The water was green from algae.  Only a few turtles were visible, swimming lazily near a log along the shoreline.

Mannie took a handful of cat food and tossed it into the water below his feet.  Soon smaller turtles started surfacing near the food to snatch bites in their mouths.  Minnie threw a handful of food into the water and more turtles arrived to eat it.  Then they noticed sudden ripples in the water between the turtles caused by the fish who lunged at the food with their mouths wide open, sometimes snatching bites away from a nearby turtle.  Off in the distance a giant green turtle with a long neck and a big head started to swim toward the bridge.

Moe watched all the pond activity with fascination and horror.  He held onto the board of the fence that was nearest to him with both hands.

“C’mon Moe,” said Mannie, “Throw some food to the turtles.”

Moe timidly let go with one hand, took a few kernels of catfood, and dropped them into the water below.  It seemed to take a long time for the food to hit the water where it was immediately grabbed by the turtles and fish who were getting more and more excited by the falling food.  Moe grabbed the fence with both hands again.

“Don’t be a fraidy-cat” said Mannie. “Heave the food way out into the water so the slower turtles can get to it.”  As they spoke, the giant green turtle moved closer and closer to the bridge.  Mannie, to show Moe that he wasn’t afraid, stepped back from the fence and grabbed a handful of cat food.  He then ran toward the fence and threw the food out over the water with all his might.  He threw so hard that several bites of food flew over the giant turtles head bouncing off of its shell and into the water behind it.  The giant turtle paid no attention to the food.  It kept swimming slowly toward the bridge.

“See,” said Mannie. “That’s what I mean by giving it a heave.  I’ll do it again.”

“That’s OK,” replied Moe. “No need…”  But before Moe could finish his thought, Mannie ran forward to hurl another handful out across the pond.  This time Mannie caught his toe, stumbled and fell through the fence slats and down into the murky water below.  Minnie and Moe peered over the edge in time to see Mannie land with a big splash in the pond.  All the little turtles immediately disappeared.  The giant green turtle was by now almost to the bridge and to where Mannie had splashed down.  Mannie popped up to the surface.  Suddenly he was bumped by a fish.  And then by another, and another, and another.  One fish tried to bite his knee.  Mannie twirled and kicked to keep the fish away, aware that the giant turtle was now just inches from him and big enough, it seemed, to swallow him in a single gulp.

The turtle looked directly at Mannie with its beady eyes and opened its mouth.   Then with a sudden slashing movement of its long neck it bit down onto a fish that was about to take a big bite of Mannie.  Then the turtle turned to Mannie.  “Quick, climb onto my back, little man.  No time to hesitate or these hungry fish will eat you up.  Move! Now!”

 Mannie did as he was told having no time to wonder if the giant turtle wouldn’t eat him faster than the fish.  But the turtle turned out to be a gentle giant who swam Mannie carefully and slowly back to the ponds edge.  “I’m sorry if I frightened you with my beady eyes,” the turtle said to Mannie,
“but I don’t see very well and all the algae in the pond makes it even harder to see.”  Then he told Mannie stories about all the children he’s had to save from all the nasty fish in the pond after they, like Mannie, had fallen off the bridge.  “Every summer, every summer,” the turtle muttered.

Once at the shore, Mannie slid off the turtles back scrambled back onto the bridge to rejoin a relieved Minnie and Moe.  He turned to say thank you but the giant turtle had already disappeared into the dark cloudy water.

 Shortly afterward a cheerful Carmelita rolled out from behind nearby bushes with a wet towel laying across her neck.  “Use up all the cat food?” she asked. “Ready to go home?  Oh, and in case you’re wondering about the towel, I decided to go for a quick swim while you were feeding the turtles.”

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.

Chapter 1 -- How to Catch a Thief

“Twenty years” said Judge Mattie, pounding her gavel.  “That’s how long you’re going to prison, Mr. Weasel.  I’m giving you the longest sentence I can after your string of home burglaries.”  She pounded her gavel again. “Take him away, guard.  This court is dismissed.”

Detective Dirk Drago sat in the back of the courtroom where he had watched the entire trial.  He felt good.  He had figured out how Weasel broke into the homes of his victims and then watched from his car as the police, acting on his advice, caught him red handed during his last robbery.  Now he was tired and ready for a rest.  But he knew that rest was unlikely, since there were too many more robbers still sneaking into homes and that meant more mysteries to solve and more stories to follow.

“The End”, added Carmelita with a yawn as she closed the book.  “That was a long mystery story and its way past your bedtime.  So all three of you go to the bathroom one last time and brush your teeth.”  Carmelita had had a cold and had taken some medicine that made her sleepy.  So she was already sound asleep when Minnie, Mannie, and Moe got back from the bathroom and climbed under their covers.

Minnie, Mannie and Moe however weren’t sleepy at all.  They were all wide awake from the excitement of the Dirk Drago mystery that Carmelita had read to them.  It had been a long story that had taken three nights to read.  Each of them had been amazed at how detective Dirk had found clues that allowed him to figure out who the thief was and when he would strike next.  And each of them lay awake thinking of how neat it would be to be a detective with a mystery to solve.

“You know,” said Mannie, “Grandma Lin hasn’t been able to find her red brush with the bristles that pop up for weeks.  And she had it forever.  She always kept it with her to entertain every grandchild when she babysat…from Maggie to Ashby.  And now it’s missing.  Maybe we can solve that mystery.”

“Don’t ‘cha think she just lost it?” said Minnie.

“More likely Ashby took it from her and hid it and he’s too young to be able to tell her where,” said Moe. “Not much of a mystery.  I don’t imagine there’s a burglar out there stealing red plastic brushes from Grandma.”

“Well then, you guys think of another mystery we can solve,” said Mannie who was feeling discouraged.

“Fat chance,” said Minnie.  “Nothing exciting ever happens around here.  Certainly not burglaries, and stealing, and crime, and criminals and that sort of stuff.”

“Not so,” said Mannie whose discouragement was turning to annoyance with Minnie.

Moe remained silent.  He was starting to get sleepy and preferred to dream about being a big city police detective driving his police car really FAST from one crime scene to the next than to listen to Minnie and Mannie bicker at each other.  Soon Minnie and Mannie also grew tired of disagreeing; and before long all three were, like Carmelita, fast asleep.  

When they woke up in the morning, Grandma Lin and Grandpa Rich were talking loudly.   “Damn,” said Grandpa.  “What?” said Grandma, “be careful of your language.” 

“OK, Darn!” said Grandpa a little more loudly. “But this is no time to worry about language.  My good watch is missing.  I left it right here on the front hall table last night so I’d remember to take it to the jeweler for a battery.  Now it’s not here.  On top of that, the front door was unlocked and I know I locked it after walking Carly last night.”

“Which is your good watch?” said Grandma.

“The gold one,” replied Grandpa. “Anything else missing?”

“As a matter of fact,” said Grandma, “Yesterday I noticed that my gold earrings were missing.  But I didn’t say anything since things seem to disappear from my jewelry box all the time only to show up the next time I look.  So I assume they just get buried under other things.”

“Are you sure you weren’t wearing them and took them off to talk on the phone?”

“Yes, I’m sure.  I don’t wear them often; and not recently.”

“Let me look,” said Grandpa as he started to sift through the jewelry box.  “By the way, did you ever find that antique ring?  The gold one with the flower blossom and the small diamond in the center?”

“Why no,” replied Grandma. “It’s been missing for a few weeks. I’d forgotten about it. I know I wasn’t wearing it.  I haven’t worn it for a few years.  Isn’t that strange.  I’m sure it’ll show up.  I can’t believe someone’s been stealing things.  Who would that be?”

“Well, you’ve got to wonder.  But I guess if we were robbed a whole lot more would be missing.  Still, it is strange.”  Grandpa’s voice trailed off as he started to think about breakfast and his morning coffee.

Mannie listened intently.  He almost couldn’t believe what he was hearing.  Missing gold jewelry.  And neither Grandma nor Grandpa with any idea of where it went or even when except, of course, for Grandpa’s watch that had disappeared the night before.  A real mystery.  And Detective Mannie was just the right person to figure out who took the jewelry and how, catch the thief, and find and return the stolen items.  Then, like Dirk Drago, he could sit in the back of the courtroom while Judge Mattie sent the crook to jail.  He would need assistants.  Minnie and Moe would do; which was good since he didn’t know anyone else to ask.

“I don’t particularly care to be your assistant,” said Minnie when Mannie suggested she could be his secretary.  Dirk Drago had a really good secretary who scheduled appointments and answered the phone.

“Nor I”, said Moe when Mannie suggested that he could do crime research.  Dirk Drago had a research assistant who looked things up on the computer, checked phone records and bank accounts, or went over police records.

Good assistants would give Mannie, like Dirk Drago, time to find clues and figure out their meaning, and then catch the bad guy.  It would be hard to figure out the crime without assistants but, in the end, Mannie agreed to make Minnie and Moe his co-detectives.  They sat down together and started to work out a plan to solve the mystery. 

 “We need to find clues,” said Moe.  

“Of course,” said Minnie.  “But do you have any idea how, exactly, we do that?”

“Well,” said Mannie, “Dirk Drago always starts by asking the victim lots of questions.  Like where were you when the crime happened?  And are you sure you left whatever was stolen where you think you left it?  And did you check the dirty laundry basket?”

“Right,” said Moe.  “You want to know if they looked in the dirty laundry.  We’re looking for stolen gold, not missing underpants.  I think we need to look for fingerprints or blood stains.  Those are real clues.”

“Moe,” said Minnie, “May I remind you that there wasn’t a murder.  Grandpa’s watch is missing.  There aren’t going to be bloodstains.  And maybe, just maybe, it is still the pocket of the pants he threw in the laundry basket.”

“And Grandma’s earrings and ring?  What about those?” replied Moe.  “Could they be in the pocket of Grandpa’s pants, too?”

“Enough squabbling,” said Mannie.  “Let’s think about who was in the house at the time of the theft.  There was Grandma and Grandpa, of course.  And the three of us.  And Carmelita.  And Carly.  We need to know if everyone has an alibi.”

“Are you kidding?” said Moe.  “Grandma and Grandpa are the victims.  Were the detectives.  Carmelita is, well, she’s Carmelita and she would never steal anything.  We were all asleep.  And Carly is a dog.  Do you think she might’ve confused the watch for a doggy treat?  What about Elmo?  I’m sure he spent the night in Ashby’s crib.”

“OK, OK,” replied Mannie.  “I agree that there aren’t any good suspects in the house.  So somebody or something must’ve sneaked into the house during the night and committed the crime.  Maybe the same person committed two or three robberies, first snatching the ring, then the earrings, and then the watch.  Grandpa noticed the door was unlocked.  That’s a clue, isn’t it?”

“So what about fingerprints?” said Moe.

“I see a problem there,” said Minnie. “Do any of us have the slightest idea how to check for fingerprints?  I think you need a crime lab to do that?  Do we have a crime lab?”

“Well…no…” answered Moe slowly.

“So I think we have to be smarter.” Continued Minnie. “We have to set a trap for the thief and catch her in the act of stealing again.  Then we can demand she return what she stole before or we’ll turn her over to the police and she’ll go to jail.”

“Why do you think the thief is a she?” asked Moe.

“Well,” said Minnie, “obviously, she’s very smart…but, never mind, I suppose she could be a he.”

“What do we have that a thief would want to steal?” interrupted Mannie.

“Good point,” responded Minnie. “I think we’ll have to let Grandpa in on the plan to see if he has some more gold that we can put out as bait for the thief.  We can promise it won’t be lost.”

And so they let Grandpa in on their plan.  Although Grandpa was still not sure that anything at all had been stolen, he decided he had just the right thing to put out to lure a thief back, if there was one…  Grandma’s gold tooth.  Not one in her mouth, of course, but the one that the dentist had removed when he replaced her old crown.  It was already forgotten and wouldn’t be missed.  More importantly, since Grandpa didn’t really believe that there was a thief, letting the little detectives set their trap surely wouldn’t harm anyone.