Storytelling Week 7: Balancing the Scales

Sarah seemed to have it all together. She was organized, got good grades in school, worked a steady job, was popular and very well liked. She worked hard and took pride in her accomplishments. She was also extremely kind and overwhelmingly generous in giving to other people and unfortunately there were some people who took advantage of this fact.

One day while walking home she spotted some money on the ground. Immediately she grabbed it and began searching the area for someone who might have dropped it. She was unable to locate a single person and so she decided to take the money home and decide what to do with it there. A local ruffian saw this and decided to approach her. He offered her a cheap ring, a worthless trinket he had found in exchange for some of the money she had found. He expected her to completely brush him off and continue on her way but instead she accepted the deal. She handed over half of what she had found in exchange for the trinket. The man, surprised but delighted all the same walked away whistling a pleasant tune.

A few weeks later he came across the same girl. She had been carrying a bag of apples which had apparently spilled with the apples rolling all over the sidewalk and the majority into the fenced yard nearby. He approached her and offered to help her pick the apples in exchange for a few of them. She gladly accepted but explained her dilemma with her inability to climb the fence into the neighbors yard. The man simply hopped the fence and told her not to worry that he would get them and toss some apples back to her. However he only selected to toss back the ones that had been bruised, muddied, or squashed in some way. He pocketed all the good ones and made a show out of eating one in front of her.

Sarah grew angrier and angrier by the minute. Suddenly an idea came to mind. "You know, that was some pretty impressive fence hopping earlier. I bet you can't do a flip back over it."

"Watch and learn," he called back.

But as he went to do the flip he forgot about how slippery the ground was from rain the night before. He slipped in the mud on his way to do the flip and instead of landing on the ground he went face first into the fence and then over. The result of his flip meant that several apples tumbled out of his pockets. Sarah gathered them up quickly and shoved them in her bag. The man struggled to his feet and shouted profanities at her. He grabbed her bag, pulled it off her shoulder and smacked her across the face. Sarah stumbled back and took off running.

When her friends found out what happened they became determined to balance the scales and give the man just what he deserved. They devised a plan for the next time Sarah ran into the man and then set it into action. Walking down the same street she had encountered the man as before once she saw him she let something slip out from her bag and pretended not to notice and continued walking. The man went to investigate what she had dropped thinking it might be something of value to him. It was a small round object roughly the size of the egg and as he was trying to figure out what exactly it was it exploded and enveloped him in a cloud of foul smelling gas. He coughed and sputtered, attempting to run away from the area. He ran exactly in the direction her friends predicted and as he ran he tripped over something. This something turned out to be a hornets nest! They swarmed and stung him all over. He scrambled to his feet and once again started running. He tried to run into a building to escape the hornets but unfortunately he failed to notice how low the doorway was and hit his head knocking himself out cold.

Sarah and her friends watched the whole scene unfold from a distance. Afterwards Sarah continued to work hard and show kindness to others, but she never let them take advantage of her kindness.

(An emakimono, or picture scroll of the original fairy tale)

Author's Note: This story was inspired by The Crab and the Monkey. In the original story the monkey takes advantage of the crab's willingness to share but when she outwits him he beats her nearly to death. Her friends help her get revenge when he comes back and attempts to steal fruit from her. In my story I lessened the severity of the beating and ended with the ruffian being knocked out instead of being killed as he was in the original. I attempted to keep my changes closely tied with the progression of the original.  

Bibliography: The Crimson Fairy Book by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H. J. Ford (1903).

Reading Diary B: Japanese Fairy Tales (Lang)

These stories are from the Japanese Fairy Tales by Andrew Lang unit.

Schippeitaro: I really enjoyed reading this story because I always like a good story with some trickery and deception. However what really stood out to me in this story was the beginning. The odd sight of the man seeing the cats dancing around and yelling makes me think of some possible story ideas for this week.

The Crab and the Monkey: I really liked this story because its about getting exactly what you deserve. The Monkey acted really terribly toward the crab and in return he got exactly what he deserved. There are several ways this story could be spun for a retelling and I may just use it as my inspiration this week.

The Magic Kettle: This was my favorite story of the unit. It was really fun to read about the trouble the Tanuki caused the men initially as they attempted to figure out what to do with it. However in the end they were able to work it out for the best. This was a very light hearted story that was just plain fun to read.

(Photo of a Tanuki)

Reading Diary A: Japanese Fairy Tales (Lang)

These stories are from the Japanese Fairy Tales unit retold by Andrew Lang.

The Stonecutter: I really liked this story because I really like the message it conveys. It reminds me of the saying the grass is always greener on the other side. We're always looking at what others have and don't always see the value in what we already have.

The Envious Neighbor: I also liked this story because of the message it sends. This story deals with greed and talks about how our continuous greed and envy for what others have can end up destroying us.

The Cat's Elopement: I liked this story because it's a classic love story and sometimes it's nice to just be able to read a love story. Although I'm generally not a fan of the and they all lived happily ever after endings I did like the ending in this story with their eventual reunion.

(A cat with multicolored eyes, by Odorousrex)

  

Storytelling Week 6: The Perfume Fiasco

"This is all your fault," Alex yelled, pointing to the broken bottles of perfume now scattered on the floor.

"My fault? How can this possibly be my fault? It was the stupid cat," her roommate, Cailey argued.

"How did the cat even get in here in the first place?"

"I don't know! It was running around in the hall making a lot of noise and when I opened the door the cat ran in here and jumped on your desk and your perfume bottles were sitting so close to the edge they fell off!"

"Then it's your fault the cat got in and your fault it broke my perfume bottles!"

"This is ridiculous. Let's go talk to our RA and see what she has to say about whose fault it is."

"Fine by me."

The two girls walked down the hall and into their RA's room. The RA let them each tell their own side of the story and why they felt the way they did about whose fault it was. Cailey explained how Alex shouldn't have left her perfume bottles so precariously placed on the edge of the desk where a single little bump could make them fall. Alex talked about how Cailey let the cat in the room where it was able to cause so much trouble.

The RA listened to each of them intently before speaking about her opinions on the matter. "It sounds to me like the cat is the one who really is at fault here and not either one of you. Go get this cat and bring it here to me so that we may sort this situation out to a proper resolution."

"What?" the two girls asked at the same time.

"You heard me. Find the cat and bring it to me."

"But the cat ran out of the room while we were arguing," Cailey protested.

"How are we supposed to find it?" Alex added.

"Perhaps if you worked together you might be able to find it."

The RA turned her attention back to her own project she was working on, indicating the matter was closed. Cailey and Alex left the room and began looking for the cat. They asked around the residence halls to see if anyone had seen the cat. Soon enough word spread around campus about how they were looking for this cat. Several people even joined in to help them look for the cat. They searched for several hours and experienced several mishaps during their search. They tripped and slipped in mud, Alex ran into a door, and Cailey climbed a tree after a cat and promptly fell out of it. Throughout the process they found themselves laughing more and more at the ridiculousness of the situation. They never did manage to find the cat but at the end of the day they returned to their RA's room.

"Did you find the cat?" the RA asked.

"No," Alex admitted. "But, to be honest, I don't even feel mad anymore."

"Me either. It all seems kind of silly now," Cailey said smiling.

A smile twitched on their RA's mouth. "Good." She reached under her desk and pulled out much to their surprise the cat from earlier. "This is my cat, Oreo. You two were so caught up in trying to place blame you didn't even stop to think about trying to find the owner of the cat and talking to them. Then you went on what appears to be quite the adventurous journey around campus to find a cat and bring it back for a judgment. Sometimes accidents happen and there isn't anyone to blame." She then pulled out a bottle of perfume, the same kind that had been broken. "Now, I'm sorry for the trouble that Oreo caused. I bought you a replacement bottle while you were making your best attempts to climb trees."

The girls both blushed, embarrassed. "Thank you very much," Alex stammered, picking up the bottle.

"Now shoo, both of you go get cleaned up and refreshed."

The girls both left, having learned a valuable lesson, and returned to their room.

(Personal photo of my cat, Professor)

Author's Note: This story was inspired by The Donkey and the Rock. I made quite a few changes for my story. In the original story one man's donkey knocks another man's jar of oil off a rock and it spills. They argue and go to visit the king who determines that the donkey and the rock are to blame and orders them tried. On the day of the trial many people came to witness the strange event. The judge then reprimands the people for coming to see such an absurd thing they knew to be impossible and makes each of them pay half a cent to leave. The money was then given to the man whose oil was spilled and both men went their own ways pleased with the outcome. For my story I wanted to make it more modern and more relatable so I decided to make it an argument between two roommates who take the argument to their RA. I also changed the details of how the situation was resolved so that it fit better with the story that I had written. I used the image of my own cat since I changed the donkey to a cat for my own story.

Bibliography: Tibetan Folk Tales by A.L. Shelton with illustrations by Mildred Bryant (1925).

Reading Diary A: Tibetan Folk Tales

These stories are from the Tibetan Folk Tales unit.

The Donkey and the Rock: This was my favorite story of this unit. I really loved the character of the king and how he resolved the situation with the dispute between the two men. While reading the story I knew there had to be some sort of clever twist coming at the end but this one was a pleasant surprise and I really enjoyed the story as a whole.

(Depiction of the story of the donkey and the rock) 

Comment Wall

Leave comments here!

Extra Reading Diary: Arabian Nights

These stories are from The Arabian Nights.

This unit was really interesting to read. I liked that they weren't all separate stories but instead were stories layered within each other. We have the Arabian Nights story with the story of Scheherazade telling the story of the Fisherman and the Genie who is telling the story of the Greek King and his Vizir who is telling the story about the Husband and the Parrot. It was a little troublesome to keep track of at times but I enjoyed the way everything related back to each other and it was all connected rather than being several different separate stories.

(Scheherazade)

Storytelling Week 5: Sinbad the Suspect

Detective Casey looked over the file presented to him. Some officers had picked up a disheveled man with several large, high-quality diamonds in his possession. According to the report the man had approached the officers offering some diamonds in exchange for passage home. Further investigation of the diamonds had led back to a jewelry store robbery a few blocks from where they arrested the man. They also had reports from a local airstrip showing a stowaway in a small plane matching their suspects description. Immediately when the officers arrived back at the precinct with him, several detectives had passed him off to the next one. Unfortunately when he arrived at Detective Casey, there was no one left to pass him on to. Detective Casey let out the breath he was holding and entered the interrogation room. He sat at the table across from the suspect.

“So, Mr. Bad is it?”

“Sinbad, it's all one name.”

“Ah, yes, Mr. Sinbad. Can you tell me how you came into possession of these diamonds?” Detective Casey gestured to the diamonds in evidence bags on the table.

“Same way I told everyone else, I found them.”

“Where exactly did you find these millions of dollars’ worth of diamonds?”

“In a diamond field of course. Where else would I find them?”

"How did you arrive at this diamond field?"

"Oh, that's where the giant bird I was attached to landed."

The detective took a deep breath. "Perhaps it would be best if you told your version of events in their entirety from the beginning."

"Alright, if you insist. I am a merchant, responsible for the import and export of certain goods. I was traveling around looking for new goods to bring back with me. We stopped off at a small island for a short break. While there I fell asleep on the beach, and when I woke up the ship had left me there! I ran all around the island looking for some way to get their attention. That's when I found the giant white boulder that was very soft to the touch."

"A soft boulder, you say?"

"Yes! Only it wasn't a boulder at all! It was an egg! I had found the nest of the great Roc bird! Soon enough the bird itself returned to the nest. Here is where I saw my opportunity. I tied myself to the bird's foot so that when it next took flight it would take me with it. Sure enough, the next morning the bird left its nest and flew far away. When the bird landed, I untied myself and ran off to the side. I discovered soon enough that I stood in the middle of a field of snakes! The bird killed some and took them back to its nest. I took refuge in a cave for the rest of the night. The next morning I took a look around where I was. As I walked along I noticed several beautiful stones. I realized that I had to be in the field of diamonds! I knew other merchants came here all the time and I might be able to find some to help me get home! I gathered up as many stones as I could find and put them in my pockets, hoping that I could use some of them to secure my passage home. Luckily, it didn't take long for me to  find some other merchants. However, once they discovered that I had some diamonds, better quality than their own I'm sure, they became extremely jealous and attacked me! They rudely shoved me to the ground, restrained my hands, and tried to take my diamonds from me. Then they brought me here over what I am sure is a ridiculous misunderstanding that I now have to relate to you."

"I see. Thank you for that explanation, Mr. Sinbad. We'll get someone to take you back to your room now and hopefully by the morning we can get this all straightened out."

Sinbad smiled like that was the best thing he had heard all day. "It's nice to finally speak to someone who has some common sense!"

Detective Casey stood and exited the room letting out a huge sigh. His partner, Detective Hughes, came to stand beside him.

"So, what do you think he took?" she asked.

"I have no idea. Whatever it was that he took I hope it's worn off by morning."

"Regardless, we have enough to book him for stowing away on the plane. It was a small plane from Roc Airways. Then we've got the surveillance cameras showing him breaking into and stealing diamonds from the jewelry shop. We also have the statements from the officers he ran into whom he offered to trade the diamonds to for a ride home."

"Finish up the processing paperwork, and then we'll come back and deal with the rest of this in the morning. I'm going home. I've had enough of this for one day."

"See you tomorrow then."

(The Valley of Diamonds, by M. Parrish)

Author Note: This story was inspired by The Second Voyage (Part 1, Part 2). To be honest I had no idea what I was going to do with this story. When I was just about to fall asleep, the idea of Sinbad trying to explain his voyage in a police interrogation came to me, I rolled over, texted a note about it to myself, went back to sleep and when I woke up I decided to run with it. The story that Sinbad tells to the police is the original story from Sinbad's second voyage. In the original story he did in fact get stranded on an island, find a giant egg, tie himself to the leg of the giant bird the egg belonged to, go to the valley of diamonds, encounter some other merchants and using diamonds he gathered he was able to negotiate passage home. I chose to make it seem like the whole thing was a delusion he had. I tried to incorporate the details of what really happened in my story fit along with the delusion such as the valley of diamonds actually being a jewelry store and the Roc bird actually being a small plane from Roc Airways. The image I chose depicts Sinbad in the Valley of Diamonds and is an illustration of the original story.

Bibliography: The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898).

Reading Diary A: The Voyages of Sinbad

These stories are from The Voyages of Sinbad.

The Second Voyage (Part 1, Part 2): The second voyage was my favorite story to read. Reading this story, it just seems so outrageous and so ridiculous that it was really fun to read. My favorite part was where he tied himself to the giant bird to be carried away. Most people when they see a giant bird would go running in the opposite direction. But with Sinbad he just decided to tie himself to the bird's leg so the bird would carry him away from where he had been stranded. Overall I just really enjoyed reading this story.

(The Valley of Diamonds, by M. Parrish)

Storytelling: The Crafty Robber

Stupid, stupid, stupid. How could she have been so stupid? Alex muttered under her breath some more about the stupidity of her sister. It had been so simple, this was a heist they had done several times before. Their father, a construction worker had built in a false panel to a wall leading to one of the world's best stocked treasure vaults. Before he died he told them of what he had done and gave them instructions on how to find it. On multiple occasions now they had used that entrance, slipped in, grabbed some treasure, slipped out completely unseen, and made their getaway. It didn't matter what extra guards were added or how they changed up the security, as long as they used their passage they had a secure route. But then there had been that trap, and Anya just had to get caught it. Once she was caught she knew there was no getting out. As such she had requested Alex decapitate her so that she couldn't be identified and could at least perhaps protect their family from the family who owned this vault. Alex had complied although it she now felt nothing but empty dread inside. The thrill and exhilaration of the theft was gone. She returned home and delivered the news of what had happened to their mother.

The next day the town was in an absolute uproar. There had been a huge news story on the finding of Anya's decapitated body. The papers speculated that she was the robber who had been causing the so called royal family of this town. But even more speculation surrounded who had decapitated her. Everyone wanted to know who the partner was and if they had turned on each other in greed, However, the biggest news story was what they planned to do with her body. They planned to display it in effort to find out who the partner was. When her mother heard this she had an absolute meltdown. She threatened to turn Alex in for her own stupidity in getting her sister caught if she didn't retrieve her body and bring it home so they could bury Anya properly.

However Alex was in luck. In just a few days a grand dinner party was to be held at the very building Anya's body was on display at. She gathered the supplies she needed and entered the party under the disguise of a caterer for the party. After the party was well under way she slipped away to bring the guards some refreshment. She flirted and chatted with them as they drank their drinks. Soon enough they were snoring on the floor. Alex retrieved her sister's body from the display, slipped it into her catering cart and returned home. When the head of the family heard of this he was greatly angered. This time he sent his own daughter out to personally gather information on the robber. She went to the local bars and found rumor of the robber and decided to wait there. When Alex heard of this she simply couldn't resist. She went to the bar and challenged the daughter to a drinking game. After each shot they would have to make an honest confession about things they had done. When it was Alex's turn she confessed the most wicked thing she had done, which was to murder her sister. The daughter seemed unfazed and Alex was impressed. In the next round Alex confessed to her greatest success, robbing the girl's father several times.

At this the daughter seized Alex's hand. But Alex had been prepared. She simply pulled her hand backwards as a fake hand slipped out of her jacket sleeve. She waved her real hand at the stunned speechless daughter and took off out the door. As she ran she laughed. It had been a long time since she had so much fun. When the daughter returned home still holding the fake hand her father was stunned. He didn't know what to do from there. He knew simply catching the robber wouldn't work. So he decided to do the next best thing. The next day he put an ad in the paper offering the robber a job as head of security. When Alex saw that she fell out of her chair laughing. So once again she returned to the building that held vast treasure. But this time she used the front door.

(A robber making his getaway) 

Author Note: This story is based on The Tale of King Rhampsinitis. In the original story 2 brothers repeatedly sneak into a king's treasure hoard through a secret access point and steal from him. One brother eventually gets caught in a trap and killed and then through a series of shenanigans to retrieve the body and evade capture the remaining brother is offered the king's daughter's hand in marriage. In my story I changed the sibling characters from male siblings to female siblings because I've found that you can have fun with the dynamics when you take characters and swap their gender. I also made the setting a bit more modern but I decided not to make it too specific. I also changed a few of the details such as her being offered a job instead of the daughter's hand in marriage because it seemed to fit better with the story as I was writing it. I really enjoyed reading this story and thought it could be fun to retell. I chose to leave out dialogue because in the original story there is almost no dialogue at all. I chose the image I did because I wanted more of a fun cartoony image but I was really disappointed in my search when trying to find one of a female robber. Unfortunately most of them were overly sexualized images, but I still like the one I did end up using.

Bibliography: Egyptian Myth and Legend by Donald Mackenzie (1907).

Reading Diary B: Egyptian Myths

These stories are some of my favorites from the second half of the Egyptian myths unit.

The Two Brothers (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4): I really loved this story in it's entirety and couldn't single out one of the four parts as my favorite. I think this story teaches a great lesson about the consequences of our actions. When we try to avoid the consequences they just seem to keep coming back and catching up with us. Especially when we lie and try to use underhanded methods to avoid them. 

(Papyrus sheet from the Tale of Two Brothers)

The Tale of King Rhampsinitus: I really liked this story because of the ending. It was somewhat of a surprising ending with the robber getting caught but instead of being punished his talents were acknowledged by the king and he was given a pardon for his crimes. It was just a fun story to read to see how the robber would continuously outwit the guards and even the king's daughter. 

Reading Diary A: Egyptian Myths

These stories are some of my favorites from Egyptian myths.

The Secret Name of Ra: This was a story that I was familiar with before reading this unit. It had been a while since I had read it so it was nice to go back and read it again. It's an interesting story to read about the lengths we will go to when we are obsessed with obtaining something.

Osiris: This was a story I was aware of but hadn't actually read. I like this story because it's about rebuilding. Previously we read about a great destruction and in this story it's about building a prosperous and peaceful society. The end of this story is also a build up to the next one and it ends in a way that leaves you wanting to keep reading to find out what is going to happen.

The Death of Osiris: I liked this story because it illustrates the treachery that so often appears in mythology regarding gods and goddesses. This one also shows how things can change drastically when we least expect it. In this case Osiris was celebrating his return and everything was going well and next thing he knows he's locked inside a coffin.

(Egyptian God Osiris)