Week 10 Storytelling: Coming Home

Don came home from work after a long day sorting and selling prescriptions. The patients that morning were more irritable than normal, especially since it was flu season. He went straight to his room and took a shower to wash off the stress of the day. Half-way through his shower he suddenly realized... his house was empty.

Normally, there was the sound of children playing and running about. They would greet him as soon as he opened the door. The smell of dinner would also be wafting out of the kitchen. But there was nothing to greet him when he came home today. No wives. No children. No food.

Worry settled over him and he tried to quickly finish his shower. Once he was dressed, he ran downstairs to investigate. As he rounded the corner to go into dark the kitchen, he suddenly kicked something. It was probably another one of the soccer balls the boys left out. A wet soccer ball too. Looks like Grizelda and Jane will have to do some extra cleaning tonight when he finds them. He found the light switch and turned on the light.

To his horror, the soccer ball was not a soccer ball at all. It was Jane's head. As well as blood smeared all over the kitchen. The rest of her body was nowhere to be found and the head looked as if it had been burnt. It also looked as if someone had chewed her head off with sharp and jagged teeth. On the table, however, there was a plate of food. He cautiously came closer and realized that the food was in the shape of little bears. They were not just any bears, though. They were two of his little boys.

He ran out of the kitchen while being overcome with shock, despair, disgust, and sadness. He drove straight to the police department and told them of what happened. They didn't believe him at first, but he brought them to his home. A couple of them ended up having to go outside to hurl.

The police confirmed that the body parts found were of his first wife and children. But they didn't know he had another wife and another pair of twins. He couldn't really tell them that because polygamy isn't really a thing these days. So while the police investigated, he set off in hopes of finding the rest of his family.

He searched all night and was about to give up until he drove across a river and saw a body floating on the river. The shape looked familiar and he hoped it wasn't true. But it was. It was the body of Grizelda floating on the stream. She had drowned in the river.

He looked around for his children, but they were nowhere to be found. The children rarely left the sight of their mothers and they should have been around the area. Oddly, he came across a bridge and there was a woman named Elaine guarding it. He asked her if she saw two little deer children come by. She denied seeing anyone. He continued to search for days for the boys, but the search came up fruitless. Where could his children be?

Two fawns.

Photo by Erin Shipley. Source: ErinShipley.

Author's note: For this week, I retold the story of Marriage: Bear-Woman and Deer-Woman. In the original story, there were two wives: a bear and a doe. One day, they were out and the bear wife decided to kill the deer wife by biting her head off. She brought the head home and threw it into the fireplace while watching it burn. One grotesque detail was that the heat caused the eyes to pop. The children of the deer wife realized that it was their mother's head and decided to kill the bear children. They brought the bear corpses home and gave it to the bear wife and she unknowingly ate the children. A chase ensued with the bear wife ending up dying with the help of a crane.

My story was sort of a continuation of the original story. The father was nowhere to be found in the original story, so I decided to have him come home to find his home in a disastrous state. I also gave the wives names: Grizelda was the the bear wife and Jane was the deer wife (because Griz- resembled Grizzly and Jane Doe resembled Doe). I also gave the Crane a name, Elaine. I wanted to show a dramatic, yet modern scene of what would happen if this had happened in the human world.

Bibliography:
"Marriage: Bear-Woman and Deer-Woman" by Stith Thompson from Tales of the North American Indians (1929). Source: UN-Textbook.

Week 9 Storytelling: The Legend of the Great Coyote

Once upon a time, when Earth was young and newly created by Old Mole, there was a tribe of Indians. They were humans. Humans created by The Great Man. The Indians were different from the other animals. Unlike the other animals, The Great Man created humans with a thin layer of bare skin, with no fur to keep them warm or protect them from the elements. However, the land scorched their fragile bodies. This was because up in the sky, there were nine glowing orbs that rained rays of heat down onto Earth. They were smaller than the Sun we see today. They orbs were the nine Brother Suns and they were very close to the Earth. They were created by the Great Coyote so that there would be light on Earth. 

As the days went by, the temperature became hotter and hotter to the point where, if the Indians ventured out of their homes, they would be scorched to death in only one hour. The Great Man saw what had happened to his precious humans and wept, for he had made a mistake. He should have known better than to create the humans with no way to protect themselves from the heat. All of the other animals were fine because they had hair on their bodies that shielded them from the sweltering heat. 

The Great Man then thought of a solution for he knew he did not have the power to take down the Brother Suns. He sought out the Great Coyote and asked of him to kill eight of the nine Brother Suns in order to maintain the light, but reduce the heat. At first, the Great Coyote was unwilling. He had exerted great efforts into putting the Brother Suns into the sky and did not want to go through the trouble of destroying them when they were his own creations. The Great Man then made a deal with Great Coyote. In exchange for the salvation of his people, they would worship the Great Coyote as their savior. As their savior, he would be presented with offerings of food, meaning that he would no longer have to hunt for his meals. 

The Great Coyote agreed to the deal. He then crouched down very low onto his haunches and leaped high up in the sky, grabbed one Sun with his paws, and used his teeth to crush it. He repeated the same motion seven times in order to get rid of eight of the nine Brother Suns.

 The last Sun feared that he would be subject to the same fate and tried to run away. He did not get very far, but far enough that The Great Coyote could not reach him. However, The Great Coyote's job was done. The Sun did not have to worry because The Great Coyote had intended to leave one Sun left. However, because the remaining Sun was so far away, its light was weak. To fix that problem, The Great Coyote gathered the shattered pieces of the Sun's brothers and threw them at the Sun. The pieces of his brothers merged with the Sun and made him bigger, which made his light grow stronger and it reached the Earth without burning it. 

The Great Man cried tears of joy as his people ventured out of their caves, some for the very first time. From then on, the people worshipped The Great Coyote as their hero. 

Coyote Portrait.

"Coyote Portrait" by Kyoht Luterman, 2004. Source: DeviantArt.

Author's Note: For this week, I retold a small part of one of the Three Coyote Creation Stories, "Coyote and Old Mole." I wanted to spin a tale based on the nine suns rather than write about the entire story itself. 

In the original story, there was an Old Mole who created the Earth. Then The Great Man created the people. The Indians were cold, so the Coyote got them the White Fire stone that brought them heat. Then there were nine suns that were so hot that the Coyote had to destroy eight of them in order to save the world from burning up. There also happened to be nine moons that brought coldness into the world. The Coyote also destroyed the eight moons to prevent Indians from freezing at night. The story then shifts to telling us about a boy who died. Due to his death, the people wept so much that it created a flood, killing everyone except one couple. 

My story differs in that I did not use the entire story, just a little bit of the beginning and the part about the nine suns. I wanted to give more background information regarding how the people were made as well as how the suns were made as well as make up why the Coyote is worshipped by many Native American cultures. Then I wanted to tie it to real life somehow by telling how the sun is much bigger and much further now than it was before.  

Bibliography:
"Coyote and Old Mole" by Katharine Berry Judson from Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest (1912). Web Source: UN-Textbook.

Week 7 Storytelling: The Two Lessons

Lesson number one: Don't trust entrust any girl you date with all of your secrets until you are married. 

Lesson number two: Never choose a friend with light eyes. The inner corner of the eye has to be red, the sclera has to that the inner corner of the eye is red and that the white of the eye is pure white and not brownish or yellow, and the colored part has to be black.

~~

Alex woke up abruptly from his dream.  It had been a long time since he last dreamt of his father, but it was always the same dream. Perhaps his father was trying to tell him something all the way from the afterlife? 

He rolled over in bed and saw that the other side was empty. His girlfriend, Jane, wasn't there, which was a first. She was always the one that would sleep in as late as possible. He hoisted himself off the bed and got ready for work. 

As he made his way down the stairs, he heard some rustling. He stopped at the foot of the stairs to see his girlfriend going through his safe. What was she doing going through his safe? He hadn't told her the passcode. No one knew his passcode. He thought back to his dream and felt his palms become a little sweaty. He couldn't just ignore what he found her doing today, but he couldn't just let it go. He slowly and quietly walked back up the stairs and tried to make his way back down as loudly as possible.

He came down to find her casually lounging on the couch and asked her what she was doing up so early, and she responded "I just wanted to get in some morning exercise!" But he knew that wasn't what she was doing.

He dropped by his friend's apartment to tell them about what his girlfriend was doing this morning, but just as he was about to tell them, he realized something. Jason had green eyes. Mark had yellow eyes. Adam had brown eyes. And Josh... he had black eyes. His revelation stopped him mid-sentence and he suddenly got up to leave, to the bewilderment of his friends.

On his way to work, he heard that a bank was robbed just last night and he concocted a plan to test the integrity of his friends and girlfriend. After he got off work, he went to the store to buy a ski mask and some suspicious looking black clothing.

Once he came home, he tried to act nervous and shaken up. Jane ask him what was wrong and he told her that he had robbed a bank across town that morning and that the people who helped him do it were after him because he took all of the money. He saw her expression change quickly--almost indiscernibly--from concern to something that looked oddly like... contempt... and then back to concern. She smiled sweetly at him and told him not to worry and that she would help him. They decided to sleep at a hotel that night. The next morning, he found himself waking to the sound of "POLICE. OPEN THE DOOR."

The police arrested him and said they had witnesses testifying that he was the robber of the bank the other day. He found out that the witnesses were Jane, Jason, Mark, and Adam. Josh was the only one who barged into the police station adamantly claiming he would do no such thing. At that point, Alex knew it was time to reveal the truth. He told the police officers that he had proof he wasn't the robber. In fact, it was his girlfriend and his three traitorous friends who were the robbers. Jane had made the mistake of using his car as the escape vehicle and it turned out that he had a surveillance system installed. He had a recording of their faces and their plan on a flash drive in his pocket. The police saw the evidence and immediately put the four traitors in jail. 

From then on, Alex always thought twice about who would be his friends and who he would trust with his secret.

Rainbow iris.

Source: HudsonAlpha.

Author's Note: For this week, I retold the story of The Man with Five Friends from the Tibetan Folk Tales Unit. I felt like I could write a good story from it and make it slightly dramatic, so I did! I like that there were two lessons that I could go off of. 

In the original story, there was a man whose father told him before he died that there were two things he should always remember. "The two things were these: first, when you are married never trust your wife with your secrets until you have ten children; second: choose your friends by their eyes. "Never choose for a friend a man with a light colored eye," he said; "see that the inner corner of the eye is red and that the white of the eye is pure white and not brownish or yellow, and that the colored part is black." He grew up and ended up having friends with eyes that were the colors that his father told him avoid. He wanted to test his wife and his friends by buying a hog and killing it and pretending as if he killed a man. It turns out his wife reported him to the authorities and he was put in prison. The only friend who came and tried to help him was the friend with black irises. After that revelation, he told the truth and got out of jail. 

My story differs in that the first lesson was to not trust your girlfriend because I felt like having ten children in this day and age is kind of ridiculous. I also changed the eye colors of his friends and gave them a name. I changed his "crime" to robbery instead of murder as well. Overall, I wanted to give this story a modern touch. 

Bibliography: 
"The Man with Five Friends" by by A.L. Shelton from Tibetan Folk Tales (1925). Web Source: UN-Textbook.

Week 6 Storytelling: Walking Down Memory Lane

I'm wandering through the streets of a little town. Everything seems to pass me by, almost as if I'm not there. But I feel as though I have been here before... Once upon a time... I'm looking down the road and I feel myself being drawn to this small house. I look through the windows and I see an old couple. Looking at them stirs an odd sense of melancholy, as well as familiarity. Who are these people that affect me so...? I focus harder on remembering my past and it all comes rushing back to me at the speed of light.

~~

I loved them and they, too, loved me. They were my masters and they treated me as they would their own children, although they did not have any. There was a day when I smelled something strange in the garden, something that smelled metallic. I was cautious as I sniffed it and called my master over. He dug up the object and carried it into our home with mistress. It turns out it had some weird rocks in it, but the couple seemed very happy. Who knew that humans liked rocks that much? For some odd reason, from that day on, I dined like a king. They gave me meat at every meal and life was great. 

Later on, I was in the house minding my own business until I sensed a fleeting feeling of murderous intent. I searched for the source but I couldn't pinpoint it. I gave up looking for it and went to check on my masters. It turned out that the neighbor was over. From first sniff, I could sense that he was smarmy. Apparently, he wanted to borrow me to look for some more rocks. 

And so I went with him for a day or two. I basically just lazed around for a bit and one day, I found the BEST treasure in the world. It was a bag of bones. I was so excited. I was about to grab it until I heard the swing of axe and a loud thump. Darkness.

I didn't know what happened but all I remember was running away and trying to get the attention of my master, but he didn't reply. It turned out the neighbor man killed me and pretended it was a natural death. I was livid and wanted revenge.

Over the next few days, I found ways to pay back my master before I left. I helped him obtain gold and treasures from a tree and the great Daimio. Luckily, the villainous neighbor was stupid enough to try to get the same treasures. He ultimately failed and was thrown into jail. Whilst he was in jail, I haunted him each and every day and nearly drove him mad. After he was released, I found him homeless under a bridge. I turned myself into a venomous snake and bit him to death. Good riddance. 

It looks like I fulfilled my goals on this earth.

~~

I took one last glance at my master as a tear fell from my eye. My conscious is slowly fading and a bright light is growing behind me. I have done what I needed to do. Goodbye, my precious master. 

Ghost dog.

"Ghost" by Kitchiki. Source: DeviantArt.

Week 4 Storytelling: Story Time

Aiden was ready for sleep. If he closed his eyes this very moment, he would be off in the land of dreams, but he fought this urge because he wanted to wait until his mother came. Every night, his mother would come upstairs and tell him a story. His eight-year-old self always thought his mom was the best storyteller ever!

He waited a little before he heard her soft footsteps come up the stairs. "Ready for story time, Aiden?" his mom asked as she walked in his room. "Duhhh, mom!" he replied. She sat down next to him on the bed, tucked him in, and so she began…

Once upon a time, a little prince was born in India by the name of Siddhartha Gautama. When he was born, the world rejoiced and he was a beautiful baby. It was said this little boy would walk the path of enlightenment and save the world. As this boy was growing up, he was loved by the people and lived a life of luxury. Just his mere appearance would bring a smile and happiness to the people who saw him. “Just like you, honey!” she interjected. However, the gods felt jealous of the people’s reverence of the boy. They intended to destroy Siddhartha’s happiness by showing him the truths of life.

She stopped the story and ask Aiden, “Do you know what the truths of life are?” He thought for a bit and couldn’t come up with an answer, but he wanted to say something anyway. “Is it lots of ice cream and video games?” he asked. His mother laughed and said, “Why not?” She then continued on…

When he was older, Siddhartha went out to see the world to sate his curiosity of what was out there. Little did he know that his father wanted him to see a world of happiness rather than a world of poverty and suffering. His father would send people to take the old and sick people away from the city so that Siddhartha would not see them.

“What a nice daddy!” said Aiden. His mother thought for a moment and replied, “He was a good daddy, but he held his son back. How would you feel if daddy took away your books because he thought they taught you bad lessons?” Aiden thought about what his mother said and realized that although the father in the story had good intentions, he held back his son and showed him a false view of the world.

The gods transformed themselves into an old man, a sick person, and a corpse. Siddhartha saw these scenes and was no longer happy. He then left his home and renounced his claim to his father’s kingdom to become a hermit. His ultimate goal was to learn the true law of life in order to beat suffering, sickness, and death. He almost died during his journey but he eventually found the true law of life under the Tree of Knowledge.

“Well, are you sleepy yet?” she stopped to ask. “I am, but I want to know what the true law is. Don’t do this to me, mom!” he said. His mom was always like that. She loved cliffhangers and it was almost like torture when she didn’t finish the stories. She chuckled and said, “Alright. The truth that Siddhartha discovered was that in order to escape the cycle of birth and death and our own suffering, we had to suppress our desires and lead a moderate life.” “Oh, that’s it? All I have to do is not eat ice cream and I won’t die?” asked Aiden. “No, there’s much more to it than that, honey. All of us living in the world have a long way to go.” she told him as she got up to turn off the lights. “Good night, Aiden.”

Digital art of a statue of Buddha.

"Buddha Sky" by hanciong. Source: DeviantArt.

Author's Note: For this week, I retold the story of The Life of Buddha. In the original story, it told about the life of Buddha: how it began and the path that lead him to become the Buddha. 

I kept the story of the Buddha the same and shortened it a little while keeping the main parts of the story. This is in order to make the story easier to read because although I loved reading it, the original story got very word-y. I also framed my story as a bedtime story for Aiden. I added in some dialogue from Aiden and his mom to help the reader possibly answer some unanswered questions. I think this story had a good lesson to teach about life. 

Bibliography: 

"The Life of Buddha" by Andre Ferdinand Herold. Website: Un-Textbook.

Week 4 Storytelling: Stay Gold

Why isn't he here yet? 

It's half past three already. He's half an hour late. 

He's usually never this late... Oh no, what if something happened? 

~~

Moments later, a soft knock on the front door broke Marie's reverie. The Goose finally came. A tad late, but he came nonetheless. Marie let out a sigh of relief.

 She stood up from her seat at the kitchen table and strode quickly to the door to let the Goose in. He waddled in and set himself down in the living room. Compared to other geese, he was about twice as big. Because of his size, the first time Marie saw him, she actually wanted to catch him to make some delicious goose soup. That was before he started talking. 

She thought back to the days when her daughters had to beg near the crossroads each day and she had to work long night shifts just to make ends meet. It was awful and she wondered how they managed to keep going. The thought of the disgusting, cockroach-ridden, old apartment they used to live in near the cemetery sent her reeling. They were lucky to not have caught anything nasty while living there. 

Thanks to the Goose, however, her family eventually moved into a posh neighborhood far from all those bad memories of the past. His monthly "gifts" have provided them with more than enough wealth to live on for the rest of their lives. What was the monthly gift you ask?  It was a beautiful golden feather. 

Marie remembered that day two years ago when the Goose gave her the first feather. She was running at him with a butcher's knife when he suddenly yelled, "Wait!!! I'm no ordinary goose. You can't kill me!!!" She dropped the knife and just stared at him in confusion. Once the threat of imminent death was gone, he continued, "Look, I have this... power... to think and talk like a human. You probably think you're dreaming at this point. Well go ahead, you can pinch yourself if you don't believe me. I also have an ability to create golden feathers that you can sell for lots of money in exchange for my life. I have seen your daughters while I was flying over the outside market. It's them with the dirty clothes and the matted, ratty hair, right?" 

She didn't know what to think of this stalker-ish, fat Goose, but she was certainly interested in that golden feather. She then told him, "Show me the feather and prove to me that it's actually valuable. If this proves wrong,we'll be having roasted goose tonight." He used his beak to pluck a single feather from under his wing and handed it to her. It was beautiful and polished. It felt real, but she couldn't be too sure since she wasn't an expert. She took the feather and the Goose to a jeweler nearby to see how much it would get. She thought it wouldn't be worth more than ten dollars, but to her surprise, the shop owner offered her ten thousand dollars. What the heck, right? It turned out, the feather was made of 100% gold, which was impossible to obtain, even by using the most complex refining process. However,  she wasn't too caught up about the details; all she cared about in that moment was the huge lump of cash that she was about to deposit into her bank account. 

While plopped on the couch, the Goose began to talk, pulling Marie away from her thoughts. "So I've been thinking about leaving the country. Maybe to Canada or something because you know the moment Donald Trump is able to do well in the presidential polls, you need to skedaddle pronto. Plus, it looks like your family is financially stable now, so you don't need me anymore," he said. Marie froze and panic settled over her. "No, but we do need you. The girls haven't gone to college yet and I don't even have a job right now," she said, trying to throw out any excuse she could. The Goose stared at her blankly and said, "Well, now you have the ability to get a good job and work for your own money." 

Her? Work? What a joke. She hadn't worked in the last two years and thinking about the myriad of toilet bowls she had to clean before disgusted her.

The Goose got up and pulled out a golden feather, handed it to her, and said, "Here's the last one. Maybe you should keep it as a souvenir of our friendship and not sell it." She couldn't believe he was serious. Then Marie really panicked, and not knowing what else to do, she grabbed the Goose and plucked a handful of feathers. The problem was... none of them came out gold. No... no... NOOOO!! She couldn't stop herself and ended up pulling all of his white feathers out. 

The Goose ran from her. Looking at her, the Goose said in a solemn voice, "Did you know my feathers only become gold if I want them to because they take away part of my lifespan each time I pull them out? I only did so because I cared for your family... It looks like my kindness over the past two years wasn't enough for your greed." He turned and spread his wings to fly away, leaving Marie for the last time.

~~

Golden feather by Soraya Leathers. Source: Pinterest.

Author's note: For this week, I chose to retell the story of "The Golden Goose" from the Jakata Tales Unit. In the original story, there was a goose with gold feathers and a poor mother with two daughters. The goose met the family and out of the kindness of its own heart, it gave one of its feathers to them to sell so they would live in comfort. The goose would continually give the family his feathers, but the mother didn’t trust the goose. She planned to steal all of this feathers the next time he came by. Her plan backfired because when she did that, all of the feathers were white and grew back white because they only become gold if they are plucked against his wish. As a result, the goose flew away and never came back again.

I kept the main plot of the story the same and I added in some dialogue to bring more 'reality' into the story. I also wrote the story with parts of the mother's/Marie's thoughts (in italics) instead of just an omniscient point of view since I wanted to depict her thoughts about why she tried to steal all of the goose’s feathers.  I also added in a reason as to why the goose’s feathers didn’t turn gold when they were plucked against his will. I think this story has very good lessons to teach. One is that greed can and will ultimately cause you to lose everything. The other one is that you have to be grateful for the people that help you or they will leave you in the end. If anyone watches 'Once Upon a Time' on TV, I think this would be a good story to make into an episode! :)
 
Bibliography: 
"The Golden Goose" by Ellen C. Babbitt, 1922. Website: UN-Textbook.