Readers' reviews:
So good. I'd love to read this to a group of children. When it's illustrated I will!
And it was entertaining, especially to young children, due to it's imagination-provoking lines, lyrics. What got me, was the sense of loneliness and isolation in your story. And the setting. The beautiful thing though was their determination to connect. Children are indeed lovely beings, who mostly does not care about differences.
photo by ldyck
Two children, who live on neighbouring islands, try to get together to play. This short story is a little bit silly.
I stand on the sandy shore, wave my arms, and chant,
Come over to my house
Come over and play
Come over to my house
We'll have a fun day
Across the water, you stand on the other shore and ask, "How do I get there?"
"You could catch a ferry."
You run here; you run there--here, there, there, here. A ball of light flies away. You flop down onto the sand. A few minutes later you say, "I can't catch the fairy. She's too fast."
You chant,
Come over to my house
Come over and play
Come over to my house
We'll have a fun day
Across the water, I stand on the shore and ask, "How do I get there?"
"You could fly."
I flap my arms up and down, down and up--faster and faster and faster, but I can only get a few feet off the ground.
I say, "I can't fly. My arms get too tired."
I chant,
Come over to my house
Come over and play
Come over to my house
We'll have a fun day
"I have an idea," you say. You run to the water, take a big leap, and... Splash! My island is too far away. You have to swim back to your shore.
You chant
Come over to my house
Come over and play
Come over to my house
We'll have a fun day
My turn, I whistle and a friendly orca swims to my island. I jump on his back. He takes me to your island and then he swims away.
I search here and there, there and here--but I can't find you anywhere.
Ha-ha-ha, a seagull calls. You jump off the seagull's back and onto my shore. "Yoo-woo, where are you?" you call.
"Over here."
We laugh, we sigh, we chant,
Come over to my house
Come over and play
Come over to my house
We'll have a fun day
"I have an idea," I say. "Stay right there. Don't move."
I make a raft with driftwood and seaweed and set sail for your island. I get closer and closer and closer to you. But then the seaweed breaks. Piece by piece the driftwood floats away. I'm way too tired to swim. All I can do is hold onto the last piece of driftwood. It starts to crumble.
"Help!" I yell.
You swim to me, wrap an arm around me and pull me to shore. We fall asleep on the sandy beach, under the stars.
In the morning, I chant,
You came over to my house
You came over to play
You came over to my house
And now we'll have a fun day.
Listening to...
