Tales From The Town #126: The Circus (An Ethel A To Z)

A Day Out – The others said it was cheating to use this for A but I don’t care what they say.

Big Wheel – It went round and around until we got on and then it stopped. Everyone blamed Claire except Claire, who blamed everyone except Claire.

Candy Floss – Mum said we wouldn’t like this and she was right!

Dagger Throwing – We are NEVER allowed to do this at home.

Eggs (Pickled) – “It’s not a picnic without pickled eggs” says Mum (and no one else).

Fortune Teller – Apparently Tina’s going to get married! To a boy!

Gargantuan – What an amazing word. “The circus was gargantuan!”

Horror (House Of) – Daniel had a nose bleed in here.

Idiots (AKA Clowns) – They grow their faces in jars. Maybe they should keep them there.

Jugglers – Mum hates jugglers but will never tell us why. She wouldn’t let them teach us anything. We weren’t even allowed to watch.

King – Tina said he wasn’t the real King but then why was he wearing a crown?

Lady Luck – She told us we’d win but we didn’t win a thing (except for Daniel but he was cheating). Never trust Lady Luck!

Mirrors (Hall Of) – This made Claire absolutely furious!

Night – It was day when we went in, but night when we came out. I said this was magical and Mum agreed but then Claire said it was just the passing of time and she stamped in a puddle to prove it. (I still thought it was magical!)

Oracle – Apparently Tina’s going to get married! To a different boy!

Pennies – I found four and Tina found three but Claire and Daniel found EIGHT! But then I found a pound so who won really? (Claire and Daniel did it was a draw).

Queen – Tina said she wasn’t the real Queen but then why was she drinking all that tea?

Robots – Supposedly these aren’t “traditional”. But they were the best bit!

Selkie – Basically a mermaid. It’s a good thing Dad wasn’t here or he’d have gone all weird again.

Taffy – Mum said we wouldn’t like this and she was wrong!

Unicyclists – (see Jugglers)

Vampire – Mum said he wasn’t a vampire he was the ringmaster but he was definitely a vampire you could tell it was obvious.

Water – £5

Xtremely Unfunny – We didn’t laugh once (not even Daniel).

Y – Good question!

Zebras – There were some horses and that was as close as we ever got to a Z.

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Notes:

1. Written between the 11th and the 14th of July, 2023

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Tales From Beyond The Town: Pocket Editions #16-#21

I had six different colours of card. So I made six different tiny tales.

*****

Pocket Tales #16: Tales From The Sea

Carousel

The circus was washed away in a storm. Now the horses only turn with the tides.

Clowns

But at least the clowns no longer laugh.

Vents

Everyone liked the word ‘vents’

*****

Pocket Tales #17: Tales From The Beach

Instead of buckets, paper bags, But the spades were still plastic.

View From Above

You cannot escape the watchful drones

Beak

The gulls were not amused

*****

Pocket Tales #18: Tales From The Fields

In the long grass
the cat
dreams it was a lion

Barrows

Waves of earth
two thousand years old
full of bones older still

Dandelions

They float
They are lighter than air

Slow Worm

It snakes, despite itself

*****

Pocket Tales #19: Tales From The Woods

From above everything looks green.
But when you’re in it, it’s brown in every direction

The Walls In The Woods

Everyone loves the walls in the woods
Old boundaries between forgotten kingdoms
Identities and purposes no longer known

Bole

A beautiful word for a beautiful a thing

Above/Below

There is no difference
between the above and below

*****

Pocket Tales #20: Tales From Mars

*****

Pocket Tales #21: Tales From The Candle Flame

Look into me
and think
and wish
and wait

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Notes:

1. Tales From The Sea was written between the 16th and the 19th of June, 2023 (mainly due to drawing all those jellyfish)
2. Tales From The Beach was written on August 3rd, 2023
3. And the other four were written on September 4th, 2023
4. Previous Pocket Tales can be found here: #1-#4, #5-#9, #10-#12, #13-#15
5. If you want to chart their steady decline

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Tales From The Town #125: A Reading (or, Resilience Training)

“The sun shone sleekly through a silver sky,” Tina said, as she stood steadily on the stage (a chair).

“Booooooo!” Claire shouted out from the back of the room. “BOOOOOOOOOOO!”

“The moon mellowed meekly above a murmuring meadow,” Tina muttered, immovably.

“Awful,” Ethel heckled. “Just awful! You’re awful, Tina! You should be ashamed!”

“The rocket reflected repetitively as it rotated around the revolving rarity,” Tina roared, resolutely resilient to the rising reproval from the rowdy rabble.

“Rarity is another word for anomaly,” she added belatedly when there was silence from below.

“Best poem ever,” Daniel swooned. He clapped enthusiastically and then continued clapping enthusiastically for quite some time. “I love it! More! More!”

Tina ran crying from the stage.

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Notes:

1. Written on June 22nd, 2023
2. Previously, in reading news

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Tales From The Town #124: Jellyfish

Have you ever wondered what a jellyfish thinks? Because a jellyfish hasn’t

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Notes:

1. Written on July 4th, 2023

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Tales From The Town #123: The End Of Ignorance, or Technological Solutions To Previously Insoluble Problems

“AI is amazing,” Antione told the gathered audience of potential technological enthusiasts. “It can do anything! It knows everything! Never again shall we have to think and wonder when we can simply ask and know!”

There was a moment of awed silence that went on for quite a bit longer than Antione was expecting.

“So, c’mon kids, you must have something you want to ask it?”

“Dad, we’re playing with the campfire,” Claire said, as her and Daniel poked it with sticks and sent great clouds of smoke billowing through the cave. “We don’t have time to talk to a creepy dead doll with a phone in its skull.”

“It’s not creepy,” Antoine said. “I thought you liked dolls.”

“Wait, that doll’s yours?” Tina said. “I thought it was something Claire had stolen from the witch’s house.”

“I don’t steal things,” Claire said. “I take them.”

“That’s the same thing,” Ethel said.

“You’re the same thing,” Claire said.

“Maybe,” Antoine said, trying to return the topic of conversation back to its original path. “We could ask the AI whether stealing and taking are the same thing.”

“Couldn’t you just ask us, Dad?” Tina said. “Because we all know the answer to that. Even Claire knows. She just pretends she doesn’t.”

“I don’t pretend anything,” Claire said. “I just DO!”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Ethel said.

“You don’t make any sense,” Claire said.

“Maybe we could just ask the…”

“Shut up, Dad!”

“Claire! Don’t you dare tell dad to shut up!”

“I can tell who I want to shut up!”

“No you can’t!”

“CAN!”

“CAN’T!”

“Daniel,” Antoine said quietly. “I bet you’ve got a question or two about things, right?”

“In the mouth of the cavern a dragon sleeps,” Daniel said, throwing a pinecone onto the fire to make it belch flames and smoke out again. “And in the dragon’s mouth there’s a cavern you can sleep in.” Daniel looked up from the flames and stared through the smoke at Antoine. “So how do we know if we’re the dragon in the cave or the cave in the dragon?”

Antoine looked back through the smoke at Daniel.

“That question was for the doll,” Daniel added.

“Oh right,” Antoine said, slightly relieved, “Er, did you hear that, little dollAI? Are we the dragon in the cave or the cave in the dragon?”

The doll did not respond.

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Notes:

1. Written on 26th May, 2023

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