What Is the Secret Code?

Papi Otter teaches his daughter about strangers with the help of some friends.

Once there was a little girl Otter, and her Papi took her to the market one day.

There were fruits and vegetables and sticks and rocks and nuts and people and sounds and smells. It was wonderful. They even had a little playground.

While her Papi was looking over some fish, the little Otter girl decided she wanted to go play in the little playground.

“Papi,” she asked. “Can I go play in the little playground?”

“Sure, sweetie,” he said.

“By myself?” she asked as sweetly as she could.

“Well, OK,” he said to her. “But let’s talk about something first.”

He sat her down at a bench.

“You are old enough to go play by yourself,” said Papi Otter. “But I want to tell you about the secret code.”

Her eyes opened up wide.

“Secret code?” she yelled, then looked around and put her hands on her mouth. “Secret code?” she whispered.

“Yes,” said Papi. “Here’s what I want you to remember: if anyone comes over to you while you are playing and says to come with them, you ask them: ‘WHAT IS THE SECRET CODE?’”

“Oh, wow,” she said excitedly.

“And only then will you know that I sent them to get you or go with them or something. You can trust the person who knows the secret code,” explained Papi. “If they don’t know the code, you scream as loud as you can and run away screaming.”

“Neat,” she said. “Papi?”

“Yes?” said Papi.

“What IS the secret code?” she asked him.

“Well, you can pick it,” said Papi. “And tell it only to me.”

She thought about it for a moment, and then leaned in to tell Papi in his ear.

“COWIE!” she whispered.

“OK,” said Papi. “Go on and play.”

She skipped off toward the playground. After only a few minutes, she came back. She was sweaty and out of breath.

“Papi,” she asked. “No one has come and asked me to go with them.”

“Well,” said Papi. “That’s a good thing. You know, it probably won’t ever happen that I need to use the secret code.”

“Oh,” she said, and skipped back to the playground.

Just then, Skunk walked up to Papi.

“Hello Otter,” said Skunk.

“Hey, Skunk,” said Papi. “It’s good to see you.”

“Same here,” said Skunk. “You here with your daughter?”

“Yes, I am,” said Papi. “Hey, would you mind helping me out with something?”

“Sure,” said Skunk. “What’s up?”

“OK,” said Papi as he pulled out an alligator mask from his back pocket. “Put this mask on and go find my little girl. She’s in the playground. Ask her to come with you, say I told you to get her.”

“OK,” said Alligator…I mean Skunk. And he walked over to the playground.

“Hello little girl,” he said to Little Girl Otter. “Your Papi said to come with me.”

Little Girl Otter’s face got serious.

“WHAT IS THE SECRET CODE?” she said very loudly.

“Uh,” skunk looked around for Papi Otter. “I don’t know.”

And the little girl otter started screaming and screaming and running around and making crazy faces and flapping her arms all over the place.

Papi Otter came running up to her.

“OK, OK sweetie, quiet down. It’s OK. You did good.”

“He didn’t know the code,” she said hugging her Papi.

“You did good,” said Papi.

“Can I keep playing?” she asked.

“Sure,” said Papi. “Go ahead.”

Papi thanked Skunk, who was not sure what had just happened.

Just then, Rabbit hopped up.

“Hello, Otter,” said Rabbit.

“Hello, Rabbit,” said Papi. “How are you today?”

“Oh, fine, fine,” said Rabbit. “Thing are great.” Hey, was that your little girl I heard screaming like a crazy otter?”

“Yes it was,” said Papi. “I’m trying to teach her about strangers.”

“Oh, really?” said Rabbit. “Can I help?”

“Sure,” said Papi with a smile. “Here, take this Gorilla mask and go find my little girl. Tell her that I asked you to get her for me.”

Rabbit put on the mask and hopped over to the playground.

“Hello little otter,” said Rabbit as he spotted Little Girl Otter. “Your Papi told me to get you and come with me.”

Little Girl Otter stood straight up and said loudly, “WHAT IS THE SECRET CODE?”

“Oh,” said Gorilla…I mean Rabbit. “Sticky Claws!”

And the little girl otter started screaming and screaming and running around and making crazy faces and flapping her arms all over the place.

Papi Otter came running up to her.

“OK, OK sweetie, quiet down. It’s OK. You did good.”

“He didn’t know the code,” she said hugging her Papi.

“You did good,” said Papi.

“Can I keep playing?” she asked.

“Sure,” said Papi. “Go ahead.”

Papi thanked Rabbit, who was politely, but quickly leaving the area. He was a bit embarrassed.

Just then, Bear walked up behind Papi Otter.

Papi Otter sniffed the air.

“I’d know that smell anywhere,” said Papi Otter turning around to greet him. “Bear, what’s up, man?”

“Hey Otter,” said Bear. “Whatchadoin’?

“Oh,” said Papi. “Just teaching my little girl about strangers.”

“That’s fun,” said Bear. “Can I help?”

“Sure,” said Otter. “Go find my little girl in the playground and tell her to come with you. Tell her I sent you. She’s going to ask you a question, and you tell her “COWIE”.

Well, as it turns out, Wolf had been watching the whole thing, and was listening intently for Papi Otter to reveal what the secret code was, because he was hungry. And he just happened to have a bear mask in his back pocket.

So once he heard Papi Otter say the secret code, he got up quickly, strapped on his mask and walked over to find Little Girl Otter.

Bear and Papi Otter were still talking, so Wolf thought he had a few moments.

Wolf walked up to Little Girl Otter, put his hand on her shoulder and spun her around.

“Hello, Little Girl Otter,” he said quickly. “Your Papi asked me to come and get you, so you need to come with me, and hurry.”

Little Girl Otter stiffened and got very serious.

“WHAT IS THE SECRET CODE?” she said loudly.

“COWIE!” said the Wolf. “Now let’s go, we’ve got to hurry.”

“Oh,” she said.

Little Girl Otter stood on her tippy-toes and looked around for her Papi, but she couldn’t see him.

“OK,” she said hesitantly. “Let me get my shoes on, I left them at the slide.”

“No time for that,” said Wolf excitedly, and he grabbed her tightly and turned to leave.

Little Girl Otter knew Bear. He had been over to Otter’s house often to cookouts and family nights, but something was wrong with him.

She didn’t let him take her. She dug her heels in the ground.

“Bear, you smell different,” said Little Girl Otter.

“Come on,” said Bear…I mean, Wolf. ”We don’t have time for this.”

“No, really,” said Little Girl Otter. “You smell like Squirrel and Lamb, not fish and berries.”

“Well, maybe you are coming down with a cold or something and your smeller is off,” said Wolf.

“No, I can smell fine,” she said. “What did you eat for breakfast?”

Wolf was getting very anxious. His tail was twitching like crazy.

“Oh, I don’t know,” he said, trying to look like he was trying to remember what he had eaten for breakfast. “I had some, uh, fish and, uh, some berries, yeah, berries.”

“Really, what color were the berries?” said Little Girl Otter.

“What color?” asked Wolf. “White. Now let’s go.”

Now Little Girl Otter was certain something was wrong.

“Do you mean Mistletoe?” she asked. “Did you eat Mistletoe berries?”

“Yes, yes, that’s it,” he said angrily now, but he didn’t even know what Mistletoe was. “Enough questions! Get your shoes. Hurry up.”

“But Mistletoe is poisonous,” she said as she wiggled out of his grip.

Wolf, realizing he had been found out, decided to try to grab her and make a run for it, but just as he lunged for her, Bear grabbed him by the ears.

Bear just happened to have finished talking to Papi Otter and had come over to find Little Girl Otter.

“What’s going on here,” said Bear smelling with his large nose. “Wolf, what are you doing with a bear mask on?”

Little Girl Otter hid behind the slide. Just then, Papi Otter grabbed her and hugged her tightly. He had followed Bear and was planning on hiding behind the slide to watch, and grabbed her as soon as he realized what was going on.

“I’m so sorry sweetheart,” he said to her. “I sent Bear, but that’s not bear.”

“I know it’s not Bear, but who is it?” asked Little Girl Otter.

Just then, Bear grabbed Wolf by the ears to take him outside, and Wolf’s mask fell off.

“I’ll take care of him,” said Bear as he carried Wolf out of sight.

“Papi, how did he know the secret code?” asked Little Girl Otter.

“I was careless, and I didn’t realize who was listening when I told Bear,” said Papi Otter. “We’ll have to pick another secret code.”

“OK,” she said. “I don’t want to play anymore. Can we pick a secret code on the walk back home?”

“Sure,” said Papi Otter. “Let’s go.”

Papi Otter took his daughter’s hand and they left the market.

“What is Bear going to do with him?” asked Little Girl Otter.

“I don’t know,” said Papi Otter. “I don’t know.”

The End

What You Want Me To Bee

A flower wants to be everyone's favorite color, but finds it harder than it sounds.

Once there was a nice field of flowers. Right next to the field of flowers there was a forest. Just inside the forest, there was a clearing where the sun trickled in for a couple of hours a day. Right in the middle of that clearing was a flower.

It was a very pretty flower, as most flowers are.

One day, a butterfly visited it.

“Hello Butterfly,” said the Flower.

“Well, hello,” said the Butterfly. “You look very pretty today.”

“Why, thank you,” said the Flower. “How sweet of you.”

“Oh, you’re welcome,” said the Butterfly. “Do you mind if I drink some of your nectar today?”

“Oh, please,” said the Flower. “By all means.”

As the butterfly was resting its wings, the Flower asked it a question.

“What is your favorite color?”

“Oh, I think it’s red,” said Butterfly.

“Then I’ll make myself red tomorrow,” said the Flower.

“Oh, you don’t need to do that,” said the Butterfly. “I like you just as you are.”

“Well, I would like to, since it’s your favorite color,” said the Flower.

“Then I’ll see you tomorrow,” said the Butterfly.

They said goodbye.

The next morning, the Flower had managed to make itself red. It’s very hard work for a flower to change its color. The Flower used up so much energy changing her color; she accidentally slept past the sunrise.

She was very tired, but also very excited. She waited all day long for the Butterfly, but the Butterfly did not come.

Instead, a Hummingbird came and hovered in front of her.

“Hello Hummingbird,” said the Flower.

“Hi there,” said the Hummingbird. “Do you mind if I drink some of your nectar?”

“Oh, of course not,” said the Flower. “Please do.”

While the Hummingbird was drinking, the Flower asked it a question.

“What is your favorite color?” asked the Flower.

“Oh, I really like orange,” said the Hummingbird.

“Well then,” said the Flower. “Tomorrow, I will make myself orange.”

“Oh, you don’t need to do that for me,” said the Hummingbird. “You are very pretty in red.”

“I would really like to do it for you,” said Flower.

“Well, how sweet,” said the Hummingbird. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”

They said goodbye.

The next morning, the Flower again managed to change its color. This time to orange.

It is hard work for a flower to change its color, and this time, the Flower used up so much energy making herself orange, that she accidentally slept until the sun was right above her.

She was tired, but also so excited to show the Hummingbird, but the Hummingbird did not come back.

Instead, a Bee landed on her petals.

“Hello Bee,” said the Flower.

“Hi,” said the Bee. “Hey, can I have some of your pollen?”

“Sure,” said the Flower. “Take all your legs can carry.”

And while the Bee was gathering pollen, the Flower asked it a question.

“What is your favorite color?” asked the Flower.

“Oh, I like all colors,” said the Bee. “Red, orange, yellow, pink, purple, all of them.”

“Oh,” said the Flower. “I’d like to try to make myself all those colors for you. Will you come back tomorrow and see me?

“You don’t have to do that for me,” said the Bee. “I think your color is great.”

“I would really like to do it for you,” said the Flower.

“That is so nice of you,” said the Bee. “I’ll come back tomorrow.”

They said goodbye.

That night, the Flower tried and tried to make herself all those color. It was hard enough to change into just one color. She just couldn’t do it, but she tried all night long. She collapsed, exhausted as the sun was about to come up.

She slept all day. In fact, she had used up so much energy trying to change her color that all the color drained out of her petals.

The Butterfly came back to see her, but couldn’t find her.

The Hummingbird came around looking for an orange flower, but did not spot her.

Finally the Bee came by. He buzzed and buzzed in circles. He remembered exactly where that beautiful flower had been the day before, but all he found was a wilted, grey-brown, dried up flower whose petals had fallen off.

He was hungry, so he buzzed away.

The Flower lay there motionless. She had no energy left. Even the sun that trickled in through the trees above her didn’t notice her. Neither did the other flowers in the field next to the forest. They went about their business laughing and giggling and attracting butterflies and bees and hummingbirds, as if nothing had happened.

A cow strolled into the area, slowly lowered her nose to the brown wilted flower, sniffed it a couple of times, and then ate it.

The End

Squirrel's Stolen Acorns

Squirrel has a problem, Bunny helps.

Once there was a little girl squirrel. She was sweet most of the time, but sometimes she was a little greedy.

See, she would sit there, perfectly fine, minding her own business, maybe even playing with her own acorn. Then someone would walk by playing with another acorn, and she would have to have the acorn the other animal was playing with.

You know, I‘ll say it again, she was a very sweet little squirrel, but this just surprised everyone.

Her parents tried everything. They tried writing names on acorns, they tried giving her all the acorns she wanted, they even tried redirecting her with chocolate cake or Hawaiian Punch, but nothing worked.

She was making for herself a huge stockpile of acorns in her room. Not her own acorns, mind you, but everyone else’s.

One day, Momma Rabbit and Bunny came to visit. While Momma Rabbit visited with Momma Squirrel, Little Squirrel took Bunny to her room.

Little Squirrel had cleaned up her room and taken out just one acorn to play with.

“Would you like to play with my acorn?” asked Little Squirrel.

“No thank you,” said Bunny. “That’s very sweet of you.”

Little Squirrel was confused. Why didn’t Bunny want to play with the acorn? It was shiny, smelled good and not too heavy.

Little Squirrel was about to ask Bunny what was wrong with the acorn when Little Raccoon walked by on the path.

Little Raccoon was rolling an acorn down the path.

“I’ll be right back,” said Little Squirrel, and scurried out the door.

Little Squirrel spoke to Little Raccoon for a moment, and returned toting Little Raccoon’s acorn.

Little Squirrel shined the acorn a bit and then took it to the closet.

“Excuse me while I put this away,” said Little Squirrel.

When Little Squirrel opened the closet, Bunny saw that it was full of acorns. In fact, some rolled out and Little Squirrel had quite a hard time keeping them all in. She finally closed the door after pushing some in with her feet.

“I was going to ask you something,” said Little Squirrel, “but I can’t remember what it was. What was it?”

Suddenly, Little Squirrel’s attention focused on some movement outside. It was Grackle, and he had an acorn in his mouth.

“Excuse me,” said Little Squirrel. “I’ll be right back.”

Little Squirrel ran outside and spoke to Grackle for a few minutes, then came back toting Grackle’s acorn.

Little Squirrel shined the acorn a bit and took it to the closet.

She opened the door, and this time, there seemed to be fewer acorns in the closet. She didn’t have such a hard time closing the door. She thought there had been more acorns in there, but she could have been wrong.

Little Squirrel turned from closing the door and before she could say anything to Bunny, Little Skunk walked by with an acorn in his paws.

“Excuse me, Bunny,” said Little Squirrel. “I’ll be right back.”

Little Squirrel ran outside and spoke with Little Skunk for a few minutes, then came back, toting Little Skunk’s acorn.

Little Squirrel shined the acorn a bit and then took it to the closet.

This time, she was sure there had been more acorns in there. In fact, she could have counted how many acorns were in the closet, where as before, there were too many to count.

She shut the closet door and turned to Bunny.

“Has anyone been in here other than you?” asked Little Squirrel.

But before Little Bunny had a chance to answer, Ant, who was carrying a surprisingly large acorn, distracted Little Squirrel.

“Oh, my. Excuse me, Bunny,” said Little Squirrel. And she ran outside to speak to Ant.

She came back in toting Ant’s acorn, shined it up a bit, and took it to the closet.

Little Squirrel was surprised to find that there were no acorns in her closet.

“Oh, no!” she said. “What happened to my acorns?”

Bunny was still sitting in the same place she had been the whole time.

“Bunny,” asked Little Squirrel, “Did you take my acorns?”

Little Squirrel looked all around Bunny, but didn’t find any acorns.

“No, I didn’t take your acorns,” said Bunny.

Little Squirrel was confused.

“Can I play with that acorn?” asked Bunny.

“Uh, sure,” said Little Squirrel, very confused. “Here you go.”

Bunny took the acorn, and when Little Squirrel wasn’t watching, Bunny threw it out the window.

“What happened to your acorn?” noticed Little Squirrel. “It’s gone too!”

Squirrel was so confused she began to cry.

“Oh,” said Bunny. “Don’t cry Little Squirrel. We can find you another one.”

“I don’t want another one,” said Little Squirrel. “They weren’t mine anyway.”

Bunny was happy to hear that Little Squirrel had realized the error of her ways.

Little Squirrel stopped crying.

“In fact, I think I do want to find another one,” said Little Squirrel. “I want to find a bunch of them.”

Bunny sighed, maybe Little Squirrel hadn’t changed.

“I want to give acorns back to all my friends for all the acorns I took from them,” said Little Squirrel.

“Oh,” said Bunny, happy again. “In that case, come outside with me.”

Bunny took Little Squirrel outside and around the corner of the house.

There, standing next to a huge pile of acorns, right under Little Squirrel’s bedroom window, were Little Raccoon, Ant, Little Skunk, Grackle and actually, quite a few others.

Little Squirrel looked over to Bunny.

“Did you do all this?” asked Little Squirrel.

“We all did,” said Bunny.

“Well,” said Little Squirrel. “I get it. It was not fun or nice to have my acorns taken from me. I’m sorry I did that to all of you. I won’t do it again.”

They were all very happy to hear that.

Little Squirrel handed out acorns to all her friends and they all had an acorn party.

While they were all having a great time bowling and playing hoops, Little Squirrel noticed that Little Frog was playing with something she had never seen before. It was glowing and moving around Little Frog’s head so gently and peacefully. She rushed over to him and watched it for a long time.

“What’s that?” she asked Little Frog.

“It’s a firefly,” said Little Frog.

“Ooh,” said Little Squirrel, “Can I have it?”

The End

The Box of Dolls

A box of delicate porcelain dolls is carelessly thrown to the corner of an attic and forgotten, but then found.

Once there was a house. It was an old house. No one had lived in it for a long time. It was not in bad shape. The paint was fading, and a couple of shutters had come off the hinges, but it still looked really nice.

There were three floors, plus an attic. The attic is where we’re going.

To get to the attic, you have to go in the front door, down the hall to the kitchen, all the way to the back wall, into the pantry, and through a hidden sliding door in the darkest corner of the pantry.

Then you have to go down a hallway and up a narrow staircase that winds to the left and then to the right and then a quick left and another right.

Then there’s another sliding door that opens to the attic.

It’s not the only way up to the attic, but it’s the fun way. The other way is through a regular sized door at the end of the hall on the third floor.

Anyway, whoever had lived in this house last, seemed to have left in a hurry, because they had left the attic full of boxes and trunks. There was dust everywhere, and white sheets covered old couches and armoires and chairs.

In the farthest wall from the regular sized door, there were shelves, and on one of the bottom shelves, pushed way over to the side, there was a box. This box was filled with beautiful porcelain figurines of ladies and gentlemen, dressed in formal clothes, and posed as if they were dancing.

The dresses were full and flowing as if they were in mid turn, and the gentlemen were straight and dapper and looked like they were all very good leads.

Every night, one of the gentlemen climbed out of the box, and up onto the vitrola, wound the crank and dropped the needle onto the record.

The dolls would have a ball right in the box, and dance until the record was finished, and then start the record again.

Their dancing was beautiful. They were all so elegant and harmonious and handsome.

One day, a man barged into the attic and began rifling through boxes and trunks and turning over boxes and uncovering furniture. He was not being careful at all.

He slid the box with the dolls off the shelf with a bang and a crash. He grabbed a few of the dolls, inspected them and threw them back into the box. He was not interested in the box of dolls. He tossed the box to the corner of the attic with another crash. Then he left.

The man had not been careful with these delicate porcelain dolls. There was not one doll that was left unbroken or unchipped.

A few of them had a leg broken off, an ear missing here and a finger there. Some had both arms smashed beyond repair. Many feet were crushed to powder, and there were even a couple of heads that had cracked or come clean off.

That night, the dolls cleaned up the box. They put the broken off arms and legs and feet in one corner, and inspected every doll to see what damage had been done.

A few of the dolls that were just chipped or cracked became disgusted with the dolls that were missing arms and legs. They decided that they would rather be outside of the box than inside with all the broken dolls. They didn’t want to be reminded of what had happened. It was too hard.

They left the box.

The few dolls that were left in the box tried to make the best of things. They were made to dance, and nothing would stop them.

The vitrola had been knocked over, so the dolls had to remember the songs and sing the music. It wasn’t the same, but it was nice.

The ones without legs would hold on to the ones without arms. The ones with broken feet would hang on to the cracks and holes of the ones with missing hands. They danced and enjoyed their dancing even more than before.

Every night they would dance, and every night, they would get better at dancing because they learned how to use each other’s cracks and holes and missing legs and feet and arms and imperfections as best they could.

It was beautiful. Sure, they were reminded every day of the damage that was done, but every day, that became less important.

Sure, they were reminded every day of the fact that the dolls that had left had taken with them an important part of the collection of dancing dolls. Hopefully they were dancing wherever they were.

One day, a little girl came curiously and gently into the attic. Somehow, the little girl didn’t see anything in the attic except for the crumpled box in the corner, as if that’s exactly what she was looking for.

Her soft fingers carefully lifted the damaged dolls out of the box and touched every crack and every break and every hole and every scratch on every doll, as if she was acknowledging every pain and every hurt. She cried about the damage that was done to them, and kissed every one of them.

She was so careful and so sweet to every doll in the box. She took one by one, wrapped them in her dress and took them down to her room, where she had a space cleared off just for them.

She played music for them every day with the vitrola that had been fixed. She even bought new records for them and played those new songs for them also.

As far as the little girl thought, the dolls were perfect. She didn’t see the holes and scratches and cracks and missing arms and legs and feet, and neither did they.

The End