Beastybats & Balderdash: Ambassador of Love

He had an important job to do and wore the mantel of responsibility with pride.

"People don't come programmed with your kind of love," the others told him, in the place before now. "Don't try to explain it to them or they'll just get mean. Your only job is to love them."

He didn't know what that meant - getting mean - but he would find out.

Again.

And again.

And again, he would love them. For it was an important job and he bore it with pride.

Still, he wished the people would just understand how it all worked, stop making everything so complicated, and let themselves feel what it felt like to love the whole world for a change.

- - -

About Beastybats & Balderdash. Photo by Nguyen-Anh Le. Story by Amanda Amos.

Beastybats & Balderdash: If I Were Rapunzel

 

"If I were Rapunzel, I'd build a door," Margaret told her sister, brushing a coat of sparkly blue polish across her nails. "Instead of sitting around waiting for some prince to rescue me."


Lucinda put down her own bottle of Dreamsicle pink and looked frustrated. "Rapunzel couldn't build a door," she said, waving her nails to dry. "She didn't have any tools up there, plus it was too high up, plus the witch was evil and would've stopped at nothing to keep her enslaved."


Margaret gave her big sister a look of pity and frustration; she knew Lucinda was closer to grown than young, so it wasn't her fault she'd forgotten the truth about things. Still, her doubt was tiresome.


"You can always build a door," Margaret explained, trying to save her sister from a life of mundanity.


"The only trouble comes from thinking that you can't."


Lucinda shrugged her shoulders and turned on the television; Margaret made a mental note to herself:


Never forget about Rapunzel and those doors.

- - -

About Beastybats & Balderdash. Photo by Nguyen-Anh Le. Story by Amanda Amos.

Beastybats & Balderdash: The Path of Shadows

 

She didn't notice the troll until he leapt out in front of her, blocking the tunnel's threshold.

"It looks like a regular tunnel but it isn't," he warned, wagging his crooked finger in her face. "All your hopes and dreams lie at the end of it, but you'll have to wade through a darkness you've never known to get there."

The little girl looked at the tunnel and then back at the troll.

"Are you sure?" she asked, searching his face for a lie, for she had wise parents who had taught her about trolls and trickery.

"Quite," he smiled, stroking his beard and curling the tip of it around his pinky finger.

"You can never come back this way again and the tunnel is very long or very short or something all twisted up on itself like you've hardly imagined at all. You'll just have to trust the path."

And then, like most children before her, but very few grown ups, she strode confidently into the darkness.

"Smart girl," chuckled the troll, tucking himself back into the shadows.

---

About Beastybats & Balderdash. Photo by Nguyen-Anh Le. Story by Amanda Amos.

Beastybats & Balderdash: The Place of No More Fear

I don't like graveyards, the woman thought to herself, stopping at the prescribed spot on the tour, waiting for the guide to continue. 

Neither do I, said a voice from behind her. I prefer to roam.

Snapping her head around to search for the speaker, the woman found she was alone in that corner of the garden. Her fellow tourists huddled around the guide, engrossed in the details of the place.

But there's no use being afraid of them, if that's what the trouble is, the voice continued. You're already one of us; you must simply remember forward, it said. 

Then there is no more fear.

The woman had never been more terrified in her life and sprinted to catch up with the group.

Damn tourists, muttered the ghost.

---

About Beastybats & Balderdash. Photo by Nguyen-Anh Le. Story by Amanda Amos.

Beastybats & Balderdash: The Road to Bremen

"I've never been to Bremen, if that's what you're wondering, so I can't tell you how to get there."

The woman paused. She had been about to climb up on the humble creature's back, but she stopped to address the unusual statement. 

"I wasn't wondering, and I don't know why you'd think I would be wondering, about such a ridiculous thing."

"Because Bremen is a place of beauty and rest and freedom. I  assume everyone's looking for it."

The woman shook her head. "It never even occurred to me."

The donkey was glad she had failed the test, because it was a long road to Bremen and his bones were weary. 

Still, he looked at the woman with a hint of sadness: if she'd known what was important in life, she would have been looking for Bremen.

---

About Beastybats & Balderdash. Photo by Nguyen-Anh Le. Story by Amanda Amos.

Beastybats & Balderdash: A Very Merry Un-Birthday to You

"Time doesn't really exist, y'know, and neither do ages." Maggie thought her little sister should know the truth and no one else seemed eager to tell her. "It's just an illusion, like magic tricks and stuff."

Penny stared at her big sister without a hint of understanding, her head tilted slightly to keep the sparkly, gold crown aloft.

"But I'm six today," she insisted, her small self framed by balloons and a birthday banner and gifts piled high at the breakfast table. "Yesterday I was five and today I'm six."

"Not according to Einstein, you're not." Maggie glanced up to see if her words were having any effect -- they weren't.

"Oh well, Happy Birthday anyway," she mumbled, returning to her book. 

Schroedinger's cat would have to wait another year.

---

I'd like to wish a very Happy Birthday to my beautiful mother 

and my incredible daughter....even if time is an illusion. 

Much love to you both, today and always!

"Fly free and happy beyond birthdays and across forever, 
and we'll meet now and then when we wish, 
in the midst of the one celebration that never can end." 
~ Richard Bach

About Beastybats & Balderdash. Photo by Nguyen-Anh Le. Story by Amanda Amos.

Beastybats & Balderdash: Useful Information

Something had gone horribly wrong. Or horribly right.

It was too soon to tell.

Last he remembered, the goblin said I'll give you three wishes and the boy had believed him. He didn't know about tunnels to the Dreamtime. Or changelings in your bed. Or that you must never, ever, under any circumstance, trust a goblin.

All of it would have been useful information, but knowledge like that wandered off ages ago, in the dead of night, before humans realized they might need it some day.  

It's a pity what they don't teach you in those schools of yours, the goblin sighed, leading the boy by the hand.

And the boy, taking in his monstrous, wonderful new world, had to agree.

---

About Beastybats & Balderdash. Photo by Nguyen-Anh Le. Story by Amanda Amos.

Beastybats & Balderdash: Gateway to Oz

But it's just a silly plot device from a fairy tale, Lucinda protested, stomping her foot for emphasis. How can a hot-air balloon be a portal to someplace that doesn't exist?

Margaret slid the newspaper across the kitchen table, folded like a child's lopsided Christmas wrapping, so the front page story was the only thing visible. Her sister was a devout agnostic when it came to all things marvelous and magical so she would have to read it for herself.

I don't believe it, Lucinda muttered, but her eyes told a different story. She scanned the page several times, rereading the scientific report, before returning the crumpled pile of paper to the chipped linoleum.

She looked at Margaret. Margaret held her breath.

Well, what are we doing still sitting here? Lucinda beamed, grabbing her sister's hand and pulling her toward the door.  

We'd better hurry if we want to catch a Munchkin!

-----

About Beastybats & Balderdash. Photo by Nguyen-Anh Le. Text by Amanda Amos.