Week 12 Story: Ponytails

There once was a studious girl named Mary who desperately wanted to pass her chem class. She stayed up very late trying to make all her flash cards in time to study in the morning. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. 

"Who is it?" she called out. Her roommates had been asleep for hours and they were very loud snorers so it fell on her to get up and answer the door.

"So, like, it's Karie. Karie with One Ponytail," was the only response Mary heard before opening the door. Maybe one of her roommates had invited this girl over to study and then forgotten? 

Karie with One Ponytail immediately sauntered in, sat down in Mary's seat and started riffling through Mary's papers and study guides. 

"Omg, like, where is everyone else? The other Karie's should be here by now... ugh," bemoaned the blonde airhead. 

Just then, there was a second knock on the door with a call of "like, open up! It's Karie with Two Ponytails." 

Mary went and answered the door again and saw a girl that looked pretty similar to the first girl except she had her hair drawn up in two ponytails. 

"Like, give me those papers like, now, you witch," she screeched and wrestled Karrie with One Ponytail for the flashcards. 

And so the night went on. Mary opened the door for ten more Karies, each with more ponytails than the last, until there were twelve strange girls in her living room and dining room vying for a chance to study her chem notes. None of them spoke to Mary which was fine because she felt a little overwhelmed. Never before had there been so many people in her apartment let alone all of the Karies in the sorority specifically for girls named Karie! 

"Hey, weird girl, make us some kale smoothies. We're hungry but don't want to get bloated." 

Mary didn't want to make these girls mad so she desperately searched her kitchen. Alas she could find no Kale and told them so. 

"Then go get some, oh my gawd, are you stupid??" Amidst spiteful and mocking laughter, some of the girls tossed cute little coin purses at Mary. She quickly gathered them up and headed to the nearest Walmart. When she got there, she found the kale and a few other ingredients to make smoothies with, then hurried back to the checkout counter. But when she reached into the coin purses to pay, all she found were coupons to male strip clubs. She had left her own wallet at home in her haste to please these dreadful girls and, so, could not pay for the groceries. Poor Mary began to cry. 

Then the cashier, a punk-Gothic-rebel of a girl with charcoal smudged eyes and purple streaks in her hair, sighed and asked Mary what was wrong. After Mary had explained her situation, the cashier took pity on her and let her have all of her groceries for free. Then she said "Hey, you could get them to leave by standing outside your house and yelling that all the Starbucks in town are closing down for good!" 

"Thanks, I'll try that!" Mary called over her shoulder as she hurried her free groceries to her car. 

And, so, she did. 

All the Karies with all their ponytails fled into the night to save their basic-white-girl source of power. 

And Mary was finally able to study in peace. 

(Ponytails: Image Source)

Bibliography:  Celtic Fairy Tales: The Horned Women by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1892).

Author's Note: 

My story and the original are pretty similar except for tone and the ending. Where The Horned Women is sinister and about witches, my story is a humorous tale of a sorority that is super rude about asking for help with their chem studies. I made the main character a little more likable so the reader (hopefully) felt a grounded. I also left out the ending of the original story because I felt that it didn't fit in with my re-telling and I liked where mine ended. 

Reading Notes, Part B: Celtic Fairy Tales:

Bibliography: Celtic Fairy Tales: The Tale of Ivan, by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1892).

(Ivan: Image Source)

I liked how Ivan stayed true to the advise that his master gave him and everything worked out. I feel like there aren't many stories like that out there. The main character always seems to deviate from what he's been taught these days. I think I would like to keep the story line fairly similar, maybe focus on one part of the story and blow it up and flesh it out (particularly the part about the Inn). I think this story would be a lot of fun to re-write.

Reading Notes, Part A: Celtic Fairy Tales: The Horned Women

(Horned Women: Image Source)

This is a really interesting tale I feel I can turn into a funny story pretty easily. I would like to make the whole thing satire. Maybe have girls with a bunch of different pony tails that overwhelm this other girl and then she uses stupid tricks to get them to leave and stay away. Basically I want to change the tone from sinister to hilarious. I don't get much practice writing funny stories so this should be an interesting challenge.


Bibliography:  Celtic Fairy Tales: The Horned Women by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1892).

Reading Notes Part B: Alaska - The Lost Light

Alaskan Legends unit. Story source: Myths and Legends of Alaska: The Lost Light, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1911).

(Image source: National Geographic)

I like this story too. It could also be a scary story (maybe I'm just in a super Halloween-y mood).

They could be being chased by something in the Upside Down!! (I also watched the second part of Stranger Things recently). They finally chase down the thing they need and are able to fight off the darkness (monster). It could become a quest of some sort. 

Reading Notes Part A: Alaska - Raven and the Seals

Alaskan Legends unit. Story source: Myths and Legends of Alaska: Raven and the Seals, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1911).

(Alaskan Seals)

This story is very morbid. I think I could change it to a pretty frightening tale if I wanted to. Maybe have a serial killer move to a town with a bunch of children. He's a cannibal so he gets hungry and eats all the kids at the orphanage. Then he eats the headmaster he'd originally befriended and then gets greedy and goes around trying to eat all the other children. But the townspeople hear of what he's doing and set the pile of meat he's compiled ablaze with gasoline and fire, thus ruining his meals forever. 

Storytelling Week 10: Taps

The sound of tapping plagues me.

It is a constant reminder of who I am, of what I lost.

Long ago, the proud Indian people looked up to the medicine man of our tribe. He and he alone would go into the desert and eat the little knobs or buttons of the mescal plant in order to have visions that he would then share with The People. He warned us not to eat the plants or bad luck would fall upon us.

For a long while, we were good and did not eat the vision plants and everyone was happy. Our medicine man would go out into the desert and eat the buttons and then come back and tell us what he saw.

But then, one night, my husband came to me and held out his hand. In it were the forbidden mescal buttons.

"Wife," he whispered, "I have eaten the buttons and seen wondrous things! They have spread through the tribe because the medicine man's apprentice followed him to the sacred place and ate some while the elder was not looking. He had visions that the medicine man did not talk about and felt that we should all know the truth, so he brought some back. I am not the first to eat them, nearly all the tribe has had some by now. Please try them and share in this experience."

I hesitated, glanced over at my two children, asleep and curled into each other and then nodded and held out my hand.

The buttons were delicious, I had never tasted anything so good. That night, my husband and I lay outside our teepee and watched the stars dance. Great visions exploded and beautifully vibrant colors swirled before our eyes before we fell asleep.

The next day there were more buttons. The entire tribe rolled around on the ground and laughed and called out about their visions. We did not listen to the medicine man when he proclaimed that dangerous weather was coming. All we could do was eat the buttons and have the visions.

I don't know how many days passed while I was in this state but, one day, I woke up with a very clear head. Comatose bodies littered the camp. I suddenly had a very bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I glanced about for my children and could not see them anywhere. I checked in our home and in the homes of their friends.

There were no children anywhere.

I began shouting and frantically began waking everyone up. The sun was high by the time everyone came to. As a group, we went into the woods in search of our young. They were nowhere to be found.

After several luckless hours, the sky god, Manitou, appeared before us and proclaimed that he had found our children wandering without food or water in the hot sun for a long time. He said that he had protected them by putting them inside hollow trees.

We asked him what we could do to get them back. Manitou said "I will turn you into birds, and you can go look for them in the hollow trees. When you find them, I will turn you all back into people again" and it was so.

I felt very strange and glanced in a puddle to see why. The long black robe I had been wearing had turned into feathers and the red feathers I'd worn in my hair now covered my face. I had been turned into a bird with a very strong and pointy beak but if it meant getting my children back, I didn't care.

We flew in small swarms and pecked at trees for hours. Taps filled the woods and drowned out the sound of birdsong. Many were lucky and found their children but my own remained lost.

I tap away still. Sometimes I hear my husband tapping elsewhere in the woods as well.

I am plagued by the sound of tapping.

Author's Note:

My story and Why the Woodpecker Pecks are basically the same story line, mine is just told from the perspective of the mother who wakes up at the end. 

Basically, the Indians are told not to eat the mescal plants that the medicine man eats or bad luck will be brought upon them. One young man does not listen and eats the buttons of the plants and has visions. He then shares the buttons with his friends who share it with their fathers who share it with their wives until the whole tribe is partaking. The adults are in such a state that they forget about their children and don't feed them for several days. The children get desperate so they wander into the woods in search of food. A sky god sees them and takes pity on them. He hides them in hollow trees so they are safe from the sun and wolves.

Finally, one mother wakes up and cannot find any children. She wakes up the whole tribe and, after they've been looking for several hours, the sky god comes before them and tells them what has happened. He then turns them into birds and tells them they can peck at the hollow trees in order to find their children. When they do find them, they will be turned back. 

The only major differences between my story and the original are the point of view perspective and the ending. I keep the main character as a woodpecker. She and her husband are perpetually searching for their lost children. 

Bibliography: Tejas Legends unit. Story source: When the Storm God Rides: Tejas and Other Indian Legends: Why the Woodpecker Pecks retold by Florence Stratton and illustrated by Berniece Burrough (1936).

Picture: (Woodpecker: Image Source) 

Week 10 Reading Tejas Legends Part B: The Maiden who Loved a Star

Tejas Legends unit. Story source: When the Storm God Rides: Tejas and Other Indian Legends, The Maiden who Loved a Star, retold by Florence Stratton and illustrated by Berniece Burrough (1936).

This story is actually super sweet! I think I want to change just a few elements of the story but I want to keep the girl going out into the desert and the help from the shaman woman. I think I want the man in the stars to not fall to his death and instead send down special moonbeams or something that bring purple flowers. Or maybe he's trapped and he scrapes at the sides of his star cell every night so that the dust sprinkles down upon her as a bush. Maybe the shaman is her mother and doesn't want her to leave so she imprisons her as a bush! That would be tragic! I like that better!

(Star: Image Source)