My Cardboard Balcony

by Belinda Roddie How is it possible for your shoes to smell like Swiss cheese? No one knows. Not even the mice know. And they specialize in all things cheese. Especially cheese fragrance. And aroma. Bottled up in little perfume vials and lotion capsules. Ironically, the mice do not eat the cheese. At least, they don't very often. Yet your shoes smell like fine dairy and the stray cat down the street nibbles on them with pointy teeth whenever you walk to class, and your roommate Darrell hates Swiss cheese (especially its smell) and wants to kick you out. But he can't because it's a dorm room and you kind of sort of definitely need to stay there. These are your loafers. These are your loafers smelling like Swiss cheese. Now these are your loafers smelling like Swiss cheese on drugs. Because the mice specialize in those, too. That's how they get their red, bulging eyes. Any questions? The prompt for this week's Storyteller was provided by Jocelyn Roddie

Focus the panorama and let the lens dance. This is the view. This is the scope. Three thousand people, young and old, gathered together holding candles. Sticky candles dripping hot wax all over the blue asphalt. If you zoom in, you'll see how the white stuff shimmers in pools, stretching out like fingers before they descend to the black tar depths below.