My Cardboard Balcony

by Belinda Roddie In the old jack o'lantern lived a family of mice, each of which had a special gift. And when October became November, and the Johnson family decided to throw out the pumpkin, the mice would have to use each gift to find or build a new home. Rodrigo, the father of the family, had excellent strength. So he prepared a little wagon made of tree bark and twigs to pull all of their belongings in one trip, never breaking a sweat. Sally, his wife, was very fast, and she could scurry to a place a mile away and come back in only a second. This way, she managed to find an excellent spot to build a house, away from the noise and tumult of human existence. The eldest, both boys, had somewhat different abilities. Oliver had eyes so sharp that he could see through everything. That way, he managed to stare straight into the earth's core right below where they would build their new house, and he found that the tectonic plates were quite stable, and no risk of an earth...

The patron was wearing denim jeans, a denim jacket, denim boot tops, and a denim knapsack, slung over her shoulder. I looked down at her feet quickly to see if her boots themselves were made of denim, but I snapped my eyes upward quickly as she cleared her throat. "Dry cup for me, barkeep," she rasped, harboring the distinct voice of a twenty-year smoker. "It's been a long drive."