Flamingo Lake

It was late at night one school holidays and little Cindy couldn't get to sleep. So her mother told her a story. The same story that she told Cindy every time she couldn't sleep and the same story that had been told to her as a little girl.

There was once a little flock of wild flamingoes. They lived peacefully in a large lake. Humans hadn't been there in years. The only sign left of humans was a fence up against a rock wall plaited with lavender flowers. Although the lavenders were long dead, it looked sweet all the same.

But one day hunters invaded the flamingoes sanctuary. They came in and tried to kill the flamingoes. Luckily, there was one tiny little one that managed to slip away. "This bit always makes me sad Mummy." Cindy said, little tears prickling in her eyes. "I know sweetie. But it turns out all good in the end right?" To that Cindy simply nodded. Her mother waited a moment to see if Cindy was going to say anything more. But, she stayed quiet so Cindy's mother

That little flamingo went wandering until she found another flamingo. He had been hiding under a tall willow tree. He'd escaped from another flock of flamingoes that had been attacked by hunters. So the little flamingo lead him back to her lake and there they stayed, never bothered by humans again. As time went on, they had their own kids and made their own little flock.

As Cindy's mother finished the story, she noticed that Cindy had fallen fast asleep. "It always works like a charm." She whispered to herself as she crept quietly out of the room.

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For my best friend Elizabeth on her birthday. Happy birthday Elizabeth!

Two Rivers

There was once a lake. A lake that had a tiny little island in the middle of it. On either side of that llittle island was two narrow rivers. Those rivers lead to two completely different cities. See, there is a legend that says the two islands were once combined but slowly drifted apart as their rulers did many years ago. Two brothers of a wealthy family both wanted to rule the one big land. In an attempt to settle the dispute, their dying father divided that land into two parts so one brother could rule each. Unfortunately, that didn't stop the dispute between the two brothers. In fact, their brotherly row soon escalated into a feud. And the theory of some is that as the feud grew deeper, the more the two lands that the two brothers ruled drifted further apart.

Once a year, the citizens of the two lands travelled via ferries to the middle island that seperated the two little rivers and their respective cities. It was there that the two communities would gather for their annual River Island Festival. It lasted four days, the last two days of the year and the first two days of the new year. It was during that festival that the children would be told the legend of the two cities at night, like a bedtime story.

Unlike in the legend, the two cities were now close and they quite often worked together. Acceptance of people from the other city was encouraged as was unity and welcoming of town newcomers.

Dale

There was once a lonely woman named Kerrie. Now Kerrie had no family, they'd all died or moved away. Either way in the small town where she lived, Kerrie had no one. That made christmas a rather lonely time. So that was why come the festive season, a special friend of Kerrie's. She had invented for herself a fake husband. Dale was absent all of the time but come christmas and birthdays there would be a special package at the front door adressed to Kerrie from Dale.

The truth was that Kerrie had a secret about Dale. Dale was imaginary and in reality Kerrie was the one who got the presents from 'Dale'. Then she wrapped them up and purposefully forgot about the contents inside. That was until the night before the special occassion when she retrieved the present from its hiding place and set it inside on the front doorstep.

The next day she'd open it up and be really happy and suprised. Even though she knew full well what the present was, she still loved opening it up and using the present come morning.

Although Kerrie kept Dale a secret from the outside world, they looked in and eventually every single woman in town had a fake husband and every man a fake wife. Everyone loved presents so any excuse would do to get an extra one.

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I hope everyone had a merry christmas and a happy new year. Good luck with whatever lies ahead for you in 2012.