[stylist] children's story

[Robert Newman]

This is a great blindness related children's story. (Hmm, gives me thrilling
little THOUGHT PROVOKER ideas.) 

Thanks Lori
 


Robert Leslie Newman 
Email- newmanrl at cox.net
THOUGHT PROVOKER Website- 
Http://www.thoughtprovoker.info

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of LoriStay at aol.com
Sent: Saturday, January 31, 2009 5:35 PM
To: stylist at nfbnet.org
Subject: [stylist] children's story

This is a story I wrote for my grandkids.   I thought I would share it with 
the list.
Lori


THE DRAGON AND THE ANT
By Lori Stayer
     
Once upon a time there was a dragon who could see ants.   The rest of his 
family couldn't.   Ants were too small, too far away.   But Simon could.   

He'd named himself Simon, by the way.   His mother tried calling him
"Scales,"
 but he didn't think such a name was respectful.

Simon watched ants all the time.   His brother, Snake-Breath, told everyone 
Simon was stupid.   His mother said Simon was just imaginative.   But his 
father was very concerned, thinking Simon was just crazy.

One day Simon bumped into a tree.   Ordinarily, this would pose no problem.

He would have simply knocked down the tree and kept going.   However, this 
was a redwood, the king of the forest.

That was when Simon's father took him to visit Far-Seeing, the oculist
Dragon, who determined Simon had a very special sort of vision, and the ants
he saw were real.

Simon, Far-Seeing determined, was legally blind.   Not that they had laws 
back then.   It simply meant that he could see something, but not
everything, and 
not the way his brothers saw.

The idea he was blind shocked Simon.   Surely not!   But his father assured 
him it was true.

One day Simon lay outside his cave with his head down in the dirt.   A tiny 
ant plodded by, paused and looked up.   "I can see you, you know," it piped
in 
a tiny voice.   "My sisters say I'm deranged, but I know you're there."

"Hello, Deranged," Simon responded gloomily.   "I'm Simon.   I see you too.

 What are you doing?"

"Gathering food for winter.   I'm not very good at it.   I can only see the 
pieces too big to pick up."

"Pretty big, then," said Simon, who knew the size of the pieces of food ants

usually carried.   

"The Queen Mother says I'm useless," the ant sighed.   "They tossed me out 
of the family.   I miss my sisters."
"My brothers say that about me," Simon realized.   "I can only see the small

things."

"Small things?   Like me?"

"Yeah.   It made me an outcast.   I'm not good for much."

"Too bad we can't trade visions," the ant responded.   "But your eyes are 
too big.   I couldn't wear them."

Simon's depression lifted a shade at the thought of a tiny ant trying to
wear 
a dragon's extra large eyes.   "I like you, Deranged.   Why don't we team
up? 
  Climb onto my forehead, and sit on the knob on my brow.   Do you see the 
tree in front of me?"

"Of course I do.   That's part of the problem."

"Let's take a walk.   You warn me when a tree is coming, and I'll lead you
to 
the food you CAN carry."

"It won't work," the ant muttered, nevertheless climbing onto Simon's scaly 
green knob.   "They still won't let me back in.   And don't call me
Deranged!  
 My name is-"   The ant paused.   "Er, 'Ant.'"

Simon frowned.   "That's a silly name.   How would you know if anyone is 
calling you?"

"We all work together," Ant explained.   "Why would I need a different
name?"


"Because I said so," Simon declared.   "And I'm bigger."

For some reason Ant found this hysterically funny, and was only sorry ants 
couldn't laugh.   "Okay.   I'm ready.   Let's go.   The left.   No, I meant
the 
OTHER left!   Don't you know your left from your right?"

Simon thought about it.   "I guess I don't.   What are they?"

Explaining left and right took half an hour, but Simon finally got it, and 
they took off.   With Simon's help, Ant found enough food for lunch, and
with 
Ant's help, Simon stopped knocking down trees.

Simon, however, had trouble convincing his family that Ant was helping him, 
because Ant was too small for them to see.   It didn't matter.   They made a

good partnership, even though Ant's family never did take her back!   




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