Happy Father's Day! You Know, a Month Ago

  The day after I arrived in California was Father's Day. And I had not brought a gift. I quickly whipped out my felt and got to work.

"And They All Died, The End"

  This is so named for the bedtime stories my own father read to us (which might explain some things about my story-telling style). Under his care, Lizzy Bruin (friend of Sister Bear in the Berenstain Bears series), became Lizzy Borden. Sneetches on Beaches got caught in machinery with horrific ends. Grover was eaten by the monster at the end of the book. And so on, and so forth. But the IMPORTANT detail was always, "and they all died, the end."

  Jorgan was often read stories by his father as well. Jorgan's mother did not understand why he always required a lamp on in his room to fall asleep, but Jorgan knew better. Otherwise the artichoke-shaped monsters would gallumph out of his closet and from under his bed while he slept and nibble off his fingers. But, naturally, fluorescent light was the monster's natural enemy, so he was safe.

. . . as long as the bulb never went out.