This morning my son, aged nine, and I were walking through the snow to the school bus stop. Aidan began talking about never ending stories. I sometimes use this 'trick' on him at bedtime when he really should be asleep and wants a story. I tell him a really short never ending tale and then he is happy. Somewhat, anyway. He wanted me to tell him the one I told the other day about his sister, who had been whining a lot. Instead I told one about us walking to the bus stop. He then told one to me. We talked about how you can make anything into a never ending story if you have the right elements and the story can over lap. Aidan asked if they were always short, and I said they need not be.
We talked about 'looping' Goldilocks and then we talked about Jaguar and Hare, a story posted here on this blog a few years back. It is about an old man and woman who have two pets, those of the title, and how the couple go to eat hare who tricks jaguar into almost being eaten. Jaguar's revenge is in sending hare to the moon - the end. But if hare looked back down, as he does in the 10 minute story, for a way to return to earth, but instead saw an old man and an old woman about to eat their pets, it would become a never ending story. 'But then there would be two hares on the moon,' said Aidan. Hmm. 'Ah!' I said. 'The second hare looked at the first hare and said, "What are you doing here?" The first hare replied: "I saw an old woman and old man..." and then' I said thinking quickly, 'when there were 30 or 40 hares, the new hare would ask the question: "What are you doing here?" The other hares replied: "Making a wig. The end." Well, Aidan thought it was funny and the bus took him off to school with a new thought in his head!
