Seleke Tries a Pet

One day there was a girl named Seleke. She lived in a house with her mother, not at the top of a cliff, and not at the bottom, but right in the middle half way up. Above was a forest filled with Slavering Wolves, and below a beach inhabited by Ugly Giants.

It was a windy day. The rainy season was over. Warm winds blew from the south, sending the clouds away. It was perfect weather for kite flying.

Seleke got out a special kite today. It was shaped like a three masted sailing ship, all made of silk. Its hull was black, and its sails were every color of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.

Soon she had her kite flying high in the air. The wind was steady, and strong. When lunch time came Seleke tied the kite to a little tree and let it fly itself. Sure enough, when she returned after lunch the kite was still flying.

Seleke put little pieces of paper on the string and watched as the wind blew them up and up, all the way to the kite.

When the sun reached the ocean it started to get dark. Seleke tied her kite to a little tree again, hoping it would fly all night long, and went inside. That night in bed Seleke looked out her window. The little kite was visible by the light of the full moon, flying bravely in a starry sky.

When Seleke woke the next morning the sky was empty. Her kite was nowhere to be seen!

Running to the little tree, Seleke traced the string, right over the edge of the cliff. Hoping her kite hadn't been ruined, Seleke pulled up the string. She couldn't see over the edge of the cliff, but the kite felt a lot heavier than yesterday.

What should come over the edge of the cliff but a big pinchy crab! Not her kite at all, a crab was gripping the end of the kite string in its claw.

Seleke thought the crab was cute, so she brought it inside and put it in a big glass bowl for a cage. She brought the crab sea shells for decoration, and put some sand in the bowl so it would feel at home. But Seleke was not sure what crabs ate. She put in carrots, and some lettuce, and even a little piece of meat. She looked at her crab on and off all day long.

The next morning the crab hadn't eaten anything. It looked sluggish, and sad. Seleke thought, "Maybe keeping a crab as a pet is not a good idea. If I went a whole day without food I would be really hungry. I better let it go before it starves."

So Seleke put the crab back on her kite line and lowered it back down the cliff. When she pulled the string back up she was surprised to find that her kite was back on the line!

The End
(c) 2008 Ken Demarest