Sweet Caroline's

Dr. Mizzy Mazzle is a scientist and inventor who loves to create new, unexpected inventions to help people.

Today, she made a Sweep-a-nator to help people sweep, so they never have to sweep by themselves again.

But accidentally, she put water in the liquid that makes the machine go alive. When Dr. Mazzle was looking away, the machine crawled up the wall and jumped out of the door into the outside level of the underground lab. It was loose in the streets!

When Dr. Mazzle looked back, the Sweep-a-nator was gone! Dr. Mazzle decided to look around town. Since she was underground, she had to take the long elevator ride. It was the only invention that she could fix that didn’t cause trouble. But since she had to  fix the elevator, it was really slow.

When she finally got outside, the Sweep-a-nator had already gone around town. 

The Sweep-a-nator was sweeping over everything, even cars. One girl just stared at it. She rolled backward on her skateboard and rolled over a rock. 

Suddenly the invention began to slow down. As the Sweep-a-nator stopped, Dr. Mazzle zoomed around the corner.

“Ah, there you are!” she said to the Sweep-a-nator. Then she looked around. It would be like $100 to fix everything. 

Dr. Mazzle got a shovel from the construction workers in the corner and banged on the top of the Sweep-a-nator until it turned off. The Sweep-a-nator had water within the live liquid. Dr. Mazzle took a glass jar from her pocket and scooped up the water from inside. She would throw it away when she got home. She dragged the Sweep-a-nator home. It was not broken. She could still fix it. She just needed new liquid in it.

As she walked up to her bedroom, she heard people shouting “Yay! Hooray!” She looked out the window and saw that people were gathered around her door holding out money.

“Thank you for saving us!” they said. All that money together was enough to fix the city. 

The End

For the city children Kerri and Doug, visiting the countryside and sitting around a campfire was just a dream. In their city there were no exciting wild animals, and the city lights obscured the stars in the night sky.

Now that they were camping in the countryside with their parents, the sky had no limit and the night was very dark. The stars were shining brightly, and tiny creepy crawlies scuttled around in the darkness as Kerri and Doug huddled around the campfire.

The marshmallows tasted delicious to Kerri and Doug. They had never had gooey and delicious marshmallows cooked over a campfire. The campfire smelled all smoky, like usual.

It was getting dark and the fire was going low. Kerri and Doug put their hands over the flames to feel the heat before they went into the tent for bed.

When they were going to bed, Kerri said, “I heard something!”

Doug said, “I’ll bet it was just your imagination.”

But Kerri said, “No, I really heard something! I’m going out to see what it was.”

Doug had to follow her. She couldn’t be out there in the dark, dark night! When he stepped outside, he could barely see anything. It was only darkness.

“I can’t see anything!” said Kerri, right next to him.

When Doug’s eyes adjusted to the gloom, he saw the sparkling stars and the rustling tree branches. Then he saw, on one of the tree branches, a chocolate colored, feathery owl.

“Whoo! Whoo!” it said loudly.

“Ouch!” said Kerri as she clapped her hands over her ears.

“See?” Doug said. “It was only an owl.”

“Oh!” said Kerri. “Let’s go back to bed.”

They went back to bed. When Kerri and Doug fell asleep, they dreamed whole night and morning about of the adventure they had had. When they went back to the noisy city, they never forgot the noisy, noisy owl.

The End

“Thank you for helping me cross the street,” said the old man all dressed in black.

Sally was already running late for school. The old man insisted that she wait a little longer.

“Now I must do something for you in return,” he continued. “Take this magic fish and these golden crystals with you to school, and I guarantee that something magical will happen. Everything will be different.”

The old man laughed and then disappeared in a puff of smoke.

When Sally arrived at school, she waited in the hallway, right in front of her classroom door.

“I bet I can put the crystals in my pocket, but I can’t go in there holding this golden fish.” Sally thought. “My teacher will wonder why I have a fish in my hands. But since I’m late for school, I might as well go in there.”

She put the crystals in her pocket and went into the room. Surprisingly, the teacher just said, “Hello, Sally. Welcome to a new day of school.” She didn’t even ask Sally why she was holding a fish.

Then Sally realized something. The old man had said everything would be different. The teacher couldn’t see the fish. This must be the difference!

Sally sat down.

When it was time to go home, she walked out and surprisingly she was in the woods. She saw a person sitting there.

The person stood up and said, “Hello. I am a spy. I have been watching you, Sally. My name is Charlotte. You helped the old man, and you got gifts. The fish will help you never get hungry again. The crystal means that you will always have light, even without a flashlight.”

“Cool!” Sally said. Charlotte disappeared. Then Sally looked around. She was back in the city, in front of her school again.

Now that she knew what the magic was, she was excited to use it when she needed to.

The End

Fay and her dog Roger walked home from her friend’s house one Friday afternoon through the woods. Suddenly, Fay tripped on a gray stone. As she tripped, she looked up and saw a large brown box bolted to the ground with a chain. The box seemed like it was vibrating a little.

“What in the world is in that box?” said Fay. Roger barked.

Fay went over to the box to see if she could open it. She tried the chain. The chain fell off with a “chink” sound. Fay thought it was just rusty, and that’s why it fell off. She pulled off the lid of the box and found a little silver crystal about the size of her thumb. She wanted to take it, but she wondered if it was somebody else’s.

Roger barked again. Roger wanted to take it, so he did, grabbing it in his teeth.

Fay gave in and took it from his teeth. Anyway, why would anyone leave a strange box in the woods? She put it in her pocket for later. Once it was in her pocket, it began vibrating and shining.

Then a tiny voice from her pocket spoke.

“Where do you want to go? You can go wherever you want for two whole days!”

Fay was surprised. She looked in her pocket. On the top of the crystal was a happy face that had talked!

Fay thought for a minute. “I don’t think I want to go anywhere,” she said. “I like where I live.”

The tiny voice said, “You can wish for anything too!”

Fay thought again. “Now that I think of it, I do kind of want to see Paris some day.”

Before she could take her words back, a huge ray of light blinded her.

When she opened her eyes, she wasn’t in the woods walking home from her friend’s house anymore! Roger was still there with her. But when she looked around her, she saw that she was in Paris!

“This must be my wish,” she said.

But then she worried. “I hope no time will have passed when I do go back.”

Then Fay realized something again. “How will I go back?”

She started to walk around Paris. She saw the Eiffel Tower, and she saw a lot of people speaking in a different language.

“How will I ask people where in Paris I am if I don’t know the language?” she thought in her mind.

The magical crystal said, “Maybe you should find a place to stay while you are here.”

Roger barked at a stray cat in the alley. The cat scurried away. Fay looked at the alley. It looked okay. It had a pile of some leaves and branches. “I don’t know what I’ll do with the branches but the leaves will be okay to sleep on. Maybe the sticks can be for fetch for Roger.” Fay made the pile of leaves bigger and softer for her to sleep on. Then she got moss and made a soft bed for Roger with the moss.

At dinner time, she wondered about food. She felt in her pocket. She had a wallet with her. But when she went to get food for her and Roger, the money was Paris money!

“I wonder who did that?” Fay thought to herself while they ate. Then Fay went to the alley and she and Roger went to sleep.

The next morning, she woke up and remembered everything. She remembered how to get home too! She had a breakfast of crepes and strawberries and syrup.

Then when she went back to the alley and said, “I want to go back to the woods now!”

The same bright light blinded her and when she opened her eyes, she was in the woods. She looked at her watch. It was Friday again, at the exact same time that she had wished she had gone to Paris.

As she stood there, it was getting later and later. So she started to run home, with Roger at her heels.

When she got home, she felt in her pocket. The shiny crystal was gone!

“It must have fallen out when I was running,” she thought. “Oh well, I didn’t really need it anyway.”

The End