Adding Sunshine

I would love to tell deeply meaningful stories to my children at night. I have been known to tell on sentance morbid tales half out of that’s how I feel and partly out of that’s all I’ve got. Every now and then something creeps in to my mind and I let it out of my mouth and to my surprise, I end the tale and quiet applause ensue. This morning one of my children was telling another about the story the other missed out on since I told him the story as he went to sleep on the couch. I think they might like a place to look back to to remember the tales their mom’s tired and loose night time mind creates, ray by ray, to cuddle and rock them to sleep with words.

The Leeks

Leeks are a plant that grows well for me here in extreme temperatures of the U.S.A. midwest. As hard as I have tried to grow many things and have failed, leeks hold a special place in my heart. They seem to cooperate with my abilities and what this climate has to offer. At night my now 5 year old requests the next tale of “The Leeks.”

[Here is an outline and a little of what I can remember in order of their telling. I hope to come back and fill in some detail someday.]

Hair Cut.

Hail.

Funeral.

Went for a bikeride and bounced out on to the ground from the bike basket full of dirt. Put in a glass of water.

A friend gave Farmer Deon a leek he had found. It was Mrs. Leek. She was planted next to Mr. Leek. The two of them became great friends. Mr. Leek loved to hear of Mrs. Leeks adventures of growing up in a different place and traveling to the midwest. She had grown up on a patio on the 14^th floor of an apartment building in New York City. The patio had turned in to a heap of trash. Somehow, probably by a bird, a leek seed fell behind the trash heap into a pot of dirt. There was a crack in the balcany railing that gave the leek just enough light to grow. When the heap of trash was finally excavated, Farmer Deon’s friend found the leek growing amazingly well in the pot. He decided to take the leek to Farmer Deon because he knew he would take good care of it.

Tornado came. Mr. Leek landed on and stuck to Farmer Deon’s kitchen window. Farmer Deon went for a walk to see how people in his neighborhood were doing. He found Mrs. Leek on a neighbor’s window and asked if he could take her home. He was given permission and he planted Mr. and Mrs. Leeek back in his garden.

The little leeks who had been sucked away in the tornado were not found like Mr. and Mrs. Leek who landed and were stuck on kitchen windows. The little leeks either went to heaven or they landed somewhere and had a new home. Mr. and Mrs. Leek decided to grow more leeks. So they both grew a beautiful poof ball flower. They nourished the seeds until they were ripe and ready to be planted. Winds blew, animals shook, and gravity pulled. The seeds grew and the garden was again full of little leeks.

At night they all felt gentle touching and they thought it was their neighbor. Fussing. Mr. Leek said they would be in for a surprise in the morning. When the light first gleamed the leeks saw that the ground was higher and lighter. In some places the sun made sparkles. It was new and beautiful. Snow!

A rabbit would torment little girls by eating their beautiful flowers. “Oh my roses!” One day it came to Farmer Deon’s garden. Mr. saw it coming and wanted to do something to protect the new little leeks. Mrs. Leek was not experienced with rabbits. She did not even know what one looked like. The image in her mind looked more like furry a monkey with long ears. Mr. Leek knew that rabbits liked to nap so when the rabbit came near the garden Mr. Leek and all the other leets gently swayed back and forth creating a swooshing sound that lullabied the rabbit to sleep. As soon as they stopped however, the rabbit would wake again. So the rabbits continued to sway all night long. They anxiously awaited Farmer Deon to come do his morning check of the garden. When he did, he found the rabbit curiously asleep in the garden. Farmer Deon was quick and as the rabbit woke and began to scamper away, Farmer Deon picked the rabbit up by his ears and cooked him and ate him.

One leeks had a “lEk” party. They had leaky drinking cups. Their bowls were leaky. The gutters were leaky. Farmer Deon had a leaky gut. Then everything that was leaky grew a leek in the leak. Farmer Deon had a leek growing out of his belly button that grew long and grew a flower that went to seed. To plant the seeds Farmer Deon did a boogie dance which shook them out of the flower and onto the ground.