Now Riddle Me This, If You Will!

 

Suzy is deep in thought!

          “I’ve been thinking,” said Suzy, “and I have a couple of questions.”

          “What’s up little Suzy,” asked Willie, thinking to himself, “oh boy, here we go again.”

          “I’ve been thinking about the differences between fairytales, fables, and folktales.  Obviously, I’m wondering which we inhabit here, right here while I am talking to you. Any fool knows that cats can’t talk, and yet here we are, chattering away like magpies! What does that mean in practice?

          “This is what I think.  Folktales are rough histories.  They tell what happened that one time long ago, which nobody wrote down at the time.

Fables exist to teach a lesson.  More or less, depending. Or, they can be just a warning.

Now, Fairytales! I think they attempt to explain the unexplainable by means of uncanny characters. Case in point being fairies. Anytime something randomly unfortunate happens, well someone must have caused that, or in fact, actually engineered it for the sheer hell of it, as far as I can tell. Sometimes there is a bargain too."

          “I thought you were asleep out there,” moaned Willie.

          “So, which do you think it is, so far I’m inclined to thinking it’s a fable. Because, so far, it has attempted to solve a philosophical problem without recourse to blaming fairies, or genies, or gnomes…you get the idea. It’s not a folktale because we haven’t gotten to the end of it yet!”

          “Suze, that is the strangest determination I have ever heard. Since no story is ever entirely over, none of them can be folktales? I think a better definition of a folktale would be a simple version of a real happening, by simple people, who passed the story down through the generations, with each re-teller smoothing it out a little more until it is a nice round little ball that is easily passed from hand to hand, father to son, so to speak,” said Willie, getting into the spirit of the discussion.

          “But the question remains, dearest chonkie Bro, which one fits best with your experience of life here by the old piano, where all these kinds of questions must be hashed out?” asked Suzy.

          “I guess I will go with fable also, though I don’t really know where to go with that,” agreed Willie with a little frown. “I’m stuck at trying to figure out what the lesson or warning in this story is.”

          “I can change it into a fairytale instantly,” purred Suzy. “My friend and confidant, Toots, sent the words to a changing song.  There are lots of them, but this one is called ‘I’m not here, I’m there.’”

          “Oh, great Cat Mother help me, now what?  How does that even pretend to work?” Willie sort of winced. Only another cat could see it though.

          “I haven’t tried it yet, but maybe tonight I will.  Here is what you do. You look at where you want to be, ignore where you are, and sing the song, and there you are, where you want to be.  But you have to be able to see where you want to go.  I’m not sure picturing it in your mind would work.  Your picture might not be precise enough for safety.”

          “How did Toots send it? Not over the internet, I presume?” asked Willie.

          “Oh, I don’t know!  She just thinks really hard until it pops up in my head!” Suze looked somewhat defensive about this point.

          “I’m going to try it after dark Willie. Then if that dog is out there I will find out from him what he thinks he is doing! You can come too! The Green Dog is absolutely fairytale material, by the way.”

          “Isn’t what you are talking about just magic Suzy? If it even works it can backfire horribly, making this a fable right now, as we speak.”

          “It wouldn’t be a fable until something went horribly wrong and we told the tale in such a way as to warn people against magic,” argued Suzy.

          “I’m tired.  Sure, let’s try it. I’d like to get out there and scout around myself. Later,” said Willie.

Night Came At Last

          Two small domestic lions sit together at the sliding glass door, with their eyes fixed on a sharply defined spot in the backyard. There is a bit of singing, cat style.

          The two small domestic lions are in the backyard, just as if they had always been there, already.

          “The Green Dog isn’t here tonight Willie,” said the slender grey tabby, having examined the area.

          “That’s okay,” said the round one, “let’s look around for a while before we go back in.  That changing song is the best manifestation of wish fulfillment I have ever heard of.  Good for Toots!  I wonder who taught her?”

          “The one who taught her was one of those Other People she talks to at night. He lives in Arizona, wherever that is, but they talk anyhow. This Hofel, and all his people are experts in location slipping.  It’s a special skill of theirs. Toots likes to step out a little sometimes, but not a lot. She doesn’t want to worry her human, since he tries to take good care of herself and the other cat, the bossy one,” gossiped Suzy, in a low tone.

          “So, Suzy, this must be a fairytale after all, huh,” said Willie.

          “I believe so, Willie,” said his sister, “let’s go back in. I bet that Green Dog shows up again one of these nights, and we will be ready when he does!” 

The rest of this crazy dealie.