BACK ABILITY2 9' A peasant girl has special abilities Once upon a time a long time ago in a land far, far away lived a peasant girl named Michelle. She had special abilities that noone else understood. She could see things that other people couldn't see and she could hear things that other people couldn't hear. One day a little lamb escaped from the barn while noone was watching. As Michelle was very good at finding lost things, her parents asked her to go out and find the lost little lamb. It was easy for her to follow the little lamb at first because it left hoof prints in the soft dirt around the barn. But when the tracks reached the grass, no hoof prints were left. So, Michelle walked a crooked path in hopes that she could find a crushed plant or other clues. Just when Michelle began to fear that she would never find the lost little lamb, she seemed to become blind for a split second, then for that moment, all she could see was what looked like a picture of the meadow ahead. Then, as quickly as the picture appeared, it disappeared again and she could see the real meadow ahead. "What was that?!" she asked herself as she continued her zigzag path through the meadow. Suddenly, it happened again! A while later, it happened again, and again! It was always a different picture. It was always the same scenery she was looking at, but from a slightly different view. So, she began to look forward to the pictures and to take note of them when they appeared. She noticed that the pictures seemed to appear when one of her feet was on the grass, then the picture disappeared as soon as she lifted her foot. So, the next time the picture appeared, she stopped. When she lifted her foot, the picture disappeared. When she put her foot back down on the same spot, the same picture reappeared. Then she tried it with the other foot. Same picture. She stooped down and touched the same spot with her hand. Same picture. And to her amazement, the picture was very close to what she herself was looking at: it was the same view, down low to the ground. "I'll bet I'm seeing what the little lamb saw when she came by here!" exclaimed Michelle. Now, Michelle was very smart. She decided not to walk a zigzag path anymore. Instead, she would walk toward where the little lamb was looking at the time he touched the ground under her feet. Sure enough, with almost every other step, she could see a picture. Now, because she knew which direction to go, she began running to catch up with the little lamb before he got himself into trouble. After a few minutes, Michelle suddenly saw a completely different picture. It wasn't the meadow ahead as it was before. She stopped and looked around to see what the little lamb was looking at. "Backward!" she exclaimed, "The little lamb was looking backward! But why was he looking backward? Does he hear me coming after him?" A few steps later, Michelle received her answer. Again she saw a picture. And again the picture was looking backward. But in the distance in the picture was of a mountain lion! And the mountain lion was coming after the little lamb! She began running again, hoping beyond hope that she could scare away the lion before he ate her little lamb. Suddenly, the pictures began to blur. "The little lamb must be running now!" exclaimed Michelle as she began to run faster. Suddenly, every few steps, she saw a second set of pictures. These pictures showed the rear end of the little lamb running away. "I must be seeing what the mountain lion saw when he stepped here!" exclaimed Michelle as she ran even faster. The closer the little lamb looked to the mountain lion, the faster Michelle ran, until suddenly she didn't see any more pictured from the lamb's view. And the pictures she was seeing from the lion's view didn't show the little lamb anymore. All she could see was what the lion could see. He looked left and right, left and right. He was no longer running or walking. He was just standing in one place and looking around, but the lamb wasn't in any of the pictures. "It looks like the little lamb got away!" exclaimed Michelle. As Michelle came up over a hill, she saw the lion across the meadow. He wasn't running anymore. He wasn't looking for the lamb anymore. He had given up and was walking away. He had indeed lost the little lamb. "Now, I must find my little lamb." said Michelle. Now she used her other abilities to look around. "Where would I hide if I was afraid of a lion?" she asked herself. She used her see-through vision to look behind a fallen tree trunk and several rocks. Then, suddenly, she saw the little lamb crouching in the middle of a thick patch of tall grass. Michelle was the hero of her family. And news of her special abilities even reached the king. One day Michelle's family heard the thunder of horses hoofs approaching their farm house. It was the king himself in the royal coach surrounded on all sides by armed guards on horseback. "Michelle, you have to help me!" exclaimed the king as he stepped out of the royal coach, "Someone stole the crown jewels!" "All of them?!" asked Michelle. "All of them!" exclaimed the king. "But how?" asked Michelle, "Aren't the crown jewels locked inside the treasury room with armed guards outside?" "Yes." replied the king, "There's only one key to the treasury and I always carry it with me wherever I go. Whoever stole the crown jewels got in and out of the treasury some other way. Can you help be catch the thieves?" "Yes, of course." replied Michelle, "I'll do whatever I can." Back at the royal palace, the king unlocked the treasury and let Michelle inside. She took off her shoes to feel the floor better and walked in tiny steps all over the treasury floor. The king said, "They tell me that you can see things when you touch what other people have touched. Can you see anything?" Michelle replied, "All I can see are pictures of YOU putting the royal crown back on it's black velvet display. I can't see any robbers anywhere." Then she pointed up at the window high on the walls near the roof of the treasury and said, "Maybe the robbers got in through those windows and lowered themselves by ropes without touching the floor. Can we go up on the roof?" As soon as Michelle's bare foot touched the roof near the windows, she saw a picture, saying, "This is it! This is how they got in and out without opening the door!" "What do you see?!" asked the king. Michelle replied, "Whoever was standing up here had removed the window glass and had poked his head inside and looked down at the treasury below. I see four people down there, two men and two women hanging upside down from two ropes." "Hanging? Upside down?!" exclaimed the king. "Yes," replied Michelle, "They're gripping the ropes with their legs and feet only, leaving their arms free to pass the crown jewels from one person to another all the way up the ropes to the person standing here on the roof. The robbers are dressed like circus performers." Sure enough, a circus was in town that week. So, Michelle and the king went to the meadow where the circus was performing. But as the coach came to a stop, they could see that the meadow was empty. "To late!" exclaimed the king, "The circus has moved on to the next city." But Michelle got out of the coach. "Where are you going?!" asked the king, "We need to chase the circus so we can catch them before they get away!" Michelle explained as she walked a zigzag path through the meadow, "Let me just feel the grass for more clues. Maybe there were more than just circus performers involved in the robbery." When Michelle got to the place where the circus horses had been tied, she stopped suddenly. "Did you see something?!" exclaimed the king. "Yes," replied Michelle, "I see a picture through the eyes of someone standing here on the ground looking up at the four circus performers. And there's also a fifth person who was probably the person standing on the roof of the treasury whose eyes I was looking through. All of the circus performers are riding white horses. They're handing down cloth bags full of stolen jewelry." "Can you tell me anything about the person who is taking the cloth bags?" asked the king. "Not yet," replied Michelle, "But now he's giving some gold coins to the circus performers. When he reaches out, I can see his sleeves. There's gold braid on his sleeves, so I'm pretty sure he's a man." "Yes," replied the king, "and the gold braid on his sleeves tell me he's a rich man." Michelle turned and walked in small circles saying, "Now he's walking away." Then she stopped suddenly. "Do you see something?" asked the king. "Yes," replied Michelle, "He's getting into a royal coach." "A royal coach?!" exclaimed the king, "MY royal coach?" "It looks like yours," replied Michelle, "but there's a different picture painted on the door" "Different picture?" asked the king, then he asked, "You mean the royal seal, the coat of arms?" "It looks like a shield." replied Michelle, "It's like the shield on your coach, except that it has a lightening bolt across it." "That's my brother, Prince Phillip!" exclaimed the king, "That scoundrel! My own brother stole MY crown jewels?!" The king had his brother arrested and thrown in prison. And he got his crown jewels back, thanks to the special abilities of Michelle. ©2009 Bob Snook. Conditions for use: This story is free. Pay no fees or royalties. Do not sell this story or rewrite it. You may reproduce and distribute this story freely, but all copies must contain this copyright statement. http://www.bobsnook.org/kid email: bob@bobsnook.org BACK |