1. The Forecast
The forecast promised sun all afternoon, so Carla hung out the washing. An hour later it rained.
She brought everything inside. The sky cleared immediately.
She put the washing back out. It rained again.
Her neighbor watched from his window.
“Are you testing the forecast?” he asked.
“No, I’m controlling the weather with bedsheets.”
She left the laundry inside and sat down with a book. The sun stayed out for the rest of the day.
Her neighbor called over the fence.
“Please keep reading tomorrow. I have a picnic.”
Carla agreed, provided he would lend her a drying rack.
2. The Walking Map
A walking map described the route as “gentle, with one small hill.” At the base, the hill looked rather large.
Ben climbed slowly and reached a sign at the top: SMALL HILL VIEWPOINT. Beyond it rose a much taller hill.
“Is that the big hill?” he asked a passing walker.
“No,” she replied.
“That’s the mountain. The route turns left before it.”
Ben checked the map. It did.
The small hill suddenly felt accurately named. He took a photograph of the mountain from the viewpoint and told his family he’d walked near it.
“Very near,” he added, “without going up.”
3. The Bird Feeder
Lena hung a bird feeder outside her window. For a week, no birds visited.
She changed the seed, moved the feeder and checked the instructions. On Saturday, a squirrel arrived and ate everything.
Lena put up a baffle. The squirrel sat beneath it and stared at her through the window.
Then two birds landed on the feeder.
“You advertised it,” Lena told the squirrel.
It climbed the fence, watched the birds eat and waited for dropped seed. By evening all three were fed.
Lena wrote in her notebook: THE SQUIRREL IS AN UNPAID MARKETING CONSULTANT.
4. The Camping Lantern
At the campsite, Marcus proudly demonstrated his new lantern. It had five brightness settings and a flashing emergency mode.
When it grew dark, he pressed the button too many times. The lantern flashed red and startled everyone nearby.
He pressed again; it went off. His daughter turned on the small torch she’d kept in her pocket.
“That has one setting,” she said.
They used it to read the lantern’s manual. Marcus found the steady-light mode and set it on the table.
“Which is brighter?” he asked.
“The lantern,” she admitted.
“Which is easier?”
He pointed at her torch.
“Don’t make me answer.”
5. The Kite String
At the park, Omar’s kite rose beautifully until its string snagged in a tree. He tugged; it held.
A little girl offered her longer string to pull it free. Together they worked carefully, and the kite drifted down.
Omar thanked her and handed back her string. She looked at his kite.
“Can you teach mine to fly like that?”
They launched hers, and it went straight up.
“You already know,” Omar said.
“I know how to launch it,” she replied.
“You’re the expert at getting one out of a tree.”
He couldn’t argue with that qualification.