In the first act I heard Madame Butterfly’s Lament, the Inch Worms Calculations and a spirited reinterpretation of the Ladybug’s House is on Fire.

But the show was not complete until the entire orchestra harmonized an a cappella version of La Cucaracha.

I must say, they have out done themselves this concert!

Once you’re there at the farm, if you take a walk down the dirt road past the harvest silos you’ll see the fields they tend.  A patch of candy corn, bright yellow and sticky sweet.  A row of cherry flavored tomatoes, large as a fist and ever cold like ice-cream.  If you keep walking along the road you may even spot a bushel of cotton-candy-tails ready to be pulled.

The farmer and family that watch over these fields, although a little over their weight, are nice and sweet people.

So watch as you travel this summer for their exit between Here and There.  You’ll be happy you took the time to walk the fields of tasty sweets.

One day Brother was racing down Muggupples Hill, a very steep and dangerous slope, which had signs posted everywhere- “Verbotten!”  This meant forbidden, but Brother was a daredevil and never heeded advice.

Down the slope Brother and Christmas Bike raced- faster and faster until something small appeared in the path.  The tiniest of pebbles, which normally wouldn’t have been a problem to avoid on a flat road, but this was Muggupples Hill.  Brother tried to swerve, but his speed was too great.  CRASH!

It wasn’t until Mother, Father and Sister found them that Brother got up.  He seemed to be okay, but Christmas Bike was in pieces.  His handle bars were missing, his front wheel looked more like a garden rake than a tire and his seat was facing the wrong direction.

The family picked up as many pieces as they could find of the Christmas Bike and walked back home.

The next morning Christmas Bike was placed out on the curb with the rest of the garbage.  There Christmas Bike sat for three days.  One more day and the garbage man would pick him up and take him away to the incinerator.  This was going to be Christmas Bike’s last night before becoming scarp metal.

Not long after the sun descended  and the moon began to rise, a short man with a crooked eye drove up and stopped.  His truck was covered in dust and looked like it was once a vibrant red.  The crooked eyed man jumped out of his truck and examined closely the Christmas Bike.  After a few tests of Christmas Bike’s back wheel the man placed Christmas Bike in the back of his truck.

The drove for hours into the dark before the came to an old wood shack with an illegible sign that hinged unevenly by the single entrance.

Quickly the crooked eyed man carried Christmas Bike through the door and into a single light work room.  The man placed Christmas Bike onto the workbench in the middle of the room and then scurried into the darkness beyond the single work light that floated above the workbench.

Noises and sounds clicked from the darkness where the man had walked.  Then something reflected in the darkness- a saw.  With a quick hack and a chop Christmas Bike was half of what he used to be.  This truly was the end.  The man kept cutting and bending and shaping until Christmas Bike was nothing more than a seat and a single wheel.

The crooked eyed man stepped back and smiled.  With a quick brush of some paint Christmas Bike was a brighter shade then he had ever been.  With a wink and a hop the old man disappeared for the night.

The next morning the crooked eyed man returned and pulled Christmas Bike off the bench.  Without a kick in the air the man was on top of the new and improved Christmas Bike.  This wasn’t the end, but a new beginning for Christmas Bike.

So if you see a crooked eyed man on a unique looking bicycle, just smile and hop and know that things are just fine the way they are!

It’s dark and scary to begin, but if you’re strong and can be brave, you’ll laugh without end.

Aunt Bertle, who entered last Thursday, now giggles about banana peels.

Cousin Geoffrey bursts out with a “Tche!” when he sees a turning wheel.

Don’t mention spaghetti to Suzie;  her gruesome held-hum is a site.

And I’ve got a thing for orangoutangs flying a one-handed kite.

So if you get a chance to go, you’ll be frownless indeed.

And the next time you see me, we’ll share a smile or three.

She hadn’t ever seen the crops this dry before- tall, crackly shafts stuck out of the dust -dancing covered ground.  It was like this all over.  People had been leaving their farms for the city to look for work.  Even Sam’s parents had mentioned that they didn’t know how much longer they could hold out.

Sam sat out on the front porch looking up and hoping.  It was another empty blue sky day with nothing in the sky.  Right before the sun could think about setting something crept over the horizon.  A single rain cloud, grey and stormy, raced towards Sam.  She knew this opportunity wouldn’t come again.  She shouted back into the house and not a moment later Ma and Pa were standing right next to her on the porch.

“Is there anything we can do to make it stop and rain for us?”  Sam looked to her parents.

“Nothing we can do, but hope.”  Pa said back to her.

The cloud raced overhead and kept moving on away from their farm.  Both Ma and Pa lowered their heads and walked back into the house.  They had seen this happen too many times and had lost hope, but Sam knew there had to be something they could do.

Without another thought she ran to the barn, grabbed her lasso and jumped onto the family’s fastest horse.  The barn doors flew open and a trail of dusty grew up from the ground as Sam raced after the rain cloud.

Closer and closer, Sam’s horse took deep breaths with every step.  This cloud was fast and from what Sam could see, full of rain.

She readied her lasso and with a, “one, two, alli-oop!” she threw it as hard and far as she could.  Yeehaw!  She caught it.  The lasso tightened around the bursting cloud.

Turning her horse around she tugged and pulled until the cloud was right above the crops.  With a quick snap of her wrist, a jolt shot up the taught lasso and tickled the rain cloud.  It tried as hard as it could to hold onto its rain, but Sam just kept on shaking her lasso until it burst out laughing and raining.

The smell of wet earth brought Ma and Pa out into the downpour.  Sam, who was prancing and dancing with her horse in the rain, smiled at Ma and Pa.  She knew that things were going to be okay.

Tired from fighting against the wind, he landed next to a stream and began to cry, ”I don’t understand why everything has to change.”

A single tear landed in the rippling stream.  Not a second later a soft voice spoke, “Water flows around the bend and that is why it knows no end.”

“What?” Simon couldn’t see anyone there.  ”Hello?”

Again the voice rippled from the stream, “Water flows around the bend and that is why it knows no end.”

Simon looked around, but couldn’t see anyone.  Until finally he saw something moving, floating in the water.  But it wasn’t in the water, it was a reflection.  His reflection.  It was the first time he had seen what he had become.  His wings were shades of butter-brown and pumpkin-yellow.  He flapped them once and then twice.  Beautiful.  As his reflection blurred by the sun’s light another reflection took shape- hundreds of butterflies, all different and unique, were flying overhead.

Something echoed in Simon’s mind, “Water flows around the bend…”

With one swift beat of his wings he was airborne.  He joined the other butterflies, dancing in the wind, and never looked back or thought twice about what had been.

Spec replied, “where ever the wind takes me.”

With a gust the Wind swooped him up on a velvety current and away they went.  Flying high over the city park full of laughing children.  Next to a lost seagull looking for the perfect ocean.  Through the leafy fingers of an old oak tree by the new cemetery.  And finally into the wishing fountain, sparkling with pennies.

“Thank you Wind!  What a wonderful journey!” Spec whispered as he drifted below the bright water’s surface.

The Wind peacefully swirled away to find another grain and ask, “And where would like to go?”