~The Mennyms~

-by Sylvia Waugh

**sparks memory**

When I was in love with The Trumpet of the Swan, and believed that books couldn't get any better than that. When we constantly listened over and over and over again to four children entering a wardrobe during those car rides - long and short. We liked to listen.

And when our (her and I) cousins took cassette tapes and recorded their voices, wonderful voices, as they read the Mennyms. They sent us the tapes, and we listened over and over and over again to a house full of rag dolls that don't eat and pretend to smoke pipes.

This created an idea in my sister's mind. We got out some cassette tapes of our own and started to record her story. The one with the fairies, the automatic doors, and the prince charming who no one knows is a prince. We needed to record the sword fighting scene, and we needed sound effects.

What does metal clashing together sound like? We didn't know. Later we had to admit to our mother that the scratches and dents on the two forks that stood out from the rest were from a quite entertaining and thrilling encounter with the Dark Fairy, of which, of course, the stable boy won.

At least, that's how I remembered her story...

**end of sparking**

It's surprising how differently the story plays out in your head when you read it for yourself...