The broom and the storyteller
There was a witch who went to a party and drank so much magic potion, that she ended up really dizzy. So dizzy, that on her way back home she couldn’t ride her broom in a straight line, but only in zigzag. The birds kept avoiding her, but one big crow who was a bit distracted, listening to music on its headphones, crashed into her, throwing the witch to one side and the broom to the other!
The broom fell immediately, as it could only fly when ridden by the witch. Down and down and dooooown… Splash! “Where am I?”, it thought. “It’s wet and dark!”
When it realized that it was all surrounded by walls, the broom started trying to climb them, sweeping its way up.
“Uhuhu… ohoho…” The walls were shaking and laughing, they were walls of a very ticklish well.
“How can I get out of here if you keep moving?”, asked the broom.
“Don’t worry, just jump into the bucket and I’ll pull you out!”, shouted the well.
As soon as the broom got out, passing through its big mouth, the well started telling a story of the time when a bull fell into it. Then another one of a fairy. And one more of a squirrel. And even one of a flea. The well was, in fact, a storyteller. The broom enjoyed the stories so much, that it decided to live near the well and help it with the cleaning. Well, the broom had never liked the witch anyway.
Illustrated by Paulo Cesar Rocha
I wrote this Mini a long time ago and have been trying to find someone to illustrate it. Finally, my friend Paulo accepted to do it, playing with typography. And I’ve now realized that this is a second story with ticklish characters! This might say something about me…
The illustrator, by himself:
Paulo loved to draw, but became a graphic designer and fell in love with letters. He thought nothing could be better than letters to illustrate the story of a storyteller.
Playing Field 
March 4, 2009 at 8:52 pm
Hi Ana
Your new story is fab!
I like the idea of the broom tickling the walls when trying to escape!
Did the well become good friends with the broom?
Where do you get all your wicked ideas from for your stories?
Best Wishes, Ina
March 5, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Yes, Ina, they became very good friends. More recently the broom discovered that it enjoys singing. So now sometimes the well tells stories to the broom, and sometimes the broom sings to the well.
Well… I suppose the ideas come from different places. You really only need to look around, look inside you, and put you imagination to work, and then you have the beginning of a story!