© James J. Doyle, Jr.

A ChildTell Story

To the Reader: This is a “ChildTell” story. A ChildTell story is one that can be read as written to a child of any age, or — and this is the preferred and intended use – you can first read the story to yourself and then tell the story using your own words. Tailor the story to the hearer. For example, an older child or adult may receive the full content of the story with all the sound effects. The sounds may and should be personalized and exaggerated beyond those written here. For a younger child, shorten the story and lessen the sound effects. Children of all ages love to be surprised and sound is a wonderful way to surprise and captivate. Still, be careful not to overdo for the younger ears. For the older audience, do lengthen and enliven. In all cases, make the story your own. This should become your story, a story that you can tell on a dark night in the silence of the woods or in the still of a sleepy child’s bedroom, a story your surprised audience will want to hear over and over again. Good telling.

 

The start of the story:

 

Gue was a big ghost for his age.

The other ghost children called him “Gue the Horrible.”

It wasn’t his fault. He’d fallen into a blueberry patch when he was a very young ghost and had a horrible allergic reaction. It made him angry and nasty and hard to be around. He didn’t want to have fun. He wanted to be miserable and horrible and scare human children.

He hated blueberries.

All the other ghost children were gathered around the ghost fire in Ghost Town, way on the other side of the woods. They were eating S’mores made with ghost marshmallows and ghost chocolate and ghost graham crackers. Soon Grandpa Ghost would tell the ghost children a scary human story. On a dark summer night, the ghost children loved to hear scary human stories and shiver and shake in their sheets and pretend to be scared.

But not him. Not Gue. And not tonight.

He was going to do some real scaring. He was going to scare some real human children, and those human children would never forget Gue.

GUUEEEEE, THE HORRIBLE GHOST.

He’d show ‘em. He’d show ‘em all.

 

Way on the other side of the woods, Gue watched from the cover of the trees.

The human children were all gathered around the fire.

Grandpa Storyteller was about to start to tell a scary ghost story.

The timing was perfect.

Gue puffed himself up as big as he could get, like a big white balloon about to burst, and then he let go.

With a great WHOOOSH, he shot out of the trees and SWOOOSH’D around the fire over the heads of the startled children and Grandpa Storyteller, who ducked.

GUUUEEEEEEEE, THE MOST HORRIBLE GHOST, hovered in the air above the fire, opened his great ghost mouth and let out his biggest, ghostliest SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH.

The human children covered their ears and tucked their heads in fright.

GUE began another SCREEEEEE and stopped.

Something strange and quite amazing was happening.

One of the younger children, not looking scared at all, stood up. It was Harlan Bear. He glanced around and walked over to the table where Grandma Cindi had placed the huge blueberry pie she had baked for dessert. Bear picked up that pie, turned, and ran at the ghost. Harlan Bear threw that huge pie right in the ghost mouth of Gue the Horrible.

GULP, went the ghost.

Gue swallowed and chewed. His whole ghost face began to make squiggly scrunchy motions. His clear white ghost skin began to get big purply blotchy spots all over, and the spots were getting bigger and bigger.

Gue coughed out blueberry pie pieces and cried out into the night air a long plaintive, ICCCCCCKY ICCCK ICCCK.

He shot straight up and then he shot straight down.

All the children fell over, off their seats.

Gue shook all over his splotchy blotchy body. He turned his head and saw the clear water in the stream just over there, through the trees. His spotty purply ghostly body flew faster than a speeding bullet through the trees and into the water and up and down, back and forth, and over and over again, up and down, in and out of that stream, trying to wash the blueberry off his body.

Down the stream Gue went, YEEELPING and AAAAHHHHING and OHHHNNNOOOOOOING, and scaring all the animals.

The cows woke up and jumped about shouting worried MOOOOOOOOSSSS, their cow legs sticking up and out in all directions.

The raccoons scooted up the trees making SCRATCHY motions with their little hands, sticking out their tongues and crying WAAAAAAAAAHHHHH.

The birds in the trees fell off their perches and FFFLLLLLAAAAPPPPED wildly into the air.

All the human children rushed to the stream and watched the commotion and heard the noises and saw the splotchy purply little ghost disappear around the bend in the stream washing off as fast as a ghost can, jumping up and down in the water, and the human children couldn’t stop LAUGHING and POINTING and it was just the funniest thing any of them had ever seen.

 

Well, after a while, the human Grandpas and Grandmas and Mommies and Daddies ushered all the human children back to the fire.

Before they sat down, Grandpa Storyteller motioned to the young boy who threw the pie.

“Harlan Bear,” he said. “Come over here and sit in this place of honor, next to me, on this log by the fire.” And when Harlan Bear took the place of honor, Grandpa said, “Harlan, because of your bravery in the face of a scary summer-night ghost, you will now be called ‘Bear the Brave!’”

All the human children shouted, “Bear the Brave” and clapped their hands and laughed and sat down around the fire smiling at Harlan as Grandpa began a scary ghost story.

 

But, wait, that’s not the end of the story, not quite yet.

 

Remember that ghost who tried to scare the children? Remember Gue the Horrible?

 

Well, that little ghost washed off so much of the purply gluey gloppy stuff that his ghost body changed color. The purply splotches were gone and now he was a light sky blue, and he felt better inside, like that blueberry pie had done something to him, had cured his allergies, and he didn’t feel mean and nasty, he felt good and friendly.

So, he decided to fly back to the ghost fire, which he did, and he sat off in the back on an old tree stump.

Then a very strange thing happened. A little pink girl ghost, who had never talked to him before, came over and sat down beside him. “Nice color,” little pink ghost said, and smiled. And, he smiled back.

Just then, Grandpa Ghost started talking. “Ghost children, now that you have had your ghost S’mores, it’s time for ghost tag before our scary human tale.”

Grandpa Ghost looked around and saw the blue ghost and stopped. There seemed something familiar about that blue ghost. He couldn’t remember a blue ghost boy in the group. Then he saw the little pink ghost smile and the blue ghost smiling in return.

Soooooo, Grandpa Ghost thought and announced to all the ghost children, “Little pink ghost will be ‘it’ first. She will sit very still with her eyes closed as I count to five. All you other ghost children get a head start. You will need it because pink ghost is very fast. When I say, ‘FIVE,’ she will race and tag one of you and that one has to tag another, and you keep playing and tagging until I blow the ghost whistle to fly back here. Whoever wasn’t tagged is the winner.”

“Okay, take off. ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE. Little pink ghost, GGOOOOOO.”

And she did.

But she couldn’t catch the blue ghost.

So, pink tagged another ghost, who tried to tag blue, but he couldn’t. And so it went, all the ghosts tagged each other, but no one could catch blue ghost. He was too fast, but they all had a fun time trying to catch blue, and it was the best ghost tag ever.

The whistle blew, and all the ghost children flew back to the fire.

Grandpa Ghost WHOOOO’D for quiet. “Before we sit down,” Grandpa said, “I would like to recognize the only ghost never ‘it’ and never tagged, the first-place winner, the blue ghost.” All the ghost children BOOOOO’D their agreement. “And,” Grandpa Ghost continued, “I would also like to recognize the second place winner, who was ‘it’ to begin, but never tagged since, the pink ghost.” Again, all the ghost children BOOOOO’D their agreement.

Grandpa Ghost motioned to the two little ghost winners.

“Blue and pink,” he said, “come here and sit next to me, in this place of honor on this log together near the ghost fire, as I tell you all a SCARY HUMAN TALE.”

Then, Grandpa Ghost did something he didn’t know he was going to do. He said, “From now on, ghost children, our new blue friend will be known in Ghost Town as ‘Blue the Fun.’” And all the ghost children shouted, “Blue the Fun” and clapped loud ghost claps and laughed ghostly laughs, HHAAAAAAAA HHOOOOOO HHEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

So loud were those ghostly laughs that the human children near the human fire, way on the other side of the woods, heard and smiled at each other and laughed too, because only human children can hear ghost laughs; human adults can’t.

And then those human children, to the surprised stares of their human adults, began to laugh loud ghostly laughs back across the woods, HHAAAAAAAA HOOOOOOO HEEEEEEE EEEEE EEE

And the ghost children on the other side of the woods heard the human children and all the children smiled at each other and laughed even louder, HHHAAAAAAAA HHHOOOOO HHHEEEEEEEEEE EEEEE EEEE.

 

And That’s the Story Of:

Bear the Brave Boy

&

Blue the Fun Ghost

 

THANK YOU