Unfinished Story (26 August, 2009)

Freddy Flapjack sat at the table
looking at a ball of clay.
"What shall I make of you?"
he said to the lump.
"What would you like to be today?"

He waited for answer and
waited ... and waited ...
but the clay just sat there, quiet.
So Freddy Flapjack started offering suggestions
to get his ball of clay excited.


"How about a fire truck? A birthday cake?
Or maybe a nightly lion?"
"You could be a cowboy hat
without hardly even trying!"

The lump of clay did not respond.
It just sat there on the table.
"You can be anything!" Freddy cried,
"A tree!  A bee!  A horse in a stable!"

Still the ball of clay said nothing
and Freddy was getting frustrated.
The lack of motivation was the
kind of thing he hated.

Freddy Flapjack looked at the lump of clay
who hadn't changed a bit.
"Why don't you do anything?" he shouted.
"You're full of potential!  Why waste it?"

What Freddy didn't realize,
was that his ball of clay
had not, in fact, been ignoring him,
but had something it had to say.

It tried and tried to find the words
to explain everything to this friend.
It knew it was more than just a lump,
but it didn't know how to begin.

"I think," said the clay, after long, careful thought,
"that I might need some help from you."
Freddy Flapjack had never considered this,
and asked, "What can I do?"

"I've tried to change by myself," said the clay,
"and that, my good friend, is no lie.
But I just can't seem to make anything happen
no matter how hard I try."