Adventures of a Grepple

Once upon a time there was a Grepple.

What is a Grepple? Is it like a bird? Is it like a dog? Is it like an elephant?

A Grepple is whatever you think it is.

Anyway. this particular Grepple was walking down the road one day. Nobody had thought about it recently, so it was just - itself.

Suddenly the Grepple met a Thing in the road. The Thing had X-ray eyes and could see right through the Grepple. "You're just a pane of glass." It thought.

And so the Grepple was a pane of glass, standing in the middle of the road.

"I don't need a pane of glass," said the Thing, and went on.

Along came a nearsighted Old Lady. The Grepple was such a clean and shining pane of glass that she did not see it at all. She bumped right into it.

Crash! The Grepple broke into a thousand pieces.

The old Lady looked down. All around her on the road were shiny bits of broken glass. "Look at all those diamonds!" she thought, And so now the Grepple turned into diamonds.

The Old Lady carefully picked up all the diamonds and put them in a bag. When she got home, she laid the bag on the table. Then she went to the kitchen to make lunch.

The Baby found the bag on the table. "What is in the bag?" he thought. "I think it is candy."

And so the Grepple turned into candy.

The baby was just about to eat the candy. Just then the Thing peeped in the window. "What is that in the bag?" he asked the Baby.

The Baby could not talk. He just said "goo, goo, goo."

"I want a goo, goo, goo!" cried the Thing. He stuck his hand in through the window and seized the bag. Holding the bag tightly, the Thing ran off down the road.

Inside the bag, the Grepple had a problem. The Thing now thought he was a "goo, goo, goo." But the Grepple did not know what a "goo, goo, goo" was. He tried one shape after another. Nothing seemed just right, so he kept on trying.

Soon the Thing stopped to see what was in the bag he had stolen. He couldn't figure out what it was!

"I wish it was a big fat juicy bug!" said the Thing. "I like to eat big, fat, juicy bugs!"

And so the Grepple turned into a bug.

The Thing was pleased. I will cook this bug for dinner when I get home!" he said.

Meanwhile the Grepple's mother was worried. Her son had not come home for lunch. She went out to look for him. Soon she met the Thing on the road.

Just then a Bird flew by. He thought the Mother Grepple was a worm. And so, of course, she was a worm.

The Bird new down to catch her. But the Thing saw the worm first. "Shoo, Bird!" he cried. "If there's anything I like to eat better than fat, juicy bugs, it's fat, juicy worms."

The Bird flew away. He was afraid of the Thing. Maybe it would want to eat birds, too!

The Thing opened the bag to put the worm inside. The Grepple-bug crawled out and scurried down the road.

"Oh, well," said the Thing. "Let it go. This worm is so big, they couldn't both fit in the bag anyway." So the Thing put the Mother Grepple in the bag and started off down the road again.

The Grepple-bug followed at a safe distance.

Soon the Thing came to another Grepple on the road. It was the Grepple's father coming home from work. The Thing did not notice the Father Grepple and tripped over him.

"What kind of log did I trip over?" thought the Thing. And so the Father Grepple turned into a log.

"Aha!" said the Thing. "This log is just the right size for my fireplace. I am going to have barbecued worm for dinner! Yum!" The Thing tucked the log under his arm and continued down the road.

Soon a little Boy came along. He saw the Grepple-bug sitting in the road crying. "What is that?" thought the Boy.

The Boy had been watching too many monster shows on TV. "I'll bet that is a scary monster!" he cried. "One that grows and grows."

The Grepple grew and grew. Soon he was the scariest monster around. He let out a roar.

The Thing turned around. "Eeek!" he screamed. "A monster!" The Thing dropped the bug and the log and ran away as fast as he could.

(Since nobody was thinking about the Mother and Father Grepples any more, they soon turned back into themselves.) The little Boy laughed. "That monster is kind of cute," he thought. Now the Grepple became a cute little monster.

"That would be a nice pet monster," said the Boy. "I think I'll take it home."

And he did.

©1972, 2013 The Silversteins