Sweet Dreams

This is the first of many stories I told to my granddaughter in response to her constantly begging me to tell her another story. I'm in my 60s and I first contrived the stories when my granddaughter, Jessica, who was around age 6 or so. She was hooked on the stories because at that age she knew more than the story characters. (Alfred Hitchcock once said the suspense builds when the audience knows more than the character on screen.)

A story about a family of ducks, their friends, and their neighbors -- a turtle, an owl, a rabbit and the Farmers.

The premise: The youngest duckling, Rachael, seems to be troubled by bad dreams and her older, unsympathetic sisters like to laugh and tease her about this. One morning Rachael awakes, crying, after having a troubling dream about “Ice Cream.” Since none in the family of ducks has ever heard of ice cream, they search among their animal friends for an answer but to avail. They finally turn to kindly neighbors. Mr. and Mrs. Farmer, who dish it up for them. The visit to the Farmers’ house ends on a zany note with flying ice cream landing on Mrs. Farmer’s head.