by
Grace Alice Moore

Aunt Tootsie's Stories are stories to read to your kids. A mixture of fantasy, folklore, and imagination - fairy tales with a slightly modern twist.

Aunt Tootsie was a real person - born in 1900. Though she never wrote her children's stories down many were told in substance to her daughter (and numerous other small persons).

The stories are not currently illustrated - but perhaps that will come. All stories are copyrighted, so please don't distribute. Happy reading!

Bid and Bod are two small green bugs - known by some irate gardeners as aphids - who once lived on Aunt Jannie's rose bush on an island in the middle of the gold-fish pond. Aunt Jannie was Aunt Tootsie's sister. But to several generations of wide-eyed children they peopled Aunt Tootsie's fantastic stories, weaving imagination with space and time, surreal landscapes, and sparkling adventures.

Bid (the girl) and Bod (the boy) would seem to be about the equivalent of ten year olds - brother and sister - who explore worlds of wild imagination with the wonder and ready belief of childhood, and the spunk and daring and courage only a child can embrace.

They lived on a pink rose bush on a little island in the middle of Aunt Jannie's fish pond. They didn't know where they came from - they had always just been - brother and sister. Their whole world was the fishpond and the island and the rosebush. There was plenty to eat and fresh water to drink and the roses smelled good and they could watch the goldfish in the pond, or Randolph the dog when he came to drink. Once in a while Aunt Jannie would don rubber boots and wade out and prune their rose bush and Mary Jean, her little blond-headed girl, would watch. When this happened they both hid under a thorn. They weren't exactly afraid of Aunt Jannie, but she did cut big pieces off their rose bush so they were very wary.

The adventures need be read in no particular order.

Just of interest - Aunt Tootsie and Aunt Jannie and Mary Jean were real people and the rosebush and the fishpond once really existed. Back around 1920 in a suburb of present Los Angeles, but when you could still walk across bean fields to the sea.

It was a hazy moonlit night. Warm for a California night not so very far from the beach. Bid and Bod stretched lazily on one of the bigger green leaves which poked out from under a new rosebud that would probably open in the morning. Bid was kind of bored and kicked the leaf rhythmically with her crossed foot, making it bounce. Bod was annoyed and poked her in the ribs.

"Stop rocking the boat," he complained. "Oh, shut up, pretend you're on a boat", Bid replied."

"I've never been on a boat," Bod said. "And neither have you!"

"Well, I know what it's like anyway. You just go up and down like when Randolph sticks his nose in the pond and makes the water bounce." Randolph was Mary Jean's dog, who often drank out of the fishpond.

In case you are wondering, Bid and Bod were aphids - small green bugs. They lived on a pink rose bush on a little island in the middle of Aunt Jannie's fish pond. They didn't know where they came from - they had always just been - brother and sister. Their whole world was the fishpond and the island and the rosebush. There was plenty to eat and fresh water to drink and the roses smelled good and they could watch the goldfish in the pond, or Randolph the dog when he came to drink. Once in a while Aunt Jannie would don rubber boots and wade out and prune their rose bush and Mary Jean, her little blond-headed girl, would watch. When this happened they both hid under a thorn. They weren't exactly afraid of Aunt Jannie, but she did cut big pieces off their rose bush so they were very wary.

But they were often bored.

"What do you think we'll do when we grow up," asked Bid.

"What makes you think we'll ever grow up," said Bod.

"Maybe we'll go see the world," Bid said, rather wistfully.

"Ha" said Bod. "On your boat I suppose!" Bid wondered how she knew what a boat was. She couldn't remember ever having seen one. But she knew what one was.

The moon was only a small one. Shaped like a little bowl on its side. Or a new rose petal that had not yet unfurled. Thin misty clouds drifted across it. Like ocean waves in the sky. Bid was getting sleepy. The stars were getting dim. She looked over at Bod and he was quietly snoring, having pulled the edge of the leaf over his shoulders and scrunched up the way he always did when he went to sleep.

Bid sat up and hugged her knees. She was tired of just the rose bush. She loved the rose bush, but she just wished something exciting would happen. Too bad they didn't have a boat.

Just then there was a chill in the air and a breeze came by. A pretty stiff breeze. Bid grabbed the edge of the leaf - it was jagged (rose leaves are) so she could hold on pretty well, but the wind was getting stronger and stronger. It even woke Bod up, and that was really something. He slept like he was dead usually.

"What's happening," Bod cried. "It's not the right weather for a thunderstorm!" Indeed it wasn't. They knew about thunderstorms and they always took refuge down among the roots of the rose bush when one came. By this time all the leaves were rocking wildly. They hung on to each other with one hand and each hung on to the jagged edge of their leaf with the other. The moon was gone. The stars were gone. The wind wasn't gone. It was howling.

All of a sudden their leaf broke off of its stem and they were whirling around in the storm. Around and around, up like a rocket, down like a free-fall. Rain started to pelt them hard. Big big BIG drops of rain. The leaf got slippery and Bid almost lost her hold, and flew off, but Bod grabbed her around the waist and held on. The wind howled.

"Roll up the leaf," shouted Bid. "What, I can't hear you," shouted Bod.

But finally he did, and they rolled up the edges of the leaf over their heads and hung on. Bod even clamped his teeth on the edges to help hold the leaf together. Bid did the same.

Then there was a great thumping thwack! Bid saw Bod collapse unconscious, just as she also
felt her breath knocked away, and everything softened and went gray. They had definitely his SOMETHING!

When she next opened her eyes it was morning and the rain had stopped. There was weak sunlight and only a soft breeze. She looked over for Bod. He was awake, just looking at her kind of strangely.

"Where are we," she said. "I don't know," Bod answered.

They were still on their leaf, although it was a little tattered. It was kind of curled up at the edges, like a boat, and they were floating on a slick sea, that shone with soft iridescent colors of pink and green and violet and gold.

Their island was nowhere in sight. Nor their rose bush. Nor Aunt Jannie's fish pond. Only water and sky, as far as they could see.

Bid began to tremble. Bod put his arm around her. "Don't be afraid little sister", he said.

Bid pulled away. "I'm not scared! I'm just cold." But she was scared, and not just a little. So was Bod.

"I'm sorry," said Bid. "I guess I am a little bit afraid." They huddled closer together and looked out at the slick and pastel colored sea, which undulated like the rhythm of a song. They sat there for a long time, listening to themselves breathing and wondering if their leaf would eventually sink and they might drown.

It was very very quiet. And it was getting dark. Not black dark, not yet, just sunset dark.

Then - SUDDENLY!

There was a great gurgling cough and their leaf lurched alarmingly from side to side, splashing water, which was pretty cold, into their laps.

Bid grabbed the edge of the leaf. Bod grabbed the edge of the leaf. What was happening!

Slowly, very slowly, Bid pulled herself up and peered over the side. They were on a great orange island, with bumps! A rubbery looking island, that twitched! Was it alive?

"Bod," she whispered "Come look!"

The island shook again. Then sneezed. Then shook. It seemed to want to dislodge them, and their leaf boat.

"I think it's alive," whispered Bid.

"Maybe we should talk to it," whispered Bod.

Just then a long wormy looking arm came snaking out of the sea. It had more bumps, that looked like suction cups, and in one quick and irritated swipe it smashed their leaf and scattered bits of it into the sea. It almost scattered Bid and Bod into the sea too, but they leapt off the leaf just in time!

"Who are you," screamed Bid.

"What are you," screamed Bod.

"Oh, excuse me," said the orange island. I thought you were just some junk floating on the surface.

"You destroyed our boat," said Bod, angrily.

"Well, I'm sorry about that," answered the island, "but I don't have any spare boats to loan you. "Can you swim?"

"Where are we supposed to swim to," shouted Bid. "And what kind of an island are you anyway?"

"Me?" answered the island. "I'm not an island. I'm an octopus." And with that he raised eight snake like arms into the air and waved them, rocking and sloshing so much that Bid and Bod almost fell off his back into the sea.

"Can you take us back to our rosebush?" asked Bid.

"What's a rosebush?" asked the octopus.

"Oh dear," said Bid. "Oh, great," said Bod.

"Let me think," said the octopus.

Bid and Bod sat close together on the octopus' back and tried not to slide off into the sea. His back kept sinking while he thought, then he would remember them and raise himself up a little so they wouldn't drown.

"I have an idea," said the octopus. "But you may not like it."

"We don't like this arrangement either," said Bid, as she grabbed Bod's hand to keep from falling off again. It was getting dark.

"Well, I don't know anything about rosebushes, but I can take you to someplace that's dry, and you don't seem to be waterbugs. You'll have to be very very careful though. And I can't tell you how to get home from there. Okay?"

"Okay, okay," said Bid and Bod together. "Anything's better than this."

"When you get there, try to find the gopher queen. Maybe she will help you."

With that the octopus reached up two of his snaky arms. One grabbed Bid and one grabbed Bod, and plunged them into the water.

Bid thought she would drown. She held her breath till she almost passed out.

Bod thought he would drown. He held his breath till he almost passed out.

Then suddenly the octopus stuffed them into his mouth. He was going to eat them!

It was icky and damp and not really dark - sort of a sickly pink color and very very slimy and soft.

But they could breath - a little. If they did not get sick on the smell.

"Sorry," said the octopus, "But we have to swim quite a long way and since you can't breathe underwater I don't know what else to do."

"Please forgive my halitosis." He was really quite polite.

Bid and Bod just looked at each other. They couldn't say anything. They were still terrified, and the octopus breath was really quite quite terrible, and he apparently swam in a very jerky kind of way that may their stomachs turn.

"We're almost there now," said the octopus. He sounded funny when you heard his voice from inside his head.

"Thank goodness," thought Bid. "Thank goodness," thought Bod.

"Goodbye now," said the octopus. "I hope you find your way home. But please please be careful, and try to find the gopher queen."

With that he reached into his mouth with two of his eight arms and took Bid in one and Bod in one and pushed them up into a crack in the coral. Bid scratched her arm on the sharp coral and Bod cut his foot. But, slightly bloody, they crawled out onto a ledge and were in sweet smelling but slightly stale air.

"Goodbye and thank you, Mr. Octopus," shouted Bid. She didn't know if he heard her. He was gone.

They were very alone.

Bod licked the blood off his ankle. "It stings," he said. Bid looked at the cut.
"Well, it's not so very deep. I think it will be alright. The salt water probably makes it sting."

She pulled some seaweedy looking green stuff off the wall and wrapped his foot, and put some on her arm as well. "That feels better," said Bod.

They were in a narrow cavern it seemed. The sand was pale pink, and the walls were kind of pale orange, very very smooth, like a frozen waterfall, except right by the crack where they came in. There the edges were jagged and sharp. There seemed to be no way to go but up. Or down, where they came from. But they for sure were not going back into the sea!

"Do you think we can climb up there," Bid wondered? It was quite steep and like a bunch of frozen rock pillows stacked up on top of each other. "What if we slip and fall back into the jagged crack?"

"Then we'll get cut up worse and drown!" cried Bod. "We can't do it!"

"We have to do it," said Bid. "Outside must be up there somewhere. If we're ever to get home to Aunt Jannie's rose bush we have to get to the outside somehow don't we?"

So they started.

It was hard going. It was slippery. More than once Bid had to grab Bod and Bod had to grab Bid to keep each other from falling. They had to be very very careful where they put their feet. They had to be so careful that they finally forgot to be afraid.

At last the air got less stale - in fact it began to smell like flowers - a different kind of flowers though - not the pink rose smell they were so used to. The cavern opened up and became a wide tunnel with a pink sandy bottom. They could walk now, instead of climbing, and it was so much easier.

"I think we're almost outside," said Bod. "I think so too," said Bid, with great relief. There was light at the end of the tunnel.

But when they came out --- the sky was lime green! And the ground was pink. And everything glowed softly like it had an inner light.

"How beautiful," said Bid. "How strange," said Bod. "This is definitely not our outside!"

"I'm hungry," said Bod

"Try not to think about it," said Bid.

The soft glowing light was brighter on their left than on their right, so they decided, for no particular reason that they could think of, to walk that way. It was not hard walking. The ground was sort of sandy, and pale pink, with long thin grass growing in long thin clumps that curled over at the ends.

Pretty soon they came to a clump of grass that had beautiful small purple flowers sprouting out of it on long thin stems. The flowers seemed to nod to them, and had a wonderful sweet smell, but they still did not smell like Bid and Bod's rose bush. Bid reached out to pick one. She thought to put it behind her ear.

"Ouch!" said the flower.

"Ex-ex-cuse me!" stammered Bid. "I didn't know you were alive!"

"Of course I am alive!" said the flower. "What kind of an idiot are you? And WHO are you anyway?"

"I'm, I'm Bid," said Bid. "And we're trying to find the gopher queen."

"Well good luck," said the flower "but I doubt you'll ever find HER!"

"I never saw a talking flower," said Bod. "How did you learn to talk?"

"I'm not a flower, I am a blue-eyed grass," said the flower.

"But you're purple," said Bid.

"I don't care, I'm a blue eyed grass. We all are. Haven't you ever seen anything?"

Bid and Bod looked at each other. Maybe they hadn't ever seen anything!

The blue-eyed grass sighed. "Oh well, just follow us to the mountains. Maybe you'll find the gopher queen."

Bid and Bod waited, but the grass, or the flower, or whatever it was didn't move. It just kept waving gently in the breeze, looking a little annoyed.

Suddenly it snorted. "Dumb tourists! Go that way!" And it nodded violently in the direction they were going anyway.

"Look!" said Bid. There were more purple-blue-grass-flowers up ahead, beckoning them on, making a path into the distance.

For a long time they walked.

"I'm hungry," said Bod.

"Shut up," said Bid.

"I'm thirsty too," said Bod.

None of the other purple-blue-grass-flowers talked to them, though they said hello to each one they passed. And they passed a hundred!

Finally they came to a pile of dirt. It was brown instead of pink. Like normal dirt.

"Let's sit down and rest," said Bod.

"Okay," said Bid.

"I don't see any mountains," said Bid.

"I don't see any mountains either," said Bod.

"You're sitting on the mountain dummy!" said a voice echoing from underground. "Please get off!"

Bid jumped up. Bod jumped up.

It was nothing but a pile of dirt!

Bid looked closer. There was a small hole in the pile of dirt. The voice seemed to come from inside.

"Who's down there," said Bid.

"Wouldn't you like to know!" said the voice.

"Are you the gopher queen?" asked Bid.

There was a long long peal of high-pitched squealing laughter. The voice almost choked on it's own laugh!

"No, I am NOT the gopher queen! Why in the world do you want to know?" said the voice.

"Our friend the Octopus told us the gopher queen might help us get back to Aunt Jannie's rose bush in the fish pond," said Bod.

"What's a rose bush?" asked the voice.

"You've never seen a rose bush?" asked Bid.

"Harumph," said the voice.

"You are the mountain maybe? You are an awfully little mountain. You're just a pile of dirt!"

"I'm not the mountain. You're standing on the mountain. Stupid! I am the hole!"

"A hole is nothing," said Bid. "A hole is just an empty place!"

"That's what you know," said the hole. "I am a hole and I exist!"

"And I don't think I like you very much!"

"This is silly," said Bid. "Someone is down there!"

"Well, I'm not going down there to find out," said Bod.

"But maybe this hole leads to the gopher queen. The blue grass did say we might find her at the mountain?" said Bid.

"You think this is a mountain?" said Bod. He looked at his sister and thought maybe the voyage with the octopus had made her a little crazy.

"Do you see anything bigger?" asked Bid.

Bod didn't see anything, in any direction. He looked all around, turning slowly in a circle. But he still didn't think a pile of dirt was a mountain.

"Start digging," said Bid.

"No way!" said Bod. "Something's down there!"

"Well, it can't be very big," said Bid. And she got down on her knees and started digging.

Bod was embarrassed. So he started digging too, but he was careful where he put his hands.

"Oh stop," said the voice, disgusted. "If you want in so very much I'll just puff myself up and you can squeeze in."

With that the little hole stretched, heaved and wiggled, and made itself bigger.

"Okay, hurry up! This is a lot of work and I can't hold myself wide open for long!" said the hole.

Bid put her head in the hole. It was very very dark. She was a little bit afraid, but she wanted to get home to Aunt Jannie's rose bush. Besides she was getting tired and hungry. Bod was getting tired and hungry too.

"I don't see any gopher queen in here, it is just black dark," said Bid.

"Hurry up," said the hole.

Bod wanted to see too. He tried to push his way in, but Bid was filling up the hole. He pushed too hard. He pushed on her bottom. Poomph! Bid fell in the hole. Poomph! Bod fell in behind her. They landed in a pile of arms and legs.

"Finally," said the hole. "Now shut up!" And with that he closed up and was quiet.

It was black black black dark. The earth was soft sandy and smelled like damp sand that had been in the sun maybe too long a time.

"Okay," said Bid. "Please hole, let us out."

She said it very nicely but the hole did not answer.

They sat very still for a very long time, but nothing happened.

Bod scratched at the soil. He thought maybe they should dig. But he didn't know for sure which way was up. He started to shake.

"It's cold in here," said Bid. "And dark, " said Bod. "Are you afraid?"

After a long while Bid said yes.

"I don't like that hole," said Bod.

"There's no such thing as a live hole, " said Bid. "Something else has lured us into its trap."

"Yes there is," said the hole. "But since you don't think so, I'll not talk to you anymore!"

With that the hole opened up just a pinhole and spit at them.

Then it was dark again.

By the brief momentary light of the pinhole they could see that they were quite deep. The soil was sandy and there was no way they could climb or dig their way up to the surface. Every time they tried they just slipped back into each other.

They were crawling around on all fours, feeling for anything more solid than sand, when Bod felt a breeze. There was an opening, a tunnel of some sort. They held hands, and without even talking to each other knew that they would follow it, crawling on their knees, which was difficult while holding hands!

They crawled for a long long time. Their knees were getting sore! Finally they were so tired that they just sat down and leaned against a wall.

"Ahchoo!" said Bid. "Ahchoo!" said Bod.

Something was tickling their faces. They batted at it with their hands. Then Bid's hands hit something furry. At first she jerked her hand away, then she felt again. It was furry, and it was nuzzling her. MAYBE IT WAS GOING TO EAT HER!

It was so very very dark. And so very very quiet. Then the furry thing poked her again. What was it!

"What are you?" said Bid, her voice trembling. Bod didn't say anything - he was too scared.

The furry thing said nothing. It stopped nuzzling them, but it was still there.

"Maybe," whispered Bod, very low, "could it be the gopher queen?

"A queen?" whispered Bid.

"Well, the blue-eyed grass said we would find her at the mountain, and the mountain turned out to be just a pile of dirt, with a mean hole in the middle of it."

"Hmm," whispered Bid.

Suddenly the furry thing had claws. Little sharp claws. It pulled at Bid and rolled her up into a ball. It pulled at Bod and rolled him up into a ball. Then it licked at them and the soft sandy dirt stuck to them - all in their hair too. The furry thing got very busy and rolled them and rolled them in the dirt. Soon they were just round balls of dirt and could hardly breathe. Bid kept trying to get loose, but the furry thing would just lick her again and roll her over three more times.

"Stop it," yelled Bid. "Stop it," sobbed Bod. But the furry thing didn't stop. It rolled them faster and faster until suddenly they were rolling free down a long slope. They went faster and faster until they both passed out. There heads just couldn't keep up with their thoughts.

They must have rolled on a very very long time. Until BANG, they came to a hard stop. The dirt balls broke away with the shock of the stop and they sat up dizzily. They seemed to be back under the mean hole, they could see a pinpoint of light up above.

"Look out," said Bod. The hole is going to spit on us again.

But it didn't.

"Look," said Bid. "The dirt is different. I think maybe we can climb up the side if we dig in some toe holds."

So they did.

And they pushed out the pinhole at the top. And there was Aunt Jannie's rose bush, and the fishpond, and the stars were out. They sat on there knees, shaking.

"Was this all a dream?" said Bod.

"Look at the dirt in your hair." said Bid.

Then they washed themselves carefully in the fish pond, climbed onto the rose bush, wrapped themselves each in a leaf, and were not able to go to sleep. At least for a long long time.

THE END

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Grace Alice Moore
11062 E. Neville Ave.
Mesa, AZ 85209

If you can't afford a contribution, or are a child, we appreciate your visit anyway and welcome you to come back!

The End