Short stories/fables by Aufie Zophy (Hans Van Rostenberghe)

  Life in a fishbowl When I was a fish in a bowl, I was happy, or at least I thought I was. I was swimming in circles, little circles, true, but I felt I had a perfect vision of the world. I could see so many things my friends in the lake or sea never saw, I got fed twice each day and the food tasted really nice. My bowl got cleaned at regular times. I did not like to be caught in the net and put in a pail while my bowl got cleaned, but when I came back into the clean fresh water, wow, it felt really good. When night came, I let my little body sink to the very bottom of the bowl and soon a wonderful sleep came. I had dreams. Dreams of living in a lake. Dreams of having something green in my bowl, some natural stones. In my dreams I would be swimming around them, partially hiding myself and just having a good, joyful time playing around the green plants and the stones. Then came the day that my human friends called my birthday. They had no idea when or where I was born,...

  Sammy and Alice Sammy was a thirteen-year-old boy. Alice was a thirteen-year-old girl. Have you seen the cartoon of Aladdin? Sammy looked almost exactly like Aladdin from the famous cartoon, but Sammy was still more handsome. Have you seen the cartoon of Snow White and the seven dwarfs? Alice looked almost exactly like Snow White from the famous cartoon but Alice was still more beautiful. Sammy and Alice were neighbours. They were living in a lovely neighbourhood, where most people had a station wagon for their family car, and had a modest but substantial earning to live really comfortably. Sammy and Alice went to the same school. They were in the best class and they were doing really well in terms of school results. Every other month one of them was the first in the top class and the other one was second, while for the months in between they seemed to have changed places. One would suspect it was orchestrated by them or by a teacher, but it was not. It just happened li...