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share your favorite short stories!

disregard

mrs
Joined
Apr 23, 2007
Messages
7,826
MBTI Type
INFP
The Scorpion and the Frog

One day, a scorpion looked around at the mountain where he lived and decided that he wanted a change. So he set out on a journey through the forests and hills. He climbed over rocks and under vines and kept going until he reached a river.
The river was wide and swift, and the scorpion stopped to reconsider the situation. He couldn't see any way across. So he ran upriver and then checked downriver, all the while thinking that he might have to turn back.

Suddenly, he saw a frog sitting in the rushes by the bank of the stream on the other side of the river. He decided to ask the frog for help getting across the stream.

"Hellooo Mr. Frog!" called the scorpion across the water, "Would you be so kind as to give me a ride on your back across the river?"

"Well now, Mr. Scorpion! How do I know that if I try to help you, you wont try to kill me?" asked the frog hesitantly.

"Because," the scorpion replied, "If I try to kill you, then I would die too, for you see I cannot swim!"

Now this seemed to make sense to the frog. But he asked. "What about when I get close to the bank? You could still try to kill me and get back to the shore!"

"This is true," agreed the scorpion, "But then I wouldn't be able to get to the other side of the river!"

"Alright then...how do I know you wont just wait till we get to the other side and THEN kill me?" said the frog.

"Ahh...," crooned the scorpion, "Because you see, once you've taken me to the other side of this river, I will be so grateful for your help, that it would hardly be fair to reward you with death, now would it?!"

So the frog agreed to take the scorpion across the river. He swam over to the bank and settled himself near the mud to pick up his passenger. The scorpion crawled onto the frog's back, his sharp claws prickling into the frog's soft hide, and the frog slid into the river. The muddy water swirled around them, but the frog stayed near the surface so the scorpion would not drown. He kicked strongly through the first half of the stream, his flippers paddling wildly against the current.

Halfway across the river, the frog suddenly felt a sharp sting in his back and, out of the corner of his eye, saw the scorpion remove his stinger from the frog's back. A deadening numbness began to creep into his limbs.

"You fool!" croaked the frog, "Now we shall both die! Why on earth did you do that?"

The scorpion shrugged, and did a little jig on the drownings frog's back.

"I could not help myself. It is my nature."

Then they both sank into the muddy waters of the swiftly flowing river.

[source]
 

white

~dangerous curves ahead~
Joined
Nov 15, 2007
Messages
2,591
MBTI Type
ENTP
Julie Romaine - Guy De Maupassant

* The link is to the text/zip file of his set of short stories, of which Julie Romaine is one. An aged actress talks of love and choices.

whatever, I thought it was a thread of our own stories. :rofl1:
 

CzeCze

RETIRED
Joined
Sep 11, 2007
Messages
8,975
MBTI Type
GONE
I just read those 2 stories. ^^ Sad. I generally don't like fatalistic stories. I liked Otis is Resurrected better than the Ibis one. I also don't like hearing stories read out loud generally, though sometimes it can bring whole new dimensions to a story you'd otherwise overlook (especially true when it comes to adding comedic value to stories).

My all time favorite short story is "The Sliver Moon" by Lao She. Of course it's translated into English so I'm sure the translator did a good job with that, but the heroine and her story are so compelling I thought the author must be a woman. He's not. He was a revolutionary though.
 

Eileen

New member
Joined
Apr 19, 2007
Messages
2,179
MBTI Type
INFJ
Enneagram
6?
I just read those 2 stories. ^^ Sad. I generally don't like fatalistic stories.

Yeah, I'm really a sucker for a devastating story. "The Scarlet Ibis" just breaks my heart every time. That, "Otis," and Of Mice and Men all have the disabled brother-figure aspect that I find so moving because I relate to the experience.

I just finished Of Mice and Men with my juniors. By the time we do Gatsby and my Steinbeck unit (which also includes stories from The Pastures of Heaven, some kids start asking why everything we read is tragic. The first time someone asked me that question, I paused for a second and tried to think of a happy story that I've loved, and I couldn't. I concluded that all great literature breaks your heart. Or something. I know that's probably a not-completely-true generalization, but it seemed true enough at the time.
 

Griffi97

New member
Joined
Dec 14, 2007
Messages
124
MBTI Type
INFJ
I concluded that all great literature breaks your heart.

Yes, I think you're right about that.

I was reading recently that the current theory of memory is that we don't remember actual events, but rather our emotional reactions to those events. So maybe our emotional reaction to a heart-breaking story leaves it seared into our brains forever.
 
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