Zeke The Snail

This is a cute little story that my partner Joel made up for me one night when I had a nightmare and couldn't go back to sleep

Zeke was a snail.

He wasn't a normal snail, he was a very special snail.

He was a very special snail because sitting on top of his shell was a hand.

Zeke was very proud of this hand, although some of the other snails didn't like it at all. He had a very loving family and lots of very nice friends, so he didn't mind these other snails at all. Zeke was popular because he could do so many things with his hand, he could play catch (although who would play catch with him is uncertain), he could pick flowers, and most fun of all, he could swing off branches.

Zeke liked to swing on branches, he would run below them (having extra weight on the top of his shell increased his momentum you see) and then reach up and grab them and turn a full circle around them. He loved to do this and would do it hour after hour, day after day.

One day however, Zeke the snail went too deep into the forest, where the trees were watered with magic and the ants were grown with evil. Zeke didn't know this, but snails were considered a delicacy to the ants of the inner forest and his process was being monitored quite closely. As Zeke realised that there was something like menace in the air, he saw that he was being surrounded by ants.

At first Zeke didn't know what to do, but he saw an escape and started running towards it. He knew that he would have to swing around the branch to get over the advancing line of ants. As Zeke reached out and grabbed the branch with his hand, something magical happened (which would not have been so surprising to Zeke if he had known the forest was enchanted). His hand began to grow.

It grew and grew.

Zeke was so surprised that he let go of the branch and fell to the ground. He tried to get up but his hand was too heavy.

He struggled and struggled.

The lines of ants were advancing.

Zeke didn't know what to do.

But then he remembered that every problem could be solved by television. Zeke strained his memory. The ants kept advancing. It made it very hard for Zeke to think.

Then, there it was. The perfect example. The Addams Family.

Zeke had always felt a connection to Thing, always felt that maybe they would get along, maybe they were even family.

But now was no time for reminiscing. Zeke concentrated really hard. He began rocking from side to side.

Finally, just as the ants were about to reach him, he swung up onto his hand. He began to run away.

Zeke most certainly wasn't as co-ordinated as Thing was, but he was fast enough to get away from the ants.

This goes to show you, television really can solve everything.