Rachel the storyteller

Drew was away for a few days at a conference in Baltimore at the end of February/beginning of March. On the Friday he was gone, Rachel wanted me to tell her a story at dinner. No, I said. (I was tired and cranky). Please, she pleaded. NO, I said; how about I start a story, you add to it, then I add to it, etc. We started on that path, but then Rachel politely asked if she could stop and then proceeded to tell me a made-up story of her own.

What was most impressive was that she grabbed some "props" as she called them (knickknacks from around the living and dining rooms) and proceeded to tell me an incredible made-up tale. Here it is:

"Once upon a time there lived a cheetah named Emma. (holds up a wooden cheetah she had asked me to take out of a bookcase). One day she was strolling around and met her friend ZEBRA! (holds up a wooden zebra she'd taken from a bookcase in the living room). So Emma said, "Zebra, why are you here?" And zebra said, "I came to see if you would go with me to find a treasure!"

"By the way," Rachel told me. "Did I tell you the story was in Africa?"

She continued:

"Then they met their friend Camel. (holds up a wooden camel)."

"Oh," she said. "And the moral of the story is, teamwork is important."

She continued again:

"So she said, "Yes, of course, so they started strolling round and looking for treasure and they met their friends Camel. Emma said, "What are you doing? I thought you were supposed to be in a very different part of Africa where your owner is." But Camel said, "The owner fell off." So Emma said, "Well, do you wanna join the team to try and find your treasure?" And Zebra said, "Sure." So they set off. So as they strolled, they saw a pyramid (takes the pyramid from a bookcase in the living room)." They pyramid just popped up in front of them with two birds beside the sides (takes two ceramic birds from a bookcase in the living room.) "The birds said, "Can we work with  you?" and they said, "Of course you can!" So the birds flew around. Before they left they pushed the pyramid away and they finally saw the treasure. (takes a glass bird from a bookcase). "So they said, "HI. We were wondering if anyone had gone to hunt for the treasure." It was a beautiful crystal bird inside a little crystal cup (takes a set of Russian nesting girl dolls from the bookcase). For a minute all of them wished they were one of the little girls. Then the Zebra spoke. "That is very pretty of you," she said. Then the oldest tzedakah doll (Rachel calls them Tzedakah dolls instead of nesting dolls, for some reason) said, "We made them ourselves." "You did?" said one of the birds. "Yes!" squeaked one of the birds." "What did you help with?" asked Emma. "I helped pick out the design," she said in a squeaky voice. "They had made their way through all of Africa. "Can we lift the bird up?" said Emma. "Sure," the tzedakah doll said. "Then they noticed there's only five tzedakah dolls. The bird was still on. Emma lifted it up. "Peek a boo!" said the tezedakah dolls. Then all of the tzedakah dolls came out. Then Emma put the bird back on top. Then they turned back. "We better get back," they said. "So the tzedakah dolls said goodbye. And then they turned and walked back to their homes."

I was so impressed that I told Rachel, "You know, maybe YOU should be telling stories to 3 and 4-year-olds." She seemed very pleased at that suggestion.