The giant who made cars
So sought after were they, that each was exchanged for the price of a thousand houses.
You see, for the wealthiest who could attain any worldly possession, the feeling that a new dress or watch once gave, could now only come from one of the strange cars.
No one could say if it was for the simple prestige or the triumph of obtaining what an arch rival craved, all they knew for certain was the astonishing feeling it gave.
Little did they know in a strange and wonderful land high above the clouds where lost balloons go, lived a 300 year old bespectacled giant with silky white hair who worked day and night to make the precious cars. Well, that’s not entirely true. Yes, he made cars but more particularly he made machines with feelings.
You see the land of clouds where he lived was the same place all fleeting feelings go when they float away. And it’s from those feelings the mysterious giant mixed a potent ink into a giant pen to paint the mysterious cars.
For one car, he painted superiority. For another, satisfaction. For another, elation. Each owner would receive the feeling they craved.
But soon all they desired were the cars. Desperately, the very richest offered all they had for just one more car. In return for their remaining wealth, the giant made a final one for each person.
And having no wealth but having the amazing cars the once rich but now very ordinary people, were happy.
The amazing sunglasses
Once day a man and his wife discovered a beautiful machine on a bench that looked like a set of sunglasses. On its inside were engraved the words ‘Tell me what would you want’. The sunglasses responded to requests by displaying a time, precise location and word to say.
What they had discovered was a mysterious device that calculated the first cause to a chain-reaction of fantastically unlikely events.
Following the machine’s instructions, the couple spoke a request then make their way to a busy intersection and at the nominated time said the word.
Out of sight, a passerby heard the word, was cast back to a cherished memory, stumbled into an oncoming stranger who in trying to regain his balance caused pizza to propel from its owner’s hand onto the feet of the couple.
They were awestruck.
The next day they requested grander things. It set off a tapestry of delicately connected events. Within days they had a beautiful car. Then jewellery. Then a house. And through extraordinary luck (or so others believed) they won a fortune.
But soon riches grew unsatisfying and the couple’s appetite turned to long faded childhood dreams.
In a short time, the fantastically improbable became certain.
He gained fame as history’s unlikeliest sporting champion, renowned for audacious feats and an unsurpassable winning streak.
She made yodeling popular with young people everywhere.
Together they grew immensely wealthy and revered. But having unlocked the key to unlikely certainty and all they’d ever wished for, a stale mist settled on their lives.
The couple lamented their empty and certain success along with the machine that had given all they wanted. So, with a final request they told the machine to help them forget they had ever found it.
Now having no knowledge of the cause of their amazing triumphs, the couple basked in the glory of their remarkable achievements.
And out of sight, the glasses dropped, soon to be found by a young boy as they had been done to a thousand people before and a thousand to come.
The strange keyboard
One day two friends discovered a beautiful old car unlocked with a strange keyboard sitting atop its roof. Alongside was a handwritten note directing its reader to place the keyboard in the car’s console then to type.
The car’s silver body glistened as they obeyed the instructions, uncertainly typing a command for the engine to start.
Nothing happened.
They tried other words that meant ‘start’ yet, still nothing.
The friends wrote a polite greeting but there was more silence. Repeated questions were equally fruitless and scouring the interior for clues also yielded nothing.
In exasperation the men typed something dull about the weather. The car stumbled forward.
Stung with surprise, they wrote again and the car continued moving.
Excitedly one steered the mysterious car while the other typed.
The experiment gathered pace as they tested phrases.
Sometimes the beautiful vehicle would propel forward at alarming speed, occasionally soar and sometimes halt.
By sunset a pattern seemed to emerge. It had been there all along, only hidden like invisible ink. But surely - they thought - it was too fantastical to be possible.
Could the car really know what was true?
The more they wrote the more awestruck they became and hatched a perfect plan to use the car’s startling knowledge for their fortune.
The friends disappeared from sight to change future history. Shoes would soon be rare, baldness revered and cars would fly (but not in the way imagined) and other things most wouldn’t believe.The beggar's box
One day a generous stranger passed by a beggar and deposited generously in his box.
In an instant and from nowhere, unattainable objects he desired most - a pair of magnificent shoes and watch - appeared, but were strangely giant. The beggar motioned the stranger to take them.
Startled, the stranger collected the enormous shoes and watch and departed uncertainly. Onlookers gazed in amazement at what they were certain was a trick.
With each passing contributor the same curious events repeated only with different objects and varying in size.
Word of the magical beggar’s box spread and before long crowds of hungry prospectors massed, anxious to profit from the wonder in their midst.
Some thought the opulence of the gifts reflected the donation size so deposited small fortunes. They became bitter when small plastic pens, an undetectable breeze or nothing at all appeared and angrily retrieved it. The deposit though, slipped as if liquid through their hands, returning to the box.
Others thought it was the happiness of their expression so gave with an outward cheer but quickly learned it was not so.
Others still thought it was mere chance like a stranger lottery.
It appeared the greedy received little and the unsuspecting generous received richly.
But soon the generous grew jealous of what each other received, comparing amongst themselves. They questioned the truth the box told. And their rewards stopped. Soon no one gave for begging man but for themselves.
The magical box no longer worked, and over time the people questioned if the strange events had happened at all.
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The coffee of fortune
Each morning this coffee would somehow be magically replenished.
It's owner was grateful for his wondrous gift and savoured it. But one day he noticed a pattern. As he sipped the coffee over conversation while his friends confided their problems something strange happened - their fortunes mysteriously reversed.
He grew resentful at their happiness and tried to give the coffee away, hoping to become a recipient of its mysterious power.
But when he gave it away the coffee’s power was lost forever.
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The time traveller and the porcelain cup.
A time traveller from the distant future lost his flying machine when, unaware, it dislodged from his back pocket.
For reasons that would become obvious with time it looked like a beautiful porcelain cup and saucer, but today was mistaken for discarded rubbish.
The cup found its way into a used goods store where it remained displayed on a shelf waiting to be discovered.
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The mysterious vest and shoes
It looked like an ordinary puffy vest but was actually the last surviving coat shorn from a long forgotten beast now considered mythical.
The coloured beasts had roamed frosty valleys in herds for centuries and been treasured by nomadic tribes for their conveniently shaped fleece and friendly disposition.
Likewise, these were not shoes but the intricate tusks of the same fantastical beast.
The fleece coats and tusks inspired handmade replicas long after their extinction and with passing of time so too did their memory.
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