Story in a box

Trade        

 Brice Schnapp

9/1/2011

           Inside the white clay villa lived a young puppeteer but despite his youth, he was renowned by his community for his artistic prowess. When he wasn't spending his time carving statues and puppets, the young man would grab his drum and dance around town playing songs for the people. This day was particularly chilly, as the seasons had begun to make their change, but the man, dressed in his magenta and beige flower-patterned scarf, jacket and pants, wasn't about to be disheartened and set out with his instrument. As he danced with his drum through the town he noticed a woman he'd never seen before.         
            She was dark-skinned and wearing odd clothing for the time of year, draped in simple tribal cloth. Her earlobes were heavily weighted and stretched down to her shoulders. The puppeteer stopped his drumming when he noticed the woman was carrying a wooden puppets head and as he got closer stopped her to ask where she'd picked up such a marvelously carved piece. Rather than answer she asked him if he was interested in it which brought a sparkle to his eye as he swiftly whipped out his tan leather wallet ready to buy it off her. She stole a quick glance at the animals embroidered on the wallet noting the stacked elephant, monkey, rabbit and bird. “An odd assortment of animals,” she thought before shooing his hands away. “I do not wish to take your money,” she told him, “However, the marble stamp you put back into your pocket would be perfect compensation.” The man hesitated before reaching into his pocket, drawing out the intricately carved marble seal stamp. “This doesn't seem like a fair trade, if you ask me,” said the puppeteer. After a quick moment the woman decided the puppeteer was right and pulled out a blue flip wallet, handing it to him. “There's some coins in there you might make a small profit off,” she told him. After inspecting the wallet and it's contents the young man decided it was acceptable and handed over the marble stamper. The unknown woman gently tossed the puppet head to the puppeteer and with a careful grace he caught it and inspected the detail. “Marvelous,” he breathed.

            Before the woman could say another word the puppeteer was in full stride back to his small red-roofed villa.

            He burst through the door, tossed the blue wallet onto his chair and bumped into the table where he worked, knocking off a small green and tan, stained glass jar that held the odd-circular seeds he'd picked up on a walk he'd taken with his parents when he was younger. A memento from when he still had parents he quickly scooped up the seeds, distressed that his holding jar had crashed into pieces.  He couldn't be bothered with this detail at the moment, however, and tossed the seeds into a small clay dish, going back to inspecting the puppet head. He'd been working on a new puppet body and this head seemed almost a perfect fit! Grabbing his green-stained ruler he took the puppet head's measurements. It was nearly spot on and would only require minimal work, which made him forget about his broken jar completely.

             A few hours later the puppet head was finished and attached to the body. Happy with his new creation, he tested out the string work of the puppet and was happy to see that every slight flick of his wrist gave him the desired outcome. Setting the puppet on his work station, the magnificent artist turned to his unfinished pile and picked out among everything, a small bark canoe he'd been working on. He was almost finished with it, binding some twigs to the edges of the canoe with a thick lace. “It's too empty inside...,” he thought to himself. After some scrounging around he found a few white feathers that would fill the interior just right. “Two projects completed in one day?” he said aloud. “Now that's progress.”

            With nothing more to occupy him he turned back to his broken jar. Sighing, he cleaned up the shards of glass and thought about gluing it back together. “It wouldn't be the same...” he said to himself. “I guess I'll just have to use the dish until I can make a replica...”

Story-in-a-box inventory

1) 1 currency flip case, blue. Contains one .01$, .05$, .10$, .20$, .50$, 1$ coin.
2) 1 12" wooden ruler, Wescott. Green stain on the edge.
3) 1 small, clay dish. Black, red and tan.
4) 3 odd circular, brown seeds.
5) 1 tan leather wallet. Elephant, monkey, rabbit and bird stacked on top of one another. Tree in background.
6) 1 carved, rectangular box-shaped seal stamp. (Now missing)
7) 1 tree bark canoe, stick edges bound. 2 white bird feathers inside.
8) 1 clay sculpted, white villa. Red-brown roof.
9) 1 woven cloth, flower pattern. Magenta, beige in color.
10) 1 green and tan stained glass jar, corked shut.
11) 1 wooden string-puppet's head. Bald.
12) 1 wooden, dark brown African woman statue.
13) 1 wooden drummer, dancing, wearing cold weather clothing and sandals.