read it the right way

[opensummer]

When I was little my dad would read us stories, things that we were still too small to read by ourselves. He’d do the voices of characters, funny little impressions, and when the story was dragging he’d throw in bits like Bilbo Baggins slaying a goblin in the first two chapters of the hobbit or Harry actually dueling Malfoy instead of Malfoy setting Flich on them (which he had to hastily retcon when he figured out it was plot relevant), and when a chapter didn’t suit him he start it with, “It was a dark and stormy night.”

It took us (me, my brother, and sister), a bit to catch on but once we did, anytime we suspected he was doing this we’d chorus “Daaad, read it the right way!” and so Bilbo had a nice quiet life in the shire until those dwarves showed up, Harry, Ron and Hermione had to run from Flich straight into a three-headed dog and chapters never begun with “it was a dark and stormy night.”

Which was well and good until we started on A Wrinkle in Time. At this point when we'd hear "it was a dark and stormy night" the automatic reaction is, "Daaad read it the right way!", so he did. Or so we thought. I’m re-reading it now for the first time on my own and hey, guess what? It actually starts with, It was a dark and stormy night. I spent ten years thinking we’d pulled one over on my Dad and A Wrinkle in Time started on a sunny day.

Congrats Dad, ya did it.

Comments

[spikedluv]

That story made me chuckle!

[opensummer]

glad you liked it!