h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Jenny Elizabeth. She's a grown Elf now, but at that time she was just a girl, living with her sister and their father and mother.

Jenny loved to have her father tell her bed-time stories. He would make them up on the spot, and they would all start, "Once upon a time there was a little girl named Jenny Elizabeth..." Or maybe Jenny Elizabeth's father didn't make them up on the spot after all, because he thought about stories a lot, almost as much as he thought about mathematics. He wrote stories to remind the sisters what chores they needed to do on summer days, and about the dinner they were to start making, and he told stories about trips the family had taken and trips they were going to take, and about his childhood and youth, and his brothers and their parents, and music they heard, and people they met, and...

Jenny Elizabeth thought of almost everything her father said as a story; not because she thought he made everything up but because he was magical. Most of the time she was only Jenny, but when her father told stories she was Jenny Elizabeth, and Jenny Elizabeth was magical, too.

Jenny Elizabeth's father's magic came from the way he used words. Anybody can write a note to their children saying, "Remember to fold the laundry today and don't forget to block off the kitchen if you go out so the dog doesn't eat the catfood." But when Jenny Elizabeth's father wrote that note, it involved great fluttering birds, and fierce dragons, and the valour of the Princesses Katherine Jeanne and Jenny Elizabeth, who had calmed the birds and protected the fierce (and endangered) dragons from doom by safeguarding their rare and expensive meats from the slavering bandits.

He had other magics, too. The whole family had Food magic and Book magic and Love of Plants and Love of Cats, and Jenny Elizabeth's mother had Serenity magic, and Competence, and Power Tool magic, and Katherine Jeanne had so many talents (a talent is a magic before it grows up)- Enthusiasm, and Assertion, and Justice, and Love. Jenny Elizabeth's father had Music, WoodsCraft, and one of the most powerful Curiosities the world had ever seen (both girls got that in abundance, too, as well as Power Tool magic!)

There is a good deal more to this tale, but like all the best bed-time stories it wishes to live for more than one night. Perhaps one day, maybe even tomorrow, we'll ask for a story at bed-time, and our wish will be granted.

Many years have passed since the last time Jenny Elizabeth's father last told her an actual bed-time story, but he still tells stories whenever he speaks. Since at the moment he's in bed and far away, Jenny is sending him this bed-time story, with all her love.

once upon a time, in a land far far away, there were two little girl sisters, Jenny Elizabeth and Katherine Jeanne. And they had two big parents, Mother and Father. The whole family was blest with magic and they had a lot of fun with it. Then, one day, the two little sisters grew up and moved away from their two big parents (who didnt look so big anymore when looked at outa grownup eyes). And the two big parents started to lose some of their magic. Mother lost a little of her serenity magic and some of her powertool and competence magic too. And father lost some of his healthy body magic... and had to have some doctor magic done. Now the two not so little sisters so far away are hoping that they can spend more time with their favorite magic makers... and maybe help them get their magic back. But it is hard when you have big people stuff to do, where you are. And the sisters have this, so it is hard for them.

Then, one day one of their big friends, who used to be a little magic maker herself, said to them....

"My Father lost some of his magic, too, so i went to visit him and stayed and helped him get some of his magic back. Until one day he used some new magic to go to a different place... one i couldnt go to just yet. And i miss him and i wish i had spent more time with him before he left. But i didnt know he was going to leave. Even he didnt know he was going to leave. So i tell you this now to save you from the grief you may have if you have to wave goodbye to one of your big parents before you are ready to... Find a way to spend time with them. i wish i had. Scotland sounds like it might be a fun place for two little flower buds and i bet they would love to hear some of your Father's magical stories!"

So the two not so little sisters..... ... ... ... .. . ....to be continued.