the last square house

a long time ago, in a world much different than today, all of the houses in the City were smallish and squarish and had chimneys made of brick and yards big enough to grow things in.

like sunflowers and carrots and crunchy munchy snow peas.

then things began to change. like the people who lived in the houses started working more and making more money and had less time for gardening things like carrots and crunchy munchy snow peas and wanted bigger houses. rectangle houses.

so one by one the little square houses with sunflowers and chimneys were torn down and in their place the people built bigger houses, rectangle houses, all-grey houses that looked the same.

this went on until there were almost only big grey houses where the small square houses and gardens had been and only one small house with carrots remained.

and in the one small house left lived Grandma who was retired so had no interest in making more money and she lived with Granddaughter who had no interest in rectangle houses so the two were happy in the last square house with a garden.

because there was only the one remaining house with a chimney and sunflowers, the things that grew in Grandma and Granddaughter’s garden grew extra big. the radishes grew to the size of teapots and the corn grew taller than the chimney and the crunchy munchy snow peas grew together on their vine and made a ladder that Grandma and Granddaughter could climb to pick the corn.

the people in the City were still busy and working and had no time for gardens of their own and were often sad because they missed having fresh fruit for snacks and fresh vegetables with their dinner and they missed having homes that were nice to look at because of all the pretty and nice smelly flowers and trees.

the City people missed all of these things and were bored of their big grey houses that bore no flowers or carrots and because Grandma’s vegetables and trees were growing to be so humongous, the City people started to turn up on Grandma’s door. the door that belonged to the the last square house.

and because Grandma and Granddaughter were not bored but happy and full of all the fruit they could eat for snacks and vegetables they could eat for dinner, they let the people of the City come in.

one by one all of the City people left their rectangle houses to go to Grandma’s square house to sit in her garden and climb her snow pea ladder and perhaps eat an apple from the tree.

but the square house became crowded and the people of the City ate too many carrots and the garden started to look a little sad.

then Granddaughter had an idea.

she walked up on the snow pea ladder so all the City people could hear her and see her and she said this as loudly and politely as she could.

“though Grandma and i are all happy you came, our home, the last square house, is not big enough to keep all of you people from the City and so you must leave. before you go though, take a seed or a nut or a crunchy munchy snow pea pod and plant them wherever you can find a spot on the lot of your big rectangle houses”

so the City people left and on their way they took a seed or a nut or a crunchy munchy snow pea pod and when they got to their own homes they planted them in the one little square of dirt they could find on their teeny tiny rectangle house lots.

very soon all of the rectangle house neighbourhoods started to look different.

one house had corn and one grew roses and one grew a ladder of snow peas that bent over and built a bridge between one teeny lot to the next.

the people from the City shared with their neighbours whatever fruits and vegetables they grew and they were much happier and much less bored and their houses started looking less like each other and much more like the last little square house with the chimney and the yard big enough to grow things in.