This story was written with the following prompts: daycare, rats, and geologist.
RAE: Big Bear’s Daycare was nestled in the foothills of the White Mountains, a foremost location for studying granite.
LINDA: There were ten children at the daycare and all their parents were geologists.
RAE: One day Big Bear thought it would be fun to have the children collect rocks.
LINDA: Big Bear brought the children to his favorite places: the caves, the river, and the garbage cans.
RAE: The garbage cans behind Mama Lucy’s Restaurant had the best dumpster diving in town.
LINDA: It also had the best carnelians because a healer dumped out loads of them after she was done being creative.
RAE: The healer’s confidence dipped and they lost their joy in life after throwing out the carnelians and Big Bear and the children scooped up tons of the pretty orange stones.
LINDA: They also stumbled upon an art festival in the dumpster, where the rats, inspired by the carnelian energy, staged plays, created murals, and played music.
RAE: Some of the children tried to catch the musician rats in their rockhounding pails, which led the bouncer rats to jump on their heads.
LINDA: Big Bear reminded the children that animals were not to be treated as play things and got the children to apologize to the rats.
RAE: The rats forgave them on the condition that this never happen again and asked them what their favorite song was.
LINDA: The children only knew silly children’s songs, so Big Bear suggested that the rats play Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety for the children. The rats played the album impressively with their handmade instruments made of leftover vegetables and shellfish. Everyone had a good time.