Pretend Stories (a short story)

I’m not sure what started it all, but one day before Cora was two, she came to me with a book and climbed on my lap for a story. When I finished, she wanted us to read another book. At some point I decided to make up a tale and tell it as though I was reading it; I started with “once upon a time” and ended with “they lived happily ever after”. I told the simple tale about two old people who wished they had a baby to play with and how they achieved happiness. The story probably consisted of six sentences, and when I concluded it, I said, “The end”

“Read it again,” she said, which of course cracked me up, since no reading had been involved.
She's three years old now. Yesterday at nap-time I read her the book she had chosen. When I laid it down, she said, “Now read me a pwee-tend story.”

So I made up a story about two kittens who needed a home and finally met a little girl who loved them. She wanted another, but I begged off at that point. I can only come up with so many pretend stories in a day.

Isn’t it interesting that a child would rather hear a hastily-thought-up tale told by an old lady, a story with no pictures, that sometimes goes nowhere... rather than a $20 story book?

Perhaps it’s just that she recognizes some of the characters in the stories.