Puffy Poofy

A Short Story

I wrote this short story for my kids, especially for my anxious, perfectionistic kid. So if you’re old enough to subscribe to this Substack, you aren’t really my target audience. But maybe you are parenting some of my target audience. Maybe this can be a handy tool if you and your kids are stuck waiting somewhere this week and need a distraction. Many, many thanks to my talented friend Ashley (online as Actually Bulala) who has believed in this enough to draw some truly endearing illustrations. I’ve included just a couple here, mostly because I am having trouble getting Substack to do them justice. I hope you enjoy Puffy Poofy:

Alice hated car rides and errands. Even when her mom said, “It will be quick,” it wasn’t. When Alice said how she felt about the car, her mom said, “Please don’t complain.” But when Alice was quiet in the car, it was worse because her mind filled with “what-ifs,” like “What if I do the wrong thing while we are out and everyone stares at me?” or “What if this errand takes a very, very, very long time?” Sometimes it was hard being an Alice, especially in the car.

One day, when she got in the car, Alice’s brain started “what-iffing.” She opened her mouth to complain so she wouldn’t be alone with her “what-ifs,” when her mom said, “Here, take this.”

It was a small notebook.

“And this,” Mom said and handed her a plastic pen.

“What do I do with it?” Alice asked. She always liked to be told exactly what to do so she didn’t mess up. Alice hated messing up.

“Play with it,” Mom said. “But don’t get pen marks on your clothes. They stain.”

Now Alice definitely did not know what to do. Were the notebook and pen supposed to talk to each other? Have a tea party? Alice stared at them doubtfully.

“I can’t,” she said.

“Here.” Mom reached back and started drawing in the notebook. “This is Puffy Poofy, a mouse.”

“But it doesn’t have feet. Its tail is squiggly. Mice don’t have squiggly tails.”

“This is Puffy Poofy, the strange mouse,” Mom said firmly and started the car.

Alice guessed it would work for a strange mouse.

“Now what?” she asked.

“Give Puffy Poofy a road,” Mom said.

So Alice did, a long swirly road down the page.

“Now what?”

“Let’s tear Puffy Poofy out so he can move,” Mom said at the next stop light. “But we never use scissors in a moving car, Alice. Never ever.”

“Never ever,” Alice agreed, and Puffy Poofy traveled down his road.

“Now give him some stairs on the next page.”

So Alice did. She gave him stairs going up and then more stairs going down. They looked like a pyramid. Puffy Poofy liked going up and down them. At the tippy top, he looked like he was on a mountain.

“Now what?”

“What do you think?” Mom said.

Alice frowned. She liked to be told exactly what to do. She stared at the blank page for a while, and then she sighed very loudly and stared at Mom for help. But Mom suddenly glanced away from the rearview mirror and stared very hard at the road. Alice stared out the window, and then she noticed the sky. So she drew fluffy clouds on the page. Then she groaned.

“What’s wrong?” Mom asked.

“I wanted to draw Puffy Poofy flying, but I can’t draw an airplane.” Alice said “I can’t” a lot.

“Draw him a magic flying box.”

“That won’t work.”

“Try it.”

Alice did.

“It looks weird.”

“So does Puffy Poofy,” Mom said “They will match.”

This was true.

“Here,” Mom said, reaching back at the next stoplight. Carefully, she made a tear in the paper across the top of the magic box. “Now you can slide Puffy Poofy inside the box.”

Alice did. It looked weird, but it also looked fun, and she smiled.

“Now what?” she asked.

“Puffy Poofy needs an adventure,” Mom said.

So Alice decided Puffy Poofy would go looking for a magical tree that grew candy and cookies and lemonade and cake and also chicken legs. Alice was very fond of chicken legs.

“But you can’t make it too easy for Puffy Poofy to get to the tree,” Mom said. “Or the adventure isn’t as much fun.”

So Alice made a sea with lots of icebergs. Puffy Poofy had to climb up and down them all.

“And make sure the tree is guarded by something scary that Puffy Poofy has to overcome,” Mom said.

“A cat?”

“No, all mouse adventures have a cat. Do something different.”

“A dragon?”

“Everyone puts dragons in their stories these days,” Mom said. “Be creative and try something new.”

Alice remembered the scariest animal she had ever met. When visiting a petting zoo when she was little, she had tried to feed the goats. But an ostrich had reached over the fence and pecked at her hair. Alice had screamed, and for weeks she had made her parents look under her bed each night to make sure no ostrich was hiding there. So Alice drew a very wicked ostrich to guard the magic tree. It wasn’t a very good ostrich, but that just made him look more creepy and wicked.

Puffy Poofy looked at the evil ostrich and almost gave up. But then he got an idea.

“Puffy Poofy goes back and gets his magic flying box and flies over the ostrich,” Alice said. “Then he flies through the clouds and over the icebergs and over the ostrich’s head and gets to the tree.”

“The ostrich can jump, and he tries to peck Puffy Poofy,” Mom said.

“But Puffy Poofy sticks a cake from the tree onto the ostrich’s beak so he can’t peck him,” Alice said. “Puffy Poofy throws lemonade and candy at the ostrich’s feet so he slips.”

“But it’s not enough,” Mom said. “The ostrich shakes the cake off his beak, beats his wings, and grabs the tree branches with his beak. He gives the tree a good shake until Puffy Poofy falls to the ground.”

“Puffy Poofy runs up the ostrich’s legs and tickles him,” Alice said.

“The ostrich laughs so hard that he falls down and sits on Puffy Poofy. Puffy Poofy is too hurt to climb back into the tree.”

Alice stared down at poor Puffy Poofy. She wasn’t sure what to do next, but just then her hair fell down onto the paper.

“The ostrich sees my hair and chases it. Puffy Poofy whistles for his magic box. He flies up into the tree with it and grabs chicken legs and throws them at the ostrich!”

“And the ostrich goes crying home to his mother,” Mom said. “And he promises he will never greedily keep a magic tree all to himself again. Now, we’re here, Alice,” and she drove into a parking spot and turned off the car.

Alice couldn’t believe it! The car ride was already over! She closed the notebook on Puffy Poofy in his magical tree, and put the pen beside it. As she climbed out of the car, Alice had the very first happy “what-if” in her whole life.

What if, she thought, we can play that again on the drive home?

The End