Dialogue is fun. It's the original uniquely human interaction, talking. And, humans love to bestow that gift upon animals in stories.
You would think the dialogue of a nine-year-old would be simplified in a story. But it's surprisingly realistic.
In a garden lived a dog. Her name was Bibbi. She had neighbors, a cat named Tom and a dog named Mark.
On a late Tuesday evening Bibbi was feeling bored. She decided to do something exciting.
But when she thought about what to do, someone knocked on the door. The doors opened, and Bibbi saw Tom, Jerry, and Mark.
Bibbi had never had visitors before, and she was excited. She said, "Well, this is rather serendipitous, as I was just thinking of something fun to do."
"Bibbi,"said Tom "we have new neighbors."
"It is a snail!" said Mark with big eyes.
"Umm," said Bibbi as her face contorted into a mildly confused look, "do snails do anything?"
"Snails are slow, but this snail is VERY FAST!" said Jerry.
"Quick," said Bibbi, close all the doors.
Tom thought, 'Why would we do that?' But he said, "Okay Bibbi." And Tom, Jerry, and Mark closed the doors.
"Why did we close the doors?" said Jerry.
"Because snails can slime her, my girl hates snails!" replied Bibbi.
"Oh!" said Jerry, seeming to get a shock of realization. "You're protecting your human. That makes sense."
"I do not like snails." said Bibbi. Seeming to finish that conversation.
"But my news is worse, Arie will bring home another cat." said Jerry, and looked to his home with fear.
Tom started laughing, then he tried to say something, but he was laughing too hard, and no one could understand him.
Then he said "Don't worry Jerry, I will give him a lesson about not eating my Jerry."
Bibbi yawned, "Well, this has been fun. It is getting late though."
"Bye Tom, bye Jerry, bye Mark." said Bibbi.
She smiled at them as they opened the doors and left. "Remember to shut the doors," she said as she turned to go inside, "I don't want any snails around here."
The End.
Since we only have one hour when we do these sessions I try to keep the situations somewhat simple. Sometimes they bloom into four characters all having a conversation together though. Look at all of that complex punctuation too. Now, granted, I did have to adjust a number of things as we were working through it. But, since we started working on writing Vera has made immense improvements. It's pretty impressive.
That ability to speak and listen seems so natural to us. Yet, it would be magic for any other animal. We pick it up naturally, at a young age, and sometimes we forget the power that it is. To talk is human.
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