The audience was enormous. The speaker required no microphone.
The forest held meetings every evening.
Nobody remembered who had started them.
Nobody remembered why they continued.
They simply happened.
When the shadows became longer than the trees…
Everyone arrived.
The elephant came first.
This required planning.
The giraffe arrived second.
This required geometry.
The crocodile selected the front row.
Nobody argued with this decision.
The tiger sat carefully.
The rabbit sat very carefully.
The bear brought honey.
Nobody knew why.
The duck brought absolutely nothing.
This was also respected.
The eagle landed overhead.
Officially, he was “providing security.”
Unofficially…
He disliked missing good stories.
Soon nearly every creature in the forest had gathered.
Only one question remained.
“Who’s speaking tonight?”
Suggestions appeared immediately.
“The lion.”
Too loud.
“The elephant.”
Too long.
“The owl.”
Too many footnotes.
“The fox.”
Nobody trusted the ending.
Silence settled.
Then someone noticed a tiny movement.
A mouse climbed onto a flat stone.
Carrying a book almost the size of itself.
No one laughed.
Not because they were polite.
Because they had heard the mouse before.
The mouse opened the book.
Every tail stopped moving.
Even the wind slowed down.
The first sentence was ordinary.
The second was interesting.
By the third…
The crocodile had forgotten to blink.
The eagle leaned farther down the branch.
The tiger smiled.
Nobody admitted seeing this.
Halfway through the story…
A squirrel whispered,
“How can something so small tell stories this large?”
The old tortoise smiled.
“Stories don’t become large because of the storyteller.”
“They become large because everyone carries a piece home.”
Nobody answered.
There was no time.
The mouse had already begun the next chapter.
Much later…
Long after the audience had wandered back into the forest…
The little mouse looked around.
The clearing was empty.
“So…”
asked the rabbit.
“Did they enjoy it?”
The mouse closed the book.
“I have no idea.”
“Why?”
“I never looked up.”
Livora Gracely 
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