Week Six: Storytelling

There once were two travelers, one from Chicago and one from Austin.

Both loved to travel the country and take pictures. Each had an extensive collection of photos, ranging from historic landmarks to beautiful landscapes. They were both very proud of their collection, showing anyone who would stop the beautiful prints. Although these two travelers had a lot in common they didn't know about each other.

One day, the traveler from Chicago, named John, decided he would go to Austin. He wanted to see what everyone loved about the city and went on his way down to Texas. The other traveler, Adam, that day decided he wanted to see Chicago. He wanted to see the Windy City and all of the great landmarks he'd seen on TV. He set out heading north for Illinois.

Now the trip from Chicago to Austin is very long and both travelers grew tired from their journey. Both stopped about halfway, which happened to be in Tulsa, OK. John rented a hotel room and headed downtown to relax at a local pub, called McNellies. He ordered a burger and a beer and looked forward to not traveling through the night. While Adam, also stopped in Tulsa and headed to McNellies for a late dinner. Having nowhere else to sit, he asked to join John at the table. After they introduced themselves, they found they had a lot in common. Both talked of the splendors of their respective city and spoke excitedly of visiting the new city.

They ended up spending a few days in Tulsa getting to know each other: going out to eat pizza at Andolini's, see a Driller's baseball game and exploring some of Tulsa's little dessert shops on Brookside. After a few days of just relaxing and exploring, John and Adam had become good friends.

"I wish I could just see what Chicago was like so I'd know if I should continue on my journey!" exclaimed John on the third day. He was missing home and liked not having to constantly travel. Adam agreed, saying surely there must be a way to know if it was worth all his trouble. All of a sudden, Adam had an idea.

"Well you have pictures of Chicago and I have pictures of Austin, why don't we just switch and see?" Adam said. John, delighted, said that was a great idea and reached for his precious packet of polaroids. At the moment, as both John and Adam had pulled out their pictures, a giant Oklahoma wind gust blew and pushed all of the pictures out of their hands.

Frantically, both travelers ran after the pictures as they fluttered away. John grabbed whatever he saw and Adam did the same, so in the end both ended up with each other's pictures by accident. After they recovered the photos they made their trade.

But Adam, seeing what he thought were John's pictures of Chicago, but were really his own of Austin, declared, "Well Chicago looks exactly like Austin! It is not worth it for me to travel all that way to see the same things."

While John, looking at what he thought were Adam's photos of Austin, but were really his own of Chicago, agreed, "You're right. Austin looks exactly like my home in Chicago. I will just head home then."

They parted ways as friends and each headed to their perspective home, holding each other's pictures.

(Source)

Author's Note. This story is based on The Two Frogs in the Japanese Fairy Tales unit. The original story is about two frogs that want to travel to each other's city and meet in the middle. They want to know whether they should continue on their journey or just go home, so they stand on each other's backs and look for the city they want to see. However, frog's eyes are on the back of their head, so when they did that they ended up only seeing their own city. Thinking that their destination was the same as their home they both returned home and didn't continue. I changed it to humans who carry pictures and with the wind they accidentally pick up each other's photos. It makes them think that their destination looks exactly like their home. A little unrealistic, I know, but I wanted to interpret in a different way but keep the original moral and plot. Plus, I'm from Tulsa so I incorporated actual places they could have visited.

Bibliography. The Two Frogs in the Japanese Fairy Tales unit by Andrew Lang (1901).