Latest / Dad’s Bedtime Stories / The Easter Bunny Costume - A Magic Costume Tree Adventure
Transcript
- 0:04Speaker 1: Hello, friends from across the nation and around the world.
- 0:08Speaker 1: I'm Martin, and you are listening to Dad's bedtime stories. Tonight,
- 0:14Speaker 1: we're going to be headed back to a universe that
- 0:17Speaker 1: I do every now and then, the Magic Costume Tree universe,
- 0:23Speaker 1: which if you haven't listened before, is basically a world
- 0:27Speaker 1: where when adventures needed, the Magic Costume Tree appears. Each
- 0:34Speaker 1: costume inside gives you a special power and helps you
- 0:40Speaker 1: solve a particular situation. And that's exactly what we're going
- 0:45Speaker 1: to do tonight. And strangely, tonight's episode suggestion comes to
- 0:51Speaker 1: us from the same person as one of the same
- 0:55Speaker 1: people as last time suggestion, Ruth from Austin, Texas, who
- 1:01Speaker 1: made a couple different Easter suggestions. Both of them kind
- 1:05Speaker 1: of just stuck in my mind and I started creating
- 1:08Speaker 1: stories for them. Honestly, I didn't even realize they were
- 1:11Speaker 1: from the same person at first until I went back
- 1:13Speaker 1: to look at the form after creating the entire story.
- 1:17Speaker 1: So Ruth, thank you for all of your Easter related suggestions.
- 1:22Speaker 1: This time, Ruth was hoping for a Magic Costume Tree
- 1:26Speaker 1: episode with an Easter bunny costume, so I started to
- 1:30Speaker 1: ask myself what powers would an Easter Bunny have, And
- 1:35Speaker 1: I would like to point out that any similarities between
- 1:38Speaker 1: this episode and how Easter actually works are purely coincidental,
- 1:41Speaker 1: as this is a product of my imagination, not of reality. Necessarily,
- 1:48Speaker 1: before we get started, I did promise that I would
- 1:53Speaker 1: give one last check to my Google form for the
- 1:56Speaker 1: March Social Share Contest. Since recording this on April first,
- 2:01Speaker 1: it's released on April second. The last day to join
- 2:05Speaker 1: the contest has passed, and I will do the draw
- 2:08Speaker 1: on Sunday, so the beginning of next week. First of all,
- 2:13Speaker 1: thank you to Tate Jay who shared the podcast on Facebook.
- 2:19Speaker 1: I really appreciate that. Next up, thank you to Wendy
- 2:24Speaker 1: Q who also shared the episode on Facebook. Thank you, Wendy.
- 2:30Speaker 1: And last thank you to Vivian the Mom and James
- 2:36Speaker 1: the Child for sharing it on Instagram Stories. It really
- 2:40Speaker 1: means a lot that you guys would share the podcast
- 2:42Speaker 1: to others who might like it. In total, here we
- 2:46Speaker 1: had twenty six people enter the March contest, so you
- 2:51Speaker 1: have a one in twenty six chance of winning a
- 2:55Speaker 1: guaranteed story idea. The draw is Sunday. But now it's
- 3:02Speaker 1: that time again, Time for a possible word from a
- 3:06Speaker 1: possible sponsor. Uh, don't worry. I never do man's during
- 3:10Speaker 1: or after the story, though. We just get him over
- 3:12Speaker 1: with at the beginning. Now it's time to close your eyes,
- 3:17Speaker 1: get as comfy as you can in that bed, and
- 3:20Speaker 1: imagine yourself doing what the kid in the story does.
- 3:27Speaker 1: You wake up in the morning, the radio is on
- 3:32Speaker 1: for some reason, crackling cheerfully in the background as you
- 3:37Speaker 1: get ready for the day. You're not really listening at first,
- 3:41Speaker 1: until you hear we interrupt this program for a breaking update.
- 3:46Speaker 1: The local chocolate factory is currently being robbed. That gets
- 3:53Speaker 1: your attention. You stop and turn your head toward the radio.
- 3:58Speaker 1: The announcer sounds kind of too delighted for someone reporting
- 4:02Speaker 1: a chocolate related emergency. Police are on the scene, he continues,
- 4:09Speaker 1: but the robbers are threatening to destroy all of the
- 4:13Speaker 1: chocolate if officers move in. Experts are warning that this
- 4:18Speaker 1: could disrupt the chocolate supply at a crucial time of year,
- 4:23Speaker 1: and may cause the price of chocolate to rise to
- 4:27Speaker 1: levels never before seen. There's a dramatic little burst of music,
- 4:35Speaker 1: that kind of music they play when they think something's
- 4:38Speaker 1: really important to human history or whatever you picture giant
- 4:43Speaker 1: vats of chocolate, trays of chocolate bars, rivers of melted chocolate,
- 4:50Speaker 1: shelves of chocolate eggs, and maybe even a machine somewhere
- 4:55Speaker 1: that makes those little like foil wrapped chocolates. It sounds bad,
- 5:01Speaker 1: very bad, But then you look down at yourself. You
- 5:07Speaker 1: are unfortunately just you. No cape, no gadgets, no magic dragon,
- 5:14Speaker 1: no spaceship or giant robot butler, no army. You've trained squirrels,
- 5:20Speaker 1: or really nothing that could be useful in a chocolate
- 5:24Speaker 1: hostage situation. You sigh, well, that's not great, you say.
- 5:32Speaker 1: The radio keeps talking about negotiations and the possibility of
- 5:37Speaker 1: market instability, and you decide to head outside because there's
- 5:43Speaker 1: really nothing you can do about it. The air is
- 5:46Speaker 1: fresh and cool, Somewhere nearby, birds are singing. Everything seems normal.
- 5:53Speaker 1: Your yard's there, your house is behind you. The day
- 5:56Speaker 1: feels ordinary. You start to wander, been kicking the grass
- 6:02Speaker 1: and looking around, still thinking about the factory. You imagine
- 6:07Speaker 1: the police gathered outside, the robbers and dark clothes waving
- 6:12Speaker 1: their weapons around dramatically. You imagine one extremely stressed out
- 6:19Speaker 1: chocolate factory manager trying not to faint into a that
- 6:23Speaker 1: of chocolate or whatever. Then, for no particular reason, you
- 6:30Speaker 1: turn around and your house is gone. You freeze. Just
- 6:37Speaker 1: a second ago it was there. Now there's only forest,
- 6:42Speaker 1: not a bit of forest, not like trees behind your
- 6:45Speaker 1: house or a nice little wooded area off to the side.
- 6:49Speaker 1: It is full out forest, thick, deep, ancient looking trees,
- 6:55Speaker 1: standing where your house absolutely should have been. You blink
- 7:01Speaker 1: a few times, and uh, well, your house still isn't there.
- 7:08Speaker 1: When you turn back the other way, your heart gives
- 7:12Speaker 1: a sudden jump. There, not far away, stands a large
- 7:18Speaker 1: and ancient tree. The trunk is broad and nodded. Its
- 7:24Speaker 1: branches twist high overhead, set into its bark as a
- 7:28Speaker 1: small round door, and warm golden lake glows around its edges.
- 7:35Speaker 1: The magic costume tree. You grin so suddenly your face hurts. Adventure,
- 7:44Speaker 1: of course, that is what this means. You run to
- 7:49Speaker 1: the tree, feet thumping over the ground, excitement bubbling up
- 7:54Speaker 1: inside you. You pull open the little door and step inside.
- 8:00Speaker 1: The tree is bigger on the inside than it should be,
- 8:03Speaker 1: which you accept immediately because well, you know magic. The
- 8:08Speaker 1: inside is warm and smells a little bit like cedar
- 8:13Speaker 1: and moonlight, if moonlight was a thing you could smell.
- 8:18Speaker 1: A single beam of light shines down from above, and
- 8:23Speaker 1: in that beam hangs.
- 8:26Speaker 2: A bunny costume. You stop.
- 8:30Speaker 1: A bunny, you say out loud. The costume hangs there quietly,
- 8:35Speaker 1: being extremely bunny shaped. It has soft looking fur, long ears,
- 8:41Speaker 1: little paws, big feet, and a tiny round tail. It's
- 8:47Speaker 1: not at first the most thrilling costume you've ever seen.
- 8:51Speaker 1: A dragon would have been more exciting, or like a
- 8:54Speaker 1: wizard or a space night or a ninja or something.
- 8:58Speaker 1: Even a pirate would be kind of cool.
- 9:00Speaker 2: But a bunny.
- 9:03Speaker 1: You narrow your eyes. It doesn't seem very adventurous. But
- 9:07Speaker 1: uh well, the magic costume tree has never led you
- 9:12Speaker 1: astray before. It has a way of knowing things before
- 9:17Speaker 1: you do. Also, if a magical glowing tree offers you
- 9:21Speaker 1: a costume, turning it down seems kind of rude, so
- 9:27Speaker 1: you step forward and pick it up. It feels warm
- 9:30Speaker 1: in your hands, as if it just came out of
- 9:32Speaker 1: the dryer or something. You put it on at once.
- 9:37Speaker 1: It begins to tighten and settle around you, fitting itself
- 9:41Speaker 1: perfectly to your body. A strange tingling sensation rushes through
- 9:47Speaker 1: your arms, your legs, your back. The top of your head.
- 9:52Speaker 1: It's not unpleasant. It feels like a sort of fizzy energy,
- 9:57Speaker 1: like a thousand tiny sparks waking up all at once.
- 10:02Speaker 1: The costume clings closer for a moment. It feels less
- 10:07Speaker 1: like clothing and more like something becoming part of you.
- 10:11Speaker 1: You can feel the ears, not just the weight of them,
- 10:14Speaker 1: You can feel them as if they're your own ears.
- 10:18Speaker 1: You can feel the little tail, too, twitching behind you,
- 10:23Speaker 1: as naturally as if you'd been born with it. The
- 10:27Speaker 1: whole costume seems to melt into your movements until it
- 10:31Speaker 1: no longer feels strange at all. Instead, it feels right.
- 10:38Speaker 1: A powerful urge rises up inside you, not to walk,
- 10:44Speaker 1: to bounce. You head outside and bend your knees. Then
- 10:50Speaker 1: you jump. You shoot into the air.
- 10:54Speaker 2: Whoa.
- 10:55Speaker 1: The ground drops away beneath you so fast that you're
- 10:59Speaker 1: stick gives a delighted little lurching feeling. You soar much
- 11:06Speaker 1: higher than you're meant to, floating for a startling second
- 11:10Speaker 1: before landing lightly on the grass. Then you jump again,
- 11:15Speaker 1: and again. Each leap is fast, easy, powerful. You spring
- 11:22Speaker 1: across the clearing as if gravity is somehow decided to
- 11:26Speaker 1: stop doing its job. Your big bunny feet barely seem
- 11:31Speaker 1: to touch the ground before they launch you onward again.
- 11:36Speaker 1: You find a path winding through the forest and follow it,
- 11:41Speaker 1: bouncing along it in enormous leaps. You pass ferns, mossy roots,
- 11:48Speaker 1: shafts of sunlight flashing through the leaves, until after a
- 11:53Speaker 1: while the forest thins the path leads out onto a street.
- 12:00Speaker 1: You land beside the curb just as a yell comes
- 12:04Speaker 1: from behind you. It startles you badly enough that your
- 12:08Speaker 1: heart thumps. You twirl around, and suddenly the world slows
- 12:16Speaker 1: not a little, a lot, so much that it feels
- 12:21Speaker 1: like time itself has become thick and sort of a syrupy.
- 12:26Speaker 1: A bicycle wheel spins through the air at a lazy crawl.
- 12:31Speaker 1: A leaf drifts downward like it has all day to
- 12:35Speaker 1: get there. A car rolling along the street now moves
- 12:39Speaker 1: so slowly you could walk past it if you were
- 12:44Speaker 1: barely trying at all. You stare, then you realize what
- 12:49Speaker 1: startled you. A little girl in a double stroller is
- 12:53Speaker 1: yelling angrily at her older brother, who's poking her with
- 12:57Speaker 1: a stick for no reason except that brother, when left unsupervised,
- 13:02Speaker 1: sometimes behave like tiny agents of chaos. The girl's mouth
- 13:08Speaker 1: is still open mid shout, the boy's face is frozen,
- 13:13Speaker 1: and the very slow process of pretending he's done nothing wrong.
- 13:18Speaker 1: You move, and moving is easier, more than easy. Each
- 13:24Speaker 1: step sends you gliding faster and further than should be possible.
- 13:29Speaker 1: The whole world is crawling. Will you remain quick and
- 13:33Speaker 1: light and perfectly free? You circle the stroller once in awe,
- 13:39Speaker 1: looking at everything around you in dreamy slow motion. I
- 13:44Speaker 1: can slow time you whisper, or maybe you are moving
- 13:49Speaker 1: super fast, or possibly both. Either way, it's excellent. You
- 13:56Speaker 1: step closer to the brother, pluck the stick neatly from
- 13:59Speaker 1: his head, and and hop away before either child has
- 14:03Speaker 1: the faintest idea you were even there. Then you let
- 14:07Speaker 1: go of the feeling, and time rushes back. The girl
- 14:12Speaker 1: finishes or yell. The brother blinks and stares at his
- 14:17Speaker 1: empty hand and complete confusion. You grin and look down
- 14:22Speaker 1: at the stick you're holding. As you watch, it begins
- 14:27Speaker 1: to change, the wood darkens, its color softens into rich brown.
- 14:36Speaker 1: A sweet smell rises from it, chocolate. You lift it
- 14:41Speaker 1: up to your nose and take a whiff, definitely chocolate. Carefully,
- 14:48Speaker 1: because licking mysterious transformed objects is usually a questionable decision.
- 14:53Speaker 2: You take a small bite.
- 14:56Speaker 1: It's delicious, really good chocolate, gy rich, perfect chocolate. You
- 15:04Speaker 1: stare at the piece in your hand. Oh, you say,
- 15:09Speaker 1: that is very interesting. You can jump high, you can
- 15:14Speaker 1: slow time, You might be able to go incredibly fast though,
- 15:18Speaker 1: and now you can apparently turn things into chocolate. You
- 15:24Speaker 1: look down at a patch of grass by your feet.
- 15:28Speaker 1: A strange feeling tugs at you. Not just curiosity, something
- 15:33Speaker 1: deeper and more instinctive, A sudden need to gather, to
- 15:38Speaker 1: collect to a range. The grass seems important somehow, You
- 15:45Speaker 1: crouch and begin pulling a few handfuls, then a few more,
- 15:51Speaker 1: without really thinking about it. Your fingers start weaving them together, twisting, folding, looping, tucking.
- 15:58Speaker 1: Your hands move with astonishing speed. In moments, the grass
- 16:04Speaker 1: becomes a tidy little basket.
- 16:08Speaker 2: You blink at it.
- 16:10Speaker 1: Huh, not just bunny powers, then something more specific. Before
- 16:17Speaker 1: you can think your way through, a new voice rings
- 16:20Speaker 1: out nearby. Put the chocolate down and no one will
- 16:25Speaker 1: get hurt. You turn at the end of the street.
- 16:30Speaker 1: Beyond a row of buildings stands the chocolate factory, the
- 16:35Speaker 1: one from the radio. Police cars surrounded officers crouch behind
- 16:42Speaker 1: doors and barriers. A cluster of robbers dressed in black
- 16:47Speaker 1: can be seen through the front windows, waving weapons and
- 16:51Speaker 1: looking too pleased with themselves. One of them shouts back, galaway,
- 16:58Speaker 1: or we'll destroy all this chocolate. Without this chocolate, the
- 17:03Speaker 1: price of chocolate will go up dramatically. Do you really
- 17:08Speaker 1: want that to happen, officer? There's a brief pause, Then
- 17:14Speaker 1: from behind one of the police cars, an officer mutters,
- 17:18Speaker 1: in a very worried voice. We can't let them destroy
- 17:21Speaker 1: the chocolate. I still need to buy some for my family.
- 17:25Speaker 1: Another says, my niece wants three different kinds of third whispers.
- 17:33Speaker 2: You think this is going to affect mini eggs too.
- 17:37Speaker 1: The others stare at him with deep alarm. You look
- 17:40Speaker 1: from the police to the factory and back again, and
- 17:44Speaker 1: suddenly the whole thing makes perfect sense. This is why
- 17:49Speaker 1: the tree appeared, This is the adventure. You're here because
- 17:56Speaker 1: somebody needs help, and for reasons no only to ancient
- 18:01Speaker 1: magical trees. The solution to a chocolate crisis involves.
- 18:07Speaker 2: A bunny costume.
- 18:10Speaker 1: You set your little grass basket down and focus on
- 18:14Speaker 1: the strange, rushing feeling again. The world slows you leap.
- 18:21Speaker 1: One bound carries you past the police line before anyone notices.
- 18:26Speaker 1: Another takes you straight to the factory wall. You place
- 18:30Speaker 1: a paw like hand against it as you search for
- 18:33Speaker 1: a doorway. The wall ripples when you touch it. You
- 18:38Speaker 1: pull back, startled. It looks soft, somehow unsteady, like the
- 18:45Speaker 1: surface of a pond, pretending to be solid. Very cautiously,
- 18:51Speaker 1: you push your hand forward. It goes straight through. Your
- 18:56Speaker 1: eyes widened. Oh, you whisper. That is extremely useful. You
- 19:04Speaker 1: step through the wall. Inside the factory, everything is almost frozen.
- 19:12Speaker 1: The robbers stand in various dramatic poses, one pointing towards
- 19:17Speaker 1: a vat of melted chocolate, another shouting something that now
- 19:22Speaker 1: sounds like a whale trying to speak through putting. The
- 19:30Speaker 1: place smells amazing, cocoa, sugar, caramel, vanilla.
- 19:36Speaker 2: You shake that off.
- 19:38Speaker 1: This is no time to become distracted by the fact
- 19:41Speaker 1: that the entire building smells like a dream. You move
- 19:45Speaker 1: from robber to robber, each one holding some kind of weapon.
- 19:50Speaker 1: You place your hand on the first. It turns to
- 19:53Speaker 1: chocolate instantly, the second too, the third, the fourth, chocolate, chocolate,
- 20:01Speaker 1: and chocolate again. You almost feel a little sorry for them.
- 20:05Speaker 1: Planning a robbery is probably complicated enough without your weapons
- 20:09Speaker 1: suddenly becoming chocolate. But then you pause. Now what you
- 20:16Speaker 1: look around. You couldn't just leave them standing here. You
- 20:20Speaker 1: need some way to wrap them up, or handcuff them
- 20:23Speaker 1: or whatever. At once, your bunny instinks leap into action again. Basket,
- 20:31Speaker 1: of course, You zip back through the wall, gather armfuls
- 20:36Speaker 1: of grass, reeds, sticks, and whatever else you can find.
- 20:41Speaker 1: Then you rush back inside. Working with impossible speed, you
- 20:47Speaker 1: weave and twist and wrap the materials together around the robbers,
- 20:52Speaker 1: round and round, under and over, tighter and tighter. By
- 20:57Speaker 1: the time you're done, the entire gang is bound together
- 21:01Speaker 1: in one enormous woven bundle that looks unmistakenly like a
- 21:06Speaker 1: giant easter basket. You stop and admire your work for
- 21:11Speaker 1: a second. It's excellent, very festive, and very secure. You
- 21:19Speaker 1: toss the chocolate weapons into the middle for good measure,
- 21:22Speaker 1: then grip the basket and drag it toward the wall.
- 21:27Speaker 1: To your surprise, it's much lighter than expected. Perhaps the
- 21:32Speaker 1: time dilation thing, or perhaps bunny strength or something like that.
- 21:38Speaker 1: You pull the whole giant basket outside, then because this
- 21:43Speaker 1: is going wonderfully and you're beginning to enjoy yourself very much.
- 21:46Speaker 1: You leap straight up onto a nearby building and crouch
- 21:51Speaker 1: there to watch. A second later, you release the slowed
- 21:56Speaker 1: time feeling, and everything snaps back to normal. The police jump.
- 22:02Speaker 1: The robbers, who were in the middle of threatening everyone,
- 22:05Speaker 1: suddenly find themselves outside, tangled together in a giant woven basket.
- 22:13Speaker 1: One officer stares, another slowly lowers his megaphone. The robbers
- 22:20Speaker 1: yell and outrage and confusion. An officer peers into the
- 22:24Speaker 1: basket and lifts up one of the weapons. He sniffs it, then,
- 22:29Speaker 1: against all sensible police procedures, he takes a tiny nibble.
- 22:34Speaker 1: His eyes widen. It's chocolate. The others crowd around. It's
- 22:41Speaker 1: all chocolate. They've been wrapped in some kind of basket.
- 22:48Speaker 1: Why is it shaped like an easter basket? After some
- 22:52Speaker 1: confused conversation back and forth, the police begin cutting the
- 22:56Speaker 1: robbers free, slapping handcuffs on them, loading them into cars,
- 23:02Speaker 1: while still glancing around suspiciously, unsure how a gigantic easter
- 23:07Speaker 1: basket came to be sitting in front of them, with
- 23:11Speaker 1: all of the robbers inside, where their weapons always chocolate,
- 23:17Speaker 1: or who cares. The factory was safe, the chocolate saved.
- 23:24Speaker 1: Chocolate prices presumably will remain at survivable levels. Your mission
- 23:31Speaker 1: was accomplished. Suddenly, the costume starts to feel strange. It
- 23:39Speaker 1: hums with energy, and then it lifts you right off
- 23:43Speaker 1: the roof. You squeak in surprise as your feet leave
- 23:47Speaker 1: the building and the air rushes around you. But instead
- 23:52Speaker 1: of falling, you rise higher and higher above the city.
- 23:58Speaker 1: The streets stretch below, so cars become tiny. The factory
- 24:03Speaker 1: turns into a neat little block with flashing police lights
- 24:07Speaker 1: around it. The wind moves softly past your ear. The
- 24:12Speaker 1: city gleams in the distance, and you are flying. The
- 24:18Speaker 1: costume carries you over rooftops, roads, parks, houses, until at
- 24:25Speaker 1: last the city thins and the ancient forest appears again below.
- 24:31Speaker 1: You float gently down through the trees. The magic costume
- 24:36Speaker 1: tree awaits in a clearing golden lake, glowing from the
- 24:41Speaker 1: little round door. You land softly in front of it.
- 24:46Speaker 1: The door opens as if it was expecting you. You
- 24:50Speaker 1: step inside, and again the wooden room glows quietly. The
- 24:57Speaker 1: suit suddenly begins to loose it all by itself. The
- 25:02Speaker 1: ears droop the tail twitches once. Then the costume detaches
- 25:08Speaker 1: from you with a soft, shimmery feeling, like stepping out
- 25:12Speaker 1: of a warm bath made of moonlight or static electricity
- 25:17Speaker 1: or something. You one zip it carefully for a second.
- 25:22Speaker 1: You hold it in your hands, then you hang it
- 25:26Speaker 1: back up and put it on the rack. That was
- 25:29Speaker 1: actually kind of fun, you say. As you step outside,
- 25:35Speaker 1: a forest path lies waiting. You follow it at an
- 25:40Speaker 1: ordinary pace until you eventually step out and find yourself
- 25:46Speaker 1: staring at your house. Once again, You turn behind you,
- 25:51Speaker 1: and the forest path is gone weird. You go inside
- 25:59Speaker 1: your home. You head immediately to your bedroom and you
- 26:04Speaker 1: lay down in your bed, pulling the covers up to
- 26:08Speaker 1: your chin. You close your eyes and you begin to
- 26:15Speaker 1: focus on your breath. With each breath, you let go
- 26:21Speaker 1: of any tension in your muscles, starting with your legs,
- 26:28Speaker 1: then your arms, your shoulders, your neck, and at last
- 26:36Speaker 1: your face. With each breath, you sink down a little
- 26:42Speaker 1: bit deeper, and your mind begins to wander off to
- 26:48Speaker 1: thoughts of new dreams, new chocolate, and new adventures to come.
- 26:56Speaker 1: Good night, Everyone.
- 27:39Speaker 3: Name name M M.
- 33:46Speaker 4: M never more Union.
- 35:59Speaker 5: Na Acoma in New yor more Union Kicking no
- 43:05Speaker 3: Thing, no