Mr. Robin and the Love of a Bluebird: The Story of Window Accidents in Clear View

Once there was a bird named Mr. Robin that fought for the love of a Bluebird.

He admired her more than any other bird and wouldn’t let anyone else near her.

Every time the couple flew past windows, he mistook his reflection for another robin.

“What do you want with us?” Mr. Robin would say, flying toward the reflection.

With that, he would knock his head against the glass and go bouncing to the ground.

He knocked his head on so many windows that he finally knocked sense into himself.

“Marry me!” he said to the Bluebird, holding his swollen and bandaged head.

“I love you, dear,” she said, “but you must stop running into windows before you break one.”

Copyright 2018 Jennifer Waters 

CHEESE SUNDAY synopsis

LOGLINE

Ten rambunctious mice, a fractious cat, and an understanding priest declare peace so all can enjoy the secret stash of cheese and eggs hidden up in the church steeple all throughout Lent.

PITCH

In the Church of the Holy Apostles in the ancient city of Athens, ten rambunctious mice raid the Fellowship Hall and stockpile the precious cheese and eggs until Easter morning. Since Cheese Sunday is Forgiveness Sunday, the mice decide that the parishioners can’t even be angry at them for stealing the food. But the church cat Muffin can. When the congregation finds the messy Hall and wonders what happened to its beloved annual cheese celebration, they blame Muffin. The priest grabs Muffin and goes up to the steeple, looking for the naughty church mice. He finds the rebellious mice sitting next to the piles of cheese and eggs with guilty smiles. Although Muffin wants to eat the mice for a snack, the priest enjoys cheese and eggs all through Lent, reminding everyone that cheese tastes almost as good as forgiveness.

SYNOPSIS 

Not far from the Acropolis, in the Church of the Holy Apostles in the ancient city of Athens, live ten rambunctious mice who hide their favorite foods from the church kitchen up in the steeple rafters. Cheese Sunday is the last Sunday before Lent, and after that, Father Joseph gets rid of all the cheese and eggs in the church kitchen for six weeks. Previously the mice lived in the Jewish Deli during Lent, but they decide to raid the Fellowship Hall and stockpile the cheese and eggs until Easter morning. Since Cheese Sunday is Forgiveness Sunday, the mice decide that the parishioners can’t even be angry at them for stealing the food.

First thing on Cheese Sunday, the mice scurry down the church steeple into the Fellowship Hall where Muffin the cat prances about. As the nuns finish setting up the special meal and Muffin sleeps in a corner, the ten church mice collect every last morsel of the different kinds of cheese and eggs and carry it all up to the rafters in the steeple. The congregation finds the messy Hall and wonders what happened to its beloved annual cheese celebration. They blame Muffin, who runs into Father Joseph’s study and shuts the door with his tail. The priest marches into his study, grabs Muffin and goes up to the bell in the steeple, looking for the naughty church mice. He calls out that he knows where the cheese went and finds the rebellious mice sitting next to the cheese and eggs with guilty smiles. Muffin jumps to pounce as the church mice scurry away. The priest tells Muffin he can’t chase the mice on Cheese Sunday because it’s almost Lent. Besides, Father Joseph at least knows where to find the cheese if they get hungry during Lent.

Then Father Joseph sits down next to the mice. With Muffin keeping watch, the priest eats his portion of the rationed cheese and eggs for the day, and every other day throughout Lent. He announces with a chuckle that cheese tastes almost as good as forgiveness. The church mice could do nothing but agree.

Copyright 2022 Jennifer Waters

STACEY PEACH SWEET PEA SPINACH synopsis

LOGLINE

A sweet little girl makes sweet peach pies to lure in love and gets a sweet surprise.

PITCH

Eleven-year-old Stacey Peach Sweet Pea Spinach likes to pick peaches, adores sweet peas and spinach salad, and even has hair the color of peaches—all because her mom ate those things before Stacey was born, because Stacey Peach’s dad had deserted them. Stacey Peach makes sweet peach pies and leaves them on the front porch at night in hopes her father will return, but all she finds in the mornings are the empty pie plate and a dirty fork, so she decides to hide out and find out who’s eating the pies. Turns out it’s a young neighbor boy who likes her but was too shy to approach. When Stacey Peach cries about her dad, the boy comforts her and suggests she could share his father and he could share her mother since his has died. Stacey Peach thinks her new boyfriend might be the next-best-thing to having her dad back. 

SYNOPSIS 

Eleven-year-old Stacey Peach Sweet Pea Spinach likes to pick peaches in the Sunshine Garden in her backyard on rainy days amidst the sweet peas. When Mrs. Spinach was pregnant with Stacey Peach, she overindulged in peaches, sweet peas, and spinach salads because Stacey’s dad had skipped town. Stacey was born with peachy orange hair, smelling like sweet peas, and craving leafy spinach. Stacey Peach plucks ripe peaches from the trees, thinking if she makes a peach pie with extra love her father will finally come home. Despite her mother’s doubts, she leaves a pie on the front doorstep overnight for her father.

When Stacey Peach opens the door at the crack of dawn, an empty pie plate sits on the porch. Stacey Peach is convinced her dad must have eaten the pie, but no one makes an appearance, despite her pleas. For the next seven nights, she leaves the fresh peach pies on the doorstep, and by morning, all that is left is the empty pie plate and dirty fork. Mrs. Spinach fears that a burglar might be lurking about and tells Stacey Peach that she can only leave one more pie over night for her father. Then, she must move on.

Stacey Peach decides to hide in the bushes until she speaks with the pie thief. Finally, young neighbor Gerald the Plum Gershwin sneaks onto the front porch in his pajamas. He admits he’s been eating Stacey Peach’s pies. He’s always wanted to be friends with her but was too shy. He thinks she is especially pretty, and that peaches and plums have to stick together. Despite his kindness, Stacey Peach is angry and says he ruined her whole plan to bring her father home. Stacey Peach cries her eyes out. Gerald comforts her and suggests that she can share his father and he could share Stacey’s mom because his mom has died. Stacey Peach decides that the-next-best-thing to a dad is a boyfriend, even if her mom thinks she is too young for romantic love. Stacey Peach kisses Gerald the Plum on the cheek, and they eat peach pie together and talk as the sun rises. The peach jam is even sweeter as Stacey Peach eats it straight from the jar and shares it with Gerald, her unlikely hero.

Copyright 2022 Jennifer Waters

Watermelon Seeds: The Story of the Magic Spitting Contest

Watermelon seeds are the magic of summer.

Fall, spring, and winter are such a bummer!

Yes, watermelon is sweet as sunshine,

But its insides are a hidden goldmine.

With seeds to spit as far as you can,

You’re a sailor that spits like a fisherman.

Planting seeds everywhere you go,

You never know what will grow:

A watermelon vine, tree, or field.

Your seed-spitting will have a yield.

So, let’s have a contest to see who wins!

Eat your watermelon through its skins.
Then, spit away to the left and right,

Front and back, day and night,

Until the seeds take root and blossom.

Oh, summertime will always be awesome!

On the back porch and by the lake,

On the riverbank and after eating cake,
The green and pink fruit taste like candy.
They're good for breakfast, at dessert they're dandy.
Roll them down the hill; float them in the pool.
Share them with a friend; they will keep you cool.

Watermelons are filled with such gems.

Their little seeds produce new stems

That are lit by fireflies in the night.

So, all the world is shiny and bright.

Copyright 2018 Jennifer Waters

SIX STRINGS synopsis

LOGLINE

A beloved six string guitar travels from person to person, magically helping them out in their time of need with inspiration, encouragement, and comfort . . . then makes its way back to the little girl who dreams of playing it in Carnegie Hall.  

PITCH

A young musician leaves her precious guitar in a taxicab, threatening her dreams of playing at Carnegie Hall. The guitar is on a mission, though, and makes its way to a homeless man, inspiring him to clean up his life and try and get back into the New York Philharmonic. Then, a former rock musician decides he wants to get his band back together again. An elderly woman dying in hospital has some peaceful last moments playing the guitar and singing, surrounded by friends. Finally, the guitar makes its way back to the young girl who lost it. Thrilled to have Six Strings in her hands again, she generously knows she’s fine to share him with others every now and then.

SYNOPSIS 

When 11-year-old Lyric Lark loses her beloved guitar Six Strings in a New York City taxicab, she is worried that she’ll never play at Carnegie Hall—her lifelong dream. Her teacher at the Brooklyn Music School tells her to simply borrow a guitar until hers is found. Lyric considers that maybe somebody needs the guitar more than she does. Over the years, Six Strings has been held by all kinds of people—mostly at a pivotal moment when they need his comfort or guidance. His original owner was legendary guitarist, Reed Rock, who upon his death prayed for his guitar to live on.

That night the taxi driver finds an out-of-tune guitar and tosses it out next to a homeless man who grabs it, tuning the guitar, and playing flawless jazz standards like “Rhapsody in Blue.” People give him money as he remembers his days as a classical guitarist for the New York Philharmonic, before he started drinking and lost everything. He decides to try and get his old job back. The next day a trash collector and former rock star grabs the instrument, but though he wants to get his band back together he needs an electric guitar, so he takes Six Strings to a hospital donation office.  Meanwhile, the homeless man makes his way to the New York Philharmonic in a new set of clothes bought with the money from his street performance with Six Strings.

At the hospital, the donation manager puts a new set of strings on the guitar and sends it down a long hall of hospital rooms. A nurse picks it up and places him in an elderly woman’s room. With only a few days to live, the elderly woman decides to play the guitar one last time. As she plays and sings, the patients from the ward gather by her bed, joining in a round of “Amazing Grace.” As Six Strings lays quietly on her lap, the elderly woman passes away. Six Strings goes back down the hall to the donation manager, who decides that the guitar would do better at a school. Noticing the name tag on the instrument, which says: “Lyric Lark,” he takes the guitar to the Brooklyn Music School, hoping to find the owner. When he bursts into the school, Lyric runs to get her beloved guitar. Badgered for identification, her teacher defends Lyric, making the man return Six Strings. As Lyric goes into class with Six Strings, the manager warns the girl not to lose the guitar again. Determined still to play at Carnegie Hall, Lyric thinks she needs Six Strings more than anyone else, even if she has to share him every now and then.

Copyright 2022 Jennifer Waters

The Pink Chocolate Cigar Box: The Story of a Stork that Delivers Baby Girls

Once there was a stork who delivered baby girls,

In pink chocolate cigar boxes with a head of curls.

The stork flew strong all throughout the night,

With the babies fast asleep, as he took flight.

When he landed in a baby’s nursery room,

He tried to land without making a boom.

As the baby woke up in the morning air,

The family found a child instead of a teddy bear.

A pink chocolate cigar box sat by her side,

Which left the parents’ eyes open wide.

Chocolate cigars for the first eighteen years.

The family could share them and give great cheers

For the baby that would one day become a lady,

Until then she’d have to keep last names like O’Grady.

Of course, the stork gobbled up cigars on the sly.

Then, he waved his wings and said good-bye.

He had done his job, and he was onto the next,

Delivering babies was extremely complex.

The cigar boxes had to be bright pink,

And the cushions inside softer than you think.

The chocolate had to be semi-sweet,

And room enough for ten toes and ten feet.

Now, if you wanted a boy, you’d meet a different stork,

With blue cigar boxes, all the way from New York!

Copyright 2018 Jennifer Waters

Six Strings: The Story of the Traveling Guitar

“Six Strings and me are going to travel the world together,” said 11-year-old Lyric Lark from a taxicab backseat. 

“Okay, kid, whatever you say,” the taxicab driver said. “Just grab your guitar from the trunk and get going. I have a job to do. I don’t have time to listen to your dreams. It’s costing me too much on fumes!”

Six Strings sat in the trunk of the taxicab ready for whoever would play him next. His current caretaker, New York City’s Lyric Lark, a novice guitar student, needed him to help her set goals. Now that Six Strings had pointed her in the right direction, it was time for the traveling guitar to take some trips. 

Over the years, he had been held by all kinds of people—young and old, rich and poor, weak and strong. Mostly, people met Six Strings at a pivotal moment in their lives, when they needed his comfort or guidance. His original owner was legendary guitarist, Reed Rock, who upon his death prayed for his guitar to live on.

“God, please help my guitar pass into the right hands after I die,” Reed whispered on his death bed. 

“Let this guitar bless everyone who touches it, and let my music live on through its six strings,” he said. 

Then, the New York City taxicab driver with Lyric inside stopped outside the prestigious Brooklyn Music School.

“Next time you see me I’ll be playing at Carnegie Hall,” Lyric said, slamming the car door shut. 

After she handed the driver a wad of cash, she walked to the back of the taxi to get her guitar.

“Could I get some help with this?” Lyric said, over the noise of horns and car engines. 

Before Lyric could maneuver the trunk open, the taxicab put on its blinker and sped down the street. 

“Wait a minute! Six Strings! I need Six Strings! Where are you going?” Lyric cried. “Stop! You’re a thief!”

As Lyric ran down the street after the taxi, tears streamed down her face, crying. 

“Six Strings come back! What am I going to do now?” Lyric said. “I need Six Strings for my guitar lesson. Mom will be upset!”

“Don’t worry, Lyric,” Miss Medley Stanza said, the teacher of the beginner guitar class at the Brooklyn Music School. She walked up the street with a stack of papers in her hands and bags over her shoulders. 

“You can have one of my guitars. I have two!” a classmate said, walking down the street with two guitar cases.

“Everything already worked out, just according to plan,” Miss Stanza said, smiling at Lyric, who was teary-eyed.

“Thanks, Jazzy Beat,” Lyric said, giving him a hug. “Maybe somebody needed Six Strings more than I did today.”

“Maybe,” Jazzy said, opening the door to Brooklyn Music School and running up the stairs to the guitar classroom. 

“We have guitar class in five minutes. Don’t be late!” Miss Stanza said to her students, bustling into the building.

“After class, I’m looking for Six Strings,” Lyric whispered to Jazzy as they took their seats in the front of the class. 

“That’ll be like finding a needle in a haystack,” Jazzy said. “Keep my second guitar until you get a new one.”

“I don’t want a new guitar,” she said, looking out the window. “I get a special feeling when I play Six Strings.”

“Now, turn to page twelve of your lesson book,” Miss Stanza said. “Today we are working on the C major scale.”

 

In the meantime, Six Strings had bumped down the street in the New York City taxi by himself. By the end of the evening, the driver parked on the roadside and popped the trunk open to find an out-of-tune guitar. 

“How did you end up in here?” the driver said, looking at the name tag on Six Strings. “That crazy kid who wanted to play at Carnegie Hall forgot her guitar. Oh well, but I’m never gonna see her again anyhow.”

The taxi driver tossed the guitar case into the trash bin on the street, next to a homeless man dressed in rags. As the driver made his way into his apartment for the night, the homeless man grabbed the case and opened it. 

“Six Strings!” he said, reading the name across the front of the beige wooden guitar. “I wonder who owns you?”

He opened up the case on the street, tuned the guitar, and played flawless jazz standards like “Rhapsody in Blue.”

Well past midnight, passersby tossed big and small dollar bills into the guitar case, along with loose change. 

“Wow! Wasn’t that great?” the homeless man said, remembering his days as a classical guitarist for the New York Philharmonic. Of course, this was before he started drinking and lost all his family and friends to the bottle. 

“Maybe I can get my old job back,” he said to himself, curling up in the cold. “The orchestra might remember the name Banjo Brio. I used to help pack out the theater every night. I can already hear the music.”

When Banjo woke up in the morning, he stood up with new determination to change his life for the better. 

“Where’s Six Strings?” he said. “He was here last night.” He looked up to see the trash collector holding Six Strings.

“Don’t throw that old guitar out!  Do you hear me? There’s something special about him,” Banjo yelled. 

Loads of trash piled high on the back of a large truck, and the guitar was almost squashed with the rest of it. 

“Make sure that guitar finds a good home,” Banjo said. “It doesn’t belong on a trash heap somewhere.”

“Hey man, I’m Mac Brown, a former rock star!” the truck driver said, showing Banjo a tattoo of a guitar on his arm. 

“I hate this job, but it’s a steady gig. I should get the band back together,” he said. “Long live Rocks That Roll!”

 

Knowing that Six Strings had done his job in Banjo’s life, he travelled on the front seat of the trash truck to Brooklyn Hospital Center’s donation office. The trash collector left the guitar in the office by lunchtime. 

“I’m not the best owner for you,” Mac said, giving Six Strings away. “I really need an electric for my band.”

Meanwhile, Banjo made his way to the New York Philharmonic office in a new set of clothes. The money collected from Banjo’s street performance was enough to get him an outfit for a job interview. 

“Oh, thank you! We could really use a new guitar for the cancer ward,” Alto Cello, the manager of the Brooklyn Hospital Center donation office said. “I’ll just tune it up and put a new set of strings on it for the patients.”

After Mr. Cello put on the new strings, Six Strings felt stronger than ever, ready to be played again. With that, Alto put him on a cart and sent the guitar up an elevator and down a long hall of hospital rooms. 

When the guitar reached the end of the hall, a nurse picked him up and placed him in an elderly woman’s room.

“A guitar!” the dying woman said, eyeing Six Strings from her bed, where she was attached to tubes and machines. 

“I must play you, if it’s the last thing that I do,” she said, considering that she had few days to live. 

“You can play the guitar as long as it doesn’t bother the other patients,” the nurse said, opening the instrument.

“Now, Arietta Liron, just don’t get tangled up in the wires,” the nurse said, handing her Six Strings. 

As she played and sang, the patients from the ward gathered by her bed, joining in a round of “Amazing Grace.”

“I just needed to sing that one last time,” Arietta said, closing her eyes and resting her head on her pillow.

“I hear the angels singing with us,” she said, drifting off, taking her last breath with a room full of friends.

Six Strings lay quietly on her lap, as a long beep sounded from the monitors next to Arietta’s bed. Gasps filled the room, as Six Strings was put back in his case, making his way back down the hall to Mr. Cello. 

“I think you might do better at a school,” Mr. Cello said to Six Strings, tuning him up again. 

“Oh, what’s this? A name tag: Lyric Lark,” Alto said. “Maybe Brooklyn Music School will be able to find this young lady. How did you ever end up in my hospital ward with a name tag on? You have an owner!”

 

After work, Mr. Cello walked down the street with Six Strings to the Brooklyn Music School. 

“Six Strings!” Lyric shouted, running in the front door, and grabbing him from Alto Cello. “I knew I wasn’t supposed to get a new guitar,” she said. “How in the world did you get my Six Strings?”

“Oh, honey, the guitar just showed up one day,” Mr. Cello said. “I can’t really explain it.”

“I can explain it,” Lyric said. “I let Six Strings slip down the street in that stupid old taxicab . . .”

“So glad you found your guitar, Lyric,” Miss Stanza said, shaking Mr. Cello’s hand. “We all love Six Strings.” 

“How do I know that you are really Lyric Lark?” Mr. Cello said. “Do you have any identification?”

“Identification?” Lyric said. “I’m not old enough to drive, or own a credit card, and my mom’s not here!”

“She’s been Lyric Lark for as long as I’ve known her,” Miss Stanza said, still holding onto Mr. Cello’s hand and shaking it harder than usual. She eyed him with a serious glance, as though he better give Lyric her instrument back.

“Lyric, hurry up, or we’re going to be late for class,” Jazzy said, running up the stairs with his guitar. 

“I practiced more than I should have this week and memorized the C major and minor scales,” he called to Lyric.

“Well, everyone seems to think that you really are Lyric,” Mr. Cello said. “I suppose that the guitar probably is yours.”

“You’re trying to keep Six Strings for yourself!” Lyric said. “Give me my guitar back, or I’m calling the cops.”

“Fine,” Mr. Cello said, handing Six Strings to Lyric. “Don’t lose him again, or I’ll think you’re lying.”

“Have a wonderful evening, sir,” Miss Stanza said to Mr. Cello, helping him out the front door. “Goodbye!” 

“I’m not gonna let you out of my sight,” Lyric said to Six Strings. “The strings on Jazzy’s guitar keep breaking, and I have to play at Carnegie Hall. Every now and then, I might have to share you with people, but I still need you the most.”

Copyright 2020 Jennifer Waters

https://soundcloud.com/jen-waters/six-strings