by Mary Beth
There are a few bouncy balls around the house. They appear to be ordinary bouncy balls but they are actually magical. Cora is the only one able to control the magic.
It works like this: Cora finds a bouncy ball. She loves them. They are brightly colored and tasty. If she gnaws on it for long enough, she is able to bite a chunk out of a bouncy ball, and then chew it into bits. If she is fast enough and furtive enough, she may be able to swallow some of the bits before a parent comes over and demands she spit it out.
Then the parent takes away the bouncy ball and puts it way up high where Cora can’t reach it. Cora weeps, and buries her face in the carpet in her despair. It is difficult to say if it is the weeping, or the carpet, or the bouncy balls that leads to the magic. But something mysterious causes the bouncy balls to reproduce themselves, infinitely. Within the next hour or so, Cora will have another bouncy ball in her hand, and will begin to chew it, happily. And then it will get taken away. And then another bouncy ball will appear in her hand. If the bouncy balls were food, the family would be able to feed the starving people of the world. If the bouncy balls were money, the family would be rich. But instead they are merely a choking hazard.
