Fractured Fairy Tales:
The Three Bears
Silly Stories
Children's Stories
Raymond's Stories
I seem to have had a fascination with the fairytale of the three bears, as I wrote two variations on it. This one is the only survivor of a collection of "Fractured Fairy Tales", which included an early prose version of the "Three Pigs" poem. The second was written much later, during my university years. It was originally intended as a part of the absurdist "So What Stories" collection. I did not include it in the final version as I felt it did not quite fit the style of the other stories
Once upon a time there were three bears who lived in a house in the woods. One morning the mother bear got some Wheat-Bix ready for breakfast and screeched out to the other two that it was ready. After eating for a little while, Father Bear suddenly jumped up. "Hey, aren't we supposed to go for a walk while our breakfast gets cool?"

"How would I know?" said Mother Bear. "I haven't read the book."

Anyway, when Father Bear remembered that, they all set off on their walk. While they were away, a little girl called Goldfishbox, or something like that, came to their house. She knocked on the door, but no one was home. So she turned the handle and - it was locked.

"Hey, this is supposed to be left open," said Goldenclocks. Unlike Mother Bear, she had read the book. "Now I'll have to get in a window.กจ Unfortunately they were all locked and she searched for a long time for a place to get in.

At last, after half an hour, Mouldyrocks walked into a little dining room, from the fireplace.

"Oh, that was a tight squeeze in the chimney," she said. "I don't see how Santa Claus does it."

Gollywogs was hungry after her adventures, so she washed herself and started to eat Father Bear's Wheat-Bix. It was too hot so she started to eat Mother Bear's Wheat-Bix. It was too salty. "Disgusting!" she said. "Who puts salt on Wheat-Bix?" So she ate Baby Bear's Wheat-Bix, and decided to sit on Father Bear's chair. It was too hard, so she tried sitting on Mother Bear's chair. It was too soft, so she sat on Baby Bear's chair. CRASH! It broke into fifty-two million, six hundred and forty thousand, nine hundred and seventy-six and a half pieces.

She tried to fix it with Bear Tape, but felt tired after the fifth piece, so she went upstairs to the bears' bedroom and lay down on the Father Bear's bed. It was as hard as a rock. Then she tried Mother Bear's bed, but she nearly drowned in it, it was so soft. Then she tried Baby Bear's bed. It was so comfortable that she went straight to sleep.

Soon the three bears came home. First, they noticed that someone had been eating their Wheat-Bix. But they didn't mind this much, because Bears don't usually eat Wheat-Bix anyway. Then they noticed Baby Bear's chair in fifty-two million, six hundred and forty thousand, nine hundred and seventy-six and a half pieces. So they picked up the fifty-two million, six hundred and forty thousand, nine hundred and seventy-six and a half pieces and threw them in the rubbish. After all, when a chair is in fifty-two million, six hundred and forty thousand, nine hundred and seventy-six and a half pieces, it's really not much good any more.

Then the three bears heard a noise upstairs, as if some one was sawing the house down. They run upstairs and found it was some one snoring the house down. It was a little girl. They woke her up to ask for an explanation, and she got such a fright that she jumped out the window, not noticing it was closed, picked out some of the glass from her body, and ran all the way home. Holeysocks never saw the three bears again, and they lived happily ever after - until the next week when bear hunting season opened.
Silly Stories
Children's Stories
Raymond's Stories