sacred stories.

there exists a bedtime story that will etch itself indelibly in the hearts of listening children. 

i learned the language of it from my dad, but the enchantment of it lives in the very soul of a family.

beware if you endeavor cast this bedtime spell through creative telling. it's like edmund's turkish delight.

once you begin to tell "goblin stories" they will become a desperate request.

and even years after the last tellings you may find yourself answering eager questions about the story specifics. kids may circle you in surges of frantic rememberings.

"what was my weapon again?" and "what did the goblin king look like?" and "why was he always stealing our sister?"

"remember when she checked the mail and got pulled into the box?"

then there are the arguments about particulars.

"no, you did not get hit by magic bubbles and go to the other dimension. that never happened!" 

"yes i did and i found all of my missing socks!"

here, i share the sacred formula.

1. the child-heroes must be eerily similar to the listening children but the teller must maintain ignorance about this coincidence 

2. the naughty goblins must snatch someone or something of great importance to the children

3. the child-heroes must enter the goblin world (through some type of rabbit hole) to reclaim their loss

4.  family pets must join the cast

5. the child-heroes must prevail against the goblins (sometimes in two-part installments with cliff-hangers)

6.  the parents of the child-heroes must be none-the-wiser, that they may never worry 

*SPOILERS*

animals can talk in the goblin world (can you hear the giggles?)

the children come upon a cavern containing a magical armory- each child finds a tailored weapon

a final word about the spell of these stories...

when children invite friends into the stories... when the goblin holes open up in their backyards and their beloved pets come along, when their unique weapons are discovered in very loud designing sessions... that's when you know these are best friends.