Three Snails and the Moon

As a preface, I'd like to say that I came up with this idea more for a children's book than anything else, and I have great ideas in my head about someday illustrating it...if ever I find the time. Please do enjoy, and as always, if you have any comments, let me know.



Three Snails and the Moon

    Once there was a lush garden, overflowing with every kind of fruit and vegetable. There were grapevines over the walls, stands of lemon and orange trees, bright banks of rosemary and basil and rows of apple and cherry trees. Strawberry bushes crowded in the shade next to tomato vines and tall stalks of golden corn.
    This garden was made specially for snails, who spent their days sleeping and their nights eating all the good food that the garden provided them through the careful care of the gardener.
    But everything was not well in the garden. The snails began to fight amongst themselves, arguing as to which one of them was the best. Finally, a very wise, old snail with a large coiled shell of orange and black came forward.
    “Let us end this dispute,” he said, slowly, which is how all snails speak. “For so much fighting is not good for us.”
    The other snails agreed with this idea.
    “But how will we decide who is best?” asked one snail, his shell a coil of chocolate brown and pale pink.
    “We will set a task that only the highest among us can complete,” said the wise old snail. “That will truly prove who is best.”
    And they all thought this was good.
    “What task will it be then?” asked one, his shell as black as coal as he glared at the others with his long eyestalks.
    “The moon,” said the wise, old snail. “Whichever snail can reach the moon will be the best.”
    “The moon!” said the coal-black snail. “Ha! That will be easy. I’ll show you that I am the best.” And so saying he started climbing the nearest cornstalk. Up and up and up went the courageous gastropod until he had reached the very top of the cornstalk.
    But still the moon was above him, vast and silver in the night sky.
    “Ha!” said another. “Surely I can get higher than that.” So he climbed the grapevines strewn over the wall. Up and up and up to the very tip top.
    But still the moon was above him, shining bright amid the stars.
    “You fools,” said the third, and his shell was green and red and black. “I will show you how to reach the moon.” So he climbed the oldest, tallest apple tree in the garden. Up and up and up. It was so tall that he had to stop and rest halfway through, then he climbed again. Up and up, and up and up. Finally, he clung to the very highest leaf of the apple tree.
    But still the moon was above him.
    On returning to the ground, the three snails began to argue again. The one who had climbed the apple tree claimed that he was better than the others because he had made it the highest.
    Finally, the wise, old snail intervened again. “Who reached the moon?” he asked.
    The three snails turned their eyestalks away.
    “I made it to the top of the cornstalk, but the moon was still too high to reach,” said the first.
    “I made it to the top of the wall, but the moon was still too high to reach,” said the second.
    “I made it to the top of the apple tree,” said the third. “Higher than these two could go.”
    “And did you reach the moon?” asked the wise, old snail.
    “It was still too high to reach,” said the third snail. “But I made it the highest.”
    “And was the contest to see who could make it the highest?” asked the wise, old snail.
    “Well, no,” said the third, shrinking a bit.
    “What was the task?” asked the wise, old snail, as if he had forgotten.
    “To reach the moon,” the other admitted grudgingly.
    “And have you done it?”
    “No,” said the third.
    “Then you have all failed equally,” said the wise, old snail. “Go and live in peace with each other.” And the wise, old snail pulled back into his shell as the morning sun rose over the garden. And he slept.

                                  ...and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags 
                                                                                              Isaiah 64:6