She had wanted to be a writer since high school. She can recall the time seated in her high school English class when Mrs. Robinson had laid her writing assignment on her desk. Coming down each row, Mrs. Robinson doling out the papers, face down, each student staring straight ahead, uncertain of the outcome of the assignment. As Mrs. Robinson laid Claudette’s down, she leaned forward and whispered in the top of her very tall ear, “you should be a writer Claudette”. Claudette could feel her kitty paws tingle and her pink kitty cheeks turn pinker. She felt her whiskers flutter and quite frankly it was the first time since forever, that Claudette felt like anyone noticed her for something other than her immense ears.
‘Block’ she thought, writers block, city block, block of ice, block of clay, block, block, block she thought to herself as she heard the neighbor’s rooster making its morning calls from the pen outside.
She rolled out of bed and let each ear make their morning debut. They were often misshapen in the morning, sometimes falling right, sometimes falling left, occasionally a matted mess. ‘These stupid’ ears, she thought. ‘Why do I have these stupid big ears?’ “To listen”, said Fernando, not speaking at all. She paused then replied, “to listen- I am confused, Fernando, you never make a sound, yet I can always hear you, without these stupid ears”. “I don’t need ears to hear you”, she barked
“Well, that is true”, said Fernando ” but you do need those ‘silly, stupid ears’ as you call them to do other things, like how about listening to others?” “Hmmmm, that is true” agreed Claudette, “I was listening to Hazel the other day and it was so fun and exciting; to hear all about her plans. She is gathering all kinds of ideas about how to help the city as she flies about. You are right Fernando; the ears do help with that”.
Fernando you see was tiny. Nobody except Claudette could even hear Fernando. In fact, she had never actually heard his voice. He was the tiniest of creatures, he could be carried in a pocket or a purse, he could be folded or jammed, rolled or squished. His arms could pinch together or lay flat as a tissue. Fernando was Claudette’s oldest friend. She doesn’t’ even recall the exact day he came to her. It might have been a dream at first. Yes, yes, that’s it. It was a dream, but we will come back to that later.
Today Fernando was there to help Claudette, once again, find the good in having GREAT BIG EARS.
Listening to others … hmmmm she thought and then all of a sudden, she leapt out of bed remembering that today was the day she was supposed to interview Mrs. Whiskers about the Big New Changes, the Big New Changes, the Big Big Big New Changes, yes, my ears need to hear the Big New Changes so I can write that story, she thought.
