A Dry-Land Voyage for the Sponges
Inez turns a runaway shopping cart at a neighborhood car wash into a prose story, a rhyming poem, and a short play.
Play the quiz as a gameAfter helping at a neighborhood car wash, Inez made a booklet about one small mishap. She told it three ways: as prose, as rhyming verse, and as a short play. On the cover, she drew a shopping cart full of sponges. Her caption read, “A sea voyage without a drop of water.”
The first heading read, A Story in Prose.
Before the car wash opened, Inez and her aunt Noor brought clean, dry sponges into the recreation center's empty courtyard. They borrowed a shopping cart to carry the bulky pile. While Noor lifted a bucket, Inez let go of the handle. The floor had a slight slope, and the cart began rolling slowly toward an ocean Inez had drawn in chalk.
For a moment, Inez imagined the sponges sailing away like a crew of tiny yellow passengers. Then she called, “Our ship is leaving!” Noor set down the bucket, caught the handle, and stopped the cart beside the chalk waves. Together, they guided it into an alcove, a small space set back into the building's wall. Its floor was level. They unloaded the sponges there before the cart could take another voyage.
The second heading read, A Poem in Verse.
The sponges rode a silver boat With not a drop to keep afloat. Its wheels began a gentle glide Beside the ocean, chalked and wide.
Noor gripped the cart and slowed the trip, Then safely docked the sponge-filled ship. A level alcove ended play; They took the sponges all away.
The third heading read, A Play to Perform.
Cast of characters: Inez, a young car-wash helper; Noor, her aunt and another helper.
INEZ: (Releasing the cart beside the chalk ocean.) The sponges are here! Now, where should we put them?
NOOR: (Lifting a bucket.) Let's find a spot near the washing tables.
INEZ: (Pointing at the slowly rolling cart.) Our ship is leaving! I thought those sponges looked like tiny passengers.
NOOR: (Setting down the bucket and catching the handle.) This ship needs a place to dock.
INEZ: The alcove has a level floor. Let's steer it there.
NOOR: (Guiding the cart into the alcove with Inez.) Good. Now let's unload our yellow passengers.
INEZ: (Lifting out sponges.) Everybody ashore! You have work to do.
Inez read her booklet aloud. The poem's rhythm made her tap her foot. For the play, Noor followed the stage directions in parentheses while Inez spoke her lines. The same little mishap filled three very different pages.