Small World

by David

So Jimmy, his mama want sugar to bake him a pancake, so she send him to the store with a dollar for a sack of sugar. But soon he come running back. He got no sugar.

“Mama,” he say, “ain’t no store. The street, she just end past Auntie Louise trailer.”

“Jimmy, go ask Auntie if she have sugar,” his Mama say.

Soon Jimmy come running back, with a cupful of molasses. “Auntie out of sugar,” he say, “she send molasses.”

So Mama stir up the molasses, flour, and she see she have no egg.

“Run Jimmy, fetch me an egg from the chicken house, so I can make you a pancake.”

Jimmy, he run out the back door, but he come right back. “Chicken house gone,” he say, “but they was one egg in the grass,” and he give it to her.

Mama crack the egg into the bowl and she stir up the batter. She pour the batter in the skillet. This will be one fine pancake! But when she flip the pancake, it land on the floor and roll out the door.

“Jimmy,” Mama shouts, “fetch me that pancake!” He run out the door and down the road.

The pancake roll past the mimosa tree and its pink fans hanging down, past Auntie Louise trailer and her lilies, over the plank bridge, and Jimmy run after. When he get to the other side of the bridge the store be gone, but the pancake keep rolling and Jimmy keep running. He running by the cow pasture (the cow, she chewing her cud), and he see his house just there beside the road in front of him, chicken on roof. The pancake keep rolling past house and mimosa tree, and Jimmy, he run faster, for to catch it. Bridge, cow (still chewing), house (Mama in the doorway), tree, cow, house (Mama shouting), tree. Pancake keep rolling and Jimmy keep running. The road, she keep ashrinkin’, and pretty soon it be just Jimmy and the pancake, the road rolling up behind his heels and he catch the pancake just before everything be gone. Jimmy take a big bite. It the best pancake he ever have.

The end