Bedtime story

I found a new story template that might work for me on an off night...which is becoming more frequent...I'm suffering from storyteller's burnout.  Pbblt.  Tonight was definitely an off night but I summoned what I could, for the love of Owen, and I definitely am keeping this template on the shelf.

Step 1.  Choose a subject and a setting.
"Once upon a time there was a candle, a HUUGE candle.  It was 10 feet tall, which is taller than the ceiling of a room in a house.  It stood in the middle of the town and next to it was a ladder.  No one could possibly think of lighting it without the ladder next to it because it was so big."

[Pause for question:  When it was burning, was the flame as big as a campfire??  YES, why yes it was!]

Step 2.  Craft a snafu.
"Each night the town candlelighter would climb the ladder and light the candle as soon as the sun went down, and would let it burn for two hours until it was bedtime for the townspeople.  Then, he would climb the ladder and put out the flame.  [Continue boldly hoping questions about how one puts out a bonfire might be avoided.  Whew.]  The candle would only burn a tiny bit in 2 hours because it was so big, and he would do the same thing night after night after night.  Well, one night he lit the candle, but then...he forgot to put it out.  So it burned all...night...long.

Step 3.  Chain of cause and effect.
"When the candle was still burning in the middle of the night, it caused all the animals who lived in the town common to get all mixed up, and they stayed awake almost all night when they normally would have been sleeping.  Then, they finally fell asleep when it was almost time to wake up and they slept in really, really late into the day.  Normally, the town animal catchers started early in the morning at their job of catching animals in the town common, but that morning there were no animals anywhere!  So, the animal catchers got really bored and decided to go have some coffee.  The coffee shop was not normally too busy in the morning, but because all the animal catchers showed up, the owner of the coffee shop was too busy serving them coffee and donuts, and didn't get to run the errand he'd planned to run that morning while the shop wasn't very busy.  The coffee shop owner was supposed to pick up his friend's mail.--his friend had been on vacation--so the mailbox didn't get too full.  But, when he couldn't get to the mailbox on time, the mailman arrived and was pushing and shoving all the day's mail into the crowded mailbox so hard that the post of the mailbox broke right in two!  The mailman instantly drove to the hardware store to get a new mailbox for the man on vacation since he'd accidentally broken his old one, and so all the rest of the town had their mail delivered very late.  One man in the town was waiting and waiting for his mail to arrive because he was entered in a contest and knew that if he was the winner, he would be getting a piece of mail that very day to tell him that he'd won!  When the mail never came, he figured that he had *not* won the contest, and he became very, very sad.  He walked down by the river and was crying and crying while he walked.

Step 4.  Choose happy or sad ending.
"As he walked, a woman came over to him and asked him why he was so sad.  He told her that he had lost a contest.  They started talking, and talking, and talking, and became very good friends by the end of the day.  Eventually they fell in love with each other!  And got married!  So you see, all because the candlelighter forgot about his job, something very wonderful happened.  And, I should add, that when the man got home very late that night, his mail had arrived, and he had in fact won the contest and became a millionaire on that day as well.

Step 5.  Deal with loose ends.
Owen:  He won a MILLION dollars?!!!  What kind of contest was it??
Mom:  Oh, I don't know Owen, some contest where you could win a million dollars.
Owen:  But WHAT mom??  How do you get in a contest to win a million dollars.  I REALLY need to know.
Mom:  Owen, it's a story.  I made it up!  There is not a real contest like that to enter.  Just pretend!
Owen:  Mom, if you made up the story, then you can make up a contest.  Come on.
Mom:  Oh, yes, well, it was a yogurt company contest.  He had to send in as many yogurt lids as he could and it was a contest to see who ate the most yogurt in a year.  He had been eating a LOT of yogurt.
Owen:  Oh.  [contemplative silence]
Mom:  Goodnight, Owen!
Owen:  [still contemplating]