THE GLUG BALL
Dear Editor:
Once upon a time, a boy named Tim was rooting around in the attic of his grandparents farmhouse when he came across an old wooden ball which had ten tiny holes drilled in it. The only other marking on the ball was the word “glug ” burned into it. Intrigued, the boy hurried to his grandmother (his grandfather was dead) to ask her what the strange looking ball was for. His grandmother said that she had no idea what it was for, and, in fact, had never seen it before. With his Grandmother’s consent, the boy kept the ball and over the years asked almost everyone he met if they knew what it was for. After years of failing to find the purpose of the ball , he put it on a shelf in his work-shed at the cottage and forgot about it. Many years later, Tim, now an old man, was clearing out his cottage prior to selling it, when he found the ball buried under some old rags. Tim turned the ball over and over in his hands, then, with a sigh, he went outside, threw it into the lake and carried on with his chores. In the meantime the ball bobbed in the water for a minute or so, and then slowly sank beneath the waves, and as it sank , it went: Glug glug glug ….
William Bedford
