Thursday, December 3, 2015

Storytelling for Week 14: The Riddles [part two]

Continued from Week 12

“Boy, Goblin, you sure do take awhile to come up with these amazing riddles.”

He huffed. “Hang on just a second. It cannot be just any riddle. I definitely need to get you a good one, especially since you are one of those fancy, educated college kids.”

I looked at the sky and at the ground as the goblin pondered his next move.

“Please do not forget that I have to get to class. I would like this riddle as quickly as possible please.”

The goblin looked at me incredulously. “Boy, what they say about this generation is right. You all have no patience whatsoever. Fine. But just for your outburst, I am going make you answer two riddles. Let us start with our first one. It is a doozy. However, here you go:

A dad and his son were riding their bikes and crashed. Two ambulances came and took them to different hospitals. The man’s son was in the operating room and the doctor said, ‘I can’t operate on you. You’re my son.’”

The goblin now was staring at me expectantly.

“Okay. So the doctor can’t operate because the boy was the son? But his father went to a different hospital,” I mused. The goblin giggled a little. However, I was very determined to not let him win.

THINK THINK THINK

Maybe the son was adopted? Would that possibly be the answer? Or … wait!

“Ha! The doctor was the boy’s MOTHER!” I yelled with sudden mental clarity.

The goblin’s face fell. “You are right. Maybe that one was too easy. Let me give you a great one for the second riddle:

A man leaves home and turns left three times, only to return home facing two men wearing masks. Who are those two men?”

Well, dang. That goblin sure does have some good riddles up his sleeve. I tried to visualize this in my head but realized I just kept getting turned around. I picked up a stick and started making map.

I realized he made a diamond shape with the way the hypothetical man was walking. I chuckled. Too bad the goblin didn’t know that I was very into sports!
“The man is a baseball player. So, the two men are the catcher and the umpire!”

The goblin nodded thoughtfully. “You are right. Alright. I will let you pass the bridge.”


With that he went back to his hiding place and I crossed the bridge with no incident. I finished the walk to class as the sun came back out.

Author's Note: Here it is! Part Two of The Riddles. I suddenly realized that a lot of people were waiting for the second part of the story. So, thank you all for essentially pressuring me into completing this. I did not make up those riddles. Those are two riddles that I have heard a lot over my lifetime and I have always enjoyed them. They used to really stump me. In the original story, a goblin tells a king twenty-two riddles. There is one riddle everytime the king goes back to capture the goblin and the goblin escapes again. I thought I would switch it up and play with the "troll that guards the bridge" idea. The original story is in Ryder's Twenty-Two Goblins (2009). 

5 comments:

  1. Hi Alesha. Since I hadn't read part one of your story, I was a bit confused about the setting and the characters, obviously. However, I still enjoyed reading through your riddle set up. I actually sat and thought about the riddles for several minutes before scrolling along to figure out the answers. I can see why they stumped you as well; they are definitely very difficult.

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  2. Yes!!! I read the first part. I am glad you decided / got pressured into writing this one. I love those riddles. I am going to try them out on my fiancee this weekend. It would be so weird to actually see a goblin stopping you from going to class. I thought about those riddles and now I want to go and learn some more. I always remember the ones about something that has no windows or doors. I can't remember how it goes though.

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  3. I had not read the previous story that lead up to the sequel of, “The Riddle,” but you wrote it very well so that I was able to pick up on the events currently happening in the story. I like how you used modern riddles for the questions. I don’t know if I would have been able to answer the sports related one, to be honest.

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  4. I did not read the first part to this story but I really enjoyed this one. I knew the answer to the first riddle, but I wasn't able to answer the second one until I saw the image. I really enjoyed how you incorporated the modern riddles into your story. I am definitely about to read your first story too.

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  5. Hey Alesha! I was kind of confused when I start reading but when i went through it again I think I got understand your story pretty well. Unfortunately, I am naturally terrible at riddles so could not figure out the riddles. It was really entertaining though. This was the first story, that made me actually sit down and think. Great Story!

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