Patient's Vacation

Patient woke up to a lovely spring day.  She could hear birds chirping and a poodle barking three houses down.  Patient should have been happy, but she was cranky.  She looked at her shrub house and sighed.  "I don't know what it is," she said, "but I think I need a change, or a break, or something."

Right then two little children named Stephanie and Larry walked by.  They heard Patient, and responded, "What you need is a vacation!"  Why don't you come on down to our snail hotel!" 

"Snail hotel? That sounds great!" cried Patient. 

Larry stooped down and picked up Patient very carefully so he didn't get any slime on himself.  Patient closed her eyes as Larry carried her through the air and across the yard to the driveway.  There Patient saw what looked like small buildings lined up along the cement.  Larry set Patient down on the driveway and said, "Welcome to the Snail Hotel!  Choose a room!"

Patient slowly crawled toward a pink brick with holes in it, perfect size for a snail to crawl up in and relax.  Patient looked at several rooms and finally chose one.

"Well now what?" asked Patient.

"Room service!" replied Stephanie.  "Would you like some salad?"

"That would be lovely," replied Patient.  Stephanie pulled out a head of lettuce and took off a leaf of it.  She gently placed the piece of lettuce in front of Patient, who immediately began to munch away.

"Got any ranch dressing?" asked Patient.

"Sorry, we never touch the stuff," replied the children.

"That's okay.  There's too much salt in it anyway.  Don't want to start fizzling in front of anyone."

As Patient enjoyed her meal she noticed other snails who had come to have a vacation.  She made some friends with a few and played games with them.  Their favorite game was called "Snail Pace Race."  Patient almost won first place, but another snail named Anxious pulled ahead at the last minute. 

After the race Patient and her new friends took a ride on the Tricycle Merry-Go-Round, which was very fun but quite dangerous. 

Patient also took a dip at the hotel pool, but found she wasn't much good at swimming. 

After a long day of fun and relaxing Patient curled up in her hotel room and fell asleep.  It had been a wonderful vacation.

story by Stephen Jenkins