by Mary E. Lowd
Originally published in Allasso, Volume 2: Saudade, April 2012
There was once a sheep that could have been a sheep with fifteen other sheep, all living on a farm. But, one day, a man came and invited that sheep to live at the petting zoo with the pygmy goats, pigs, rabbits, and Shetland ponies there. So, that one sheep joined the petting zoo.
Then, there were fifteen sheep left.
But, one day, a woman came from the circus. She needed one sheep to jump through hoops, one sheep to balance on a giant ball, and one sheep to fly on the trapeze for her circus act. So, three sheep — who could have been three sheep with twelve other sheep — ran away to join the circus.
Then, there were twelve sheep left.
But two of the sheep were restless. They’d heard about the sun and sand in California, and they wanted to learn to surf. So, instead of being two sheep with ten other sheep, they caught the next train to the coast. They bought surfboards and lived on the beach.
Then, there were ten sheep left.
Until the ten sheep got a letter from their two beach bum friends. Apparently, there was a used submarine for sale on their beach, and it was a real bargain. To successfully run a submarine, you need a captain, a pilot, a navigator, and a galley chef. So, four of the sheep pooled all their money together and went to buy the submarine. Now they were four sheep in a submarine, instead of four sheep with six other sheep on a farm.
Then, there were six sheep left.
Only, four of those sheep had some real talent. One of them played the drums and another played guitar. A third played the keyboards and sang. The last played flugelhorn. When they jammed together, the music they made was absolutely smokin’. So, they decided to leave the farm and go on tour as a rock’n’roll band. Besides, on the farm, they were just four sheep with two other sheep. On tour, they were four sheep with millions of screaming fans.
So, then, there were two sheep left.
“We’d better stick together,” the one sheep said to the other, but, as she said it, a big, shiny, flashy object came flying down from the sky.
“Maybe it’s our four friends in their submarine,” the other sheep said.
But it was not a submarine; it was a spaceship. And when it landed, an alien came out and invited the second to last sheep to join the other aliens in their spaceship, exploring other planets and star systems in space. What sheep could refuse? So, instead of being one sheep with one other sheep on a farm, the second to last sheep became the first sheep into space.
Then, there was one sheep left.
Only one sheep. And, that sheep got what she had wanted all along. She stayed and ran the farm.