The Rest of the Story

This is the second half of a recent bedtime story I told to the girls.  If you don't like bedtime stories...particularly amateur bedtime stories...check in on the next post.  Otherwise, (and I'll say it despite my fear of saying something before I actually do it) the reason I'm writing this one down is that I felt like it had the tiniest bit of potential.  A goal of mine is to one day write a children's book...you know...like one people would buy.  At a store.  Hopefully at lots of stores.  I feel I'm really throwing myself out there by stating this, but...well...anyway...here's the rest of the story:

Caitin and Jamie smiled widely to each other as soon as they heard that familiar croaking song.  They waited impatiently as the singers wound through the forest.  Finally, around the bend came their two favorite people:  Ookie and Gookie - the Ogre princesses.  Oddly enough, the ogres were dressed all in white today!  Both of them wore beautiful flowing white dresses.  Ookie wore a pure white wreath placed delicately over her orange hair, and Gookie wore a finely laced white bonnet.  This was such a change from their poorly matching pink and purple and orange clothing that Caitin and Jamie just stared at these gorgeous princesses.

"OOOHhhhhh, it's Caitin and Jamie!" bellowed Ookie with a great toothy smile.
"Oh Hello, Caitin and Jamie!" echoed Gookie.  Everyone paused and looked at Gookie with surprise.  It's not often that she remembers names...at all.
"What are you doing there in the mud?" asked Ookie.  So Caitin told the story of how they followed the perfectly white animals down the path, and that when the dragon floated overhead they were not looking where they were going, and by the time she finished she was almost in tears with how terribly silly it must have sounded.  Ookie looked at Caitin very seriously and asked, "Was the entire forest quiet?"
Thoughtfully, Caitin responded, "Yes, it was!"
Gookie replied reverently, "You've seen the Great Cumulous!"
Then Gookie chimed in, "Ooohhh!  The Great Conbobulous!"
Everyone smiled wide, for this is the Gookie they knew.  "No, Gookie...The Great Cumulous!" said Ookie.
"Oh, yes.  That's right.  The Great Crutopulon!" smiled Gookie.
"No, Gookie...The Great CUMULOUS!" chuckled Ookie.
"Yes.  Right.  The Great Com...Cub...Crab...uhhhh...the Big Cloud!" stammered Gookie, and everyone had a little chuckle.

"I've never heard of the Great Cumulous," said Caitin, "But it sure got us into a mess here.  Can you help us out?"
"Sure!" said Ookie and Gookie together.  And they walked right into the swamp.  As their feet sunk into the mud, the hems of their white dresses started to drag and and float across the muck. Easy as pie Ookie lifted Caitin and Gookie lifted Jamie out of their boots, then bent down and pulled their boots out with a stinky SCHWOOOOP!  Then they walked out to the path and set the girls down. 
"Ookie, what about your dresses?" asked Caitin concerned.  But just as she did, she looked down and saw that both of their dresses were still as white as ever they had been.  She even noticed that they were wearing white slippers that were perfectly clean! 

Jamie was looking at those slippers too, when suddenly they noticed that the slippers were no longer on the ground, but were as high as their heads and moving up into the air!  Floating higher now, Ookie and Gookie both gave wide green smiles as they waved goodbye with humungous arms.  Rising higher off the ground they were growing bigger!  As they got bigger, though, they somehow became harder to see.  Quicker than they would have liked, Caitin and Jamie both realized the Ogre princesses had evaporated into the clouds. 

As they walked home, the girls talked about what they had seen.  Although they had not seen the real Ookie and Gookie, they both felt as good as when the princesses were really around; and they decided the Great Cumulous was very nice indeed.

Later, when they tried to tell the story to their mother, they could harldy remember if it had all really happened, or if they had only been staring at the clouds the whole time.