A Cure for Writer's Block™

Oh no, she's awake!

The kids scattered and ran back to bed, pretending to be asleep. Their plan to sneak downstairs to peek at their Christmas presents had been foiled.

Instead, they had to wait two more hours until Mom woke them up. What could they do?

"Let's sing Christmas carols!" Judy suggested.

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ..." the kids sang.

Mom poked her head in and kids stopped.

"Everywhere you go ..."

Mom poked her head in again and started laughing.

"Are you ready for Christmas?"

"YEAH!"

"Well, it's not time yet. Go back to...

Gradually, Houdini slipped out of his handcuffs. He unshackled his legs and wriggled out of his straitjacket. He was almost free.

The tank was filling with water, but he didn't panic. All he had to do break the glass, but he couldn't find the little hammer that he usually used. It was floating around in the water, and he couldn't reach it.

Houdini was going to have to use a skill he had never used before.

He took a deep breath and sang the highest note that he could.

"LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

The glass shattered and water poured out.

Houdini emerged on...

Her home lay behind her. And the aurora ahead. It would be cooler in the north, as it was in the far south. She could wear a sweater again. Be invisible again. Her body unscrutinized.

She leaned down the slope into the first valley of the first range of mountains. She took her first step towards solitude.

Three valleys later, a plain spread before her. She saw a river, so many trees, and... smoke.

She crept to the edge of the clearing, peered towards the village. Perhaps she wasn't the most original, the cleverest, but perhaps also she would feel...

Cindy yawned and stretched as she started her day. It was time to walk her pet octopus.

She pulled Ollie out of his protective shell, and they walked across the ocean floor.

"Good morning!" she called to Wally the Whale.

Suddenly, Wally decided to give Cindy and Ollie a ride by lifting them up, completely out of the ocean and depositing them on the sandy shore.

"Mom! Dad! Where have you been?"

"We've been right here. You took a nap."

"Yeah, I just had the craziest dream. I lived on the ocean floor, and I could breathe underwater and everything....

"This is who I am and I won't hide it."

The president said this as he removed his mask and revealed that he was, in fact, a reptile and a space alien.

"Now, I know what you're thinking. 'Oh no, all of the other aliens are invading and will take over the country.'" Not true! I am on a fact-finding trip to learn how to run an effective government.

"I know that I am going to have to resign because I wasn't born in this country. I will be heading back to my home planet with many ideas about how...