The woolly mammoth lined up for the next event in the prehistoric Winter Olympics: the 400 meter speed skating competition.
This wasn't going to be easy, but he had been practicing. He picked up some momentum and started gliding around the ice, as the other mammoths and dinosaurs cheered for him.
Despite his bulk, the mammoth was in the lead. The other contestants, mostly moose and elk, had wiped out on the ice.
Coming down the home stretch, victory was in sight.
Suddenly, a group of ice snakes slithered onto the track, determined to stop the mammoth's victory party.
The...
The city was empty, like the set of a sci-fi movie when the aliens have chased everyone away or a nuclear explosion had wiped out all life.
Usually, a hero would be walking through the streets, preparing to fight a giant opponent or searching to rescue some helpless victims.
But the only person walking the streets was Amanda. She was nine years old.
She woke up one morning to find that everyone was gone, without explanation.
So, she did what came naturally. She walked to the grocery store. It was only a couple of blocks down the street. The automatic...
The year was 1986. There wasn't anything to do, but there was everything to do.
When you're 11, life is simple. You go to school, and you try to get good grades. Food is taken care of, and you don't need a job.
What else is there to do? Go out and play. Mom never had to tell me to get out of the house. We had a lot of boys in the neighborhood, so I was always playing baseball, football, and basketball. Dad was a big kid at heart, so he often played with us.
Pro sports were also...
Mary wandered through Arlington National Cemetery. She was looking for her grandfather's tombstone. In a sea of perfectly aligned crosses, Grandpa's tombstone stood out.
That's because it was different: a crescent moon shape. Grandpa had earned the distinction of saving three of his comrades during World War II.
His heroics became known as the Moonlight Run. Wandering through the forest behind enemy lines, Grandpa had rescued three wounded soldiers, leading them out of the forest with only the light of a crescent moon to guide him.
Grandpa never had a movie like "Hacksaw Ridge" made about him, but Mary knew...
They walked hand-in-hand over the foot bridge, surrounded by tourists.
"This reminds me of the Great Wall of China," Bill said.
"Have you been there?" Sally asked.
"No, but it's on my bucket list."
"Why do people have bucket lists? If something is so important that you want to make sure you do it before you die, why don't people do them first? You never know when you're going to die. I mean, this bridge we're standing on could collapse right now!" she exclaimed.
"Don't say that," Bill replied. "But that's a good point. "Visiting the Great Wall of China...
"No parking anytime" read the sign on the tall, black, iron gate.
"Well, if I'm going to break the rules, I guess this is the first one," Wendy thought.
She parked her minivan in front of the gate and stepped out. She climbed onto the hood and then the roof of her car, and she jumped stomach-first onto the top of the gate.
Fortunately, there was no barbed wire. After all, this wasn't a jail.
She flipped over the gate and landed hard on the ground. Shaking off the pain, she made her way around the building because she knew...
"Why did I have to dress up as Napoleon?" Billy thought as he entered the Halloween party.
His friends were dressed as modern characters like Bluey, The Minions, or even Scooby-Doo. He felt out of place, even though he was wearing a costume on Halloween.
Well, if he had to look like Napoleon, he decided to act like Napoleon. He cut the cake in half and took that half for himself. He also "conquered" the drink table by removing the iced tea and pouring the punch into a separate container.
When the teacher asked him why he was misbehaving, Billy...
Sally hesitated before entering the beauty salon. She had lost the bet, and it was time to go blonde.
Do blondes have more fun? Do gentlemen prefer blondes? She was about to find out.
When Sally emerged from the salon, she had long, straight, blonde hair. She discovered that most people didn't recognize her.
"Wow, the color of a person's hair is more important than I ever imagined," she thought.
She decided to take advantage of her new identity by trying new things.
She went to a different coffee shop. She attended a concert at a new nightclub. She even...
I don't know how I got here. I don't know why someone has strapped me to a table and is trying to knock me out with drugs.
I feel my body relaxing. I don't want to relax. I have things to do. I have places to go. Most importantly, I have a message to send.
My only chance is to get the nurse on my side. I have to talk to him before I fall asleep.
"Listen, man. These people don't care about you. Do me a favor. Go to the Overlook Hotel tomorrow in Room 244 at 3 p.m....
Was that a smile?
Yes, it was! It was, in fact, the most beautiful smile I had ever seen.
We waited two years to see that smile, that recognition that from now on, everything would change. Not that everything would be perfect, but that we would be together.
We would move forward together, we would tackle life together, we would be a family together.
Infertility is no joke. When you already have one child, nobody gives you any sympathy when you can't give that child a brother or sister. But in your heart, that child is real. That child is...