Emily

Once upon a time there lived a girl named Emily.

Emily was a beautiful redheaded girl, who was born with a peach pit for
a nose. No one knew how or why this was, but in her village there lived
an old mystic who was full of surmises. One day, at the request of
Emily and her parents, the mystic surmised that one day God had sent
Emily and a peach tree down to Earth at the very same time.

"Unfortunately," said the mystic, "it was a Monday - a very busy day
for God - and God had tried to do too many things at once.

"For instance," she continued, "in a foreign country, of which I'm not
familiar, there was born an elephant with the ears of a rabbit. Can you
imagine that?

"And in a neighboring village there is rumored to live an old man who
sprouts weeping willow branches from the place where his eyebrows
should be. He had gotten so tired of cutting his willows that he has
taken to letting them grow, then combing them over the top of his head.
It is said his mane is now three miles long. He must be quite a
spectacle!"

"Do you believe this to be true?" said Emily.

"I surmise it to be true," said the mystic. "And if I had to surmise
about your nose, I'd surmise that you should walk to the nearest grove
of peach trees and look for a strange, but familiar, protrusion from
one tree in particular."

Emily did as the mystic suggested, and walked among the grove of peach
trees.

"Oh, my," said Emily. "I have never noticed how strange these trees
appear."

As Emily walked, she noticed a peach tree with the neck of a giraffe.
Then she noticed another peach tree with dozens of tortoise shells
dangling from its branches.

"God needs more than one days rest," thought Emily.

Then Emily thought about the elephant with the rabbit ears, and
wondered if it meant that somewhere out there was a rabbit with
elephant ears? "I don't even want to think about that one!" said
Emily.

Not having seen any strange, but familiar, protrusions, Emily was about
to give up and go home, when she heard a sneeze.

"Bless you," said Emily.

There was no response. Again she heard the sneeze. Then another. And
another. Emily followed the sound of the sneezes until she came upon a
peach tree that stood several yards outside the grove. As Emily
approached the tree, she noticed a strange protrusion.

"Oh, my," said Emily. "That's my nose! And it's leaking."

Emily took the hem of he dress and brought it up to the nose.

"There you go," said Emily. "All dry."

That was the happiest day of Emily's life, and for the rest of her life
she would tend to this strange, but familiar, protrusion.

Footnote: When Emily died, eighty years later, she was buried in the
shade of the peach tree she had tended.

She would eventually grow into a lovely little peach tree -- with the
most beautiful red hair anyone had ever seen.