Contents

PROLOGUE

part 1-Tiny Aunts ………. 9
part 2 - Uncabunca ………. 13
part 3 - Unkle Bunkle ………. 17

THE UNCLE BUNKLE STORIES, PART ONE:
YOU WERE TINY ONCE YOURSELF ………. 21

How Kokopelli Learned to Be Good ………. 23
Cordelia and the My-my Bird ..…….. 35
Coyote Moves In ………. 43

THE UNCLE BUNKLE STORIES, PART TWO:
TALL TALES ………. 51

Cordelia Saves the Circus ………. 53
Chicken Trouble
Part one, chicken trouble ………. 61
Part two, frog trouble ………. 67
Part three, snake trouble ………. 73
Part four, the contest ………. 79
Part five, the triumphant return ………. 85
The Greatest Thief of All Time ………. 89
Fly Stew ………. 99
Pumpkin Love ………. 103
Pirates and the City of Mumps ………. 111
The Littlest Angel ………. 117
Many Years Later-Cordelia Fights the Flu ………. 125

PROLOGUE, PART ONE: Tiny Aunts

It happened one morning when Cordelia had just turned five. She slipped out of bed and tugged on her jeans. She wiggled into her favorite chocolate-brown T-shirt, which matched her hair, her eyes, and her twitchy eyebrows. She pulled on her socks and . . . hey, what was that? Her pants felt itchy. Something little was crawling around in there.
"Hey mom!" hollered Cordelia, squirming like a wiggly worm. "I've got ants in my pants!"
Her mama, Dr. Penca, hopped out of bed and came running in, still in her nightown. Her black hair stuck out this way and that. "Ants in your pants! Oh no!"
Cordelia's white-haired grandma Anacely heard the yelling and hurried in, with Jack the Dog at her side.
"What we need," said Anacely, "is an armadillo." Armadillos are cat-sized scaly creatures that gobble up ants.
Jack the Dog loped off into the desert. In no time at all he returned, with an armadillo riding on his back.
"We need your help," Anacely explained to the armadillo. She picked him up and placed him at Cordelia's feet.
Cordelia knew just what to do. "Ants, ants, get out of my pants!" she ordered. Then she made a noise with her tongue on her teeth, tick-a-tick-a-ticka, like a skittering spider, looking for ants to eat. The ants fled down Cordelia's legs. The armadillo was waiting. He lapped up every last one of them.
"Well done!" said Penca.
Cordelia kissed that armadillo right between the eyes. When she did, she heard a little voice:
"Help," it cried. "An armadillo has eaten us up!"
"That's weird," said Cordelia. "Ants can't talk."
"We're not that kind of ants," said the voice. "We're the other kind of aunts, the kind that have nieces. Except we're tiny."
"Mama," said Cordelia, "there's been a terrible mistake! Those weren't ant ants! Those were people aunts!"
Fortunately Penca was a doctor and knew what to do. She picked up that armadillo, wrapped her powerful arms around its scaly chest, and squeezed. Out of its long nose flew a whole string of tiny aunts.
The sight was quite breathtaking, especially for Anacely, since they were flying right at her. When she gasped--uhhhh!--they were sucked straight into her mouth and down into her tummy.
Cordelia thought, that's the end of those poor little aunts. But it wasn't. As it turns out, they liked it in Anacely's tummy. Whatever Anacely ate, they ate. Whatever Anacely drank, they drank. After a while they started to grow.
"Let us out!" they cried. "It's way too crowded in here!"
"She's poking me!" said one little voice.
"She started it!" said another little voice.
"I have a headache! I need a doctor!" complained a third.
"You'll just have to be a little patient," Penca told her.
"Let us out!" they cried. "We promise to be good! We will move far away! You won't regret it!"
"Very well," said Anacely. Actually she liked having them around, but they were getting too big for her britches. They had been in there for nine months! So Anacely burped, and out flew all of Cordelia's aunts. Just like they promised, they moved away.
And that's where aunts come from.
This may sound strange, but ask your mama and she'll tell you, she burped you when you were a baby too!

PROLOGUE, PART TWO: Uncabunka

Cordelia was just drifting off to sleep one night when she heard an unusual sound coming from under her bunk bed.
Pound, pound, pound!
Hey, she thought, how am I supposed to sleep?
Pound, pound, pound!
"Knock it off!" she called out. "I cannot sleep with all that pounding!"
Pound, pound, pound!
Cordelia rolled over and peeked under the bed. There she spotted a tiny man building a tiny house.
"Do not build your house down there," she told him. "It is much too noisy. I'm trying to get some sleep."
"Sorry," he answered, "but I just can't stop."
Pound, pound, pound!
Cordelia climbed out of bed, and headed for the kitchen.
"Why are you up so late?" asked mama Penca.
"I cannot sleep," she told her. "There's a tiny man building a house under my bed. He says he can't stop."
Penca thought Cordelia was just imaging things. "Maybe you should ask him nicely," she suggested.
Cordelia drank some orange juice, picked up a broom and dustpan, and headed back to her bunk.
"Hey, tiny man," she said. "Please get out from under my bed!"
"Sorry, I cannot," he replied.
"But I asked you very nicely!" she pointed out.

"So true," he replied, "But I cannot. My apologies." He kept on hammering, pound, pound, pound. Cordelia stuck that broom under the bed and started poking around.
"Hey!" said the man, "Stop that poking!"
"Will you come out then?" she asked.
"No I will not!" he answered.
So Cordelia swept the tiny man and his tiny house right out from under her bed and into the dustpan. She popped him into a shoe box and sealed it with tape.
"Let me out!" he cried.
"Sorry," Cordelia told him, "but I cannot." Then she went to sleep.
The next night, she was drifting off when,"Tink, tink, tink!"
Oh no, she thought. Now what?
"Tink, tink, tink!"
She leaned way over and looked under the bunk. There she saw another tiny man tinkering with another tiny house.
"Hey, tiny man," she said. "Could you please stop tinkering? It's much too noisy. I'm trying to get some sleep."
"Sorry," he said. "I cannot." He gave her a wink and then . . . "Tink, tink, tink . . ."
"That's what you think!" said Cordelia. Off she went to the kitchen.
"What are you doing up so late?" asked her grandma, Anacely.
"I can't sleep, grandmother," she replied. "There's a tiny man tinkering under my bed."
"You tinkled under your bed?" asked Anacely, wondering how that was possible. "Well, I suppose you'd better mop it up."
Cordelia drank some orange juice, grabbed a long, wet mop and returned to her room. Then she mopped up the second tiny man and popped him into a box.
"Let me out!" he cried.
"Sorry," Cordelia replied, "but I cannot." Then she went to sleep.
Each night after that, for four more nights, Cordelia caught another tiny man working on another tiny house, and popped him into another shoe box to add to the pile.
"Let's hope that's the end of that," said Anacely. But it wasn't. Because by the next morning, the six boxes had started to grow.
"Oh great," said Cordelia, "What am I supposed to do with all these boxes?"
Then she remembered her six tiny aunts. Cordelia called them on the telephone. "I've got six perfectly good tiny men here, all boxed up," she explained. "Can you use them?"
"Sure, send them over!" the aunts replied.
And that's where uncles come from.

PROLOGUE PART III: Uncle Bunkle

Many nights later, Cordelia was just drifting off to sleep when she heard an unusual sound, coming from under her bed.
Scritch, scritch, scritch!
Oh no, she thought, now what?
Scritch, scritch, scritch!
"Knock it off!" she called out. "I cannot sleep with all that scritching!"
Scritch, scritch, scritch!
"Gee whiz, here we go again," she said out loud. She rolled over and looked under the bunk. There she saw a seventh tiny man, seated at a tiny desk. Grey hair ringed his head. He wore a fuzzy grey shirt, blue jeans and black socks with holes in the toes. The tiny man was scribbling madly with a goose feather pen, Scritch, scritch, scritch, and scattering papers all over the floor.

"Hey, tiny man," she said. "I'm trying to get some sleep. Could you please stop scritching?"
"Sorry," he said, "but I cannot." His left arm twitched and then scritch, scritch, scritch.
Cordelia slipped out of bed and headed off to the kitchen.
"Why are you up so late?" asked Anacely.
"Is it another tiny man?" asked Penca.
"Uh huh," said Cordelia, nodding her head.
"I'll get the mop," said Anacely.
"I'll get the broom," said Penca.
"I'll fetch the armadillo," thought Jack the Dog, and he ran off into the night. As soon as he returned, they all gathered in Cordelia's room.
"I'm sure I can get him with this broom," said Penca.
"I think my mop would be better," said Anacely. They both started poking under the bed.


"Hey!" said the tiny man. "I'm trying to write!"
"Maybe we should try the armadillo," said Cordelia.
She was probably right. But at that very moment, Penca bumped into Anacely, Anacely bumped into Jack the Dog, Jack fell on the armadillo, and the armadillo blew long and hard, pfffff.
"Hey!" said the tiny man. "You're blowing the papers about!"
Anacely and Penca were sure they had him now. They poked and prodded twice as fast as before. At last, they swept that tiny man out from under the bed.
"Finally," said Cordelia.
"Can you fetch another shoe box?" asked her mama. Cordelia looked, but couldn't find one.
"Maybe I could keep this one as a pet?" she suggested. Before anyone could respond, a sudden wind whooshed in through the window. The tiny man's papers flew into the air.
"Quick," cried the tiny man. "Catch them!"
Everybody tried, but the wind was too tricky, tossing the papers about.
"Catch them!" the man cried again. He hopped on the armadillo, jumped onto Jack the Dog and leaped onto Anacely. Now he was almost exactly the right height to reach those papers, and surely would have if not for one thing--that troublesome wind. It turned and swept the papers toward the window.
"Your stories!" cried the tiny man. In a desperate move he dove, headfirst, after the papers. They hovered in the air, just beyond his reach, as if teasing him. For a moment he floated there as well, just behind them, looking very concerned.
"They're only little pieces of paper," said Cordelia.
The tiny man turned his head and looked her in the eyes. "These are your stories," he whispered. "They hold your memories." Then the wind picked up, sweeping the papers and the tiny man out the window and off into the sky. "Don't worry!" he cried. "You'll see them again someday, you have my word. For I am your Uncle Bunkle."
"But you're so tiny!" Cordelia told him.
She could barely hear him now as he called back, "You were tiny once yourself you know."
Everyone rushed to the window and searched, but he was gone.
"What did that tiny man mean about our memories?" asked Cordelia.
Penca and Anacely looked at each other and shrugged. Then they turned to Cordelia, and asked, "What tiny man?"
And that was the beginning of the Uncle Bunkle Stories.