There once was a boy who found a magic pebble. Whenever he threw it, the boy would travel wherever the pebble landed. The boy delighted in his new toy. He used it to sneak behind his mother to snatch cookies from the kitchen. He would slide it in the space between the bathroom door and the floor to scare his kid sister while she bathed.

When the boy’s mother scolded him for misbehaving, he would huff and puff, stomp his feet and shout that he was going to use his magic pebble to travel someplace far, far away, where his mother and sister could not follow.

One day, the boy went gamboling along the edge of the lake, tossing his magic pebble into the air and catching it. He giggled each time he caught it, for his body vibrated and tingled as it quantum shifted. He tossed his magic pebble high, higher than ever before, and as it came down, the boy didn’t catch it cleanly. The magic pebble slipped from his fingers and dropped into the lake, where it sunk down to the sandy bottom.

The boy followed his magic pebble.

When the boy did not come home for dinner, his mother did not find it surprising. She believed her son had made good his threat to use his magic pebble to travel to a place far, far away where she could not follow.

(Image copyright Evan Leeson, via Flickr, CC licence)