Notebook for Fantastical Observations (17 page)

Diagram for a board game called
“
T
RICK THE
T
ROLL
” in which players ask riddles and move their pieces with each correct answer:

Design the game board:

Pictures or list of game pieces required to play:

Rules and instructions:

__________________________________________________

The horn that jutted from its forehead was twisted to an end that looked sharp.

FROM
B
OOK
3: L
UCINDA’S
S
ECRET

UNICORNS

My little sister has a ton of unicorns. She has stuffed animals, porcelain figurines, little plastic toys in pink and blue and yellow. They have the bodies and hooves of horses. Some of them have gold horns, but most of the horns are long and white, like the spiral of a shell. And, of course, they curl up in girls’ laps like kittens.

They don’t look anything like real unicorns.

Real unicorns are smaller than a horse and more slender. They look a little like deer, but they look a little like goats, too. Their toes are splayed and their horns look too big and heavy for their heads. But the most important difference is that they
don’t come in blue or pink or even really white. They’re a muddy cream color, the way white socks get after you wear them a couple of times.

You’re probably wondering how I know what unicorns look like, especially since I’m a boy, especially since I live in the city. Well, I’ll tell you. I saw one at the zoo.

We had a school trip there. We were supposed to stick together and go see some boring exhibits, but there was this plan for what to do if you were lost. The teachers told us that if we got separated from the group, we were supposed to meet at the gates at two o’clock. I figured I could go off, see all the stuff I wanted to see, then pretend it was unintentional.

At first it was great. I saw the pink-toed tarantulas that live together in groups, and I tapped the glass to make the hissing cockroach hiss at me. I even saw a bat that looks like a Chihuahua. But after a while I got lonely and thought that maybe I could catch up to the group. None of those things were as much fun by myself.

I passed the lions lounging on the pretend Serengeti, and the cheetahs. I came to the petting zoo. There were llamas and chinchillas and whatnot, but in with the goats was a weird animal that I’d never seen before. It was pale and looked a little like a deer.

I turned to a janitor sitting on a bench near a garbage can he’d just emptied and smoking a cigarette. He was an old guy with
a face heavily lined with wrinkles, like dry earth that has started to crack.

“What’s that?” I asked him, pointing to the animal.

“A unicorn,” he said. I expected him to smile, but he looked as solemn and bored as he had a moment ago.

“It is not,” I said. I hated it when adults tried to mess with my head.

He shrugged.

“If it’s a unicorn, then where’s its horn?” I demanded.

“Take a look for yourself.” He stood up and put out his cigarette with his heel. Picking up the butt, he stuck it in the mound of garbage already on his cart and started to wheel it away.

I leaned out my hand to the deer-goat thing. It nuzzled my palm and as it did, I saw that at the center of its forehead there was a rough circle of cut bone, as though someone had hacked a long and majestic horn from its brow.

—Alex L.

ANALYSIS: This encounter is evidence that unicorns can live on without their horns, although it is unclear what magical properties they might still possess.

—H. B. & T. D.

This creature has magical powers: