Handle with curiosity
Nabu’s collection
Department of pleasant nonsense
Department of pleasant nonsense
An entirely invented little museum
The Cabinet of
Impossible Things
Six small impossibilities.
Pull a drawer. Poke the contents.
Nobody is required to learn anything.
A note found underneath the respectable label
The curator’s afternoon off
The curator had intended to inventory the cabinet. He sharpened a pencil, opened the first drawer, and was caught in a thunderstorm six inches wide. The rain was warm. The pencil sprouted.
“A setback,” he said, watering it.
By the second drawer he had acquired an extra Tuesday. By the third, he had remembered why he used to like whistling. At the fourth he got lost between the desk and the door, which was a considerable improvement on reaching the meeting.
The clock ticked apologetically. He forgave it. The moth settled on the word necessary, and ate the first three letters.
When the museum’s trustees arrived, they found a pencil tree, an unsigned calendar, and a note: “Out investigating a biscuit. No conclusions expected.”
They voted to investigate the biscuit as well. The minutes were delicious.