I’ve won a few awards and I am very proud of them. If you’d like to read those stories (or at least excerpts from those stories) click on the drop down.

In the meantime… here’s a dream I had on February 5th, 2021.

Bepo and the Pope

Once upon a time, a pirate child named Bepo fell from his ship during a terrible storm. After a long, cold night of struggling he was fished out of the turbulent oceans by none other than Pope Francis. His Holiness had fallen asleep in a fishing boat and drifted out to see and had absolutely no idea how to sail the tiny ship. But he prayed for help and here it is in the form of an irate, hungry, pirate child, who does not want to be tickled by the Pope.

As Bepo tries to bring the ship to a port, they avoid a zombie ship and a pack of mermaids tries to seduce them with the promise of pie. The Pope is prone to tickling Bepo when he gets too glum, which is always. When there is no land in sight, no hope of finding their way, and it is clear they will die soon, the Pope suggests they both pray for a miracle. Bepo asks, “What good will it do for an irate, hungry, pirate child to pray, when the Pope himself has been praying and God hasn’t noticed. And Pope Francis says, “What harm will it do?” And so Bepo grudgingly closes his eyes and prays.

They are promptly eaten by a whale.

It’s disgusting inside a whale. Dripping and stale and rotten. The ship is eaten away by the acid.

Bepo makes the whale laugh by tickling his insides and the whale spits them out.

The fly through the air over the ocean, and the tiny ship splinters to pieces when it hits the water. Everything is darkness and Bepo can’t hear or see Pope Francis anymore. He swims and tries to keep afloat, but it’s no use and the little boy begins to drown. Because there is nothing else to do, Bepo says the prayer that Pope Francis has been muttering all day.

And he is fished out of the water by a ship– one full of humans! I mean, they weren’t pirate, but no on is perfect, right? The strangers reunite him with his ‘grandpa’ and they sail them back home, where Bepo is given credit for saving the Pope from drowning and made into the captain of the Papal Fleet, which in fairness is one small fishing boat, that is mostly used for long afternoon naps.