The Outlandish Tales of Acara

Do you ever find it strange that all stories begin with the words, “Once Upon A Time…?” I do. “Once Upon a Time” tells me that the story took place long ago in a world that is unreachable by any real standards. It implies a time that is untouchable to you and denotes a place that you could never visit. No matter how hard you tried, and how long you closed your eyes, and no matter how many wells you wished upon.

“Once Upon a Times” lays out places to which we can only travel through memory and story, through the linear connection between articulation and thought. “Once Upon a Times” are an alternate world. 

That’s not how this adventure unfolds. It wasn’t once and is most unquestionably not upon a time.

Imagine, if you will, unfolding a flat box. The edges come up to create walls and angles, sides, and spaces. Well, if you can unfold a box, then you can travel to the world in which this story takes place.

If you can cross enough deserts, you can find the infamous Sand People with fingers that burn like the end of a match, lit and then puffed out.

If you can trek enough jungles and survive, you will reach the wildest jungle of them all. One which boasts giant birds, mud snakes, and a lost tribe. Where the leaves high on the treetops flitter from branch to branch, switching places with each other (as this turns out to be MUCH more interesting than sitting in the same spot, with the same view, day after day).

If you top over just the right mountain, you will spy a land full of giants and their giant fierce unicorns, trotting through blades of grass the size of the slide at your playground. They work hard plowing the white ground, shearing the quick-dissolving wool of their sheep.

Yes, If you had the patience to cross enough oceans, you could land on the glitter-sand island to visit the hard-working and mischievous pixies. You might spy them fighting off a host of great coconut ants. And you could fill a basket with fish-men that will cook all your favorite seafood before they head back into the tide.

Yes, if you can unfold a box, then you – you yourself – can visit the land of South Acara.