Octo-Oneshots

Story Of An Author

She had wanted to be a writer since she was two, and her mother took both her and her sisters to the library around the corner from their house. She had been clinging to her baby sister's stroller and rocking back and forth on it as Mama fed the baby and Dashi went off to look for books.

Here's a secret Koshi didn't even want to tell Dashi: she didn't like the new baby much. Baby cried a lot, and she couldn't even say her name properly, so they just called her Jane instead. Jane didn't really like her either. She'd already smiled for mommy, daddy, and Dashi, especially for Dashi, but not a single time for her, and she was already six months old!

By now, any two year old would've gotten tired of futilely wresting a plastic stroller, and Mama was still feeding Jane, so what else could she do? Oh yeah! The idea hit her like a ton of bricks. She could play with Dashi. Dashi always wanted to play with her, so Koshi took off down rows and rows of bookshelves towering over her until...

"Dashi!" The little girl squealed in delight as she spotted her older sister sitting in a beanbag chair and reading a big green book. Dashi looked up at once and smiled at the sight of her little sister running down the aisle of books with her ears in pigtails bouncing. She quickly reached her arms out and scooped her little sister up into her arms and shushed her as gently as she could. Koshi immediately put both paws over her mouth and nodded.

"Can you read to me?" She whispered to Dashi, giving her the best puppy-dog eyes she could.

"Of course." Dashi mouthed back warmly and opened the book back up and began to read, "Donna Doxi was one of the most distinguished detectives of her time, and she had a case to solve..." Dashi read for a long, LOOOONG time before Koshi finally tugged at her sleeve to get her to stop. She liked the story, she just needed Dashi for a little bit. Dashi stopped reading and turned to her as Koshi snuggled into her big sister.

"Why do you always read books to me?" Dashi smiled and gave her a little kiss on the head.

"Because reading makes me happy and I hope it makes you happy as well."

"I want to make you happy too." Koshi remarked.

"You're already making me happy," Dashi hugged her tight, "By sitting with me and letting me read the book to you." And Koshi decided then and there, that she wanted to make Dashi even happier with books. After all, she's never settled for second best, has she?