The Spinkles and the Spankles
A Children's Story
The Spinkles and the Spankles
In the middle of a pretty little town, there’s a pretty little street called Forgetful Lane. Every house on Forgetful Lane looks the same. They are all painted white with large front porches and cute picket fences.
One of the houses on this lovely street belongs to Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle. They have been living there for many years and are quite happy.
One day, a moving truck appeared next door to Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle. They were going to have new neighbors! After the movers had finished moving everything into the house next door, Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle went over to greet their new neighbors. They brought a delicious blueberry cobbler Mrs. Spinkle baked that morning.
Ding-dong went the doorbell, and a couple answered the door.
“Hi, we’re your neighbors from next door, Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle,” said Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle at the same time. “We brought a blueberry cobbler for you. Welcome to the neighborhood.”
“Well, hi, and thank you,” said the new couple at the same time. “We are Mr. and Mrs. Spankle.” They all had a good laugh at their similar-sounding names and chatted for a while. Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle went back to their home, glad to have met the nice new neighbors.
Everything was fine on Forgetful Lane for a little while until one day Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle found Mr. and Mrs. Spankle’s mail in their mailbox, and Mr. and Mrs. Spankle found Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle’s mail in their mailbox. This worried Mr. Spinkle because he had never received anyone else’s mail before.
So later on that evening, Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle went over to Mr. and Mrs. Spankle’s house and exchanged each other’s mail, and they all had a good laugh over the mix-up.
The next day, the exact same thing happened—Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle got Mr. and Mrs. Spankle’s mail, and Mr. and Mrs. Spankle got Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle’s mail. This also happened the day after that and the day after that. In fact, it happened to have happened every day! Mr. Spinkle was not pleased, and neither was Mr. Spankle.
One evening, Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle invited Mr. and Mrs. Spankle over for tea and peanut butter cookies. The reason for the invitation was to have the neighbors discuss the growing problem of their mail—which was not being delivered to the correct house. So that is what they did, and Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle and Mr. and Mrs. Spankle discussed the misdelivered mail and tried to figure out a way to straighten it out.
“I have an idea,” Mr. Spankle said, pointing his index finger up to the ceiling.
“Oh great, tell us your idea,” said Mr. Spinkle.
“Let me finish my cookie first,” Mr. Spankle said. Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle and Mrs. Spankle waited patiently while Mr. Spankle dunked his peanut butter cookie in his tea and then ate it. “Okay, here’s my idea. Since your name has the word pink in it, I think you should paint your house pink. That way, the mail lady will see the pink house and see your name, Spinkle, and she’ll remember your mail should come here. Problem solved.”
Mr. Spankle crossed his arms as if he were extremely proud of himself. Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle thought about his idea, and Mr. Spinkle said, “I think it might work,” and he smiled and shook Mr. Spankle’s hand, and everybody had a good laugh and thought it was a splendid idea.
The next day, Mr. Spinkle went to work painting his house pink. His wife thought it was a lovely color, and so did Mrs. Spankle. When he was finished, Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle looked at their freshly painted pink house.
“The house looks lovely, dear,” said Mrs. Spinkle.
“This should do the trick,” said Mr. Spinkle, and they both went inside to have their dinner.
Unfortunately, Mrs. Spankle liked the color of Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle’s house so much, she insisted her husband paint their house the same color. So now there were two pink houses on Forgetful Lane, side by side—Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle’s pink house and Mr. and Mrs. Spankle’s pink house. And after all the house painting, Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle still received Mr. and Mrs. Spankle’s mail in their mailbox, and Mr. and Mrs. Spankle still received Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle’s mail in their mailbox, and Mr. Spinkle and Mr. Spankle were not very pleased.
The following evening, Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle invited Mr. and Mrs. Spankle over for tea and peanut butter cookies to discuss the mail problem again. They all talked about the problem and tried to come up with another solution.
“I have a great idea,” shouted Mr. Spankle suddenly, his index finger pointing up to the ceiling.
“Oh good, what is it?” asked Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle at the same time.
“Hold on, let me finish my cookie,” said Mr. Spankle, and he dunked his cookie in his tea and then ate it. Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle and Mrs. Spankle waited patiently for him to finish.
“Take your time, dear,” Mrs. Spankle said, so Mr. Spankle had another peanut butter cookie.
“Okay, here’s the solution,” Mr. Spankle said after finishing his second cookie. “Since your name sounds like sprinkle, you should cover your house in chocolate sprinkles! This way, when the mail lady sees the sprinkles, she will immediately think of Spinkle. Get it? Problem solved.”
Mr. Spankle crossed his arms and waited for everyone to compliment him on his fantastic idea. But Mr. Spinkle did not like the idea.
“I don’t like the idea,” Mr. Spinkle said. Mrs. Spinkle and Mrs. Spankle thought it was a splendid idea and said so. There was a lot of discussion about the idea, and finally, Mr. and Mrs. Spankle and Mrs. Spinkle convinced Mr. Spinkle to go with the new plan.
“Okay, okay, we’ll try it,” Mr. Spinkle said, and everybody had a good laugh and finished their tea and peanut butter cookies.
The next day, Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle went to the store and bought as many chocolate sprinkles as they could find. Mr. Spinkle spent the afternoon applying the sprinkles to the outside of his pink house. When he was done, Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle looked at their house.
“It looks… um… interesting, dear,” Mrs. Spinkle said to her husband.
“Well, hopefully, that will do the trick,” Mr. Spinkle said, and he and Mrs. Spinkle went inside to have their dinner.
The next morning, Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle woke up to find that all the birds in the neighborhood had eaten every last one of the chocolate sprinkles that Mr. Spinkle had put on the house, leaving behind little chocolaty stains. It made their pretty, pink house look very dirty.
“Oh dear,” Mrs. Spinkle said.
“That’s just great,” Mr. Spinkle said, but he meant the opposite.
As expected, the mixed-up mail delivery continued. Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle still received Mr. and Mrs. Spankle’s mail, and Mr. and Mrs. Spankle still received Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle’s mail. And as expected, Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle invited Mr. and Mrs. Spankle over for tea and peanut butter cookies to discuss the mail problem once again.
“Anyone have any ideas?” Mr. Spinkle asked rather grumpily.
Mr. Spankle stood up with his index finger pointing up to the ceiling and said, “I have a great idea.”
“No,” Mr. Spinkle said to him. “No more of your silly ideas. Anybody else?”
Mr. Spankle sat down while Mrs. Spinkle and Mrs. Spankle looked at each other. “Well,” Mrs. Spinkle began, “we have an idea.”
“Oh, really?” Mr. Spinkle said. “Let’s hear it then.”
Mrs. Spankle got up and cleared her throat. “Why don’t we all have a little chat with Loretta, the mail lady, and explain the situation to her?” She sat down and took a sip of her tea. Mr. Spankle looked at his wife. Mr. Spinkle looked at Mr. Spankle looking at his wife and Mrs. Spinkle looked at Mr. Spinkle, who was looking at Mr. Spankle. Then Mrs. Spankle looked at Mrs. Spinkle, and Mrs. Spinkle looked at Mrs. Spankle. Then they all looked at each other.
“Well, I guess we could give it a try,” Mr. Spinkle said, and Mr. Spankle reluctantly agreed. Then they all had a good laugh over how ridiculous this was getting, and they finished their tea and peanut butter cookies.
The next day Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle received Mr. and Mrs. Spankle’s mail, and Mr. and Mrs. Spankle received Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle’s mail, but Mrs. Spinkle was able to catch Loretta, the mail lady, and invite her over for tea and peanut butter cookies that evening.
So later on in the evening, Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle and Mr. and Mrs. Spankle spoke to Loretta, the mail lady, while having tea and peanut butter cookies, and told her how their mail was being mixed up. Loretta, the mail lady, apologized profusely and said she had a lot on her mind lately.
“By the way,” Loretta said, “these peanut butter cookies are delicious.”
“Thank you very much,” Mrs. Spinkle said, and the rest of them agreed Mrs. Spinkle’s peanut butter cookies were very good indeed.
Loretta, the mail lady, then proceeded to explain to Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle and Mr. and Mrs. Spankle that her husband had broken his ankle and her son wouldn’t eat his vegetables and her neighbor’s dog kept trying to bite her and… Well, Loretta’s reasons for being upset and taking her mind off her job, went on for another half an hour. Mrs. Spinkle worried she would run out of her delicious peanut butter cookies.
At the end of the evening, Loretta, the mail lady, promised to focus better on their names and that she would try harder to deliver the correct mail to the correct house. Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle and Mr. and Mrs. Spankle were very glad to hear this, and everybody had a good laugh about the entire crazy situation.
The next day, Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle received their own mail, and Mr. and Mrs. Spankle received their own mail. Mr. Spinkle finished cleaning his house of the leftover chocolate sprinkles, which were making his pink house look dirty. When he was done, he and Mrs. Spinkle admired their freshly cleaned, pink house and went inside to eat their dinner.
Everything was fine on Forgetful Lane for a few weeks until one day a moving van appeared on the other side of Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle’s house. When the movers were finished, Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle went over with a blueberry cobbler to welcome their new neighbors.
Ding-dong went the doorbell, and a couple answered the door.
“Hi, we’re your neighbors from next door, Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle,” Mr. and Mrs. Spinkle said at the same time. “We brought a blueberry cobbler for you. Welcome to the neighborhood.”
“Oh, hi, and thank you,” said the new couple at the same time. “We are Mr. and Mrs. Stinkle.”
Mr. Spinkle looked over at Mrs. Spinkle and said, “Call Loretta and invite her over for tea and peanut butter cookies.”
