Friedrich the Opossum

This is a story that was written for my friends Katie and Hannah while I was in my Theology of the Human Person class. Basically I told them that I would write a story that started with the next three words that my professor spoke and whatever character name and back story they wanted. If you knew my theology professor you would understand the risk I was taking in starting a story off his next three words. Luckily, they were "was sent off" and the rest of the story follows. 

Friedrich was sent off to the cheese factory one day to buy some apples. He thought that this was a little strange as he thought that apples grew on trees. Friedrich figured that this was just another strange quirk that Canada had. Even though Friedrich had come to Canada to study the art of apologizing he found he was learning a great deal about the world and it’s cultures as well. In fact, Canadians enjoyed eating apple pie and cheese...so perhaps it was not strange for apples to be sold at a cheese factory. He found that Canada was very different than Bavaria but he was glad to have met some wonderful kind Canadians who spoke German, which was his first language. 

As Friedrich walked along he thought of all that he had learned about apologizing. He was so glad to have come to Canada to learn this art, as they specialized in it.  "There is no country better," he thought "at apologizing than Canada."

As an opossum he had never felt a great need for apologizing but as he watched the Canadians interact with one another he began to realize how many apologizing opportunities he had missed! Why, he had not realized that one could apologize for so many different things! He could apologize for having a different opinion, for looking at someone, for talking to someone, for handing someone something for being kind to some. In fact, Friedrich had noticed that sometimes Canadians apologized for nothing at all, or so it seemed. It was very complicated and Friedrich had much to learn about this more subtle art of apologizing when nothing has really seemed to happen at all. This was something he wished to study more before he left Canada. Actually,  he hoped to study it while out to buy apples. 

Friedrich swung from tree to tree on his little opossumy tail, happily breathing in the fresh Canadian air and humming a sorry song.

"I love being sorry and I apologize for that. I really like to wear a touque, but will never wear a hat. I'm sorry that I said that. I'm sorry I apologized. I'm sorry that you've heard this song and I'm sorry you're surprised. I'm sorry I'm Canadian, I'm sorry that you're not. I'm sorry for apologizing but it's really all I've got."

With the end of his son Friedrich looked up just in time to see another opossum swinging toward him at full speed. But he could not stop in time and they crashed straight into one another... tune in next time for more fun adventures with Friedrich the opposum from Bavaria. Will he grasp this opportunity for ample apologies or will he get swept away by the beauty of Olivia the Ontarian Opposum?!

(I apologize for the weird formatting, I don't know how to fix it!)