You’ve seen adventures that begin in a snow globe. How about one that is ignited by the spark of a flame and moves with each new candle lit. With certain flames, we are afforded the opportunity to join the residents of this randomized world. For the people within the spark, the light in one candle can represent years or decades.

Flying above the clouds can be uplifting, but rather dull if you do it often. Such is the case with Bill. He looks forward to being in a different place at the end of the trip, but the path itself is less than exciting. On one trip between Chicago and Orlando, the plane had to fly a little lower and was actually flying through the clouds. Bill looked out of his usual window seat and observed a different world. He stared and saw things within the clouds that he recognized on the ground.

Time stands still when you do not carry a watch. Time also stands still when you do not know what time is…We can hide from reality and even be put in places to help us pretend more. However, we can not dismiss reality when the lights around us signify changes. Tessa went into the home when she was 12 and has not seen others since then. Her room provides all she needs. It is a small, three-sectioned room that changes with Tessa’s imagination. When she needs to go outside, she exits through one section and ends up in another, viewing trees and feeling the breeze. She interacts with the creations she has drawn or described out loud. The main computer provides the rest. On one particular day, an actual visitor somehow crept into the room…

Children have adventures when the rest of us are simply living our lives. Siblings have even more special adventures in between fights and scream fests. This story begins with a mother listening into the stories of two sisters playing in their bedroom. “Lets fly a kite and get stuck in the air,” says the littlest one. And, the adventure begins…

These days, carrying a watch is a pain on the wrist. With cell phones, PDAs, and computers all around us, the need for another form of the constricting value of time becomes less desirable. What happens if the digital clocks just stopped displaying. They still worked. However, only other computerized devices could read the time. You will need to search for a reason and a way to tell time more effectively than having the computer tell you. So, you track down that old pocket watch, give it a few twists, and you realize that you can see more than just the time. You can see…

What if our life did depend on the roll of a dice? A gambling woman would carry around her own dice. Every move, every call, she makes is determined by her roll. Each option is assigned a number that corresponds to the dots on the dice. One means she takes the bus to work; Five indicates she takes her bike. This is not always the best method, but she rolls them every day…she needs to roll them everyday.

Retail stores are full of stories. However, when the items sold are of a different nature…a peculiar form…an unexpected product, the stories become every more interesting. This store doesn’t need storage as the goods flex to the space needed. They adjust to the shelf space and the lack thereof.

What time is it when your flashlight dies? Time to venture down to the local pet store and buy a new little critter. What? Yes, in this part of the future, new creatures have supposedly been “raised” to help save the environment, reduce the number of batteries that leak into the ground, and provide a more continuous source of light while providing a pleasant little companion as well.

The world is really too much with us. When it comes time for the last families to leave their humble abode and seek a better life on the recently expanded Mars community, they can not find it in themselves to go. Most of the natural resources have been depleted and most of their friends and colleagues have already moved. These families want to stay. They want to try again to help the earth thrive again.