The Adventures of Carbon and His Electron Collection

Once there was a lonely atom, who liked to play. His name was Carbon, and he lived on Street 4A in Tabletown. Carbon had 4 bigger brothers and sisters, named Silicon, Germanium, Tin, and Lead.

Carbon was very very small. In fact, he was soooo small, that to him, the period at the end of this sentence looked like the whole world.

Carbon had an electron collection, which he kept on his bookshelf. He liked to show off his electrons to his friends. Electrons were like fireflies only much much faster, and much much smaller. They could move this way ----->, and that way <-----, and spent most of their time spinning around in funny patterns. In fact, they were so fast that when they went by, all you saw was a blur, and you weren't really sure of if it went by over here, or over there, or even which way it went at all.

On the bottom shelf he kept 2 electrons. And on the top shelf he kept 4. These were his favorites, because they were the fastest, although they liked to roam around a bit too much.

Carbon liked his electron collection, it made him feel good. But it still looked incomplete. He had more space on the top shelf for 4 more, that he really wanted.

One day, while Carbon was out playing with his 4 favorite electrons, the two Oxygen twins came by. They were sad. They wanted to play with Carbon's roaming electrons, too, since their electrons were all locked up and couldn't run free. But Carbon couldn't decide what to do. He didn't want the Oxygen twins to take them and leave him without his favorite electrons, but he liked the Oxygen twins, and wanted them to be happy, too.

Then he had an idea. "Let's share them!" said Carbon.

And so they did. And Carbon and his two new friends formed a bond that would last for a long time.

(note: the idea is encapsulated in the title, 'create bedtime / fantasy stories that demonstrate science principles in interesting ways to young kids, so that they'll dream about them)
— RayfordSteele, Jul 18 2004