- from The Book of Yelps and Growls

Once upon a time there was a Ripping Girl. She worked in a great factory, twelve miles wide and tall enough so that they had to have their own stars built. When something needed ripping they would call her name and she would come running in her brown shoes and tear with her teeth and her fingernails at the thing.
She did not like for people to watch her work.
On her day off she would sleep. And oh what dreams she had!
Her dreams came in twelve parts and sang in harmonies and counter-melodies. When she dreamt in another language she stayed home from work to translate from dictionaries what she had dreamt.
These dreams told her that she must no longer rip and tear, but she would not give up her job because she liked to have money and did not know how to do anything else.
In her city there were not many jobs to be had.