This story was written to respond to the theme of the ideastap brief "family". It is written as an Oulipo text: The constraint being that every third word has been erased. This enables the reader to insert his/her own words, and also portraying the main character's problem of remembering what happened.    

A scene from the second edit of Mushrooms! ? ACT I Scene 1 A small hut in the forest. The interior is simple: a table, four chairs and heavy red velvet curtains covering up the only window. There are bottles scattered around the place - some of them full, others half-full. Two candles lighten up the table, and the rest of the room is plunged in a strange darkness. The Bird Brothers sit facing each other, playing with a deck and poker chips, having a good time. Icarus looks occasionally to one of the corners of the room, to see if the silver box is still there. SIR: Let’s play a game. ICARUS: Will there be thinking involved? SIR: Maths, yes. ICARUS: Kra! Kra! SIR: Don’t worry brother, there’s plenty of time to learn! ICARUS: What are we playing? SIR: Black Jack. ICARUS: Teach me. SIR: Now, the rules are simple: I give you two cards, and you sum them up. If you have low cards, pick a new one. Say "stick", if you believe that you are close enough to 21 or if you have 21. They start playing the game. Eventually they have to show their cards...

Experimental text to investigate how I could write about fairy tale character Der Sandmann. I have done my own interpretation, so some elements are familiar and others not.