When 1000 words of fast-paced, short-story fiction mystery-adventure with Inspector Pascal Mysteries 1000 just aren't enough, here's four times the adventure!  Readers have been asking for more Inspector Pascal, so from time to time when intrepid Inspector Pascal and Sergeant Braque need more time to solve the crime, watch for the special 4000-word episodes of Inspector Pascal Mysteries 4000 at TIPTOPduTOP. Click on MORE at the menu bar above to see the brand new page exclusively for 4000-word short story fiction mystery-adventure:  Inspector Pascal Mysteries 4000

Another day at TIPTOPduTOP means another trail to explore!  This one seems nice and mysterious! Wonder what is waiting ahead to discover?

Stop looking up at the forest, look down!  Watch your feet! There's something large moving across the trail. A big snake! No... wait... it's snake-like, but sort of furry-looking, and it's moving, yet without moving.  The brain takes a moment to figure out what it's seeing.  The core is in motion, but the sides aren't?  How is that possible?

It seems to be draining down a hole, like liquid.  The center seems to have a flow - like blood in a vein - how curious!

A closer - very, very careful - inspection reveals an absolutely classic military formation, the phalanx!  All in ants!  Heavily-pincered fighting ants form two bristling defensive lines facing outward to protect the path of thousands of worker ants busy porting food into the nest.  A grand military deployment snaking over the forest floor and across the vulnerable open stretch of the path, yet every detail in miniature!  The explorers marvel, but prudently pass by without disturbing these formidable Formicidae in their daily work - the ants may be small, but they know how to fight!

“A man's character is like his house. If he tears boards off his house and burns them to keep himself warm and comfortable, his house soon becomes a ruin. If he tells lies to be able to do the things he shouldn't do but wants to, his character will soon become a ruin. A man with a ruined character is
a shame on the face of the earth.”
- Ralph Moody, Little Britches: Father and I were Ranchers

Lesson: Written expression:
Describe this person:
"It's a man, he has short hair, a beard, he has an earring in his ear."
A bit short, not grammatically complicated, but not too bad for a non-French-speaking 5th grader learning how to integrate into the French education system... who's never been to a bar before.