Australian author Paul Jennings is probably best known for writing quirky, creepy, funny stories in his short-story anthologies, but in every collection there was one tale that was surprisingly tear-jerking.
- In "Unreal" a boy suffers from the obsessive compulsion to add the words "without a shirt" to the end of every sentence. However, one day his dog starts bringing home pieces of a skeleton that stir a strange sense of sadness in him. He takes it upon himself to find the rest of the bones and reunite them in a single grave, and for hours he beach-combs, trying to complete his task. It turns out that the bones belonged to his great-great grandfather, who was lost at sea and with whom he shares his first name. After putting together the skeleton, he throws an old shirt down into the grave, saying: "don't worry, I won't bury you without a shirt." From that day forth, he never again ends his sentences with those words. It's such a strange, surreal little story, but there is something about the boy's unusual plight, the fact that it was his hard work and diligence broke the words' hold on him, and the understated denouement in which he shouts in triumph to the sky as his dog watches him ("he seemed to be smiling").
- In "Undone" a boy gets lost in the desert trying to find the legendary creature known as the "Wobby Gurgle" for the sake of his father who wants to make his restrooms a famous tourist resort. The boy finds the Wobby Gurgle: a strange little man made entirely out of water, only to find that he's stranded in the desert. The Wobby Gurgle leads him home again, giving him water to drink from his own form, even as it causes him to shrink and waste away. Finally the boy refuses to take any more water from him, but it would seem to be too late... until as the Wooby Gurgle lays dying, another one appears: a female, who kisses him and allows her body of water to flow into him, rendering them both the same size. It sounds ridiculous, but it's beautiful. The boy gets home, and when faced with television crews that could make his father's dream come true, he lies to protect those that saved his life.
- One story concerns a pair of brothers, one who is very sickly, and the other mentally disabled. They live in a part of Australia where it never snows, and due to the sickly brother's medical bills, they cannot travel to a snowy area. The sickly brother's wish is to see it snow, just once, and to see a snowman dance (don't remember it clearly- the dancing may or may not have been part of his wish). The mentally disabled brother has an obsession with toilet paper and collects rolls and rolls of it in his attic room. Near the sickly brother's deathbed, the mentally disabled brother goes berserk and their parents are dreadfully upset and decide to throw away his collection. He steals a jar of honey from the kitchen and locks himself in the attic with his collection before they can do so. While they're trying to get the door unlocked, the sickly brother is looking out his window when he sees snow swirling all over the place, and soon a snowman appears, dancing. It's in fact his brother, who has shredded his entire collection and thrown it all out the window, and smeared the honey all over himself so he will look like a snowman with the paper clinging to him. He dies happy.
- Yet another story had a street performer who was only loved by his canine companion. Jealous that his audience loves the dog more than him the man threw the dog into a well. During that time it was trapped the dog kept looking up at the tiny hole at the top so that its head was permanently twisted back when the owner finally brought it back up again. The owner then wins the lottery and started to give away money so that everyone will start to like him but when he ran out of money he had to hide in the well to escape from the angry mob and ended up trapped there. He only survived because the dog kept bringing him food and was finally rescued when someone spied the dog's corpse beside the well. The story ends with the man alone and with his head twisted back permanently to stare at the sky.
