Patrick had his place all cleaned up and looking pretty nice he thought. Myrtle had her head in her shell when he was vacuuming but she was poking it out now as she stared out of the glass. It was 5:30, Tamara was due to come at 6, perhaps he would take Myrtle out of her for a little and let her roam around.
He took off the lid and gently lifted her out. When he put her on the floor he felt like she smiled at him. Just then his doorbell rang. Was Tamara early? He opened the door to find a child selling Girl Scout Cookies. Patrick did have a sweet tooth, so he ordered some Thin Mints and some of their Coconut cookies. He closed the door and walked back to the couch to watch Myrtle explore some more, but where was she? He got down on the floor and looked under the sofa, but didn’t see her there. The little girl at the door had been chatty but he didn’t think they had talked that long. Myrtle was a turtle, how could she disappear so fast!
He kept crawling around but couldn’t see any sign of her, where did she go? He was feeling really confused when the doorbell rang again. Looking at the time he realized that now it would be Tamara. What a way to start off a date night, searching for his missing turtle. He got up with a sigh and went to open the door.
Tamara was standing there smiling and looking nice in her bright yellow top and sunflower leggings.
“Hi there handsome”, she said, but then her smile changed as she saw the worried look on his face.
“What is wrong?”
“I can’t find Myrtle! I took her out of her cage and then the doorbell rang and …OH NO! What if she slipped out the door?
“She isn’t that speedy of a turtle, she probably just found a nice place to curl up and hide in. She can fit into some pretty small places. Myrtle, Myrtle, Where are you?”
Patrick started laughing. “She is a turtle, she isn’t going to answer you back. The last I knew turtles couldn’t talk.”
Tamara made a face at Patrick and continued calling as she looked.
“Found her!” Tamara shouted.
She had slipped underneath Patrick’s baseball glove that he had lying in the corner of the floor.
Patrick breathed a sigh of relief as he picked Myrtle up and put her back into her terrarium.
“I thought you were a detective, and you couldn’t even find a missing turtle?” Tamara joked.
“Well it was kind of fun watching you crawl around on the floor.”
Tamara looked at Patrick’s twinkling eyes and she didn’t say a word.
Patrick walked over to the stereo and turned on some music. Tamara was sitting at the table and he came up behind her kissing her gently on her neck. He breathed in the soft fragrance of her sweet perfume and for a moment forgot about the food that he had prepared for them.
He had made his specialty, Manicotti, with Tiramisu for dessert. He brought it over to the table and then poured them each some wine before he sat down.
“This smells delicious! I am impressed!” said Tamara.
“Hopefully you are still impressed, after you taste it. My Mom was a great cook and I was able to learn a little from her. I am also really good at ordering pizza, for when some of my dishes don’t turn out!”
They were enjoying a nice dinner until Tamara brought up how at times she had a strange feeling that someone was following her whenever she came to see Patrick. The only person she ever noticed around her though was some lady with a broad rimmed hat on her head, and dark sunglasses.
Patrick started to say that he hadn’t noticed anyone before, but then he remembered the other day when he was backing his car out of the garage.
“I am sure its probably nothing, wouldn’t know why some lady would be ….” he paused.
Tamara looked at him, “Yes?” Would be… what?”
Patrick took a gulp of wine, ” I don’t think you need to worry, but I will see if I notice her tomorrow when I go to work.”
Through the rest of dinner, Patrick had a nagging thought in his head, that he tried to dismiss. Would Anna really come looking for him??
He shook his head, watching Tamara clean off the table. When she went to take his plate, he took her hand. “The dishes can wait.” he said.
He stood up and led her into the center of the room. “May I have this dance?”
Tamara smiled, laying her head against his chest as they swayed to the music, and all thoughts of Anna left Patrick’s mind.
I think the girl scout is actually working for Hanna (Anna). Hanna is going to make the cookies herself, and then have the girl deliver them. These will be baked from her special oleander recipe. But Tamara has an eating disorder, that Patrick is unaware of. She will spot the cookies before he can eat even one, and sneak them out the door, and hog them all for herself.
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I don’t think you all understand how I am totally confusing myself with these names now. What did I do! I sat here wondering if I should write Tonya,Tanya or Anna and yes I remembered you saying Hanna before. I didn’t go with Hanna because I don’t need another name to confuse me, but Hanna appeared anyway, didn’t she! LOL!
Oh gosh on your theory. Only you would think of Oleander. Patrick would feel awful if something happened to Tamara!
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Well fortunately for Myrtle, I mean Betsy, no Bessie, no Tamara, she has bulemia. So after gorging on the oleander cookies, she stuck her finger down her throat and regurgitated them.
Still, she became very ill and was hospitalized. Patrick stayed by her side, day and night, until she recovered. He proposed to her, and they became engaged in the hospital.
Meanwhile, Hanna (aka Anna) tracked Patrick to the hospital. While she was crossing the street to reach the hospital and do him in, a big semi truck flattened her, and she was killed instantly.
THE END
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…mmm…! On the names! You get confused too, I see!
Well you just worked everything out I see. You saved Tamara and they got married and Anna is now out of the picture! But its the last 2 words that confuse me! I am not sure what those words mean, for they never seem to work for me with this story! Perhaps you have the magic touch though and you wrapped it all up for me now. I don’t have to worry about it anymore, right? 🙂
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Right. You see, the only way to end a story like this is through the writing technique of “sudden death”. The protagonist, or antagonist must suddenly die from an unexpected tragedy. This ends the story while protecting its plausibility, while at the same time protecting the writer from sudden death from excessive head slapping.
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LOL! Well I guess I owe you a thank you from “saving” me from sudden death…..though…..not quite sure that your ending totally solved the “head slapping” There are other variables that contribute to the “head slapping” which I don’t think there is a cure for!
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Have you considered wearing a plaster cast on your arm?
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Ummm….can’t say that I have!
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It would make your arm rigid, so that you can’t slap your head anymore. Sort of like this: 🦾
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I don’t think it would be real comfortable!
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Would wearing a helmet be better?
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I am not sure since I am still waiting for a certain engineer to design one!
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Oh you have a long wait. I hear he’s busy riding his train.
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🤚😶
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I thought for sure that Myrtle had gone outside looking for her mate, ‘Tuga!
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What a devious mind you have!!! Poor Tamara 😥
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Tamara will survive, and this will teach her a lesson about stealing someone’s cookies. So all’s well that ends well.
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I think Tamara must be a criminal or Patrick wouldn’t be romancing her to win her confidence the way he did with more Tanya.
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She does seem a little suspicious. Patrick seems to go for the bad girl types.
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more Tanya? I wonder why I wrote that. I think that I meant ‘poor Tanya’. Or rich Tonya. I am not sure.
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It seems Carolyn’s Pennsylvanian dialect is rubbing off on you.
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Or maybe I am still suffering from a vitamin C deficiency this morning. The C standing for coffee, of course. I was up all night on my trains, you know. I only had to kick off 3 hobos last night.
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😶🤚
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Such a terrible addiction, that Vitamin C. I understand you can ween yourself off with tapwater.
You must feel very tired, though. Being an engineer sounds like rough work. I hope those hobos didn’t give you too much trouble.
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I tried the weening off coffee with tapwater idea. It didn’t work and it kind made me sick. That was back when I lived in Flint Michigan.
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Well from what I’ve seen of their tapwater, you were probably drinking month-old coffee.
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Oh m gosh, you all need to slow down! Or else I need to go back to bed! LOL! And I hope the hobos gave you lots of trouble!
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I didn’t have to deal with hobos. That’s Jason’s problem. Although now I suppose they’ll be camping out in my front yard, since they’re not allowed on his train anymore.
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“very funny!”
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Good. I wanted you to start your day off with a laugh.
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You are sooo “thoughtful!”
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You might need a pick-me-up after you notice those 30 bottles of wine I caught.
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..mmm..! I am not sure either!
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Oh my gosh, so what about Tamara seems suspicious??
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Tamara accidentally revealed her secret ability to talk to animals when she started talking to Myrtle.
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Well for one thing, she stole Patrick’s cookies.
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But she didn’t steal his cookies!
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Not yet, but she’s thinking about it.
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Wait! Why wouldn’t Patrick be romancing her if she wasn’t a criminal? She isn’t a criminal! “More Tanya???”
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I got the idea that Patrick only uses his romantic powers to seduce and trap criminal women, and maybe men, I don’t know.
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Oooh you didn’t say that!
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Hmmmm … I’ll wait and see about that. She likely will survive, for Carolyn is too sweet & kind to kill her off, but … I sense trouble ahead.
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Awh! Thanks Jill, for a comment that didn’t make me smack my head! LOL!
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Very true! I am not that mean to my characters!
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‘Tis what I just told Tippy!
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😊
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Here are the 2 links to the 2 prior stories that I believe you missed. Jason wrote them, so be prepared to …smack your head!” LOL!
https://joyroses13.wordpress.com/2020/05/25/betsys-escape/
https://joyroses13.wordpress.com/2020/05/28/betsys-escape-the-conclusion/
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A million thanks!!! I will get over there this evening! I see you also have a new episode out … 😊
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Enjoy! Don’t be drinking anything as you read them, you might spit it out! And yes I do have a new episode, its the FINAL episode, just wanting to clarify that, for i have noticed how some people seem to be very confused about what “final” means! 🙂
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🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Oh, that was soooo funny!!!! How many times have you posted a “final” episode??? I’ll believe it when I see it, but I don’t think … well, I’ll be silent, but if I were a bettin’ woman … 🤣🤣🤣
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😜😜😜 It is!! Go read it you will see, don’t be swayed by the guy’s comments! What do they know!
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Good one … I read and commented … I think the story is far from over … loose ends left dangling, etc. Y’know … if you compile all these someday, you might just have a publish-able novel!!! I only read a few of the guys’ comments, for I’m way behind schedule today, but … you can’t pull the wool over their eyes!
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You told me that Myrtle would never get out of her aquaterium thing. Now you have let her loose and out of site for a time. Who knows what she was able to do before sneaking back in and hiding under the baseball glove? She may have had time to get word to a partner in some plot she hatching. You left that door open. Or maybe the turtle found under the glove was Myrtle’s twin sister Gyrtle. You sure like to set up for sequels.
I am also curious about the way Tamara was dressed for January or February. Sounded like summer clothing, but I could be mistaken and Borden could be in the southern hemisphere I guess.
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Ooh you just had to remember that I said that, didn’t you, I had obviously forgotten! “Aquaterium”??
No, I didn’t leave the door open, Patrick did! BUT… .No there is no Gyrtle … mmm…!!
And now you have me confused, for when did I say that it was January or February? Who said it was winter time? Remember in the last story Patrick rode his bike to work, he couldn’t do that in the winter time. 🙂
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You forget that I have two daughters and they both sold girl scout cookies.
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Oh wait. I see, you were being clever and out-witted me. The girl scout was not a girl scout all all and Patrick, being a detective, should have realized this because they don’t sell girl scout cookies in the summer. There was something in those cookies.
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😶🤚 😶🤚!!
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You better go back to bed and put a pillow over your head to protect yourself from all the head slapping.
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I think its too late!
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Just like Myrtle and Gyrtle’s mother had two daughters. Myrtle’s and Gyrtle’s mother was a very fertile turtle.
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I have to complement you as your stories are so full of hidden intrigue, but maybe I figured out the sub-sub-plot here.
OK, Annie and Anna had another sister. A much younger sister named Fannie. And Anna and Fannie are working together to carry out revenge on Patrick. They also tricked Patrick into adopting their accomplice Myrtle as a pet. They waited until Patrick let Myrtle out for a stroll and then sent Fannie to the door posing as a girl scout so that Myrtle could go open the locks on the bedroom window. The girl scout cookies were secretly laced with a drug to make Patrick sleepy. He will then go to bed and fall into a deep sleep at which point Anna will sneak in and abduct him and take him back to her island.
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Well my brain was feeling clear after being out this morning and then I come back to this…..LOL! Oh gosh! Fannie?? She can’t be a third sister, for Anna and Annie aren’t sisters! And how can a plain, simple turtle unlock windows?? Abducting poor Patrick? So now what happens in your intriguing sub-sub plot?
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You set up this subplot with your Girl Scout imposter, so I am waiting to see where it goes.
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Who knew Girl Scouts could create so much trouble! You already confuaed me with the whole weathwr thing at first.
She was just an innocent girl scout!
Gee! I have quite the capability of setting up things without even knowing it!
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That is what makes you such a good writer.
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I think the crazy imaginations of others may play more of a role!
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And I think that we have established the Myrtle is a very special and extraordinary turtle as you had Tamara talking to her.
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…mmm….!
But Myrtle didn’t respond to her due to being an ordinary turtle! 😛
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Oh gosh! So much for waking up peacefully this morning. Your extra special cow, Betsy was in my dream chasing me! Everyone was yelling about the runaway cow. Yes, I need to end this story, the characters are out of control, LOL!
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Ok, may I suggest a scooby doo ending. Patrick traps Tamara and pulls off her mask to reveal….
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Haha!
How is Patrick supposed to find true love if Tamara turns out to be a bad person??
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Why does Patrick have to find true love?
I am sorry that your sweet innocent cow 🐄 has caused you so much trouble.
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I feel your “sympathy” 🙂
Well if I remember correctly it was you that said you wanted Patrick to have a romance! So now you changed your mind?
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That doesn’t sound like something I’d say.
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LOL! Just like you didn’t ever suggest that Betsy wasn’t a sweet, innocent cow, right?
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That’s what you insisted, but I could see through that thin facade, to see the kind of cow she really was.
Well, men like movies that end with some version of the hero riding off into the sunset and women like movies that end with the couple overcoming whatever obstacles and ending up with each other. So, you better right the women ending so that you can sleep at night. Betsy already rode off into the sunset.
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So when it comes to animals you can see through them, eh!
Thanks for that helpful advice! 🙂
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Mainly just cows and turtles.
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Haha! Well that is good to know! I will remember that for my next story.
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Maybe Myrtle was just getting out of the way for the dance off? 😇
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LOL! 😃
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Aw this is so romantic! An intimate dinner and private dance. Nothing can ruined this night now. Not even you Anna, damn you.
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🥰
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