Falling ….

This is the conclusion to Stepping off the Cliff

What a fun weekend it was turning out to be. Audrey and her bestie were on a celebratory shopping spree. Yes, technically, Audrey had not received her first large paycheck yet from her new job, but it would come. Why wait to celebrate?

“I have a wonderful idea. Let’s buy some tickets for the evening show tomorrow at The StarLight Theater.” Audrey’s eyes were aglow with anticipation. But her friend objected.

“You have to be dressed in fancier clothes than what I own to go to that upscale theater.”

Audrey put her finger on her lips. “Hmmm.. Well, I would suggest that we don’t have time to waste standing around.”

With that said, Audrey pulled out her credit card, and they went shopping for dresses.

Standing in line at the register, trepidation started to rise in Audrey’s chest when looking at the price tags. What was she doing? Maybe she should wait to do this until the paycheck was in her hand.

“Shannon, I think…” Audrey began to say. But a little voice in her head said, “You deserve this! You have been scrimping along for a while now. Your ship has come in.”

“What?” Shannon raised her eyebrows in question at Audrey. “What are you thinking?”

“I think….we need some shoes to go with our dresses.”

Audrey turned deaf ears to the loud groan coming from the other voice in her head.

After a five course meal at the La Bella Italian restaurant Audrey dropped off Shannon at her condo.

“Thanks for everything, girl! Can’t wait for tomorrow and hey, are you sure your boss isn’t looking to hire another secretary?”

“I will check, but aren’t you are afraid of heights?”

Shannon frowned at her with a puzzled look. “What does that have to do with anything?”

Audrey laughed. She had let out that little detail when telling Shannon about the job. Didn’t want her thinking that her boss was crazy. Audrey was still trying to rectify that part in her own head.

“Have a good night, I will see you tomorrow.” Audrey waved goodbye and headed home.

Monday morning had come fast, and Audrey was regretting being up late the night before, but the show had been worth it! It was amazing, and they had felt like Cinderella at the ball, as they watched the show.

The best thing was that when the clock struck midnight, things didn’t disappear. Audrey still woke up the next morning and was starting her six-figure job today. Plus, she had returned home last night still wearing her new sparkling red three inch heels. She hadn’t lost a shoe while rushing home, afraid her fairytale would end. Her fairytale was only beginning.

The first three weeks at her new job had flown by. Audrey was enjoying it, for the most part. Though, Mr. Blackbeard was kind of hard to figure out.

He appeared to be so charming at times. Treating her to lunch and surprising her with little gifts, but then there were the secret meetings in his office. The times he scared her as he would stress to her that he wasn’t to be disturbed for any reason, pounding his fist on her desk. She would hear her heart echoing in her ears like a bass drum.

Today, he appeared to be on edge, and she made sure to stay out of his way as much as possible.

“Miss Hartford!!’

Audrey’s cup of coffee shook in her hand, almost spilling. She put it down and looked up at her boss’s red face.

“Leave now!”

“But, but…sir, why?”

His voice thundered as he told her not to ask questions to do as he said! To leave now and come back on Monday.

Audrey was trembling from head to toe. What had she done? She grabbed her purse and dashed for the door. Whatever it was, at least he wasn’t firing her.

He had her so rattled that she couldn’t get her key in the ignition at first. She definitely didn’t feel like she was living a fairytale now.

Driving down the road, she heard sirens. Five police cars were coming down the road. Wow! She wondered where they were headed.

Audrey had a rainy weekend of reading, taking bubble baths,and going to the spa. She was trying to prepare herself for Monday. Hoping with all her heart that Mr Blackbeard was in a much better mood after the weekend.

That was strange. Audrey pulled into the parking lot at work, and no other cars were there. Mr Blackbeard and his assistant Mr Hook were always there before she was.

She decided she wouldn’t sit in the parking lot and wait she would go in and get started. Didn’t want to give Mr Blackbeard any reason to be mad at her.

Ugh! The door wasn’t opening. She knew she punched in the right code on the keypad. After several more tries she gave up. Looked like she would have to wait for her boss to arrive.

Where were they?? An hour later and still Mr Blackbeard and Mr. Hook hadn’t come. She tried calling and received no answer, only went to voice mail.

After another hour of waiting, she drove home. This was ridiculous! Now she was the one getting angry. Today was payday.

All day she waited for a phone call from Mr Blackbeard or his assistant but none came. That evening she turned on the news and all color drained from her face as the newscaster spoke.

“After a high-speed chase, Mr Blackbeard, the head of a smuggling ring, was arrested. He has many charges against him, including embezzlement of government funds and….”

Her voice droned on, and Audrey lost her appetite. She didn’t understand all the charges, but one thing was becoming abundantly clear, she wasn’t going to be receiving a six-figure paycheck. In fact, she wouldn’t be receiving a paycheck at all!

With her mind spinning, she flipped through the mail that she had laid on the table earlier.

Letting out a loud groan, she covered her face with her hands. She held the credit card bill in her hand. Her fairytale had come to an end, and she didn’t even have a lost glass slipper out there for her prince to find.

Asher’s Big Mistake

This is the conclusion to The Winner Is …

My photo

Asher was sitting by the river. He had been in Bittersweet Creek for two months and was still getting used to it. Quite different from the North Pole. Much warmer, which he waa happy about. Though he wouldn’t complain if it cooled down a little bit.

He waa starting over and feeling good. Especially now that he had won first place in the baking contest. The townspeople of Bittersweet Creek were noticing him and his business was really picking up.

No more dealing with tricky leprechauns. He had learned his lesson. Santa and the elves made sure of that! He couldn’t get away from the North Pole fast enough.

His ears were still ringing from the wrath of his now ex-girlfriend, which made his ears bleed. He didn’t know she could get so high pitch! Or that she would be soo upset about stupid elves! How was he suoposed to know that she was a great grandchild of one of the elves!

All the elves had thrown cream pies at him as he tried to climb up on Dinosauris to take him away. He told Dinosauris to fly but he sat so still as Asher got pummeled. The Candy Cane girl sure did have a good arm on her. She threw so fast, as if she was used to throwing pies.

He had told Santa he would start over and he was. This town was full of quirky characters. He had found new people to swindle. He felt positive that he could pull the wool over their eyes. It was only a matter of time.

Getting up he started walking back to his bakery, whistling a happy tune. Thinking of the money be could make. Once all the townspeople were addicted to his sweets he would con them into investing in a new business idea of his. It would be purr….! OUCH! He hadn’t been watching where he was going and now was in quite a bit of pain.

My photo

Tippner entered Mason’s diner right before closing time. Cara looked at the clock and made a face at him. “Don’t make a mess I washed all the tables.”

Tippner looked at his watch. “It is 6:58pm. You don’t close until 7.”

Mason ducked at Tippner’s words. “She may break another dish over your head if you aren’t careful.”

Tippner laughed, “All I want is one of your heavenly shoo-fly pies. You won’t deny me their fresh sweetness will you?”

Without a word she went to the back and came out a minite later with a piece of pie on a paper plate and a plastic fork.

“Paper! You have stooped to serving your favorite customer paper plates!”

“Nope! I served Amanda our new china plates earlier.”

Tippner harrumped, getting a smile out of Cara.

“Well, in spite of the poor service, I will try to enjoy my pie. But don’t expect a tip.”

“Fine, being that I accidentally dropped your pie on the floor.”

“Whha-t” his fork was almost in his mouth. “

“Just kidding!” Cara laughed.

Tippner took his first bite., sighing with sweet satisfaction.

Cara headed for the door. “Enjoy! That pie was made specifically for you. I used an extra special ingredient. Tippner puffed out his chest. “Why thank you!” And he took another bite.

“Real flies.”

Cara burst out laughing at the face he made, “Goodnight!” she called as she headed out the door. She heard Tippner sputtering to Mason about firing her. But she knew he didn’t mean it. He would be in his special booth at 7am sharp tomorrow.

Each move that Asher made got him more stuck and more pain. His clothes were jagged and ripped from the cactus. Oh could anything else go wrong for him. Had Santa somehow read his thoughts and thats why he was stuck on a cactus now?

Asher raised his head, he heard something coming. A cow! He had heard mention of some cow named Betsy and a magical cowbell before. He had rolled his eyes at how gullible people were. Magical cowbells! Yes, fooling them would be simple.

The cow was coming closer and it must be Betsy, for she had a cowbell around her neck.

“Hey dumb cow, move faster I think you can help me.” Betsy’s eyes grew dark as she walked closer to him and stopped right in front of Asher.

“Perfect! Lets see what this so called magical bell can do. Hopefully pull me out of here. He grabbed hold of it and pulled.

Everyone was curious. Where had Asher gone, he hadn’t been in his bakery all week.

“I really wanted his recipe for pumpkin empanadas.”

“I bet you could make them as good as his without a recipe!” Sarah and Amanda told her. After a few flops sbe did. Soon they were a hot selling item at Mason’s Diner.

As time went by the talk about Asher died down.

“He was rather strange you know. The guy thought he had been an elf before at Santa’s workshop!” Tippner laugbed.

“He told me the same story and added how be had been tricked by a little leprechaun named Lolly.” Mason said.

“Leprechauns and elves, Oh my! Who knows maybe he went back to the North Pole. ” They laughed, chalking it up to another crazy incident in the town of Bittersweet Creek. The town where things were rarely normal.

Asher was so frightened he couldn’t move. He was stuck in a miry swamp, and there was a mean bull eyeing him up. He closed his eyes fearing the worst.

Friday’s Super Short Stories!

Thanks to Elizabeth for her blog post, which inspired me to ask this question…. The blog post is https://bleuwater.me/2022/09/15/boring-words/  … Its so easy to repeat the same phrases and certain words over and over … I know I do …  What are some phrases/words that you use frequently? 

The surprising, music to the ears moment, when your daughter says with sincerity ,  “because you are always right.” and your heart goes “Awh!” while your brain says, “If only that was true!” 

Think hard when making a bed …. you may have to lie in it some day! 

What happened to Sergio?

painting by Mauro C. Martinez on Pinterest

After writing Thursday’s post, Making Her Wishes Come True!, a “follower” said that he hoped to find out what Sergio had done to make him a water genie in the first place. I am glad to say that the following story will answer that question. Enjoy!

The sun was beating down mercilessly as Sergio was walking home. Sweat was running down his face and soaking his shirt. It was way too hot to be working on a roof today. He may have promised the Widow Fran that he would help patch her roof, but there was no way he was doing it today. He was there five minutes and left! They would just have to put up with the holes. The widow tried to plead with him for a storm was coming tonight, but he waved her off. Told her to put lots of buckets around and he would be back tomorrow.

Her sorrowful eyes made him feel a tad guilty perhaps, but really, why should he risk heat stroke for some widow lady. He tried to get the little girl’s face out of his mind, thats what had bothered him the most, but he was getting over it. She was a sweet little girl, around the age of 10 he guessed. He knew her name was Lucy, for he had heard her mom call her that. But really, was he going to concern himself over a little girl and her mom. He had to get hold of himself. He was Sir Sergio, and was cut out for greatness, not repairing roofs for the rest of his life.

If only he had asked for a cold drink before leaving. Something he could have carried along with him. That would surely taste good right now. He was soon walking along the docks and feeling the sea breeze which cooled him down. He loved looking at the luxurious boats as he passed by. Some day he would own one of them. After all he deserved one. He tried to convince his parent’s of that, but they wouldn’t listen. Arguing with parent’s was like nailing jello to a tree, they never listened.

A vibrant red boat caught his eye. It was different from any he had ever seen before. Standing there and staring made him want it more and more. He looked out upon the water, it was calm right now. Wouldn’t it be nice to sail a boat around, for just a little. An idea began forming in his mind.

“So, you will help me? Do we have a deal?”
Chet, the owner of the boat, wasn’t sure. “How do I know that I can trust you?”

“You don’t know 100 percent, you just have to trust me, we are running out of time. Do you want to be responsible for me not getting to see my sweet, precious, sick grandmother for the last time?” Sergio’s face started to crumple, as he backed away. “I am sorry, I shouldn’t have asked. I just don’t know any other way.” Sergio tried to pull himself together.

“Its Okay, its okay, you can borrow my boat.” Chet patted him on the back, and after showing Sergio the basics about the boat, he shook his hand and turned to leave. Then turning back he looked at Sergio with eyes of concern. “I hope your grandmother is OK.”

Once Chet walked away Sergio started the boat. He was as happy as a clam, the “poor, sweet grandma” story worked every time! He would be home faster this way and now he had his own boat! Poor Chet, he wasn’t getting is boat back. Sergio almost felt guilty about how easy it was to take it. Oh well, Chet’s own fault. Sergio couldn’t help that there was a sucker born every minute. That was a quote he often repeated to himself.

Being on the boat felt amazing, with the wind on his back. He was in no hurry to get home. The sky was getting darker when Sergio woke up. He had fallen asleep and was now drifting in the water, where was he? He tried to wake up fully so he could figure it out. That’s when he noticed the storm clouds gathering and when he felt his first wave of alarm.

The waves were getting rougher and Sergio’s stomach was feeling queasy. Rain started falling as lightning cracked through the sky. Sergio’s face turned pale with fright and for the first time he felt regret over what he had done. He never should have lied about his grandma and stole a boat. What had he been thinking?

Another huge wave came lifting the boat high in the air and bringing it back down. Sergio knew that one of these times was going to be the last time for him. Thunder roared and his heart was pounding. Again the waves lifted him up and Sergio screamed in terror as he was thrown in the swirling black sea.

Down, down, down he sank. This was it, his life flashed before his eyes and he wasn’t real proud of it. OH how he wished he had a second chance, perhaps he would act different. But he was drowning, there were no second chances, his lungs screamed for oxygen and he felt himself fading fast and then …

“Wake up! Wake up!”

Sergio opened his eyes to see a crab standing in front of him. He was still underwater but he was alive! Or was he? Was he in some watery grave.

“LIsten up, you didn’t die, but you are trapped under the sea.”

“What, what do you mean?” Sergio was confused. How could he be trapped under sea?

“Congratulations you are the new water genie!”

“The WHAT?!”

The crab rolled his eyes muttering to himself. “Why am I always the one that has to explain things to our water genies?”

“I will try to explain it real simple. YOU- were not nice, YOU-lied about your sweet grandmother and YOU-stole a boat!”

Sooo YOU-are stuck down here for a number of years until I decide that you can go above the water and see if you can start a new life. When you do go above the water you have to find someone to grant three wishes too. Its your job to make them happy! Think you can do that?”

Sergio didn’t know what to think? Was this for real? As if the crab could read his mind, he reached over with his claws and pinched Sergio.

“OUCH!”

“You are welcome, now you know that I am real and this is all real!”

Sergio sighed, it couldn’t really be that bad to live undersea, could it? For ten years he lived under the sea and drove everyone crazy. The crab finally let him go up to the surface because no one could stand him under the sea anymore. Sergio was thrilled to see the blue sky again and oh what a lovely young lady sitting on the dock with her feet in the water.

Sadly she wouldn’t think he ws handsome at all! When he went under the sea he had changed his looks. He was like a gray blob now with different color eyes. Nowhere close to how he had used to look. But now was his chance. There was the young lady. All he had to do was get to her to make three wishes and they would be all his. Yeah, yeah, the crab said to make the wishes come true for her, but he had been the one trapped in the sea!! He deserved a break!

Sir Sergio felt hope well up inside of him, today was the day he was going to break free and get out of the sea!

Three days later the crab was looking at Sergio with a look of utter disbelief! “Back again, eh? You couldn’t stay out for even three days! What did you do now?”

“I deserved that castle. Lucy had wished a castle for herself with servants, and they all should have been mine! Mine, mine , mine! But instead some fearsome dragon came to take over!”

All the fish in the sea started laughing. “A dragon?”

“Yes!” shouted Sergio, “A real, live dragon!”

“I always get the hopeless ones!” the crab complained.

“Well, sorry you can’t stay in the sea any longer.”

Sergio felt a spark, “Back to earth again? Can you give me a castle somewhere else perhaps? And I want a moat with my castle and a beautiful garden, and…”

“QUIET!You aren’t going to a castle, though you are going back to earth. Giving you another chance for someone to teach you a lesson. if he doesn’t scare you into acting right, then I don’t know what will! Good Luck!”

Sergio was rather alarmed with the crab’s choice of words, “scare me into acting right?” He called out to the crab who started walking away, “Where am I going?”

“Be careful!” and the crab walked away with a smirk on his face.

Sergio’s mouth was full of mud, he was sputtering as he stood up. UGH! He was in a swamp! A muddy swamp and …. !

Sergio fainted as Igor the bull came charging towards him, and his life flashed in front of him.

Say What?

I personally don’t read the news a lot, for often I find myself just shaking my head over it. Sadly that happened this morning as a news article caught my eye. It was about a 16 year old guy who had raped a girl at a party. I know, very sadly that isn’t shocking news. What was shocking was the judge’s reaction and what he said, that is what has left me shaking my head and feeling sick.

This 16 year old not only raped the girl, but he videoed it with his phone and then he sent the video out to his friends in the weeks following. The video was sent with the following text message attached to it. ” when your first time having sex was rape.”

Not only did this guy do something very wrong by raping this girl, he went and bragged about it, which just disgusts me all the more. But the judge’s reaction was the “icing on the cake”!

He said how the guy came from a good family, had wonderful test scores and was destined for good things, as far as college and career go. He commented how a rape indictment could “ruin his life!”  That the text message he had attached to the video, was just “boys being stupid”, nothing more.

Seriously????

Am I missing something? For I am totally aghast at how what this guy did can be looked at as something not bad!  All because he apparently comes from a “good family” and has “good grades!”?  So would it be right for me to assume that if this guy came from a “poor family” and had bad grades with no hopes of going to college that the judge would have thrown the book at him?  That’s the impression I am getting and its just so WRONG!

I don’t care what your test scores are and how high class you are, Wrong is Wrong!!

What message is that judge sending to this kid ?

People wonder why we have adults doing totally stupid things and not taking responsibility for their actions, well to me this is a perfect example of how that is happening! Kids are left off the hook, eyes are turned the other way and guess what, they grow up. They grow up learning that they can buy their way out of trouble and that what they do doesn’t really matter! That they are above the law if they can find a way around it. That they can be bullies and no one can stop them. That they can run for politics and … !

Ok, I will step off my soapbox now, and I promise there will be a lighter post tomorrow!