Not Half of Anything
When Becky starts third grade at her new school, Angelford Elementary, it is the first time she is not in a class with her twin brother. See what happens when she decides to keep his existence a secret.
The second tale comes from a Psycho-Dramatist, a delightful older woman, who has been solicitously making sure that everyone else was comfortable. Her lovely blue eyes always seem to sparkle and she chuckles at each of their inconveniences and is very instrumental in keeping the group calm, helping them to be able to see their predicament as an adventure rather than a disaster. She volunteers to tell the next story after first preparing cups of herbal tea for the other guests and offering each of them a delicious shortbread she helped the innkeeper bake that afternoon.
Her story, “What Every Woman Wants,” based on Chaucer’s “Wife of Bath’s Tale” demonstrates that romance has twists and turns and unexpected endings sometimes.
Read the raucous tale told by the first traveler in my Mt. Hood Tales.
Six travelers are stranded in a small ski lodge on Mt. Hood by an avalanche. The colorful innkeeper and his wife are still able to provide food and drink as they have an emergency generator that keeps the electricity going – if somewhat spottily, and gas for oven and stove. They do have to turn the heating system very low to conserve energy. So, the travelers are grateful for the huge wood-burning fireplace around which they gather every night. There is no internet connection due to the storm. No one’s phones or laptops are working nor do the inn’s TV or its computer receive signals.
To distract themselves until help make it up the mountain, the travelers agree to entertain one another with stories, true or not – they just have to be good.
First up is the Tech Writer. (a.k.a. Rob) He’s the best skier in the group, but a bit of a loner. No one’s gotten to know him very well because, although tall, slender and well-built with chiseled features and deep-set grey eyes, when he joins the âpres-ski activity in the bar, he listens more than he speaks although he does from time to time display a quick wit. He spends most of his free time working his lap top creating, what the others assume are vastly complex and erudite programs for exceptionally specialized fields of technology that none of the rest of the guests could understand or would even care to explore.
Thus, his story, is based on Chaucer’s “The Miller’s Tale.” As “No Fool Like an Old Fool,” unfolds, it both shocks and delights his listeners.
Also available on this page — two new short stories featuring grade school protagonists: the end of “Rachel and the Kindergarten Buddy,” and “Gabe, The Transfer Student.”
Rachel and the Kindergarten Buddy, Part II
Does Rachel find a way to connect with Sally? Keep reading.
At long last the conclusion to Rachel and Sally’s Story. Let me know if it ended how you thought it would. What did you like or dislike about the ending?
To thank my readers for patiently waiting for this page of the website to get going, here’s a new short story – not just a part of one, but the whole thing.
Rachel and the Kindergarten Buddy, Part 1
Here’s the first of the stories about those Portland school children. In it, Rachel dreams of how wonderful it will be to be the big buddy of a new kindergarten student. And then she meets her buddy and her dreams go up in smoke.
