Friday, May 30, 2014

It's a New World




Seems like the only time I blog anymore is when I'm participating in a challenge.  I needed a good challenge to get back in the writing mode. Looks like Jayne created this challenge just for me!  Here is the scoop on the challenge in Jayne's words:

"The challenge:  Write a story (beginning, middle and end) that hints at a larger story, but is complete within itself, in 25 words or less.  The most famous piece of hint fiction was written by Hemingway:

            For sale:  Baby Shoes.  Never worn. 

Hint Fiction demands reader involvement.  “Why were the baby shoes never worn?” we’re left to contemplate.   It hints at much more, yet is complete in and of itself.  

Here is one from me:

                                  “News at Eleven”

          A shiny, new tricycle on the sidewalk, abandoned.

          A single, blue sneaker at the curb.

          From the house, a mother calls:  “Tommy, supper!”


Write your story on your own blog, then come back here and link up your post.  Be sure and visit everyone else’s offering and support your fellow writers with a comment.  If you don’t have a blog, you may leave your story in my comment section below.  Write and post as many as you want.   Link-up will be active through June 1st. 

Have fun!"
 
Perfect, Jayne! Just enough challenge to motivate me, but not so long that I spend all my writing time on the challenge.

So how about joining us in the short challenge? Just go HERE to get involved.

My first attempt follows.





"It's a New World"
                        

                         Pomp and Circumstance was playing as she walked in cap and gown.

                         She saw the faces of her proud parents.

                         How would she tell them?








Friday, February 28, 2014

Until We Meet Again...






Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty


If you are just now tuning in to 30-2 Days of Writing, you are 28 days too late! Good luck with all the reading you have to do to catch up. As much as this challenge is a pain in the ass, it is also a blessing. It makes me write which makes me right. So instead of cursing Nicky and Mike of We Work For Cheese like I did for the first 27 days of this challenge, I shall praise them today. Thanks guys for the swift kick in the ass. I needed that.

Now, my characters from this year would like to do a curtain call until next season. Can we hear a round of applause for the narrator, Cooter, Buck, Ethyl, Brother Bob, Sadie,Vera, Bobby Lee, Barbara Sue, Jorge, Gouda, Nacho and Velveeta.

They will be back. Bigger and better. Same place. Same station.


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Chapter Twenty-Two


Jorge and Gouda quickly settled into their wing of the Whiting Estate. They claimed one of the guest rooms for their bedroom and placed the the crib for the twins at the end of the bed. Vera had insisted that Jorge move one of the rocking chairs from the front porch into the room across the hall from their bedroom. Vera said that the sunny room would make a perfect nursery when the babies got a bit older.

Jorge was amazed that Gouda and Vera had become instantly bonded and he was feeling a bit of guilt about the way he had more or less blackmailed Vera to force her to allow them to move in her house. He tried to rationalize his actions based on the years he suffered abuse from his tyrannical boss, but his gut told him that he had not done the right thing. Jorge had rightfully earned his reputation as a good man with a big heart. He couldn't bear the thought of people thinking less of him. He had only spent one day in the house and he was already having trouble looking at himself in the mirror.

While Gouda and the twins slept peacefully on their first night in the house, Jorge found himself pacing the bedroom floor. His heart was telling him that he was the luckiest man in the world with Gouda and the babies about to become his family. He heart told him that he should provide his new family with the very best because they deserved it.  But his gut was telling him that he should quit imposing on Vera and  tell Gouda the truth. 

As he was pacing around the dark bedroom, he passed by the crib and leaned down close to check on the twins. His heart stopped beating when he saw that the crib held only one baby.  He lifted the covers. No second baby. He ran to the bed to see if Gouda had fallen asleep while nursing the baby, but he only found beautiful Gouda sleeping like an angel.  Jorge was in a  full blown panic.

Then he heard a small movement outside the door. He left his bedroom and saw a soft light coming from the room across the hall. He tiptoed to the light, observed for a brief moment and returned to his bedroom without a sound. 

Jorge quietly crawled back into his bed, took Gouda in his arms and whispered his prayer.

"Dios te salve, María. Llena eres de gracia: El Señor es contigo. Bendita tú eres entre todas las mujeres. Y bendito es el fruto de tu vientre: Jesús. Santa María, Madre de Dios, ruega por nosotros pecadores, ahora y en la hora de nuestra muerte. Amen."

Jorge quickly fell to sleep to the sound of the chair gently rocking as Vera quietly sang to the baby sleeping in her arms in the room across the hall.


      ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next morning, Jorge returned to his normal routine of doing the chores around the Whiting Estate. When he finished with his household chores, he approached Vera to ask permission to go into town.  He found Vera and Gouda in the kitchen chopping vegetables, talking and laughing. The babies were propped up in their carriers watching all the activity in the kitchen. Jorge was taken aback. In all of his years working for Vera, he had never seen her cooking or laughing.

"Ms. Whiting, I need to run to town for a few minutes."

There was no reply. Vera and Gouda continued with their conversations about avocados.

"Ms. Whiting, I  hate to disturb you, but I need to go to town for a few minutes. Is that okay with you?"

Vera looked at Jorge with a confused look on her face.

"Of course, you can run into town. You don't have to ask me."

Jorge closed his eyes and opened them again to determine if he was dreaming, then he headed out the back door only to be interrupted by Gouda.

"You get your butt back in here and give me a good bye kiss! Don't you ever leave me without a kiss. Understand?"

Jorge cut his eyes toward Vera to make sure that she would not have a conniption fit.

"Jorge, kiss the girl! Oh, and while you are in town, would you pick up some tequila? We are making guacamole and want to make margaritas. Hurry home."

The last thing Jorge heard was Gouda asking Vera, "Oh, let's have a party! Who do you want to invite?"

Jorge felt lower than a gopher hole. He had to tell Vera the truth before the day was over.


               -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------



After making a quick stop at the liquor store to get a bottle of tequila, some limes and a bag of ice, Jorge walked into The Rack'n Roll Pool Hall to find Cooter. He needed to ask him if he, Gouda and the kids could move in with him at the Shangri-La-La-La Trailer Park. Before he had a chance to ask Cooter the big question, Buck called them over to the crowded bar. All eyes turned to Jorge as he approached. Bobby Lee hopped off of his stool and patted the seat indicating that he wanted Jorge to sit down. Buck opened a cold Lone Star longneck and pushed it over to Jorge. 

"Spill the beans, Jorge."

Everyone at the bar fell silent and leaned in to hear what Jorge had to say.

"About what, Buck?"

Everyone laughed.

"No. Seriously. What am I spilling the beans about?"

"C'mon, Jorge!  That woman has treated  you like a dog for years. Quit protecting her and tell us about what you saw at the crime scene at Brother Bob and Vera's den of iniquity."

Jorge looked at Buck with real sorrow in his eyes. "How did you find out?"

"How did I find out? The way everybody else in town found out. That bus full of school kids are still talking about Brother Bob flapping around in the road buck naked. Then he got on the bus and started screaming that he had killed Vera Whiting with his big one-eyed monster. He was covered in mud and blood and the kids were terrified that he was Big Foot. The school has had to call in counselors from all over the state to help those poor kids."

Jorge got up off his stool. He knew what he had to do. 

As he was running out of the pool hall, he heard Buck ask, "Is it true that you had to throw a bucket of cold water on them to get them unstuck?"



     --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Jorge walked into Vera's house, he was greeted with the smell of freshly fried tortilla chips. Vera was tearing individual corn tortillas into four equal triangles as Gouda dropped them in bubbling, hot oil. A big bowl of guacamole sat waiting on the cabinet. Jorge deposited the items from the liquor store on the kitchen counter and asked Vera if he could talk to her in private.

"Jorge, anything you need to say to me, you can say in front of Gouda."

Jorge guided Vera from the room by placing his hand behind her back.

"Ms. Whiting, what we need to talk about does not have anything to do with Gouda. It's about you and me and it is very personal."

Vera walked no further than the dining room before she sat down in a chair. 

"Don't you want to go into the family room so we can talk more privately?"

"No, I don't, Jorge. This is far enough away. I can still hear the babies from here in case one of them needs me." 

In a low voice, Jorge recounted the story he had heard in the pool hall.  He expected Vera to fly into a rage and berate him for not taking Brother Bob directly to his house like she had instructed him. He expected that she would run to her room to hide in shame in for days. He was  a bit surprised when she did neither. He was more than surprised by what she said.

"So?" 

"Ms. Whiting, aren't you upset what people might be saying in town?"

Vera got up to head back to the kitchen. 

"Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke."

Jorge stopped her and made her sit back down. 

"There is more I have to tell you, Ms. Whiting."  With his head hung in shame, Jorge confessed how he had taken advantage of her vulnerability and how bad he felt for forcing his way into her home.

"Can't say that I blame you for doing what you did, Jorge. I did act like a jackass for years."

"Well, I'm sorry, Ms. Whiting, and I'll be moving my family tomorrow."

Vera shot up out of her chair as fast as a scalded cat. 

"You will not! You and your little family are staying right here. I want you  here. And I'm paying for the wedding. No questions asked. Do you understand?"

Jorge felt his eyes watering up.

"Yes, Ms. Whiting. I understand."

"Just one more thing, Jorge. Just call me Vera."

Vera jumped up from the table when there was a knock at the back door.


       ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


My brains had been scrambled since Cooter won the mayor's election. First I had to deal with the fact that I had a sister-in-law and her twins living right here in town. Then the next day I find out that she has plans to marry Jorge after knowing him for one night . I was having trouble dealing with so much change. I was pushed over the edge when Cooter came home and told me that Jorge, Gouda and the twins had moved in with Vera Whiting. That was it. It was officially too much. I wasn't sure if I knew the difference between "come here" and "sic 'em" at that point.  

I was looking in the paper for ads about houses for sale.  I was trying to let my brain rest when the phone rang.  It was Gouda.

"Girl, come on over to Vera's house. We're making guacamole and homemade chips. When you get here, we will whip up a pitcher of margaritas."

"Really? Is Vera out of town?"

Gouda laughed, "No, silly. Vera is standing right here cuttin' up some jalapenos."

"Are you telling me that Vera Whiting wants me to come to her house?"

"Yes, that is what I am telling you. Jump in the car and get over here."

"Do I need to put on some Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes?"

I heard Gouda repeat my question to Vera and they both laughed. Vera grabbed the phone.

"Just wear your flip flops and a smile. Come to the back door."

Cooter had taken my car over to City Hall, so I jumped in Genevieve and headed out in the country to the Whiting Estate. If I didn't look bad enough to start with, now my hair was a mess having been whipped around in the dust  that Genevieve kicked up while travelling down dirt roads. I had never been to the Whiting Estate before as a guest. I had driven by it plenty of times when I was a kid. I had always been amazed by the enormity of it all.  Before I left the Willys Jeep, I checked in the rear view mirror to make sure I didn't have any bugs in my teeth.

When I knocked on the back door, I was greeted by Gouda who was quickly followed by Vera and Jorge.  Gouda gave me one of her now famous bear hugs. I offered my hand to Vera.

"Thank you so much for inviting me to your lovely home, Ms. Whiting."

Vera pushed my hand away and put her arms around me.

"I want a hug too. And please call me Vera."

Jorge waved me in as he offered me the first margarita. The first of many.

We moved the babies, the guacamole and the pitcher of liquid gold to the family room where we sat and talked for hours. At first I was too shy to say anything in front of Vera, but with Vera's warmth and several margaritas under my belt, I found myself becoming comfortable. We all shared stories about our lives and eventually all ended up laughing about the adventures of Brother Bob.

When the twins started fussing, Gouda and Jorge left the room to put the babies in their crib. It was then that Vera offered to take me on a tour of her house. I was astounded at the size, the workmanship and the furnishings.  We walked from room to room with Vera telling me stories about family heirlooms and pointing out things she had collected while travelling around the world. I suppose I was showing my small town innocence that people actually lived in such luxurious places because Vera started chuckling a bit.

"I see that you are impressed by my home."

 "Oh, yes, Vera. This is the most beautiful house I have ever seen."

Vera took  my hands in hers and looked in my eyes.

"Well, I'm glad you like it because it will all by yours one day."

I stopped dead in my tracks and looked at her in total confusion.

"You see, I am your birth mother and Buck is your father."

And then my brain exploded.


























Wednesday, February 26, 2014

A Prickly Situation



Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty


Cooter and the gang are getting awfully nervous that 30-2 Days of Writing is almost over for another year. They really don't want to be shut up in my head again. I feel their pain. 

If you are just now joining us at 30-2 Days of Writing, glad you are here. You can buy the next round. If you have a couple of hours with nothing to do, feel free to start at the beginning of Cooter's story and follow it through to the end. Then hop over to We Work For Cheese and read the works of my  much more talented friends.

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Jorge was late for work the next morning, but when he arrived, he arrived in style. He had loaded the back of his pickup truck with all of his belongings from the tiny house he rented on a monthly basis. Gouda sat close to Jorge in the truck with the twin's car seats squeezed in the crowded front seat.  When they arrived at the Whiting Estate, Jorge changed his route. Instead of driving to the back of the house, he drove right through the manicured front lawn and backed the pickup truck up to the front door. Jorge and Gouda were getting the car seats out of the truck when Vera flung the door open.

"Jorge, what the hell do you think  you are doing?"

"Good to see you this morning, Ms. Whiting. I decided to take you up on your invitation to move my family into your guest wing."

Vera was quick to answer.

"What invitation? Have you lost your mind, Jorge?"

Jorge knew he was in charge. He laughed.

"Don't be teasing me, Ms. Whiting. You will scare my lovely bride to be."  Jorge held out his hand for Gouda to join him by his side.

Vera's mind was still foggy from the night before. She leaned against the door frame trying to collect her composure.

Gouda was concerned about Vera's appearance. She appeared weak and had suddenly gone pale.  When she saw Vera lean against the door, Gouda did not hesitate to go to her rescue. She hugged Vera lovingly and gingerly patted her back as though she were consoling an upset child.

"Oh, Ms. Whiting. You are the sweetest woman. I think God must have sent you from Heaven to be my guardian angel. My life was in the pits and then within a day, I met my future husband and  you offer us a home. How can I ever repay you, Ms. Whiting?"

Vera didn't know what to do. Since the day her mother had ruined her life, she had never been in a situation where she hadn't been in complete control. Now with her actions from last night, she appeared to be losing control of her own world. Vera began to sob.

"Bless your heart, Ms. Whiting. You don't have to cry. Were you afraid that we wouldn't take you up on your invitation? We are here, Ms. Whiting. We are here to stay. You just go on and shed those tears of joy."

Normally, Vera didn't care too much for the human touch. Except from Buck. But she found herself strangely comforted by this innocent young lady. 

Gouda kept her arm around Vera's shoulder as she inched her inside the house.

"Why don't we go in and sit down, Ms.Whiting? Jorge can get the babies and  unpack while we get to know each other a little better."

Gouda led Vera into the well appointed family room. She helped Vera sit on one of the overstuffed cowhide chairs while she positioned herself on the matching couch. Jorge placed Velveeta in Gouda's arms and handed Nacho to Vera.

"Might as well make yourself useful, VERA."

Vera snapped out of her fog at the shock of being addressed in such a disrespectful way.

"What did you call me, Jorge?"

"I called you Vera just like you made me promise to do yesterday."

Vera's face turned red. 

"No, I don't remember that."

"Oh, sure you do, Vera. We had just finished having that conversation about how social media could spread gossip faster than a party line when you suggested that I should start calling you by your first name."

 She wanted to jump out of that chair and throttle him, but she had the baby in her arms.  Jorge grinned and decided it would be fun to push all her buttons. He turned to Gouda.

"Mi corazon, I forget  to tell you that Vera has offered to let us have our wedding in her beautiful gardens."

Vera had endured enough. She tried handing the baby back to Jorge, but he ignored her.

"Jorge, stop! Stop right there!"

"I can't stop, Vera. I am too  excited." He turned his attention to his future bride. "Gouda, I saved the best for last. Vera is paying for the entire wedding!"

Gouda jumped up with the baby still in her arms. She ran to Vera, sat on the arm of the chair and embraced Vera.

"Bless your heart, Ms. Whiting. I can never thank you enough. You truly are an angel."

Vera was seething until Gouda took her in her arms. Her voice was so warm and soothing and she seemed so genuine. Before she knew it, Vera was calm.

Jorge went about his task of unpacking their belongings while Gouda began nursing Velveeta. Vera found herself smiling as Nacho lay in her arms reaching for the shiny diamond necklace which dangled  from her neck. The house was quiet except for the cooing sounds made by the nursing baby and the tune that Jorge was whistling as he passed through the room.  When Gouda had finished nursing the infant girl, she took Nacho from Vera and handed her the content baby girl. 

Motherly instincts, which Vera didn't even know she had, took over with Velveeta in her arms. She began to rock back and forth in a chair that wasn't even a rocker. She began softly humming as the baby was falling asleep in her arms. She found herself recalling those days long ago when she could feel the movement inside her own belly. If only the nun hadn't seen the baby bump. If only she had been given a choice in the matter. If only Buck had known so he could come to her rescue. If only.

Gouda laid her sleeping baby boy on the couch and reached out to Vera to take the baby girl. Vera shook her head from side to side.

"No. Let me keep her just a few more minutes, please."


     --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Brother Bob had no idea where he was. He was naked and lost. He didn't remember much about the day before except that he had killed Vera with too much sex. In retrospect, he remembered her yelling out "Jesus!", but he thought she was screaming with pleasure and not actually seeing Jesus come to fetch her. Now, he was alone in the wilderness much like Jesus himself. 

Jorge had insisted on taking him home, but Brother Bob could not face his wife in his condition. First of all, he had left Vera's house in such a hurry that he had forgotten to put his clothes back on.  Second, he knew he had to sober up and wash the smell of sex from his body. So Brother Bob had convinced Jorge to drop him off in the country by the Brazos River.  After being dropped off, Brother Bob jumped in the muddy waters of the Brazos and washed his soul clean. With no way to dry himself off, he lay down on the muddy banks to dry in the sun. Unfortunately, he was so tired from his ordeal the night before, he fell fast asleep in the blazing sun. When he awoke hours later, the mud from the river was baked on his painfully sunburned skin. Brother Bob was a mess both physically and spiritually.

With the trauma of sex, death, booze, guilt, shame, sunburn, no food and an impatiently waiting wife, Brother Bob wandered among the prairie grasses and Mesquite trees of the hot Texas countryside in a complete daze.  With his brain not functioning properly, he had no idea where he was or how he would get back home. His hunger and the pain from his burning skin had taken over his thought processes. He knew he was lost, but he had totally forgotten that he was naked.

Brother Bob had curled up in a ball in a small patch of shade under a scraggly Mesquite tree, when he thought he heard a vehicle. He jumped up and started running toward the sound. Scared of missing the vehicle, he carelessly ran through a patch of prickly pear cactus. With blood running down his legs, mud caked on his body and skin as red as a beet, he kept running until he saw the dirt road. He jumped out on the road with his arms flailing.

The crowded school bus came to a screeching halt just feet from Brother Bob standing naked in the road with his hands in the air.







Monday, February 24, 2014

Big Pair of Juevos





Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen


Okay, so maybe I took a mini-vacation, but I'm back. Now get busy reading and catch up with Cooter and the gang. When you are through reading, go over to We Work For Cheese and read the great stories written by the other participants of 30-2 Days of Writing.

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Cooter woke up on the couch the morning after the election party. The party went on until midnight. Then Cooter had to stay around to help clean up The Rack 'n Roll Pool Hall and help Buck calm Ethyl down after that scene with Vera. Then when he got home to the trailer park, he spent hours answering nonstop questions from his wife. He explained that he kept Gouda hidden at Buck's house so that Brother Bob wouldn't start rumors about his sister before the election. He knew that if Brother Bob talked bad about his sister, he would have to beat the hell fire out of him and that might lose him votes. He was still answering questions when he fell asleep on the couch. 

Cooter got dressed and quietly left the trailer. He was heading to Buck's house to pick up Gouda and her kids. On his drive over, he was thinking about how he had to speed up the house search because his single wide trailer was not going to hold three more people.



   -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Cooter used his key to the back door which opened up to Buck's kitchen. He was surprised to smell bacon cooking and to hear Besame Mucho blaring from the radio set on KMEX, Juarez's Tejano Station. As soon as he had the door completely open, he saw Gouda sitting at the kitchen table wearing nothing but a man's shirt. He was about to warn her to get dressed when he was startled by a man's voice singing.

"Besame, besame mucho,
 Each time I cling to your kiss, I hear music divine,
 Besame, besame mucho,
 Hold me my darling and say that you'll always be mine."

Cooter stared at the singer in shock. He finally had to sit down at the table to steady his knees as he watched the performance before him.

Jorge sang while cooking on the old, porcelain stove top. He was making migas,frying bacon and heating flour tortillas on top of the gas burners while dancing totally naked except for the frilly apron which was tied around his waist. His bare butt stared at Cooter while he cooked.

Cooter looked at Gouda for an explanation.

"We're getting married."

Cooter was so flustered that he didn't know whether to shit or go blind. He didn't have time to respond before Jorge danced over to the table with plates of food in his hands. Cooter was watching manly parts jiggle and wiggle under Jorge's apron and he was afraid that bleach wouldn't remove this memory from his mind.

As he sat a plate in front of Cooter, he stopped singing long enough to address Cooter.

"Buenos dias, brother-in-law! Your breakfast is served and yes, I made that."

Cooter looked at the eggs on his plate.

"I don't know. I've already seen two too many juevos this morning."

Jorge plopped his naked ass down in Buck's kitchen chair. Cooter had visions of Buck's mother twirling in her grave and he made a mental note to tell Buck to buy a can of Lysol.

Cooter dug into the piles of deliciousness on his plate while Gouda and Jorge stared longingly at each other and talked marriage plans. At the end of the meal, Jorge left his lover long enough to put on clothes. When he returned to the kitchen, she was disappointed.

"Awwww! Did you have to get dressed today, Jorge? Can't you stay long enough for me to repay you for making breakfast?"

They giggled and winked. Cooter did his best to change the subject.

"You better be ready for a bad day at work, Jorge. I wouldn't be one bit surprised if Vera didn't fire you today."

"Yes, she will definitely fire me," Jorge said as he opened the door to leave. "I'm not worried though. Gouda and I will just move in with you if  that happens."

Cooter wasn't sure if the bang he heard was the back door slamming or his head exploding.



    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



When Jorge pulled up to Vera's house, he immediately knew something was wrong. The Cadillac, which was always locked in the garage, was now sitting on the front lawn with the front wheels parked right on Vera's front porch.  Jorge pulled around to the back door. He had never entered the house through the front door. Vera didn't allow it.

As soon as he entered the house, he began to worry about Vera's safety. It was obvious that someone had broken in. The kitchen was in shambles with broken china covering the floor. Each littered room he passed through increased his anxiety. 

Vera usually greeted him at the back door with a tongue lashing and a long list of chores for the day, but there was no sign of Vera today. The house was unusually quiet. Jorge called out Vera's name several times, but got no answer.

As he approached her usually spotless bedroom, he noticed piles of clothes on the floor. He stopped. He was afraid of what he would find. He didn't especially like Vera, but he certainly didn't want her to meet an end of violence.  He was trying to work up his courage to go in when he heard a whimper.

He rushed in the bedroom to find a naked Vera laying lifeless on the bed of tangled sheets. 

"Dios mio! Ms. Whiting, are you okay?"

There was no answer. No movement.  

Her arms were tied to the bedpost with the doilies that covered her nightstands. Vera had often warned Jorge to be careful when he was dusting her nightstands. She would tell how her great-grandmother had delicately labored with her own hands to make those doilies for her mother's wedding present. 

Jorge was running to her bedside when he heard the whimper again. He turned to find Brother Bob sitting naked in the corner of the room rocking back and forth on his haunches while hiding his face with hands.

"Brother Bob! Are you okay?"

Brother Bob leaped to his feet like a demon on fire. "No, I will never be okay again!"

Together, they ran to Vera's bedside. Jorge shook Vera but got no response.

"I think I killed her, Jorge. I think I screwed her to death."

Jorge gingerly untied the doilies from Vera's wrists. He opened her eyelids to find her eyes rolled back in their sockets. He felt for a pulse but couldn't find one. When he covered her naked body with a sheet, Brother Bob ran from the room in hysterics, babbling the same words over and over.

"My wife is going to kill me. I will lose my job. I'm a marked man. I'm going to hell."

Jorge pulled out his cell phone to call 911. As he turned away from Vera's covered body, a hand tugged on his pants leg and Jorge almost lost his breakfast right there.

Vera slightly opened one eye. 

"I'm not dead.  I just wanted Bob out of this room. Please tell me it's only a dream."

Jorge leaned down close to Vera's ear.

"No, Ms. Whiting, it's not a dream. This nightmare is real."

"Jorge, get that stupid son-of-a-bitch out of my house right now."

As Jorge turned to leave the room, Vera had another thought and then she said,"And Jorge, no one is ever to know what happened here. No one. Ever."

"Sure Ms. Whiting, but there are things I will need for my silence and the first thing I need is for you to clean up the unbelievable mess you made last night. I'm taking the day off. I'll see you tomorrow when I get here...if I get here."

Vera Whiting pulled the covers back over her head and let out a low groan.




















Thursday, February 20, 2014

Take That




Some of you may have noticed that I got carried away yesterday and got a day ahead of myself. So today I don't have to write. 

You can't make me Nicky and Mike.