It Wasn't the End After All 10-24-21

 

It Wasn’t the End After All  

By: Carrie Keiser

“The End,” Jenny said as she closed the book and gently leaned over to kiss her daughter, Hailey, goodnight. Every night the same bedtime story.  It seemed that it was a happy ending but at the same time, it felt as though the story really wasn’t over. Tonight was one of those nights when it felt like there were more words, it couldn’t be the end, not really. Jenny shook her head, that was a silly thought, she was sure it must have come from Hailey’s insistence that there is always more to the story. Her daughter was constantly asking, “But what comes next, Mommy? After the sunset they ride off to?” Or, “Why don’t we have a secret woods where Pooh Bear lives?” 

Hailey is a lot more curious than Jenny ever was. This month’s story of choice is: Cinderella and it’s been wiggling its way into Jenny’s mind. She went the bathroom, brushed her teeth, climbed into bed, and drifted off to sleep.

“Good morning, highness. Breakfast will be right up, can I help you into your dressing gown? The Prince has already gone down to the throne room.”

Jenny was so confused, she looked around and was, indeed, in a palatial room, and the woman standing next to the bed must be a ladies maid. What had happened?  She turned to the maid, and inquired, “Where am I?”

“Miss Jenny, you’re at the palace of course!”

So, it wasn’t the end after all, but rather a beginning. Jenny desperately wanted to find out how to back out of this Cinderella story and into her own life. Man this is not how she thought it would be when the story continued!

By: Aaron Leavitt

…and they lived happily ever after. The End.

The narrators resonant voice faded out. The credits rolled majestically through the sky. The fireworks finished. Then all was quiet. The prince and the princess looked nervously at each other. They’d hardly had time to think, everything had felt so arranged and laid out to this point. Fate had moved them toward one another had almost literally moved mountains, and here they were now. The prince idly kicked a rock so that it rolled out onto the drawbridge. The princess coughed a bit, and sat down on a small ledge.

“So, I guess we’re married now?” The prince said, his voice cracking. He hated when it did that, his Dad’s always sounded so sonorous, and certain.

The princess blew her bangs out of her eyes, “Yep, and Terrificent is pretty much vanquished, so what now?”. 

The prince noted the nervous servants waiting for direction. “I suppose we can start with dinner, and go from there?”

That sounded agreeable to everyone gathered, and they hurried off. So the prince and princess turned back toward their castle and meandered idly down the halls. 

“You know,” the prince ventured. “It seems like there’s lots left out of the plans for these sorts of things. Tomorrow is going to feel awfully, um, normal.”

The princess, who’d recently been a peasant and had to, nearly, move mountains to get here, thought normal might be a stretch, but she said “I guess that’s kind of how it goes from here, one day at a time.”

“Still,” the prince said, smiling. “We got through the hard stuff together, we can do this!” A little spring had gotten back into his step.

“Together sounds wonderful” the princess ventured, “because I have a feeling that isn’t all the hard stuff. And some of the mundane stuff is really going to be something. And, and…” her voice faded off for a moment. “I’m good with together though”

As they moved, they’d begun to run into ever more of their friends, for they’d certainly forged some lasting friendships on the way. It just took some serious changes of mind set to sort out, what now? They sat down to their meal, looked out at the many guests, and smiled.

“So,” the prince said. “There are indeed lots of things to come. I’d propose a toast.” He stood, and raised his glass. Everyone’s eyes turned to the prince, “Here’s to making our happily ever after, and joy that it’s not the end after all!”

By: Ryanne Leavitt

When the day, 

It has begun

So many things to do

There is this and that and so much more!

So onward through the day we go,

And as the evening time does come,

Thoughts of the end fill the mind.

At bed time with the kids tucked tight, 

We think, its the end for sure.

Then the sun, she comes again 

And it wasn’t really the end.

By: Colleen Holmquist

On a recent, mostly sunny, warm, October Monday in Michigan a little girl named Freyja, her mama, Vanessa, and her gramma and grampa went to Fitzgerald Park in Grand Ledge. They drove into the park and noticed a gate house with a sign asking for a $5 entrance fee. They didn’t have correct change and the doors and windows were shuttered—no one was in there to take their money. Stealthily, they penetrated further inside the park boundaries on the lookout for someone they could pay, while avoiding anyone who might question their lack of a pass on the  dashboard. Vanessa cautiously navigated the narrow lane, finally guiding the car around a bend and past a small grove of trees where the road terminated in a parking lot near an older building claiming to be the park office.

Mama Vanessa pulled the car into a parking space behind a big walnut tree.  Leaving everyone else, she ventured out to ascertain whether she could now acquire a day pass and legalize their visit. She closed the driver’s door and strode around behind the car and out of sight.  Little Freyja watched with eyes open wide as her mama disappeared. A cloud came over her face as a terrified scream escaped her vigorous and healthy lungs and amplified as it passed through her powerful voice box. Then, to follow up and complete the announcement, she commenced crying, bawling, howling, sobbing—loudly and inconsolably. 

And then….

Her mama returned; it wasn’t the end after all.

By Colette Flynn

Once there was a beautiful princess who lived in a castle. One day she went to bed and it was the end, but she woke up and it was not the end. She thought that was weird. The end.

Story Slingers Prompt 

"It wast the end after all"

10/23/2021

Daren Flynn

Everyone has no doubt heard the sad story about a fellow whose name reportedly was Humpty Dumpty. According to all the reports, this possibly careless or at least unlucky individual fell from a wall and sustained serious, even life threatening injuries. It has been said that all the Kings horses and all the Kings men couldn't put him back together. Therefore the poor soul succumbed. End of story.

If we are to believe the story as told for centuries to gullible children and adults alike, the injuries suffered by the said Humpty Dumpty were fatal. But, I ask you, why did a King send his men and horses to the scene of the accident? Men, who undoubtedly were untrained for such emergencies, and horses, whoever heard of such ignorance. What could horses do?

So, anyway, that was the end of Humpty Dumpty and that was the end of the story.Right? But now I will tell you the "rest of the story," as Paul Harvey would have said had he done the research.

Okay, first let's determine why Mr Dumpty was on the wall from which he took the fabled fall. The truth of the matter is that he was in the employ of the King mentioned in the oft repeated story. His duty was to perch himself upon the wall which surrounded the king's realm and sound the alarm when and if an enemy came near.

The next question to be answered is: Why did the king, his boss, send unqualified men to the scene of the accident to care for the injured employee? And why horses? These questions cannot be answered except by supposition.

Supposition number one: It would seem that the King had been misinformed about the qualification of those whom he had sent.

The second supposition explains the first. It is that the King, no doubt quite old, was suffering from Alzheimer's or some other for of dementia and therefore was of the opinion that horses could reassemble the broken victim.

Supposition number three: What I believe happened next was that the King's eldest son, the heir to the throne, was informed about the King's deployment of the men and horses and immediately took the necessary steps to correct his father's order. He quickly packed his bag with the necessary items to administer to the fallen sentry. On the arrival at the accident scene, the Prince began the painstaking operation of reassembling the fallen and broken employee by using something which he had developed using the science kit he had received for Christmas. He called it Super Glue and it worked remarkably well. When the reassembly was completed Humpty Dumpty was assisted to his position back upon the wall where he once again fulfilled his important duty and was reunited with Humpty and so the story ends as it should.

Mr and Mrs. Humpty Dumpty lived happily ever after.The End.

Oct 25, 2021

Myrna Flynn

It Wasn't The End After All

I was in a plane, headed to Austria, to do a presentation of the latest procedures in the treatment for genetic disabilities in newborns. My specialized training in nursing and caring for children with restricted growth and movement was a new field in medical training.

There were only about 2,000 nurses who were qualified to give this kind of advanced care. All of the names of these nurses were literally put in a hat. My name was drawn.

To say that I was nervous and feeling overwhelmed was a definite understatement. I begged for them to draw another name. It wasn't that I felt that I lacked the ability and knowledge. It was that I was terrified at the thought of getting up before doctors and nurses from many nations and teaching them. (The worst grades I ever received in school were in public speaking.) The first name drawn was the one who was going. All of those involved were in agreement that I was best choice because of my understanding and emphatic nature. For some reason, I stood out. I was beginning to wonder if the drawing had been fixed and that my name was the only one in the hat.

I decided to lay back and think only about enjoying this opportunity of going overseas on the conference's dime. After all, it may be the only time that I would go on an overseas journey and Austria was known as a beautiful country and most people spoke English.

The plane was in the landing order, and really I only had to give a 30 minute explanation of my duties and expertise; show a video and some graphs, and put it to the audience for questions and answers discussion time. (I was trying to build my self-confidence,)

Why was the plane still circling? I checked my watch and found out the time. Everything had been timed to get me to the hospital's conference room, get set up and ready to go before all the attending doctors and nurses were to arrive. If I wasn't all ready in a semi-panic mode, I was headed for a full blown one. If the plane was not on the ground in the next 5 minutes, my schedule was going to be way off.

Why had they not sent me a day early? Or at least, on an earlier flight? Maybe they forgot to figure in time zones.

Luckily, the plane was down, I jumped up first and ran out the door and up the ramp, went to the baggage claim, waited. impatiently for my cases. Wow! Saved! My baggage was the first on the belt. I grabbed them and ran to the waiting room. My driver was there. We hurried to the car and arrived at the hospital with barely enough time to get to the auditorium and put my props up.

Then I realized it wasn't The End after all, I still had to face my nemesis, the dreaded rows of faces. I said a short quiet prayer, took a deep breath and the mike was clipped on.

All was going well, until the Q&A Discussion. It wasn't the END after all!!!!