《The Lies They Told Me: Short stories from my life》Potato Soup is Great
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I was born just a little while after our parents had moved to Washington from Montana. At the time Genevieve’s job in Billings, Montana had closed up shop and moved to Tacoma, Washington. So Ophelia, Rowen and Genevieve had traveled along with it. Genevieve likes to tell the story of when Rowen and she came to Washington to look for a home for their growing family. There were only two days that Rowen and Genevieve could spend looking for a place to live. They chose the city of Puyallup because it wasn’t in the city and it also wasn’t far enough away that it would be a hassle to get to work. Needless to say they had troubles on this trip. The area itself wasn’t too populated as it was only considered a town at the time, developments were sparse, and most of the surrounding area was nothing but coniferous trees, one major road that ran through town called Meridian, and a few back roads.
There was only one motel in town at the time and it was kind of a no-tell motel, but at least it was located next to a restaurant. So much to their dismay they stayed in the one motel in town. Keep in mind, that the Internet simply did not exist in the 80’s so they had to house search the old fashioned way. After a long day of looking for homes to rent they were disheartened by the high prices of suburban living so they went to the restaurant next to their motel to have dinner.
While at dinner Genevieve opened up the penny saver magazine and found an advertisement for a house to rent right up the road. They called the gentleman from their motel’s phone immediately and pestered him to schedule a tour of his home for the very next day. They returned to the motel across from the restaurant for a good nights rest after a long day only to find bloodstains on their bed sheets, which led them to sleep on the floor. Some experience this was turning out to be!
The next day they met with the man whose house was located conveniently next to an elementary school, junior high school and a park. The drive to Tacoma was not too far and the neighborhood had children for Ophelia to play with. The house was everything that Rowen and Genevieve could have asked for in such a short time frame. Come to find out my mother’s boss and his family was going to be moving in down the road as well so this was an added bonus. After expressing their overzealous nature about renting the house and moving in quickly the man became suspicious and irritated with how fast they wanted to seal the deal. Genevieve recalls to this day how frustrated she was and how huffy she got with him.
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“My job is relocating us to this state and I live in Montana. This is the only time my husband and I could get off to come look for a place to live and I am not setting my three-year old daughter up in some seedy motel while we look for houses!” she had screamed.
The man quickly changed his mind and allowed Rowen and Genevieve to rent the house. This is the house that I was born in but not the house that I remember from my childhood.
The only house that I remember is the house that Rowen and Genevieve still own today. This house sits on the corner lot of the entrance to a cul-de-sac community and is one of the larger properties in the neighborhood. The yard has a Cherry tree, a few Western Red Cedars here and there, and there are rows of Thuja trees that line several sections of the front and backyard. The house itself is a yellowish-tan color with beige trim, aggregate steps and a black iron railing. When you walk in the door a large family and dining room greet you to your left and the upstairs bedrooms are up to the right. If you walk past the wooden floor entry way and into the kitchen to your right lays a den with a fireplace and the entrance to the garage.
If you walk through the kitchen and out the sliding glass doors you would be transported into a backyard of exceptional proportions. The property was sloped at one point so Rowen designed a terraced walkway, garden, and patio/dining area outside. The terraced patio was filled with bark and up on the hill Rowen had built Ophelia a playhouse. While we both used the playhouse it was at Ophelia’s behest that Rowen built this structure from scratch. As you will soon come to learn in the story that follows Rowen was and remains a real handyman.
The playhouse that Rowen had built was made out of oak. I say that because it was a lighter colored wood and it smelled freshly cut, but I’m sure that was just a result of the constant rainy weather. This playhouse was so well crafted that it had a pitched roof, one octagonal shaped window with a view of our real home, and a door with a latch on the inside to lock the playhouse door. Looking back on it I never understood why anyone would put a latch on a playhouse door. Think about it a) do you really want your children to be able to lock you out of a playhouse that you are too big to crawl into and b) do you honestly think that lock is going to keep a determined or desperate intruder out? I thought not.
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One fine day I remember bothering Genevieve incessantly to the point of exhaustion. She was making dinner and to get some peace and quiet she sent me outside to play with Ophelia. Ophelia had slowly been carrying a strange assortment of kitchen items with her to the playhouse. Keep in mind that Ophelia is only six or seven years old so she has to bring each item separately. First, Ophelia leaves the house with a large plastic tub for storing things in but she fills it with warm water and then she comes into the kitchen to get a wooden spoon. Next came the carrots that we had just recently harvested from the garden unwashed and uncut. Lastly, Ophelia carries a pile of already skinned potatoes with her to the playhouse. I can’t remember if Genevieve had skinned them for dinner and Ophelia had stolen them or if Ophelia specifically requested that Genevieve peel them for her. Either way Ophelia went out to the playhouse with those potatoes.
After being ousted from the real kitchen I thought it might be interesting to see what was cooking in Ophelia’s playhouse kitchen. I ran to the playhouse and through open the door only to find Ophelia humming along as she dropped the potatoes and carrots into her now very cold tub of water, which was resting on a built in wooden countertop. When I asked her what she was doing Ophelia replied as if everything that was going on was perfectly normal,
“Making potato soup silly, and you’re going to eat it.” she said as she slowly latched the door to the playhouse closed.
“I don’t want to eat it.” I responded.
Not to be unkind but this soup looked awful and nothing in it was cooked thoroughly enough to be called soup.
“Well why not?” Ophelia replied with a tinge of defensiveness in her voice.
“Nothing in it is cooked.” I stated with sheer arrogance.
Then Ophelia did the smartest thing an older sister could do. She lied to me so that I would participate in her little charade.
“Yes it is! I cooked it earlier in the house. You just weren’t paying attention.”
I mean she did have me there. I was never really paying attention too much else but what was going on in my own life. So I gave in and Ophelia ladled me a giant uncooked potato. Her lie was instantly discovered and I spit the first potato out! However, Ophelia was not satisfied with this response and forced me to eat a whole raw potato. Needless to say don’t ever trust your older sister when she says that her uncooked potato soup tastes great, especially when she is too chicken to try it herself.
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Flame Beneath The Snowfall
Alto is a world governed by Tones. Magic, as one might call it. Manifested through deep mental and physical conditioning, one can control the Tones in a way that is unique to them. The power to store items in gems, transfer life, affect a person's mind, and even the more primal abilities such as control of the elements. Those who have these supernatural abilities are called 'Vassals.' People that fully manifest their abilities are not as common as one might think, and not all Vassals acquire their ability through practice, given if conditions are met. In fact, those who had received much trauma manifest the Tones more frequently, albeit spontaneously. However, the rare kind of Vassals are those who manifest it from childhood. A gift, but not without its repercussions. Alto is stuck in a transitional era, where the line between modern and dated technology is blurred. One can travel to a city that has a tall skyline, bustling with people in sophisticated clothing, or a mere town governed by a lord, all the while riding on a powered vehicle. Cultures vary: Some turn to the more dated practices such as castes, others are more inclined to set equal footing on their people, led by nobility. Some are dedicated to become scholars, studying Alto's Tones, while others set foot on hunts, protecting lone towns from the creatures of some of the still-untamed lands. And the Vassals? Those willing are took under The Organization, an elusive group, its presence said to permeate all throughout Alto, taking care of Rogue Vassals that abuse their abilities and other businesses related to their side. But what is this story all about, you may ask? Well, set your sights on the upper portions of this huge landmass that is Alto. Yes, the 'whole' world is called Alto, but that is because the majority of the known people live on this large continent. Relieve yourself of the worrying tensions everywhere, and see the white snow. Trace the piercing mountaintops and focus your eyes between the valley. A town sits there. Mido. After realizing that the memories only left in his mind was the night of his town's imminent destruction in flames, a boy finds himself grasping for every fiber of his life as he lays down flat on the ground. Beneath him was soot mixed with the white snow. Fortunately, a group of investigators, who were supposed to answer their call for help, saved him from his sorry state. With a newfound second wind, but hampered by his loss of memory, he must solve his own case: Who had the audacity to set Mido, his town, aflame? Flame Beneath the Snowfall focuses on action, with a sense of adventure, but mostly the discovery of an outside world, and the protagonist's exposure to it. Add in a whisk of soft magical elements, and you get a story that I hope will be interesting to the readers. That is not to say that my work is without the sense of unnerving atmosphere, however. As a forewarning, there are elements of gore, horror, minor elements of mental trauma, etc. so it is not for all audiences. *The book is already completed. Although I have plans to continue the story (it would have to involve much larger scope in terms of world-building), I have yet to decide when to start the next entry.
8 117To Blunt The Sharpest Claw
The Velvet Paw of Asquith Novels are a series of New Fable genre novels that involve cats and dogs and high adventure and romance and espionage and food-fights and hotels and explosions and car chases. With large casts, exotic locations and an absurdity only possible in the absence of human characters, the Velvet Paw of Asquith Novels blend Wind in the Willows with James Bond, though with more cafes and fewer badgers. This submission is the third title in its Morigan Trilogy, beginning two-thirds of the way through the series' longest adventure yet. Here's a quick recount of what's happened so far: When Oscar Teabag-Dooven, a Velvet Paw of Asquith, is ordered to investigate how a mysterious poet, the Ar'dath-Irr, is able to travel instantaneously around the world, two very bad things happen. Firstly, he meets Lydia, an insane librarian who punches everyone in the face, and secondly, the Ar'dath-Irr reveals he is intent on taking over the world. Although this second thing might be considered worse than the first, Oscar feels differently following Lydia’s destruction of a cafe, a library and his face in one afternoon. In comparison, thwarting world domination just seems easier. Along with Binklemitre, a fellow Velvet Paw of Asquith, and Lydia, Oscar infiltrates the Ar’dath-Irr’s realm of dark poetry to discover the dog not only intends wrenching the world apart but has no intention of cleaning up afterwards. As a result, Oscar decides it’s all too hard and goes home to have a bath. After lots of arguing and the sort of food fight that posh restaurants were invented for, Lydia and Binklemitre convince him that they must stop the Ar’dath-Irr for several reasons, one of them quite serious. A vibrant cast of characters collide as Oscar, Lydia and Binklemitre battle the Ar’dath-Irr and his disciples in an adventure involving exploding cafés and appalling hotels, car chases and inadvertent surgery, dreadful poetry, lots of arguments and at least one temper-tantrum, all of which draw the three into dark and convoluted corners of a world they weren’t aware existed. Moreover, any chance of sitting down and discussing things over some buns disappears when Lydia punches the Ar’dath-Irr in the face. This results in her having a psychotic episode and Oscar getting run over by an ambulance. Although Binklemitre suffers neither, he witnesses both, which is almost as dreadful, though not nearly so messy. An enormous battle ensues, followed by a dinner party and then everything explodes.
8 330Immutable
The world went to hell in a handbasket. Overnight, something called the Allworld downloaded itself into the universe and everything but the kitchen sink appeared to end the planet. Governments fell and chaos reigned. People were left to fend for themselves. Of course, that's not, like, a bad thing. Pollution is at an all time low which means no more global warming. And all that corrupt bureaucracy is gone now too. Which means all those evil people refusing to do something about our dying planet are gone. Plus, people got superpowers. Which is, you know, pretty sweet. Of course, they can't be normal superpowers, everything but the kitchen sink was thrown in after all. Caleb is immutable, unable to physically change in a world completely changed; Alex was granted a system that talks to her in cat puns, but also gives her power over all cats; Nathan met a god of impulse, who gave him powers because he felt like it; and June is given a power to make things lazy, something opposite to her personality. The four of them meet by chance while hunting monsters. They met by chance but must learn to work together when an empire from space lands on Earth with the intent to subjugate the surviving humans.
8 192In Loving Memory of My Brother (My Green Guardian) ✓
|4X FEATURED AND SPOTLIGHT STORY| To learn to cope with death is one of the hardest obstacles any of us have to face, especially if that death was unexpected. When your whole world has changed, what do you do in order to overcome grief and keep your loved one's memory alive? ***I never knew how much trauma can affect a person until after my older brother died unexpectedly August 17th, 2021. I came out of the experience as not the Victoria I was used to, but the Victoria who now had a huge hole in her heart. I come from a long line of fighters. My family and I pulled off different strategies to help us move on from such a devastating death-strategies that I am going to share in this book. Sometimes the best way to overcome grief is to write about it. After all, writing is an escape to a different world-a world where I still have my Green Guardian.These pieces and pictures I'm going to share with you are not meant to depress anybody, but to illustrate just how wonderful a person Matthew was. His story is sad, but it's a story of hope. His legacy remains in my heart today, and I want to share it because I know I'm not the only person who has lost somebody so unexpectedly. ***Ovid (on when his brother died):"iamque decem vitae frater geminaverat annos, cum perit, et coepi parte carere mei."("And he had just doubled ten years of his life when he died, and with him, a part of me.")*Cover by @Nightfall_21!*Word Count: 7,000-8,000⭐ Featured on @StoriesUndiscovered || Change in Reality Reading List (May 1st, 2022).⭐ Featured on @nonfiction || Personal Struggles, Essays, and Coping Reading Lists.⭐ Featured on @nonfiction || Our #NonFicSpotlight (May Spotlight) Reading List.⭐ Featured on @nonfiction || Past Spotlights Reading List.
8 60Undead Nightmare
A young high school student is thrusted into the zombie apocalypse and must survive with a group of his fellow students. They must fight through hordes of the undead in order to find sanctuary in this new nightmare world.
8 135✨【DETOUR SEVEN】✨ // JJBA Villains
7 men from different timelines (and universes) took a slight detour at the end of their lives. Fate had taken an unexpected turn for them, transporting them to an entirely different time and world.Is this a second chance? Do second chances even exist in the first place?Read to find out how they adapt to their new lives, figuring out ways to blend into society in an entirely different universe.How will they survive in this society?ON HIATUS FOR NOW----[ A JJBA Villains fanfic]---JJBA and its characters belong to Hirohiko Araki.
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