Fringeville #219: A Short Story by Mike O’Meara, Age 10

My grandson Mike wrote a short story recently. I’ve done no editing whatsoever. I am sharing it because I still find a child’s imagination to be a wonderful, inspiring thing. The only thing I’ve done is throw in a little clip art. Enjoy!!

Chapter 1: Henry, The Dentist

There once was a thousand-year-old dentist named Henry. He lived on a planet called Treandersis. He had 2 siblings; an older sister and a twin brother. Henry had 1 grandma, 2 parents, and 2 grandfathers. He was a nice man, 8 feet tall, and had light blue skin. Henry shared his house with everybody. He got up early in the morning for his job. He loved being a dentist and was always there on time. Then one day he wanted to take a break all by himself. Henry wanted to be by himself for a long while. So he set an alarm for himself in the middle of the night. That morning he got all of his stuff packed together so he could grab his suitcase and leave. Henry’s family didn’t suspect anything until he didn’t show up back home. The other people at his job also didn’t suspect anything and thought that he took the day off. They suspected something when Henry wasn’t going to work for a month.

Chapter 2: The Lookout For Henry

Henry took his break on a really far away planet called Hydroplex. He got there by riding his car to the rocket station and then taking a rocket all the way to the planet. It took 1 year to get to the planet. So he needed to bring as much food as he could. Hydroplex is a big planet where he could buy a lot of food. Henry could survive for long periods of time without food and going to the bathroom. Everybody started to look for him and never found him. He didn’t even leave a note to anybody! His brother found that his suitcase was missing and his mother and boss called the police. His whole family, friends, and other people gave out fliers. Henry’s sister found that some food was missing and his grandma found that there was an old rocket station receipt in the trash. Henry’s father found that all of his water bottles were left there and his older grandfather found that his swimsuit was missing. They all got together and talked about what they found. Then they went to the police and the police figured out that Henry went to Hydroplex.

Chapter 3: The Big Trip Home

The family went to the rocket station and bought a rocket. The rocket cost $200.00 and they had to bring a lot of food like Henry. When the family got to Hydroplex they found Henry at a hotel near the beach. They told him how much everybody missed him terribly. Henry said the same thing and that he missed his family the most. The whole family decided to have a vacation with him for a month. Henry told them that he wanted a vacation for himself because he was a dentist for 768 years and that he didn’t get a vacation in 150 years. When their vacation was done, they bought a rocket to go back home. When they got home, they went to their house and had a party with family and friends for 2 hours to celebrate Henry’s return. He told everyone that he promised that he would never go on a vacation by himself ever again and that he would take his family with him anywhere.

THE END

 

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…Be good to each other.

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Fringeville #218: Memorial Day, 2020: Smiles and Tears

"America without her soldiers would be like God without His angels.”– Claudia Pemberton, author

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This is how I remember my sister. It's my favorite picture.

I spent part of my morning in tears, not something that happens very often. I was working on billing for my one and only bookkeeping client and my iPhone was streaming my music into my cochlear implants. Good and loud. And only I could hear it. I tried not to sing along, because everyone else was asleep.

I was streaming the music alphabetically, and I was into the B’s. Here’s some of what I was listening to:

Brass in Pocket (The Pretenders)
Breakfast in America (Supertramp)
Bridge Over Troubled Water (Simon & Garfunkel)
Bright Lights, Big City (Neil Young)
Brown Eyed Girl (Van Morrison)
Brown Sugar (The Rolling Stones)

Oh, I was just bopping along, bookkeeping like a bookkeeping machine.

The Foundations “Build Me Up Buttercup” came up next. And that’s where I shifted from a bopping bookkeeper to a grown man bawling in his nook. It actually wasn’t a mere shift; it was a seismic event. I froze, my fingers over the keyboard. My eyes filled with tears. I couldn’t read the screen in front of me.

This was my sister Mitty’s favorite song when we were growing up. I had my head in Beatles’ music 24x7, and she played this record until she damned near wore the grooves out.

Mitty died last year between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I’ve heard the song several times since, but it never hit me like it did today. Today, though, is Memorial Day. I am not one for visiting cemeteries regularly. Memorial Day, however, is a day the missus and I make the rounds to the family gravesites. We visit our parent’s graves (hers at Denison Cemetery in Swoyersville, mine at the West Pittston Cemetery).

Today we will visit with my sister as well (she also rests at Denison). I have not been there since she was buried. I simply have not had the strength to do it.

I miss her. I will always miss her. I will probably always be overwhelmed when I hear that Foundations song. But it makes me remember my sister’s dancing around the house, smiling and singing when we were kids. Smiles and tears, smiles and tears.

…be good to each other, because we are all we have …and we do not have each other for very long.

 

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