Bethjoy.com

And I still have a few things left on my list to do! But at least I’ve gotten my unit of school done. “Write Post” is what I’m about to check off and I’m rather tempted to check off “Write on Story” too by writing a short amusing story in this post. Perhaps I’ll do that at the end.

Today I left to go with my parents to the chiropractor at one and then when I returned I was so sleepy I took a nap until it was just about time to go to church this evening. I’ve just returned from church. So this morning was pretty much all of the time I had today to do things in. And this morning I was sleepy…

So at anyrate…

Once upon a time there was a kingdom which everybody knew existed even though nobody had ever seen it in the past eight hundred years. Or perhaps I should rephrase that, no one had ever returned after seeing the kingdom. There were many myths about the kingdom which was the main reason most people knew about it, and most of the myths spoke of its eventual return and the return of prosperity to all of the lands about it which was a very pleasant thought to think.

But all of this had little interest to the main character of our tale, a very practical and down to earth young lady whose main objective at this time was to become the wife of a respectable and well to do man. Despite the fact that she did not care about age or looks most of the respectable well to do men around did and as our heroine was fairly plain looking and there were more attractive girls around she was not succeeding too well in her object. And so that things shall be clarified somewhat, the heroine’s name was Agnes and unlike me, she never used run-on sentences for she was able to speak briefly and clearly and express whatever she wanted to say in word of less than three, or even two, syllables.

One day as Agnes was at a ball waiting patiently for somebody to ask her to dance it started to rain out side. As she was inside she took no notice and nobody else at the ball seemed to do so either until a stranger entered. As the stranger was soaking wet many finally took notice of the fact that it was raining outside and two very loud peals of thunder aroused the less observant to the realization that it must be raining outside.

The stranger, as Agnes and twenty other young ladies noticed, was a man but his face was hidden by his cloak. Several eyes watched him as he strode quickly across the room and then spoke in a low voice to two or three of the leading citizens of the area. Surprise and alarm instantly filled their faces and after a few minutes of whispered conference they quickly announced to everyone that an enemy army, as well as a tremendous tornado, was coming their way and that all should return to their homes and lock their houses and climb into their cellars and wait for the tornado to pass before coming out again.

This everybody quickly rushed to the doors to do. Agnes calmly walked to the cloak room and got her cloak and her umbrella which she sensibly carried with her whenever there was the faintest shadow of a cloud anywhere about. As the crowd round the exit had cleared greatly she walked towards it and was about to go out when the strange, who had been look out the door at the rain, walked up to her and asked if she was going in the direction of (insert town name). She replied that she wasn’t and he seemed a bit disappointed, until suddenly a brilliant idea came to him and he said, “Good, because I’m not going there.”

Agnes then opened her umbrella and was about to walk out when he asked if he could escort her home. She agreed and he walked out with her, keeping well underneath her umbrella. If Agnes had been vain or even like most of the other girls at the ball she would have assumed that the stranger went with her for the pleasure of her company, instead of the pleasure of her umbrella. If she had not been wearing her best dress she would have merely lent him the umbrella because strangers on foot without umbrellas who keep their faces hidden are very rarely respectable and well to do men. However as the wind and rain increased she did not feel sorry to have somebody with her in case of accident.

They soon arrived at her home where lights were brightly shining for all seven of her aunts, all spinsters, were waiting up for her. Some, not knowing the circumstances, were quite surprised to see their niece with an escort, for he followed her in, and the others were relieved. She told them about the approaching hurricane and they quickly hurried to lock up the house. Then the eldest of them led the way to the cellar after all the fires had been put out so that the house would not burn down.

As they were about to enter Agnes suddenly realized that the stranger was still there and seemed to be waiting for an invitation to join them. She was unsure of what to do exactly but fortunately her aunts did and he was quickly given an invitation to come down and wait for the storm to blow over.

The cellar was very big and the candles that they held only dimly lit it while casting strange shadows about it. It was certainly not the sort of place to tell spooky stories in if you did not wished to become very scared. Fortunately nobody there told any spooky stories but one of the aunts, in order to make conversation, began telling about the beautiful peach pie she had baked all by herself when she was only eight and exactly how she managed to make it to perfection.

Everyone present except the stranger had heard the tale before, but all listened politely to her until it was over. Then the stranger suggested that it would be wise to move further away from the door. They did so, with him leading. The stranger was quite surprised by the length of the cellar for they kept on walking for quite some time before they came to the end of it. At that end there was a stone door which was shut and locked. On the stranger enquiring where this led to the eldest of the aunts mentioned that it used to be a wine cellar but it was, and had been, unused for quite some time since none of their family drank wine.

As it would probably be safer down their the eldest aunt produced a key and the door opened revealing a stair case going down. They went down the spiral steps for quite some way and then they came to a passage which they assumed must lead to the wine cellar. They walked down it for quite some way without coming to anything that looked like a wine cellar. Then, in the distance, they seemed to see a slight reddish glow ahead of them. It was at that precise moment that the third eldest aunt suddenly remembered, and mentioned, that the door to the wine cellar was made of wood and not stone.

Going on from their was perhaps the bravest thing they ever did, especially since the first part of this sentance was copied almost directly from “The Hobbit” by J.R.R.Tolkien when Bilbo was about to encounter Smaug the dragon for the first time. Whether or hero and heroines are about to encounter a dragon remains to be seen.

They did, however, go on. The glow steadily increased though still they did not know quite what it was. Still, it was assumed that whatever it was it might be preferable to a tornado and invaders. Finally the came to a section of the path which kept turning in a zig zag way. At each turn the light became more and more steady until finally they turned a corner and found themselves looking at what made the light. If they had just come from Kansas they undoubtedly would have stated that they didn’t think that they were there any more.

They were in a large room which was lit by hundreds of chandeliers of the crystal variety giving out a reddish light. Stone pillars supported the ceiling, which was quite high up. All around the floor of the room where open chests of rich treasure and, to their left, they saw a platform that had two thrones on it. Above the two thrones, suspended in the air it seemed, were two crowns. One a king’s crown, the other a queen’s.

Now if I were reading this story I would probably guess that the stranger would be revealed to be extremely handsome and probably the heir to the lost kingdom that was mentioned in the first paragraph and I would assume that he would make Agnes his queen and the place they were now in was the royal throne room of the lost kingdom and that they would all live happily ever after.

However, writing a story is somewhat different from reading a story. In reading a story you may or may not know(depending on whether or not you peak at the end) what is going to happen next but you usually have no control over it. In writing a story you may or may not know what is going to happen next but you can control things in the story.

I am inclined to end the story soon since it is quite long enough and therefore… I think I will have some things that are easily foreseen happen. So as the stranger looked about him he removed his cloak. When Agnes was able to stop looking at all of the wonders about her and turn towards him she was not struck dumb with amazement at his being so handsome since he was as plain as she was.

Then they stepped into the room. The thrones were obviously quite interesting and the stranger and Agnes walked up to them. The crowns looked very tempting so the stranger took the kings crown and Agnes took the queen’s crown and then they placed them on their heads and sat down but they didn’t actually become king and queen until they were married a few minutes later by an official who conveniently showed up right then to perform the ceremony.

With the seven aunts for witnesses the wedding ceremony was preformed and then they all lived happily ever after in the lost kingdom which was now found, presumably, but as they liked it so much there they never left it and so nobody else knew that it had been found so it was still considered lost.

My most humble apologies if I have bored you. However I will plead tiredness as an excuse and a great desire to say THE END