The Adventures of Melanie Marie (A Garden Gnome) ... Part Three

Gazing at the new, unexplored world around her, Melanie Marie trampled through the forest in fear of every next step she took. This was all new to her, everything was so big and unfamiliar, yet she knew that the only way was to swallow her fear and go forward into the unknown. So forward she went, deep into the forest, where the trees towering over her head seemed to engulf her and the tall grass hid her from view, and not once did she look back.

For days on end she traveled through the woods, not knowing what she would encounter. After traveling for what seemed like forever, she thought she could faintly hear people talking in the far off distance.

"Am I hallucinating, or is there really someone out there?" she said quietly to herself as she stopped dead in her tracks. She didn't know what to do, but she had to think fast.

She decided to make her camp early that night so she could listen in on the conversation she thought she heard from off in the trees. Besides, if she really did hear voices, how would she know if they had friendly intentions? For all she knew, she could be overhearing the bellicose war cries of the cannibalistic monsters she was warned about in the fairy tales of her childhood. She had to know more; there was no chancing anything while she was all alone in a foreign land. After she had made a fire, and piled some leaves up to sleep upon, she settled in to listen more intently to the voices. She couldn't make out if they were woman or man, gnome or monkey, as a matter of fact she could hardly make out what they were saying.

"Have you heard of the little gnome who forsook her tasks of randomness and fled from her city?" she strained to decipher. "It is said she is travelling this way, and that she has come as a threat to over-throw any sanity she stumbles across."

Melanie Marie giggled softly to herself, when the voices seemed to get louder. She hurried to put out the fire that might foolishly give her away, but she was too late. She had only heard two voices but somehow she seemed to be surrounded by a multitude of humions! These half-human half-lion beasts closed in on her while they gnashed their terrible teeth, and flexed their terrible claws, and shook their terrible manes! She sat there, dead in her fear, not knowing what to do...

The Adventures of Melanie Marie (A Garden Gnome) ... Continued

Make sure to read the beginning of the story in the previous post.

'What an awkward way to start a day as wonderful as this one is going to be,' she thought. You see, her sister, Melanie Marie was going to prove her womanhood. She had been training for what seemed like years, but no amount of training had ever helped anyone else do any better. How it usually worked was all the people in the village would come together to watch her complete "The Tasks of Randomness." No one had ever gotten the same two tasks, that's why it was so difficult to train. The borraner, which we now call the mayor, would assign five tasks to be completed in two days.

She arrived home breathless from her early morning dash through the garden, and she was still a bit dazed from all that had already happened. She was determined, however, to help her sister in every way she possibly could.

"Melanie Marie! Where are you my dear sister?" She cried as she walked through the door. She just had to find Melanie Marie as soon as she could to help her and encourage her.

The day was shaping out to be a lovely one. The birds were singing, the sun was shining, there was no hint of rain, and there was a slight breeze, making it the most agreeable weather. She was sure Melanie Marie would be able to complete her tasks of randomness, especially if the weather held out.

"Adelle, did you call me? Where are you?" her sister called as she came down the stairs.

"I am in here dear sister, I know this means so much to you, as it does to me, but I don't think I am going to go through with it. Womanhood will come whether or not I pass the tasks of randomness."

"Or course it will, but this will make you name blessed in our little city. You are just nervous. Now, let's get ready."

"I am nervous, but that has nothing to do with me not wanting to do my tasks! I don't want people to know me because of what I did, I want them to know me because of who I am."

"Oh nonsense! You will complete these tasks and then you will be engaged to whomever the matchmaker sees fit. In two weeks you could be married!"

"Adelle! You are not listening to me! I want to fall in love! Not to be matched up with a strange gnome! I am packed and ready to leave, I will be going as far away from here as possible."

"You can't just not show up tonight! You have to be there! The whole town will be waiting for you! I have been waiting for this moment for three years!"

"So that is why I have to do this. You never completed your tasks of randomness and you are going to make sure I will. Well, I am not going to. I am leaving. You can very easily inform the borraner why I could not make it. I love you, sister, and I pray I see you again someday."

And with that she ran out her door with nothing but a few days worth of food and a few clothes. Suddenly, she realized she had never left her quaint little village, and a chill went up her spine. There was a huge world out there, and it was her time to face it.

To Be Continued...

The Adventures of Melanie Marie (A Garden Gnome)

The other night Caleb, Jordan, and I were talking about kid's literature and reminiscing about stories we had written when we were younger. I decided that I would take the next few blog posts to share a story with you that I wrote when I was fourteen with a good friend of mine. I moved to North Dakota from Florida, and we decided to write this story via email paragraph by paragraph. In other words, I would write a paragraph and email it to her, and she would write a paragraph and email it to me. We built off of each other, and this is what we came up with.

The Adventures of Melanie Marie (A Garden Gnome) By: Ashley Burton and Rebekah (Reeves) Drahosh

All of a sudden, she heard a boisterous sound coming from the garden! She ran with all her might out to see what might be haunting her yard, and when she saw it, she stopped dead in her tracks. Screaming, she hurried to get a stick, and then charged full speed ahead at the flying beast.

"Ooo ooo ooo," it yelled as she violently struck it on the head,"Stop stop stop!"

Nervously she backed away, shaking in her little dress. It was a monkey! A flying monkey! She didn't know what to think. Thoughts raced through her mind like water rushes over a cliff. She had never, ever, in her most ridiculous dreams, ever thought of finding a flying monkey in her garden! Was it an illusion or was this really a flying monkey?

"What in the blue sky's name do you think you are doing hitting me with that stick of yours?!" the creature roared. He was mad; there was no denying it. He got up and stomped over to her in a blatant fury and began to yell in her face.

"You could have really hurt me, little missy! It's bad enough I fell out of the sky like a dead duck just shot down, and then you attack me with a piece of tree? I fear there is no end to this world of madness! What have we come to when even the noblest of flying primates can no longer fly freely?!"

All the poor gnome wanted to do was protect her garden...and regretfully she did just that. The horrible schizophrenic monkey was gone as quickly as he had arrived, leaving nothing but a poor little garden gnome shaking in her garden. Slowly but surely she reassembled herself, and then she went back to her busy days work.

To Be Continued...

Happy Spring in Fargo

Thanks to Grandma, I won't ever have a stroke.

In some places of the deep south, tea supplements water in many folks diet. I have been drinking hot tea since I was three years old (maybe younger). When we would visit grandma, she would always wake up super early in the morning (5:30 or 6) to read the morning paper, eat a piece of peanut butter toast, and drink her hot tea. I would wake up shortly after her (usually before everyone else) and sneak down stairs to watch her read her paper and help her drink her hot tea. Eventually, she just started making me my own hot tea.

As a child, I drank tea regularly - if not hot in the morning, then iced for dinner at night. When I hit college, that tea addiction grew, and I proudly say I usually drink two cups of hot tea a day.

Today, I was driving and I heard that a new study was recently done by UCLA concerning the correlation of reduced strokes and tea consumption. I was pleased to hear that people who drink 3 cups of tea daily (black or green) are 21% less likely to have a stroke. This isn't entirely proven, but it's probable. You can read about it here.

Needless to say, I will be drinking more tea. And if you ever come over, I will offer you a cup of tea as well.