A New Chapter and a Short Story.

Hello,

Benjamin from Brothers Campfire here.

My son recently graduated from highschool and I now have two adult children living with me. They are both employed and learning who they are and what they will do with their life. At the moment, they wish to keep their lives private and I respect that.

The change from raising children to watching them become adults is particularly frightening.

I identify primarily as a father and that will  be my role as a man until the day life fades away.

There are rules in our household that are not negotiable. Church attendance is mandatory, dinner is at 6 pm, and unless discussed, everyone must be home before midnight.

Life appears to be unfolding all by itself. Here are a few examples:

-I bought my son a dirt bike for Christmas and he demanded that I get one for myself so we could ride together. Frugally, I started looking for low powered, low price options. My son, a 17 year veteran of life, would not accept this and in his own words informed me that I would not be representing my household on a set of weak wheels. I procured a proper dirt bike that met his exacting standards and got a motorcycle license. The licence and the support were unexpected. I didn’t expect my son to be fiercely proud of how I present myself. He is somewhat reminiscent of A.A. Milnes Disobedience.

-We needed a way to transport these vehicles and started looking for a trailer. I was able to find a durable one for 250 USD. This was a bargain. I have been using it on the side to get additional side jobs. My son will also need it for his projects. As a newbie, learning to back a small trailer has been an experience and I broke the taillight off when using it.

-This repair required a weld and I started calling my friends. Fortunately, I was able to get it repaired quickly and at a bargain. The welding process appeared straight forward and I thought to myself that it was probably something I could do on my own with the proper equipment. Several days ago, I was purchasing an ammo can to mount to my dirt bike when I saw a flux core welder for sale. After researching, I picked it up.

-While practicing with the welder, I made a flower out of nuts and bolts. My daughter was very excited about this and painted it. Embarrassingly, she gave the slag spattered piece to my mother in law and wants me to make more. She is making a Pinterest board of all her favorite weld projects.

-Gardening is my strong point. I can grow groceries, skin a buck and run a trot line. Currently, I have grapes, raspberries, strawberries, plums, Nanking cherries, potatoes, squashes, garlic, and onions. In addition to other vegetables, I have a wide variety of herbs growing. Recently, I started raising perch and looking to dabble in crayfish. Recently, I was able to procure a large liner for pennies on the dollar. While I haven’t started on it, it is a potential project.

-While working on my garden, some teenagers from a local group home provided me with unique challenges. I complained several times and informed the home that I would be contacting law enforcement. They asked me to volunteer. I was fingerprinted and processed, and now I get to work with some youth in my neighborhood. Also while working on my garden, 5 local children asked if they could come over to “the farm”. They asked if I remembered them, and I did not. Apparently, I gave them pumpkins a while ago. After contacting their mother and getting my daughter involved, I allowed them to check out my backyard. I have not been a child for a while now, and it was a joy to watch them catch snails and minnows in my mini ponds, climb my tree, throw axes 😬, and otherwise occupy themselves with out door endeavours.

As stated, life is unfolding on it’s own.

Even though I haven’t been posting, I have journaled privately. On occasion, I have written for my employer, but they are undeserving of such excellence. For a while, I thought of giving up storytelling, but some will not let me fade away. Recently, a coworker asked me to write a princess story for her birthday.  I hope she enjoyed it and I hope you do as well.

Hello, my name is Simon. I  was employed as a butler/housekeeper of sorts by an inventor named Maurice for quite some time. Maurice was a good boss and it is rumored that he wants to be a space cowboy like Elon Musk. He definitely has the drive and intelligence.
However, Maurice’s love life reads straight out of a tabloid. When adults  live the fast life,  children are affected and it breaks my heart.

Among the stepchildren, Maurice has a daughter named Heather.
Many times, it was my job to schedule Heather’s appointments and get her there, so we spent a lot of time together. Heather was the sweetest little girl. She loved poetry and astronomy  and her favorite color was purple. From an early age, Heather keyed in that I stuttered on occasion and took the time to listen. I appreciated this from her.

I called Heather’s mother a prick, but not for the reason you may expect. She engaged in street pharmacy, and  when she was trying to get pregnant, she would stick herself with a needle and wish for a daughter with creamy white skin, dark cherry lips, and raven black hair.
She was a bit of a druggie.

Mother’s wish didn’t come true and Heather was born with brown hair and brown eyes.
For the early and formative years I was compelled to take Heather to the beauty salon where she was caked with white makeup, red lipstick, where her hair was colored black. Her clothing was tailored and she wore a lot of blues and yellows. Heather hated it, and her mother berated her for not being exactly what she wanted her to be.

Frequently, her mother called her dull and stupid.  Maurice wasn’t too fond of this behavior, but he was timid and didn’t stand up for her .
Due to an overdose, Heather’s mother passed before her time.
Heather felt this was her fault that her mother overdosed  and kept up a sort of goth look in memory of her mother.
Maurice  married a new chick named Grimhilde Tremaine. She heard voices when she didn’t take her meds.
She had two older daughters from a failed marriage. They were named Anastasia and Drizella. They didn’t get along with Heather and bullied her to no end.
When dad wasn’t around, Grimhilde and her two daughters would tell Heather she was crazy and made her do all the chores. Heather didn’t complain and maintained her dignity.

Grimhilde possessed a large mirror that she laid on a table. She used this to cut lines of cocaine and doll herself up for raves and such.
Strangely, she would look in the mirror and say a bunch of weird things like,
“Mirror Mirror, on the Table, Tell me,
Who is the most dumb and unstable?”
In a creepy voice, Grimhilde would reply to herself,  “you are, Grimhilde!!!”
Grimhilde would then exclaim,
“Nooooo! Heather is the most unstable!” 
It was very clear that Grimhilde’s inner dialogue was a bit rattled.

Obviously, this was offensive to Heather and she struggled to maintain her self worth.
Despite the hard living, things went pretty well for Heather and she learned ballroom dance, proper etiquette, sewing, and other skills via private lessons.
These small successes didn’t sit well with Grimhilde. The night of Heather’s high school graduation, she stared deeply into her mirror.
Whether the mirror spoke or if it was Grimhilde, I will never know, but I heard the words  “Kill Heather, Kill Heather!”

That afternoon, Grimhilde instructed me  to kill Heather and take out the trash like a good butler.
After talking to Maurice, he agreed Heather should go somewhere, but he wouldn’t do anything about it.
I lost respect for Maurice that day.

Before you judge me for not calling the police, ask yourself how many wealthy people get arrested. I would wager there are not very many.
I made a few phone calls to my contacts. After telling Heather she had an appointment,  I told Heather she would need to lay low for a while.
Obviously Heather was frightened and shocked. I cannot imagine how betrayed she must have felt.
Short King’s Bar and Grill needed a waitress, and there was an apartment up top where she could sleep until things calmed down a bit.

The Bar and Grill was owned by seven brothers. Their parents were hippies from way back. I grew up with these guys and trusted every one of these short bearded manlets.
Their names were Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Sleepy, Sneezy, and Happy.
Like I said, hippy parents.

Heather grew up doing more than her fair share of work growing up, and she was ambitious. Quickly, she tightened up the place so well that they put her in charge.
Heather put Bashful on the cash register for practice, Sneezy on sanitation, Grumpy on table bussing, and Dopey on the paperwork. She believed in staff development.
Heather had difficulty sleeping because the brothers made so much noise playing video games late into the night. Heather stole their controllers and despite the men being grown, she read them bedtime stories until they fell asleep.
Heather recalled that her fairy Godmother read her a poem called Little Orphan Annie. It was the Seven Manlet’s favorite bedtime story.

It didn’t take long for Grimhilde to discover Heather was still alive. One day, she was talking to her mirror and asked,
“Mirror Mirror, on the Table, Tell me, Who is the smartest and most stable?”
The mirror replied, “Heather Colleen is the smartest and most stable.”
Heather wasn’t dead and Grimhilde was furious with me. I was fired from my job the same day and there wasn’t a peep from Maurice about it. So much for thinking Maurice was a good employer.

Anyways, Grimhilde went down to the Short Kings Bar and Grill disguised as a bag lady. At some point, Heather set her Dr. Pepper down and Grimhilde slipped something in her drink. At least that’s what it looked like on the CCTV.
The seven manlets thought she drank too much giggle juice on the clock so they drug her up to the loft upstairs to sleep it off.
Well, Heather didn’t sleep it off, and Doc did what any responsible manlet would do; he called an ambulance and she was brought to the hospital where it was determined that while her vitals were good, she was in a coma.

Time passed and Maurice got a restraining order on Grimhilde and her two daughters. He was too weak to file for divorce because he didn’t want to lose any assets.
Upon reviewing the CCTV, Grimhilde admitted to poisoning her step daughter and was charged with attempted murder. She pled manslaughter or something like that and was sentenced to four years in the slammer.
Meanwhile, Heather lay in a coma at a local care facility with a feeding tube and pulse/oxygen meter on her index finger.

As fate would have it, a tall, dark and handsome travelling nurse rippling with muscle happened to be on the third shift. He smelled of wood smoke and cedar and his full head of hair complimented his piercing green eyes. Among other patients, he took Heather’s vitals, and when his shift was over, he hopped on his Harley-Davidson and rode off with the rising sun to parts unknown. He was a real stallion.

As reality would have it, Elmer, a 52 year old custodian, had a thing for garlic and showered only when he had to. It was rumored that he wasn’t allowed near schools when they were in session, but that was just a rumor. His balding head sweated as much as the seat of his pants.

He was changing a trash can liner when he saw Heather. He admired her youthful appearance and went to take a closer look. Heather’s lips parted awkwardly at the feeding tube.
The custodian smiled and stood near the bed. The teeth he still possessed were nicotine stained.
He thought to himself,
“I deserve a little kiss.”

As their lips touched, Heather sat bolt upright and screamed hoarsely because her throat was dry.
Elmer quickly fled the scene as a charge nurse rushed in to see what happened.
Disoriented, Heather tried to remove the feeding tube, but the nurse calmed her down.

Heather recovered and went back to work with the Seven Manlets at the Short Kings Bar and Grill.
She stayed in intermittent contact with her father.
Elmer the custodian found Heather on social media and began stalking her. After deleting her socials, he went away and she lived happily, but not ever after.

This was because she was fresh out of high school and had a whole life ahead of her.