Friday Fiction

So for some flashback Friday fun, I decided to write something totally different today. Especially as it is I love QC day. For those who are not aware, QC is my secondary school here in Barbados. When I was at school, I loved English language class, especially writing essays. Are you surprised? I have decided to resurrect the lost art of essay writing for today’s blog post, and I am going to write a story, and you are going to find an appropriately “English Language class essay” title for it!

Melly was having a wonderful dream. She was in a lovely garden, surrounded by beautiful flowers and eating a giant slice of pie. Somehow, all of Melly’s favourite dreams involved pie. It almost didn’t matter what the flavor was (today was lemon meringue – a light crumbly crust, with deep yellow tart filling and pillows of meringue towering on top – but it could have been anything….. aaaah – pastry!). She was just about to take her second bite, when the fire alarm started going off. It was loud and jarring, and Melly was wondering – why is there a fire alarm in this garden – we are already outside. She jumped off of her chair and realized that she had actually leapt out of her bed and was listening to her alarm going off. She muttered a few choice words under her breath, and turned off her alarm. She then lay back down on her pillow, and started to talk herself into getting out of bed. It was 4 o’clock in the afternoon, and she had an errand to run before she started the night shift.

Half an hour later, Mellie emerged from her apartment. The only good thing about working the night shift, was that she never had to have too much interaction with her room mate. She longed for the day when she had enough of an income to afford her own place, but for now, she would have to suffice sharing her place with the almost untidy room mate. She couldn’t put her finger on it. There was never enough mess for her to feel that she could actually complain, but just enough to put her in a bad mood when she walked through the small kitchen and living room, to see pillows thrown haphazardly on the small chairs, or one lone coffee cup sitting on the small table (at least she used a coaster), or a plate with crust sitting next to the sink. Millie headed down the road to the exchange place, with last nights take securely in her backpack. It was a bit too early for the daytime workers to be coming home, and so the road was empty, just the way she liked it. She got to the exchange shop and pushed the door, hearing the bell ring, and the owner came out from the back. “Mellie!” he said in a deep voice. “What can I do for you today little one?” Mellie cringed. It wasn’t her fault that she never grew taller than a couple of feet. She hated it when they called her “little one” – she was almost halfway through her twenties! But she couldn’t be rude to the owner of the exchange shop, it was well known that he would under value any items that came in from anyone he didn’t like, and he had a short temper.

“Hi John” she said brightly, taking her pouch out of her bag and putting it on the counter. The shop was empty as usual. She called it a shop, but it didn’t sell anything, and the shelves were always empty and dusty. All of the business went on behind the closed curtains that he had just come through, and no-one knew what he did with the items he purchased. He opened up her pouch and closely examined the contents. There was silence in the room. He then slid 4 of the items back to her. “I can’t take these Mellie, you know that. I will take the rest in back and price it up for you.” He walked off with the pouch, and left 4 small white dots on the counter. Mellie frowned as he walked away. These ones were from the little boy and girl twin in the Brathwaite house – they had a liking for sweets, and so always ended up with decayed or broken teeth, and when she went to take them out from under their pillow, they were always fragmented. She had already left 2 shiny coins there, one for each, and now she was down a few bucks, and wasn’t sure what to do about it. She was so close to the amount she needed to get a new pair of jeans, and she wanted to wear them on her date in a couple of days time. She was still deep in thought when John came out from behind the curtains with a few bills and a receipt for her. She counted them, and realized that it was a dollar more than she was expecting. One of the teeth must have weighed more than the others, and she smiled to herself. “Thanks” she said. “No worries Mellie, fly safe tonight” he responded, and by the time she pulled the door, he had gone back into the back room. Mellie flew out of the shop and headed down the road, to her workplace where she would collect the names of the children who had lost teeth during the day, so that she could go and swap what was under their pillows for some coins. She clocked in when she got inside the building, and took the lift up to her floor (she was still feeling a bit tired and couldn’t be bothered to take the stairs). When she got there, she went straight over to the printer, typed in her code, and her list came out. Mellie studied the names on it. Amya was at the top of her list, and had lost another tooth, but Mellie knew hers would be in pristine condition, and would be worth the shiny coin that she left for her. As she went down the list she came across Sean’s name, and she frowned. He wasn’t due to lose any at his age. She wondered if the orthodontist had requested he had something taken out. The last name of the list was no surprise. Lisa also had a liking for sweets, and had been visiting the dentist regularly. But her tooth would not be in good shape, and given the events that had transpired less than half an hour ago, John would not be taking it. Lisa crossed over to go to the bathroom, before heading towards the transport that would take them into the neighbourhoods. As she was going in, she saw a big bin just outside the door, filled with toothbrushes of all sizes. When she got inside, she ran into one of her friends who was scheduled to go into the north of the island tonight. “Hey Tina” she said, “what are those toothbrushes out there for?” Tina was in the middle of putting on her make-up and didn’t even look around. “Hey Mellie… who knows! I think they are donations that were sent in. Not sure why those companies always think that we tooth fairies need toothbrushes… Its not like we are going to put them under the kids pillows.” Mellie went into the stall, but her mind was working. What a fantastic idea!!! It might encourage some of these kids to brush a little better, and save her a couple of dollars… why not! A few minutes later, Mellie stood by the machine getting change for a couple of her notes, and had two brand new toothbrushes tucked into her bag. It seems she would be getting those jeans after all!!!

                                                                            ***

Lisa woke up as the sun shone through her window. It was Friday and she liked Fridays – she got extra pocket money, and she could use it to buy a pack of sour skittles from the lady who sold sweets outside her school gate. Her teacher Ms Robinson did not like them having sweets, so she would have to hide them well. Also, she should have had a visit from the tooth fairy, which meant another shiny coin to put towards her sour skittles. Lisa hopped happily out of bed and yanked up her pillow throwing it halfway across the room. But her face fell! There on her bed where the pillow had been wasn’t a shiny coin, instead it was a bright red toothbrush, and a little note “Happy brushing Lisa”…

Happy brushing everyone!!! Find a suitable name for the essay, or send me a topic line, or one sentence that you want me to include.