A short story by my daughter and I for her English class extra credit... beware, it's goofy lol
“Sherman, what are we going to do today??”
“Same thing we do every day Mabel. Eat our mush, watch ‘I Love Lucy’ reruns, and go to sleep at three in the afternoon.” Sherman sighed. He was tired of the nursing home.
Sherman and Mabel had the same routine that they have had for the last seven years. Sherman was eighty-six years old and longed for the excitement of his youth. Mabel, at the young age of eighty-two, was happy with her place in the home. She liked her mush! She also had her teddy, who she had loved since she was six, Sir Stuff-a-lot. She would never be along because of her faithful companion.
Half way through ‘I Love Lucy’, Mabel announced that she needed to lay down early for her nap; Gumming all that mush took a lot of energy. A few minutes after she left, the group heard a loud scream from her room. They ran to see what the matter was. *ten minutes later* They arrive with their walkers.
“Mabel! Good heavens! What’s wrong??” asked Sherman.
“Sir Stuff-a-lot! He’s…. He’s…” Mabel stuttered through tears. She handed Sherman a note with the letter S.A.X written in fancy letters on the front.
Sherman read:
Dearest Mabel,
I’m sorry to inform you, but we have taken Sir Stuff-a-lot.
You will never see your bear again.
Sincerely,
S.A.X
(Stuffed Animal X-terminators)
The nurse came in then and Mabel cried to her that someone had taken her bear. The nurse told her to go back to sleep, she was sure Mabel had just misplaced the bear and that he would turn up eventually.
Sherman stayed with Mabel until everyone else was taking their nap. Even Sherman had started to doze off. He felt a tug on his sleeve. It was Mabel.
“I need to find my teddy. You know how much he means to me, Shermmy.”
“We can sneak out now if we hurry.”
“Oh thank you!” Mabel said, as fresh tears started rolling down her face.
“Don’t worry, we’ll catch those young whipper snappers!”
Sherman and Mabel slipped out of the home while the guards were playing gold fish with the patients’ medical cards. They heard one of the guards ask, “Do you have a Blood Type of AB?” Out behind the home, there were woods. Woods farther than the eye could see. They decided to start there. What better place for the S.A.X.’s evil secret hideout!
After walking for an hour, the two were becoming very tired. They decided to sit on a fallen log and rest a few minutes. Through the trees, Mabel spotted a cabin with smoke coming out of its chimney. “What’s that?” she pointed.
“Hmm,” Sherman said, “Let’s check it out.”
They knock at the cabin door, but no one answered. Sherman knocked again and the door slowly swung open. The glanced at each other. Sherman pushed the door further open, and they stepped inside.
They glanced around at the rustic atmosphere of the cabin, but no one was in sight. Mabel sat down on the sofa and put her head back. She was exhausted. Sherman sat down beside her and within minutes, they were both fast asleep. Afterall, it was already 5:45pm.
Mabel woke up to the smell bacon. She tried to nudge Sherman awake, but found that her arms were tied. She looked behind her to see that Sherman was in a chair also, with his arms tied behind his back.
“What’s going on?!” Mabel shouted.
“Oh, you’re awake!” came a voice from the kitchen.
A little man, about 3 feet tall walked into the living room from the kitchen. He was squat with curly red hair. He reminded Mabel of a leprechaun.
(in an Irish tone) “Good day, Lassie! “
Mabel stared in shock, and started trying to wake Sherman again, who finally awoke with a start. “Wha! I didn’t eat your mush!!” Sherman yelled. The leprechaun laughed.
“Well hello to you too! I be Polo, and I’ll let you go, if ye promise to behave.”
“That didn’t rhyme.” Mabel said.
Polo just continued to stare at the pair. He started to walk away mumbling, “Fine! I’ll just go back to me bacon…”
“No! No! Come back! We’ll behave!” Mabel shouted at him.
The trio had a nice dinner of bacon and toast. It was a little hard for Sherman to chew, but Mabel was nice enough to lend him her teeth. They told their story to Polo, who was oddly quiet until the end.
“Well, you two will have your work cut out for ya. I’ve heard of this group S.A.X. and the head boss is difficult to beat. He has weakness, but I can’t tell you what it is. I left it in me pot of gold.”
Sherman perked, “You have a pot of gold?!”
“Well, no! Otherwise, I’d give you the note I have with his weakness written on it! Try to keep up, lad.”
Mabel started crying again. “I’ll never find my Sir Stuff- a –lot! And even if I do, how will I ever get him back?!”
“Well, now, I din’ say there wasn’t a way! There still be some magic left in these ol’ bones.” Polo crawled off his chair at the kitchen table and went to the stove. He grabbed the blackened pan that he had fried his bacon in. Pulling his chair up to his sink, he put the pan in the sink and started cleaning it. When he was finished, he climbed back down, grabbed a towel and dried the pan. Smiling a bright smile he showed Sherman and Mabel the glinting pan, and then, faster than the two could see, he hit them over the head with the pan!
****
When they awoke, the house was strangely quiet, the smell of bacon gone, and cobwebs blowing gently in the corners from the long ago broken out window. The cabin looked as though it had been abandoned for decades. “What happened?” Sherman asked.
“I don’t know”, said Mabel. She started to sit up, slowly, because her back usually gave her trouble. She noticed right away though, that she felt fine. Better than fine! She felt like she was in her twenties again! “Sherman! I feel like—“
“A kid again? I was just thinking the same thing!” Sherman laughed as he started to jump up and down. “What did that crazy leprechaun do to us?!”
Mabel noticed that on the couch was a neatly folded pile of clothes with a small piece of paper pinned to the top. The paper had their names on it and the words “Good Luck” written in messy letters. She held up one of the outfits to find that it was a ninja costume! “Oh, this is ridiculous, I’m not wearing this!” She looked over to Sherman for his opinion, to see that he was already trying to put his own outfit on while doing an Irish dance in the corner of the room. Mabel just shook her head, laughed and quickly slipped into her ninja outfit.
Outside the cabin, the woods were eerily quiet. Not a bird chirped or a leaf rustled. They tested their new powers by jumping, kicking and blocking. After Mabel accidently kicked a tree behind the cabin, which sent it falling to the ground, they decided to quickly move along.
The trees grew taller and leafier the farther into the woods they went. They almost walked into a large building before they even saw it. “This has got to be it! The evil secret hideout of S.A.X.!” Mabel whispered with excitement.
“How do you know?” asked Sherman.
“Because, we’re in a short story, and if we have to look longer, then it’s no longer a short story. Geez, Polo is right, you are slow.”
The two elderly ninjas made their way around to the back of the building where there was a small, narrow door. Like the ninja’s they were, they quickly and quietly slipped through.
Inside, there was a huge room, filled with boxes and boxes of stuffed animals. Elephants, giraffes, chickens, cheetahs, and teddy bears stacked from floor to ceiling. Mabel rushed in and started pulling boxes open, trying to locate Sir Stuff-a-lot. “Look for a teddy bear!” Mabel said vigorously.
“Do you know how many teddy bears are here Mabel?” He questioned.
“Okay smarty-pants; look for one with a fuzzy caterpillar mustache.” She said briefly.
Suddenly, they heard a booming voice. “Looking for…. THIS?!” They spun around and saw a huge thin man with straight, long black hair. He was holding up Sir Stuff-a- Lot by the leg.
“Why are you doing this?” Mabel yelled.
“Because I’m evil, and this is what evil people do!”
Mabel screamed and blacked out.
When she came to, she was again tied to a chair. “What’s with the chair thing? Does no one else know how to hold someone prisoner?” She looked around and saw Sherman standing about five feet away. He was still free. “What? How come you’re not tied up?” She asked.
“Well, you see… about that…” Sherman stuttered.
“Because he’s one of us!” The man with the big voice laughed.
“Since when are you on their side?!” Mabel screamed!
“Well, when you were blacked out, the big guy said ‘Come to the dark, we have cookies.’ And really, how could I refuse cookies??”
“Cookies? What kind? I might join you too.” Mabel asked, thinking she had a plan.
“Monster cookies of course, they even had the big M&M’s in them!” Sherman giggled.
“Well, I can see why then. No one can resist the lure of cookies like those. Can I join you too?” Mable asked.
The big boss laughed in his deep voice and told Sherman to untie her. “Looks like another volunteer to do my bidding!”
When Mabel was untied, she struck. She grabbed a stuffed unicorn by the horn and jumped at the boss. He easily stepped away from attack and laughed again. “You cannot beat me! For I am Marco, leader of S.A.X.!”
Mabel took off running, bumping into boxes along the way. Her ninja powers started to fade. One of the boxes seemed as though it had something really hard in it. She grabbed the box and ripped it open. Polo’s Pot of Gold! She dumped the gold out and grabbed the piece of paper as it fell. The paper said “Who’s yo daddy??”
“Polo?! What in the world…”
“What did you say?!” Marco boomed, stopping his pursuit suddenly.
Mabel looked at Marco and noticed the sudden change. She screamed, “POOOOOOOOOOLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!”
“AHHHHHHHHHGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!” Marco screamed. It was so loud, the windows all shattered. She ran to Sherman who was still in the corner, eating his cookies.
Marco started crying at the name of his long lost brother. “How?! When?!”
Mabel walked bravely up to Marco, grabbed Sir Stuff-a-lot and smacked Marco on the hand! “NO NO!” With a loud POP! Polo was suddenly standing with the group.
“Did someone say me name?” He looked around and his eyes landed on Marco.
“MARCO!!”
“POLO!!!!”
With the brothers united, and Marco promising to end his evil ways, Mabel grabbed Sherman by the hand and ninja jumped through the trees with what was left of her ninja powers. She laid Sherman, who was fast asleep, in his bed, and covered him up. She then snuck quietly back to her room.
The next morning, she met Sherman in the dining hall. “You will never believe the dream I had last night!” Sherman told her.
“Really?" asked Mabel. "What was it about?”
A nurse walked over to show them to their seats, and she noticed Mabel was holding tightly to her beloved teddy bear. “Aw see? I told you that you had just misplaced it!”
Sherman turned slowly towards Mabel with his mouth hanging open in shock.
Mabel put her finger in front of her smiling lips, shushed him, and winked.
