Short Stories – Page 2

>The rain poured from the sky. Kitty Sampson forgot all about being Ruby Angel and sniffed the air under the porch. Shinning in the dark before her were these big yellow green eyes. The eyes blinked at her. Kitty crouched close to the ground and readied herself for attack.

“Who there,” she called out to the eyes.

The eyes backed away further under the porch. The rain splashed underneath the porch, creating small puddles. Kitty shook her front paws. She just hated it when she got her feet wet. The dirt would become mud and the mud would then stick to the bottom of her feet. And mud, well that was just nasty tasting stuff. She could not stand the grit getting stuck between her teeth.

Again she called out to the eyes. “Who are you?” Kitty crept closer to the darkness. “Why don’t you come closer so I can see who you are?”

“Ne… deep…please don’t… Ne…deep…eat me,” came the reply.

Kitty crept even closer, following the porch siding wall toward the deeper, dark depths of the underside porch. Her eyes were beginning to adjust to the low lighting. She could now make out a dark image sitting against the wall, deep in the shadows.

“Why would you think I would eat you?” Kitty asked the shadow. “I’m not even hungry.”

“Ne…deep…because…Ne…deep…you are bigger than me…Ne…deep…and…Ne…deep…I am just a frog.”

“Play maybe…I would play with you. But not, eat you. I am Ruby Angel, the super model heroine cat…I am the great protector of the poor-poor unfortunate ones.”

Kitty found a dry patch on the ground. She decided this was a good place to lounge while she waited for the rain storm to stop. Her people would be home soon. They would be looking for her and calling her to come eat her dinner. She licked her chops thinking about the dish of cat food they would present to her. Along with a small bowl of milk.

“Ne…deep…good to meet…Ne…deep…you.” The frog blinked. “Ne…deep…my name is…Ne…deep…Bernie…Ne…deep.”

“Nice to meet you Bernie.” Kitty giggled a small purr. “Are you a super hero too?”

“Super hero…Ne…deep…No…Ne…deep…What is a…Ne…deep…Super hero?”

Kitty licked her paws. “You don’t know what a super hero is? Well my boy told me; he is one of my people, he told me a super hero is someone who saves someone from something.”

“Ne…deep…you have a boy and you have people? Ne…deep…I have seen…Ne…deep…that boy before…Ne…deep…he tried to catch me…Ne…deep….but I jumped away from him…Ne…deep…as fast as I could….Ne…deep.”

“Oh he would not have hurt you. It is the girl you have to watch out for.” Kitty warned.

Just the other day Kitty watched the girl catch a grass hopper. She held it in her hands and shook them as hard as she could. Then she had spoken something to Kitty, something to do with check this out and then, the girl opened her hands right in front of Kitty’s face.

The poor grasshopper was so dizzy from the shaken, it did not know which direction it was going in and jumped out of the girls hands as soon as they were opened. Kitty immediately pounced on the poor thing and pretended to eat it. Meanwhile she hid the grasshopper underneath her body so the girl would not find it.

The trick seemed to work. Kitty’s apparent meal grossed the girl out, making her lose interest in torturing the bug. She ran into the house, yelling, “Mom, Kitty just ate a bug. A big bug. How gross.”

That was the day, Kitty Sampson decided to become Ruby Angel. She would set out to save the world from the girl. Then again, maybe she could save others too. There were other dangers besides the girl.

Kitty thought for a moment. “Bernie, would you like to be a super hero like me?” She flicked her tail to and fro. “It is a lot of fun.”

“Oh I don’t know,” said the frog. “How do I become a super hero?”

“Well, first you need a super hero name.” Kitty licked her paws. “Then you will need to decide what kind of super powers you have.”

Kitty and Bernie then began to talk about name. There was Bernie Hopper and Super Frog. At one point Kitty even suggested the name Fast Tongue Bernie, but he did not like any of them. She was about to give up when she thought of one last name. “How about Jade Brown.”

“Oh…I do like it. Jade Brown is a very catch name.” Bernie flicked out his tongue and snatched a lonely mosquito from the air in front of Kitty’s face. “And my super powers are that I can jump really high and I do have a lightning fast tongue.”

So, that is how Kitty Sampson and Bernie the Frog became friends. From that day on they became a super hero team, finding adventure all around them in the back yard. The underneath of the porch became their den or home base. A special secret hiding spot from the girl in the house.

Copyright © February 2011

Lydia rustled through the paper work on her desk. She really hated doing the monthly bills, but they were piling up again. The last bill to pay was her phone bill. First she needed to check her balance to make sure she had enough money.

Her addition sucked. She shoved the papers out of her way in search of the calculator. It was hidden under the paid pile.

After punching in the numbers she determined a shortage in her account. The phone bill would have to wait another month. Hopefully they would not shut off her phone before she could come up with the money needed to pay the bill.

Lydia noticed the time. She had better hurry or she would be late for work. Another day another dollar she thought. Did that mean another dollar less or more, she wondered. Lately it seemed like a dollar less.

She picked up her purse and keys along with a few paid bills and hurried out the door. Lucas was already waiting with the rest of the car pool.

Lydia waved her handful of envelopes at his window before taking a spot in the backseat. She felt crowded with three of them stuffed in the backseat. They were always fighting for a window. An hour ride to work every day, and sitting next to Allan was not her favorite thing to do. He was one of those people who had a problem with sweating and his deodorant did not always work.

This was one of those days. How wonderful, and it was her day to sit in the middle. “Hey Lucas, I hope you don’t mind…but could you stop at the nearest mailbox? Got some bills that need to go out.”

“Yeah…sure.”

“ Lydia…I got you a coffee this morning.” Carrie handed the hot drink cup to her.

“Thanks.” Lydia said. She exchanged the envelopes for the cup of coffee. The cup was still really hot. One road bump would be all it would take to toss that hot coffee on everybody in the back seat including herself. She would have to wait until they got to work before she dared take the lid off.

The office was not her favorite place to be. Not every one likes their job and Lydia was one of them. Ugh…she thought as she sat in her chair, stuffing her purse underneath her desk out-of-the-way

Lydia had a feeling that this would not be a good day. She took off the lid to her cup of coffee and almost dumped it all over her papers. That would have been a disaster in its self.

Patrick, her boss approached her desk and set a stack of files down for her to go through. “I need these people called immediately.”

“All right. I will get right on it.”

Lydia looked at the first file. It was for a woman in the state of Maine. The woman owed five hundred dollars to a credit company. This call went well with the woman agreeing to send in a substantial payment to cover the bill for one month.

The next file was for another woman living in Florida. She owed three hundred dollars for a doctor bill. This turned out to be another successful file taken care of.

The last file was the moment she had been bracing for. It was for a man who owed fifteen hundred dollars for some sporting equipment. She argued with him, for a good fifteen minutes, over the bill itself.

“You have the wrong number,” he kept stating. Finally he demanded to speak to her supervisor.

“Hold on one moment.”

Lydia found Patrick in his office and she explained the problem with the account. Patrick said he would handle it. She went back to her desk and forwarded the call to his office.

Five minutes later he stood in front of her desk. “ Problem with the account you just handled. It turns out to have been a wrong number listed in the file. If you had double checked the number before calling it you would have noticed the discrepancy in the number.”

Lydia pursed her lips together and made a silent Oh.

“ I have spoken to you about this for the last time. I have to let you go.” Ryan said sternly.

“But…but…” Lydia tried to plead.

“ You need to gather your things. You no longer work here.” Patrick moved the chair exposing her purse below the desk.

Lydia finally got the words out of her mouth. “ But I did not drive here today. I can’t leave until Lucas leaves.” She hoped if only she could get him to let her finish out the day. Maybe then he would change his mind.

“It does not matter.” He picked up the phone and punched in the numbers. “ Hi there…could you send a cab to 247 Office Park Drive. Great. Thank you.” Patrick hung up the phone. “They are sending you a cab. Get your stuff and let’s go.”

Lydia bit her trembling lip. She wondered why this could not have happened to Allan instead. Why did this have to happen to her.

She slipped the strap of her purse over her shoulder and followed Patrick out of the building.

The phone bill was going to have to wait. Maybe in a few months Allan would be calling her in an attempt to collect the payment from her. She never liked bill collectors anyways. This must have been why she never liked her job in the first place. She had become one of them in the end.