For anyone who has been waiting patiently for me to get back to the
Flowers Waiting for Grim Story, I appreciate your patience. I do intend to finally stop procrastinating and finish the story after Christmas. Meantime I offer you this little seasonal diversion, and a promise: there will be no procrastinating. This is going to be a very short story, and it will end on Christmas eve. One way or another, it will finish on that day. Now, let's get on with it. Here's Chapter 1.
Chapter 1Our story begins in Sunset Valley. On Sunday afternoon, a scientist checks her plants:
Her name is Sandra but most people call her Sandy. Sandy Paws. She plans to spend her day off tending her little garden and catching fish.
Then she gets an unexpected phone call from her boss: she is to come in to work. Right away. He wants to see her Now. She leaves her fishing and hurries down to the Science building, wondering what could be so important that she needs to come to work on her day off. She can't remember her boss ever coming in on his day off before, so there must be something really wrong.
Her boss tells her he's had complaints about Sandy's efforts to provide better conditions for the lab animals: "People don't like you interfering with their research." Ignoring Sandy's attempt to explain, her boss continues: "And of course Dr. Simstein has never forgiven you for returning his dire chinchillas to the medieval period after all his work and expense in acquiring them."
Finally Sandy manages to speak: "The dire chinchillas don't belong here, in this time and place! They could disrupt our ecosystem!"
Her boss replies: "Yes, yes. Maybe. But that's not the point. The point is, you aren't a team player. Always wanting to change things. I spend way too much time dealing with complaints about you. So, Sandy, you need to clean out your desk and get out of the building."
Sandy can't believe her ears: "You're firing me?"
Her boss just says, "Goodbye, Sandy."
Sandy wanders through the town in a daze. Unemployed just before Christmas! What will she do? She meets someone she knows and tells him her problems, hoping for comfort.
But Christopher says, "Yeah, that's too bad, Sandy. Now if you'll excuse me, I think that sweet young thing over there is looking for a dynasty mate."
Rejected again, Sandy makes her way home. Her little house seems so lonely. She thinks, "Nobody cares. Nobody would miss me if I just disappeared."
So she decides to leave her home in Sunset Valley and go far away, where she doesn't know anyone and nobody will know of her failures. She sells her belongings, and with her severance pay she manages to afford a little cottage in Appaloosa Plains.
The house is very small, but then Sandy doesn't know anyone and doesn't expect to have any visitors. Walking into the house, her gaze falls on a Santa doll someone left on the table.
For a moment, the Santa doll feels like a cruel mockery of Sandy's life - alone, unemployed, unwanted at Christmas. But then Sandy has an idea. She has a little of her severance money left - why not fix up the cottage, make it attractive for Christmas? With all the time she has on her hands, she can save money by doing the work herself, and the project will keep her from brooding. Feeling somewhat energized, she sets to work transforming the little cottage.
