One Shots!, Non-Continuous "One Post" Story

[Stephanie]

THE PEBBLE STORY


Many years ago in a small Indian village, a farmer had the misfortune of
owing a large sum of money to a village moneylender.

The moneylender, who was old and ugly, fancied the farmer's beautiful Daughter.
So he proposed a bargain. He said he would forgo the farmer's debt if he
could marry his daughter. Both the farmer and his daughter were horrified by
the proposal.

So the cunning money-lender suggested that they let providence decide the
matter. He told them that he would put a black pebble and a white pebble
into an empty money bag. Then the girl would have to pick one pebble from
the bag.

If she picked the black pebble, she would become his wife and her father's debt
would be forgiven.

If she picked the white pebble she need not marry him and her father's debt
would still be forgiven. But if she refused to pick a pebble, her father
would be thrown into jail.

All the villagers were standing on a pebble strewn path in the farmer's field.
As they talked, the moneylender bent over to pick up two pebbles. As he
picked them up, the sharp-eyed girl noticed that he had picked up two black
pebbles and put them into the bag. He then asked the girl to pick a pebble
from the bag.

Now, imagine you were standing in the field. What would you have done if
you were the girl? If you had to advise her, what would you have told her?

Careful analysis would produce three possibilities:

1. The girl should refuse to take a pebble.

2. The girl should show that there were two black pebbles in the bag and
expose the money-lender as a cheat.

3. The girl should pick a black pebble and sacrifice herself in order to
save her father from his debt and imprisonment.

Take a moment to ponder over the story.

The above story is used with the hope that it will make us appreciate the
difference between lateral and logical thinking.

The girl's dilemma can not be solved with traditional logical
thinking.Thinkof the consequences if she chooses the above logical
answers. What would you
recommend to the Girl to do? ;;;;;;; Well, what she did was :

The girl put her hand into the money bag and drew out a pebble. Without
looking at it, she fumbled and let it fall onto the pebble-strewn path where
it immediately became lost among all the other pebbles.

"Oh, how clumsy of me," she said. "But never mind, if you look into the bag
for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I picked."
Since the remaining pebble is black, it must be assumed that she had picked
the white one. And since the money-lender dared not admit his dishonesty,
the girl changed what seemed an impossible situation into an extremely
advantageous one.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Most complex problems do have a solution. It is only
that we don't attempt to think.

[Lorelei]

Regret
By: Kate Chopin

MAMZELLE AURÉLIE possessed a good strong figure, ruddy cheeks, hair that was changing from brown to gray, and a determined eye. She wore a man's hat about the farm, and an old blue army overcoat when it was cold, and sometimes top-boots.

Mamzelle Aurélie had never thought of marrying. She had never been in love. At the age of twenty she had received a proposal, which she had promptly declined, and at the age of fifty she had not yet lived to regret it.

So she was quite alone in the world, except for her dog Ponto, and the negroes who lived in her cabins and worked her crops, and the fowls, a few cows, a couple of mules, her gun (with which she shot chicken-hawks), and her religion.

One morning Mamzelle Aurélie stood upon her gallery, contemplating, with arms akimbo, a small band of very small children who, to all intents and purposes, might have fallen from the clouds, so unexpected and bewildering was their coming, and so unwelcome. They were the children of her nearest neighbor, Odile, who was not such a near neighbor, after all.

The young woman had appeared but five minutes before, accompanied by these four children. In her arms she carried little Élodie; she dragged Ti Nomme by an unwilling hand; while Marcéline and Marcélette followed with irresolute steps.

Her face was red and disfigured from tears and excitement. She had been summoned to a neighboring parish by the dangerous illness of her mother; her husband was away in Texas -- it seemed to her a million miles away; and Valsin was waiting with the mule-cart to drive her to the station.

"It's no question, Mamzelle Aurélie; you jus' got to keep those youngsters fo' me tell I come back. Dieu sait, I wouldn' botha you with 'em if it was any otha way to do! Make 'em mine you, Mamzelle Aurélie; don' spare 'em. Me, there, I'm half crazy between the chil'ren, an' Léon not home, an' maybe not even to fine po' maman alive encore!" -- a harrowing possibility which drove Odile to take a final hasty and convulsive leave of her disconsolate family.

She left them crowded into the narrow strip of shade on the porch of the long, low house; the white sunlight was beating in on the white old boards; some chickens were scratching in the grass at the foot of the steps, and one had boldly mounted, and was stepping heavily, solemnly, and aimlessly across the gallery. There was a pleasant odor of pinks in the air, and the sound of negroes' laughter was coming across the flowering cotton-field.

Mamzelle Aurélie stood contemplating the children. She looked with a critical eye upon Marcéline, who had been left staggering beneath the weight of the chubby Élodie. She surveyed with the same calculating air Marcélette mingling her silent tears with the audible grief and rebellion of Ti Nomme. During those few contemplative moments she was collecting herself, determining upon a line of action which should be identical with a line of duty. She began by feeding them.

If Mamzelle Aurélie's responsibilities might have begun and ended there, they could easily have been dismissed; for her larder was amply provided against an emergency of this nature. But little children are not little pigs: they require and demand attentions which were wholly unexpected by Mamzelle Aurélie, and which she was ill prepared to give.

She was, indeed, very inapt in her management of Odile's children during the first few days. How could she know that Marcélette always wept when spoken to in a loud and commanding tone of voice? It was a peculiarity of Marcélette's. She became acquainted with Ti Nomme's passion for flowers only when he had plucked all the choicest gardenias and pinks for the apparent purpose of critically studying their botanical construction.

"'T ain't enough to tell 'im, Mamzelle Aurélie," Marcéline instructed her; "you got to tie 'im in a chair. It's w'at maman all time do w'en he's bad: she tie 'im in a chair." The chair in which Mamzelle Aurélie tied Ti Nomme was roomy and comfortable, and he seized the opportunity to take a nap in it, the afternoon being warm.

At night, when she ordered them one and all to bed as she would have shooed the chickens into the hen-house, they stayed uncomprehending before her. What about the little white nightgowns that had to be taken from the pillow-slip in which they were brought over, and shaken by some strong hand till they snapped like ox-whips? What about the tub of water which had to be brought and set in the middle of the floor, in which the little tired, dusty, sun-browned feet had every one to be washed sweet and clean? And it made Marcéline and Marcélette laugh merrily -- the idea that Mamzelle Aurélie should for a moment have believed that Ti Nomme could fall asleep without being told the story of Croque-mitaine or Loup-garou, or both; or that Élodie could fall asleep at all without being rocked and sung to.

"I tell you, Aunt Ruby," Mamzelle Aurélie informed her cook in confidence; "me, I'd rather manage a dozen plantation' than fo' chil'ren. It's terrassent! Bonté! don't talk to me about chil'ren!"

"T ain' ispected sich as you would know airy thing 'bout 'em, Mamzelle Aurélie. I see dat plainly yistiddy w'en I spy dat li'le chile playin' wid yo' baskit o' keys. You don' know dat makes chillun grow up hard-headed, to play wid keys? Des like it make 'em teeth hard to look in a lookin'-glass. Them's the things you got to know in the raisin' an' manigement o' chillun."

Mamzelle Aurélie certainly did not pretend or aspire to such subtle and far-reaching knowledge on the subject as Aunt Ruby possessed, who had "raised five an' buried six" in her day. She was glad enough to learn a few little mother-tricks to serve the moment's need.

Ti Nomme's sticky fingers compelled her to unearth white aprons that she had not worn for years, and she had to accustom herself to his moist kisses -- the expressions of an affectionate and exuberant nature. She got down her sewing-basket, which she seldom used, from the top shelf of the armoire, and placed it within the ready and easy reach which torn slips and buttonless waists demanded. It took her some days to become accustomed to the laughing, the crying, the chattering that echoed through the house and around it all day long. And it was not the first or the second night that she could sleep comfortably with little Élodie's hot, plump body pressed close against her, and the little one's warm breath beating her cheek like the fanning of a bird's wing.

But at the end of two weeks Mamzelle Aurélie had grown quite used to these things, and she no longer complained.

It was also at the end of two weeks that Mamzelle Aurélie, one evening, looking away toward the crib where the cattle were being fed, saw Valsin's blue cart turning the bend of the road. Odile sat beside the mulatto, upright and alert. As they drew near, the young woman's beaming face indicated that her home-coming was a happy one.

But this coming, unannounced and unexpected, threw Mamzelle Aurélie into a flutter that was almost agitation. The children had to be gathered. Where was Ti Nomme? Yonder in the shed, putting an edge on his knife at the grindstone. And Marcéline and Marcélette? Cutting and fashioning doll-rags in the corner of the gallery. As for Élodie, she was safe enough in Mamzelle Aurélie's arms; and she had screamed with delight at sight of the familiar blue cart which was bringing her mother back to her.

THE excitement was all over, and they were gone. How still it was when they were gone! Mamzelle Aurélie stood upon the gallery, looking and listening. She could no longer see the cart; the red sunset and the blue-gray twilight had together flung a purple mist across the fields and road that hid it from her view. She could no longer hear the wheezing and creaking of its wheels. But she could still faintly hear the shrill, glad voices of the children.

She turned into the house. There was much work awaiting her, for the children had left a sad disorder behind them; but she did not at once set about the task of righting it. Mamzelle Aurélie seated herself beside the table. She gave one slow glance through the room, into which the evening shadows were creeping and deepening around her solitary figure. She let her head fall down upon her bended arm, and began to cry. Oh, but she cried! Not softly, as women often do. She cried like a man, with sobs that seemed to tear her very soul. She did not notice Ponto licking her hand.

[Stephanie]

I ran across something I've written before,
This is my example of pure emotions, no second thoughts

It is untitled.

(Written when I was 14)

~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~

“Goddammit! NO!” I punched the wall as hard as I could. I looked at my hands. They were bleeding. Though, nothing is comparable to the pain I feel inside.

I ran towards the cliff, and jumped. I felt the air rushing through me. I felt some kind of excitement overwhelming me.

“Is this the only happy part in my life?”

I looked at the ground; it was still far for me to think it’s too late.

“Shall I face life again with the world only stepping on me or must I rest my head finally on the Sahara Desert forever?”

“MOVE ON YA CRAZY LUNATIC! YOU KNOW YOU CAN’T KILL YOURSELF, YOU’RE SOFT STUFF FOR THAT!”

I opened my wings and flew. As I glided slowly on the ground, I looked around to see who said that.

“Over here, moron!” It was my brain. It has been holding complex problems and lots of nasty experience. I talked back, “What’s so good about the world, there’s no purpose for me here anymore… I’m a mere existing being whose purpose is less than a bacteria’s.”

“You may be right there.” He slaps me in the face, “But your not hot stuff, your not hard core to die. Do you want to die!? I can kill you right now!!”

For 2 years, I have been stuck with a fallen angel inside of me. We are made and stitched together as one.

“Al!!!” A girl called to me. It was Natasha. “Dear, dear Al, your men are waiting for you…”

“I don’t get it!? Why do you people want ME to be your leader? I’m a piece of s***! Garbage! A suppose to be non-existent.”

“We want you because you’re strong. You can make thousands of man die in a flick of a second. Many noble and good hearted men trusted you. Not knowing you’ve change, we have advantage!”

I looked at her. My brain slapped me back to reality. “You good for nothing! Do the deed! If you say you’re so unimportant, then prove it by doing something wicked. Something to make you less than who you already are, nothing!” He gave a chuckle.

I flew to the fallen angels club and did incredibly evil things. More of them joined me, yet I still felt no satisfaction from what I have done.

One day, I thought to my self, “What if I just enjoy my life with things I never did and kill myself then?”

I enjoyed doing terrible things. Truly, I have let the fallen angels suffocate my soul inside from the crowd.

Now, soulless, I went to the garden of beauty. I saw an African boy having fun with his imagination. “Pathetic!” I murmured. I went to him and tried to destroy him like life did to me. Life can’t be like this! It’s unfair! No one must have happiness! I feel so dry yet everyone around me was rejoicing. No, I will not let this happen!

I looked at the boy to what his reaction might be like after swirling him into madness. He slapped me hard in the face. “Why you little---“I tried to kill him, suddenly…

“Hah! You’re pathetic!”

I felt a hurted feeling inside. Without showing an expression, I asked him, “So? You got a problem with that?”

I shook my head, “You don’t know what I’ve been through.”

“I do” He looked at me. “You’ve been through hell…”

“Actually, much worse than hell…”

“Ah…” the kid looked at me, raising his eyebrow, “Then you probably don’t exist. Souls are burned in hell forever and you’re saying it’s much worse than that? My dear brother, you must have no soul for them to burn you…”

“I dunno ‘bout that.” I looked at him, “Hey, you’re one of those smarty-pants, aren’t you?”

“Flowers…” He said

I looked at him with my jaw slightly opened.

*Sigh*
He looks at me, smiling, “You’ve love a flower didn’t you? And you never got to tell her how much she means to you… You gave everything to her, even your world and dignity. Man! What are you so afraid of!?”

I stared at him for a while, “Big talk kid, you don’t know anything…”

He turns around and calls a girl’s name. I felt my heart burn. Goodness, I still have a heart! Oh, wretched life! You have forsaken me…

“No I did not…” Lorelei, the girl I have treated like a goddess, comes near me. I feel I was not worthy to receive her words. “I’ve been waiting for you. Of course guys have to be the one to start courting and proposing, not the girl.” She looks at me wildly, “Oh, how foolish I have been! Why you!? Why you!? I have tried to use you for popularity because you are strong. To discover you are emotionally and mentally weak? Pathetic! Never would have I come near you!!!”

“Okay…” The African boy snapped at me, “So, tell me, is she worth it? God takes away something for you to prepare you for something better. He doesn’t take anything away from you on any purpose. I believe this purpose was to strengthen you.”

“Me!? Why ME!? Why’d He let me suffer like this!?”

“You have wondered too far, child, you weren’t this much hurt the first time you cried about this. I have a great purpose for you and it is much greater than anyone, even you, can imagine!”

The African boy turned into an angel. He pushed all the fallen angels out of me and let my soul inhale such rough oxygen in Earth again.

“I have done so much wrong! I don’t think I can undo the things I’ve done.”

“I believe in you. As I promise, I will be with you always ‘till the end of the universe. I love you, my son.” The angel, I thought before, was God. He embraced me.

Feeling unworthy, I moved a bit backwards… “Am not worthy to receive you.”

“But now, if you ask for forgiveness, you are 100% welcome.” I hugged him and I felt greater strength than power, money, skills or anything else flowing within me.
“You are reborned! The strength that you feel, can you guess what it is?”

I smiled at Him as we both flew in the sky.

“Not only that,” I said, “these wings were long with me but I do not know where they come from, until I realized I you have been with me and never left me. I, also, am a part of you and without me; Your whole body cannot function well…”

[Mystic_Legend]

Blood Rose- The End

And so, it stands. Vampires against humans, humans against Vampires. Yukari and Megan are left to choose; will they kill each other, or betray their kind?
“Sister, are you with me or not?” asked Megan.
“I cannot tell, Megan-“
“Give your respect human”

Yukari stared at Megan’s eyes. She tried to read her sister’s mind, but cannot.
“You can’t get through me. I’m unreadable” said Megan
“Unreadable?” asked Yukari “Then why do I see regret in your eyes? Is it because of what you did more than a century ago?”

Megan crumpled the young rose on the palm of her hands, then, released it.
“Respect? You barely gave me respect earlier” said Megan’s sister “Your family disowned me, dethroned me, and even used me for their own happiness; do you call that respect?”
“What do you want from me?” asked Megan.
Yukari came close to Megan’s face, then her ear, “I want you to prove that you didn’t regret biting me more than a century ago” she whispered.
“Do you know what I am?” asked Megan.
“Vampire” answered Yukari.
“And do you remember the last time I’ve tasted a human’s blood?” asked Megan again.
“You want mine, don’t you?” asked Yukari back.

Megan licked Yukari’s neck “Now did I answer your question?”
Before Megan can bite her sister’s neck, Yukari moved swiftly away and drew out the Blood Rose from its guard.
“I’m amazed you can still move fast, and the Blood Rose is held by a human? Maybe you’re still a Vampire!” said Megan, drawing her sword out from its guard.
“The Blood Rose obeys me, the Blue Seal, and only me” said Yukari, preparing to strike.
“Let’s dance, traitor”

CLANG!

Both swords crashed at each other, producing irritating metallic sounds.
“I don’t think your sword will last against Blood Rose” said Yukari, clashing her sword to Megan’s.
“I’m a Vampire, Yukari. I’m superior than you’ll ever think. I’ll kill you right now!” said Megan.

The battle went long and fast. Humans can barely see the battle going on, even Yukari. But luckily, Blood Rose is covering up her human weaknesses and is giving her the vision and power to match Megan’s powers, but is it enough?
It went on, until one has to die…
“Define death” said Yukari.
“It’s fun to watch, but then I’ll never taste it for eternity” answered Megan.
“Interesting…” Yukari smiled “Death is my rest and yours too, sister…” she said.

Megan got her sword from Yukari’s body. She successfully stabbed Yukari, her sister, are they?
“You want to know something?” asked Yukari, holding her wound.
“What?” asked Megan.
Yukari got her bloody hand and placed her fingers on Megan’s lips
“Mother… Told me that my little sister will always be my savior… She will always be the one whose there when I need her most, and there to send me to my death… Our mother told me that just before she took out my powers and gave me my seal; just before you were born… Just before I forgot everything of my past…”

Megan’s eyes shrank. She released her sword and kneeled down to level up with Yukari.
“Sister? SISTER?!” she said “What have I done?!”
Yukari smiled “It’s ok… It’s your decision which I’ve depended on”
Megan held Yukari’s wound to stop it from bleeding, but unfortunately, didn’t work
“I’m sorry sister!” she said.
“I’m always forgiving you… And for saving me, I will save you…”

Yukari turned to dust… Sparkling dust… Leaving a bloody rose on her resting place, leaving her sister behind, but leaving a mark on Vampire and Human history. What to do now? It’s Megan’s time to finish what both Einsbern sisters were really living for- ‘Stopping the War’

“Wait for me, Yukari. I’ll finish this first”
Megan picked up Blood Rose, and finished the job. Sunset came, and shone on the battle field. It then reached on Megan’s lifeless body, holding the last of Yukari.

This marks the end of Blood Rose, the end of the Einsbern sisters.