Wishes, Gems, and Disasters by Martha Wickham (freenovel24 .txt) 📖

wanted help. She let someone else start cooking. This day she was going to avoid trouble as much as she could.
As the day went on she saw that everything was going well and she made the right decision by letting someone else cook that meal. She would start cooking again in two days. Those two days would be enough rest for what work was coming up. Her past was now out of her way and she only had a clear mind and future to look forward to.
The very next day Nadine called. “Hi Janine. I was wondering if you heard from Paul Hal.”
“I haven’t. I didn’t hear about any complaints. We’ve never had one.”
“He must be fine then. The cook must have done a good job. I’ll see you in a couple days. Bye.” Nadine hung up the phone feeling relieved.
As time went on she didn’t see Paul until one day he came in with a date. Nadine thought it was to impress her. He stared at her the whole time. As she looked closer she felt fear because of what she saw. She recognized the woman’s face. It was the manager Janine. Paul began walking towards her.
“Hi Nadine. May I have a menu?” Paul asked.
“I don’t think so. I’m a cook not a waitress,” Nadine replied.
“I think since they haven’t given us one you should. I am now dating the manager and you wouldn’t want me to be an unhappy customer again. If I am really unhappy I may even tell Janine everything you have been doing. You don’t really want that,” Paul gave an evil smile and backed away. It was true. Nadine didn’t want him to tell her all her past mistakes and that she poisoned him. She thought she should have moved and cooked in some other state. Now she still didn’t want to yet. She took two menus. Nadine handed one to Paul and he took it.
“This state may not be big enough for the both of us. You’d better back off.” Nadine went to his table and gave the other menu to Janine the manager.
Paul wanted to request that Nadine not cook his meal but he didn’t want to make anyone mad.
Nadine felt she wanted to fight Paul for the restaurant. Paul didn’t leave. That was because Janine wanted to eat there this time. He cared about impressing her. “At least I have a date. And I have friends.”
“I could get friends.” Nadine stomped back into the kitchen. She was wondering where she would get friends. She decided to keep an eye on what men came to the restaurant and maybe she could find one to marry. She might flirt with him by giving him a discount on food there. She lifted an apple that wasn’t yet ripe. “I’ll cook for you this time Paul and this time you’ll be so impressed it will knock your socks off. But first I must put poison in this apple.” She didn’t put poison in the apple but took perfume out of her purse. She sprayed it on her. It was in a purple bottle called Poison. She was now a fan of that word.
It appeared to her that Paul was mad at her. Nadine stood and waited to find out what he ordered. This time she would cook his and Janine’s meal and prove to them she could do it right. Janine now knew about how Nadine accidentally gave Paul food poison back when she was still learning how to cook. It wasn’t quite as easy as it looked.
In only a few minutes the order was given to her and she started cooking for Paul. When it was done a waitress came and took it to him. They ate it and when Nadine decided to go home for the rest of the day she went out to take a look at Paul and saw that he appeared to be enjoying the food without complaining.
Nadine did what she had planned to do, she cooked a good meal for Paul and that showed she could do it. It should have made her feel good and it did. When she got home she threw her purse on her blue velvety couch and sat down in the kitchen. There were noises coming from the back yard so she opened the back door and found a furry grey cat. “Come on,” and it ran into the house.
As Nadine opened a can of tuna and put it into a bowl she wanted to find a new job and a new place to live. Somewhere nice and she wouldn’t have to worry about the people there again. Different places came to mind like Florida and Georgia or she could transfer and live in Utah. She didn’t want to live in a city and finally she decided on going back to North Dakota where she took her training course.
The next day she let them know at her restaurant that she wanted to move to North Dakota and work in the restaurant they have in that area. They didn’t argue but had her fill out some personal information and where she wanted to move so they could work it out. Nadine wrote that this was her two weeks notice and then she would be gone.
She stood watching the dinning area to see that everything was okay. “Hey lady cook.” Nadine turned around. “Could you make some more of this lemonade?” There was a young man sitting alone wearing a flannel shirt lifting his glass to her.
“Oh yes. Thank you I guess.”
“That wasn’t meant to be a complement. It is now. This is the sweetest lemonade I have ever had. My names Craig Ross.”
“My names Megan, I mean Nadine. Would you like some more lemonade? I’ll make it fresh.” She called herself Megan and wanted to go by that name or some other fancy name. She had a fantasy of wanting to go to work using a different name.
“Yes right away,” he said trying not to smile at the pretty sight of Nadine as she reflected the sunlight that hit her. She walked quickly back to the kitchen and made lemonade. She didn’t know why but she liked Craig. She brought a pitcher of the lemonade back out to him.
She filled up his empty glass. “Thanks,” he said. “Would you like to go out with me on a date some time?”
“Yes sure but when?”
“How about this weekend?”
“Okay.” It was a date and Nadine wrote down her number and address and gave it to him. That day went by quickly and easily. When she got home she started packing to move away. Craig Ross was an attractive man and she wanted to be around him. Her luck had not been good and now she was meeting a man two weeks before she was supposed to move to North Dakota. She closed her eyes and made a wish, “I wish Craig Ross would move to North Dakota.” It wouldn’t be long before she lived in North Dakota and invited Craig to visit her there.


Follow the Leaves


Debra Gallon didn’t ever have much time to herself. She was always taking care of her children, working, and then resting for the next day. Soon she promised herself she would take that self time. “When I finish my coming work I’ll make the time for fun,” she told her ex-husband before he left.
It only took her a few seconds to remember she had to get back to work immediately. As she walked away her ex-husband yelled, “Are you always working?”
Debra replied, “Usually yes, except when I’m sleeping or eating or on a lunch break.” She smiled and went inside her house to get ready to leave and do her job. She worked at a plant nursery and occasionally trained to arrange flowers nicely. She took her plants very seriously and they never withered when Debra Gallon took care of them. She had what some people would call a green thumb. Children in the neighborhood were amused by giving her the name Debra Greenthumb.
Debra was a nice peaceful woman. No one knew why her husband would want to divorce her but the reason was he just didn’t want to be married to her any more. They only wanted to be friends and exes.
Debra arrived at her job as usual. Her first activity would be inventory. She picked up her list of products to look for and write down how many there were. Some of the plants she needed to check were expensive. Her favorite was a big leafy plant that blossomed flowers and it was worth a thousand dollars and rare because they would have to travel to a rain forest to get one. Everything went fine until she came to that plant. She began looking for it but couldn’t find it.
When she realized she had misplaced it she told the manager of the shop. “Debra if you don’t find it I will have to terminate you.”
“You mean fire me?” Debra asked.
“Yes. You lost it didn’t you?” Her manager Cindy asked.
“Yes I did.”
“Then find it or you will lose your job because that plant was worth a lot of money. Good luck.” Cindy walked away back to her job.
There was nothing left to do but look for the expensive exotic plant. First she felt frustrated then sad. Looking everywhere in the shop she finally found the exotic plants leaves. They seemed to have been dropping off. It was still winter and leaves were on the ground instead of trees. The leaves seemed to be falling here and there. As Debra looked she noticed it looked like a trail. She didn’t want to loose her job so she decided to follow them.
Debra followed the trail of leaves into the storage room where they kept some of the plants. At the counter the trail stopped and there was no plant. Now she felt depressed and she sat