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Naughty

Words: 645

He crouched his back, walking ever so softly on the tip of his toes down the staircase. Just one creek on a step set him upright, with a quick glance behind him. With a breath he continued downstairs much more rapidly. He glanced at the Christmas tree and smiled, he then whizzed by and motored to the basement.

He had to find them! He grabbed for the flashlight to the left of the door and, in his excitement, clumsily knocked it down the stairs. He covered his ears, somehow hoping they wouldn’t hear it. Billy reluctantly turned the light on, ran downstairs, got the flashlight, fought to turn it on and then ran back up to turn the light off. Huh, out of breath.

“At least the police or Santa won’t see me now,” he said to himself. As he shut the basement door he thought, “Oh my God, it’s so dark!”

He tippy toed his way back down the stairs. He was pretty sure the presents were hidden on the big shelves where all the big dumb boxes were. Such a huge shelf. It’s too tall. So high up!

Billy, with all his might, pulled and pulled at the biggest heavy box on the lower shelf, hoping his presents were behind it. With a giant thud, the first box thumped on the floor. Nope!

“They won’t hear that. I’m all the way down in the basement!” He said quietly.

He yanked and pulled at the other two boxes. The last one must’a had some cool stuff in it because it jingled and smashed and made much more noise than the first box.

“I hope they didn’t hear that!” He thought. If they did he was ready to go hide behind the big metal box that daddy said heeded the house.

Billy looked way up at the shelves. There were lots more places to hide presents up there. They would never think that he would be able to find them there either!

Billy reached up as high as he could to the second shelf and pulled himself up, getting his feet onto the first empty self. He could do it. It wasn’t as easy as climbing the monkey bars at the park, but then again, there were no presents to be found at the monkey bars.

He reached up again, pushing himself up with his legs. He wrapped one leg along the side of the shelf. It didn’t feel right. It was jiggling and wiggling. Shelves are supposed to stay still if they are going to hold big boxes and Christmas presents.

The shelf. It moved. Billy jumped off just in time!

With a thunderous crash, it all came tumbling towards him. He scrambled back, just out of harm's way. A big noisy crash and there was a big, big pile of boxes. A lot of the stuff in the boxes as no longer in the boxes.

“Good thing I’m quick!” he thought when he realized he could have been under those boxes.

Billy heard footsteps above him. Mom and Dad were thumping down the stairs. He picked up his flashlight and ran to hide behind the huge metal heeder.

The light went on.

Mom said, “Oh my god! Honey!”

“What do you see?” Dad said.

“The shelves all fell, someone’s down here!” Mom said as she stood in the middle of the stairs.

“I’ll call the police. Don’t go down there,” Dad yelled at Mom.

“Oh no!” Billy said softly, “Santa will put me on his naughty list.”

Mom went all the way down stairs to look at the damage. She never listened to Dad either. She couldn’t believe her eyes. “What a mess!” she said. She looked around the little basement and that’s when she saw it - a light from behind the furnace.

“Billy, is that you?”

He crawled out slowly, with a sad look on his face. “ Please don’t tell Santa” he cried!

Linda Laforge is a contemporary celtic artist and creative writer. To see her portfolio and to read more visit her at: http://www.LindaLaforge.com

Reprint Info: Most of Linda's short stories, poems and articles are available for reprint provided the copyright notice above is included at the end of the article. If you wish to use a piece, please contact Linda for permission. She'll want to see a link to your site or a sample of your publication. Of course, she'd love to get paid where the opportunity is available! All writing must be left fully intact. Please make sure that the link to her site is live and clickable.

The Truth about Plastic Bags

Plastic bags were introduced just over 25 years ago. Our handy little plastic bag consumption rate is now estimated at well over 500 billion annually, or almost 1 million per minute. Single-use bags made of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) are the main culprit. Once brought into existence to tote your purchases, they'll accumulate and persist on our planet for up to 1,000 years. Plastics are forever! Plastics do NOT biodegrade. Rather, they photodegrade. A process, where sunlight breaks down plastic into smaller and smaller pieces.

Here are some quick facts

According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. goes through 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually. An estimated 12 million barrels of oil is required to make that many plastic bags. Four out of five grocery bags in the US are now plastic.

Pretty Pretty

by Linda Laforge
words - 483

She was wearing the most striking red gown. Long white gloves hugged her slender arms as she moved her hands fervently as she spoke to her gentleman friend. Her lively green eyes lit my life as she laughed. That soft luxurious red hair of hers was more beautiful than I’d imagined. She was most certainly much more beautiful, charming and so much more enchanting in person than she’d ever been in my dreams. There she stood, just steps away from me, right there in the foyer.

The play would begin the second act at any moment. When I’d first caught a glimpse of her those many years ago I’d never thought it was possible that we’d ever meet face to face. I never had the nerve. Now, all these years later. Now, I would do it. I had to. She needed me to.

Going Mental

by Linda Laforge
words: 854

Several years back I was officially diagnosed with I.B.S. - Irritable Bowel Syndrome. I asked my gastrointestinologist, my specialist, what that actually meant. He said, “It means you have trouble with your intestines.” I asked him if he could be more specific, as in, what kind of symptoms do people usually get. He said, “You’ll have gas, bloating, pain that is either minor or severe, diarrhoea or constipation.” The list goes on... I then asked him what causes it. He said, “I don’t know.” I then asked him if he ever speculated. “No. I don’t believe in that,” he said.

After trying every diet possible, both removing and adding foods, and after trying every supplement known to man, my symptoms gradually worsened. I once asked my ‘gastro doc’ if he knew anything about a yeast infection we can get in our digestive system called Candida. I told him I’d found it in a diet book and that I’d found several references to it online. He said, “I don’t believe in that.”

The Story of Linda and Jim

Once upon a time in a land called Barrie there was a lonely young woman. She had finally come to realize that she wasn't the powerless, inadequate loser she had always thought she was. She was actually a bit of alright. Armed with this new insight, she went out into the world seeking an exciting new life for herself.

She got a new job. Then she lost the new job. She was OK with that though. She hated it utterly and completely and had been looking for a new job two weeks after she'd started. Unfortunately, she'd had no luck. So it was off to the Unemployment Office to collect Pogey (today, I believe they call it E.I.).

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Where the Water Is