The Stories - Original Short Story

Once again, this is based after real-life. From roughly 1988 through 1991, my sisters Rose, Anna, and I would tell stories to each other when our parents were at work and we were alone and bored. We would act them out, complete with sound effects. They mostly revolved around characters from Star Wars, which was my obsession at the time. In "The Stories," the characters were children our age who lived in an orphanage and had adventures that were usually based around whatever we were into at the time, such as the Disney Little Mermaid.  I never forgot "The Stories." They were probably my first brush with what amounted to fanfiction. It's to both of my sisters - and the memories of those hot, creative afternoons stuck inside - that this story is dedicated.

The Stories

By Emma Redmer

I looked out the window. Mom and Dad were gone, both to work. Karen came out to the living room. “Is it time, Emilly?”

“Yeah, it's time.” I grinned at her. “We can do the Stories now!”

Karen ran over to Jenny's bedroom. “Jen, they're gone! We're going to do The Stories now!”

“Yay!” Jenny's only little, and doesn't really contribute much to The Stories, but she likes to hear them.

“The Stories” are how Karen and Jen and I have fun when Mom and Dad are at work and we're at home together. We make up stuff based after everything we like. All the kids are in an orphanage, and all the adults are teachers, and they have adventures.

“Where were we last time?” I asked Karen as I sat down on one of the dining room tables. We need a lot of room to do The Stories. We jump up and act out some parts, or we do sound effects.

Karen leaned on her hand, trying to remember. “That scary story we were doing with 'War of the Planets,' I think. Weren't we on the part where Laura and Lucky just discovered that Harlon, the tough street boy, was really abandoned by a rich family?”

I nodded. “Yeah! And they met the ghost of his mother.”

Jenny jumped up and down. She gets so excited! “And they were in a spooky old castle!”

So, we began. Harlon, Laura, and Lucky are based after Harlon Arietta, Lady Laura Starlott, and Geofrey “Lucky” Suncatcher of my very favorite movie series of all time, “War of the Planets.” The stories were supposed to revolve around them being kids in an orphanage. The kind old wizard Alak was their head teacher. Sometimes, they even ran into the evil Black Knight Duke Darknight, but he wasn't in this story.

Lady Laura was Karen's favorite character. Lady Laura, even though she was a noblewoman, was tough and strong and took no guff from anyone, including Harlon, the space thief she eventually fell in love with. Karen liked Laura to be the main character in all the stories, but I wanted it to be Harlon for this one. I liked him best. He was so funny, the way he argued with Lady Laura all the time. “Ok, Laura, Harlon, and Harlon's friend Lance are all walking in the hallway. Lucky's gotten lost. They think a ghost might have gotten him.”

“Did he?” Jenny asked with her wide blue eyes.

“Yes,” I said, “the ghost of the evil man who killed Harlon's family captured him and is holding him in the tower, with all their money!”

“Oooh!” Jenny squealed. “How are they going to find him?”

“Harlon my child,” Karen said, picking up from where we left off, “this is your mother.”

I tried to sound more like a guy. “Mom? Is it you? But I thought you were gone!”

“I was killed,” Karen said, waving her arms around and trying to sound dramatic. “The man who did it has your friend in the tower! The boy with the white-gold hair. You must save him!”

“We will, Mom!” I said. I wanted to go for sad, but I couldn't help giggling. “Karen, why would that guy still be there?”

“He likes it there?” Jenny asked.

Karen jumped up from her chair. “Oooh, maybe he's dead, too! He was killed by the guards before he got away, but he hid the money!”

“What about the baby?” I reminded her.

“Maybe someone nice took him away?” Jenny gave us her little-kid smile.

Karen nodded. “A nanny took the baby to the orphanage, so he'd be taken care of.”

We can do The Stories for hours like that, coming up with ideas. The ghost of Harlon's mother lead them to the room where Lucky and the money was being kept. “But you have to be careful,” Karen said. “Sir Sistern is a very evil man, and he'll do whatever he can to hurt you and your friend.”

“Mom,” I made Harlon sound sad, “can I...hold you?”

I nodded for her. “Yes. Just for today.”

“But you can't hold ghosts!” Karen protested.

“It isn't fair that he can't hug his Mom!” I pointed out.

We finally got the kids into the tower. “Can I be Lucky?” Jenny begged. “I never get to be anybody!”

“Ok.” I grinned and took scarves, wrapping them around Jenny. “He's tied to a chair in the tower. The ghost of Sir Sistern is using him to bring Harlon, so he can kill him and all of his evil friends who are still alive will get the treasure!”

“Like Duke Darknight did with Lady Laura and Harlon in the second movie, when he wanted to bring Lucky to the Land of the Dust People and capture him?” Karen asked.

I nodded. “Yeah!”

Jenny let out a squeak. “Don't tie so tight, Emmie!”

“Sorry.” I tried to sound evil. “I didn't want your friend. I just used him to bring the rest of you here. Now, I will kill the Arietta boy, and my people will be the only ones who get his family's treasure!”

“Wait.” Karen jumped up, frowning. “Harlon is rich?” She waved her hands, tried to look like she was pointing at a box of fancy jewels or something.

“The Arietta family has been rich for generations,” I boomed. “I wanted their wealth and land. I killed his mother and father, but some servant got away with their baby.”

I stepped back, trying to look scared. “But I'm not a baby anymore! I'm a grown boy!”

Karen grabbed her foam football. “I won't let you hurt him!” She threw it at the wall. Being foam, it just bounced off of it. “I hope you like eating that ruby, you mean man!”

“But Karen,” I reminded her, “he's a ghost. That wouldn't hurt him.”

“But this would!” Karen grinned. “Laura and Harlon pulled the rug out from under the ghost. It made him fall into the closet!”

I was untying Jenny. “Lucky,” I said as Harlon, “did the ghosts say how to get rid of him?”

Karen opened the hall closet and frowned. “He's not here anymore. He went through the wall!”

Jenny tried to look like she was thinking. She screwed up her little nose in concentration. “Uh...yeah!” She looked up at me as I got the last scarf off. “Where did the ghost go?”

I grinned. “To Harlon's mom's room. He was going to re-enact how he killed her.”

“And they had to stop it!” Karen took her football and waved it like a sword. “They all ran downstairs. When they got there, they saw a man with a knife leaning over Harlon's mom. Laura grabbed Sir Sistern's leg and knocked him over!”

“Harlon took the knife and threw it out a window,” I went on.

Jenny beamed. “And Lucky made sure Harlon's mom was ok!”

“Harlon got to hug his mom good-bye.” Karen gave me a look. “I know you can't hug ghosts. You can in this story. Then, they took some of the treasure back to the school that they could carry and went to tell Alak the Wizard about it.”

“They could move the school into the larger castle,” Karen went on.

“And all the money could buy the kids new nice clothes!” Jenny finished.

“What do they do next?” I asked.

Karen yawned. “I'm getting bored with The Stories.” She grinned. “Wanna play Blindman's Bluff?”

“Ok!” I moved the chairs aside. “You're it!”

That's how it always works. We do The Stories until we get bored, or Mom or Dad come home. It's fun to tell stories and make up new worlds for our favorite characters. Maybe I'll write my own stories someday. I'll be able to decide if Harlon and Lady Laura live in a castle or an orphanage, or if they fall in love. (Karen doesn't want them to. I say it's part of the story.) Maybe someday, I'll make Stories of my own.