Wednesday, July 01, 2009

An Elf Tale

Today's Link
Sea Sand and Shells

Today's Saying
What this world needs is a new kind of army - the army of the kind. ~Cleveland Amory

Today's Picture
A Picture Story from Portrait of Words

It is time for another intolerable, untellable elf tale.
Once upon a time , not very long ago, in a place not too far away their lived a man named Edward Johnson. He was named after his grandfather Edward Cecil Johnson who was named after his grandfather Edward Robert Johnson. Of course, none of this is important to the story except for the part about a man named Edward.
Edward never went to college instead he followed in the footsteps of his father and became a Master Carpenter. He married Cacelia Brekenridge who was the daughter of a Master Carpenter. With the help of his father and his father-in-law he built the nicest little house for him and his new bride to live in.
When little Cecil came along the fathers helped build an addition on the house. It had a picket fence and a wonderful little green yard where Cecil got to play. He was a fine husband , a good father, and a very kind man.
Every Tuesday and Thursday on his way home from that day’s job he would stop at the homeless center and take one of the people out for a fine meal. After which they stopped at Sue’s Bakery and Coffee Shop and the homeless person picked out three dozen donuts to take back to the shelter and pass around. The people at the shelter looked forward to his coming.
Once a month and he and a small group of carpenters got together and became The Safety Pin Band with a great big safety pin as their symbol. They played at nursing homes all over the area. Edward was the drummer in the group. They delighted in playing the old favorites and bringing a little joy to those special people in the last years of their life.
Edward felt he had a good life but he also had a dream. He saw himself on a yacht sailing around the world. He would see new places and try new things. His wife and Cecil were included in the dream, of course. He could not imagine life without them.
One day as he was coming home from the homeless shelter there was suddenly a little man in a green suit wearing funny shoes, that curled on the end, sitting beside him. The man introduced himself as an elf and told Edward he being given one wish because of his acts of kindness.
Without thinking Edward asked for a beautiful big yacht.
The elf smiled and said “ as you have wished so shall it be”. There was s flash of light and the elf was gone.
When Edward reached home there filling his front yard and pushing the picket fence towards the sidewalk was the most beautiful yacht he had ever seen. It was supported by wood framework and had no trailer to move it . He quickly made some calls and discovered it would cost close to fifty thousand dollars to take to the bay as the bay was a long distance away.
So he had the yacht he always wanted but couldn’t sail it. Worse the local paper ran a big picture of the yacht with the caption “ A Modern Noah’s Ark ?”. There were traffic jams on his street as people poured in from all over to see this unbelievable yacht in the yard. Instead of his dream it became his nightmare. Finally the police roped off the street and only people who lived on it were allowed in. So people walked by . Everyday there were long lines of gawking people.
One day a man stopped Edward before he left for work and offered him $300,000 for the yacht and the man would have it moved to the bay at his expense. Now Edward knew the boat was worth much more than that but he wanted all this to end so he took the deal.
Then Edward’s problem was what to do with the $300,000. He had come to realize that his life was very good and he didn’t need the money so he placed it in a fund. Every month half of the interest from the fund went to the homeless shelter to be used in any way they wanted to improve the life of those that were staying there. At the end of the year all the interest that was left was offered to the three nursing homes in the area. All they had to do was describe what they would do with the money to make the life of the residents better.
Edward then went back to living his normal life. He played catch with his son, he played with the band at the nursing home, and he took the homeless out to dinner. His life was good again.
But then one night as he was driving home the little green man was back. He told Edward that the elves had decided that his additional act of kindness merited another wish.
Edward turned up the radio and ignored him.
Sometimes even a poorly made wish can lead to a happy ending.

News from Pigeon Falls
The little town in my basement where the trains still run, dragons fly, and life is back to normal
Mayor Trumble canceled Town Council meeting scheduled for this evening. The purpose of the meeting was to replace the Constable who was leaving on July 6. They had gone through hundreds of resumes trying to pick just the right person and had it narrowed down to four. Now they had to choose .
But that morning Mrs. Trumble had received a call from Ican Gertum . He would be there on Friday and bring his resume with him. When he told her of his experience she felt that he might be just the man for the job. So she canceled the meeting for tonight and rescheduled it for Friday night while adding his name to the list.
Eino was told the cage would be ready sometime today and would be strong enough to hold a wooly giant elephant.

Wrap UP
Stange day. My oxygen count suddenly shot up to the highest its been in a couple of weeks. So I easily spent the day without the oxygen tank. I visited all the blogs on the linksy at the Portrait of Words sight. I visited all the blogs that left comments yesterday and the day before. This despite the fact that for over an hour in the morning I had no internet connection. When I got the connection back I had trouble with my computer. Then Betty and I write a Portrait of Words Story together which we will publish tomorrow. I just got back from havin my evening meal at the church. Now I need a breathing treatment.
GBYA
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17 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Around here master carpenters are in much greater demand than guys with lofty educational backgrounds.~Mary

4:28 AM  
Blogger Lou said...

This was the BEST story about the wishes!

4:55 AM  
Blogger roughterrain crane said...

Very interesting story. Kindness is like water which can grow a seed of happiness.

5:16 AM  
Blogger roughterrain crane said...

Very interesting story. Kindness is like water which can grow a seed of happiness.

5:16 AM  
Blogger roughterrain crane said...

Very interesting story. Kindness is like water which can grow a seed of happiness.

5:16 AM  
Blogger roughterrain crane said...

Very interesting story. Kindness is like water which can grow a seed of happiness.

5:16 AM  
Blogger Melli said...

ROFL! Ohhhhhhh I do LOVE your Elf Tales! Truly... I MISS them when you don't do them! This one was no exception - great story!

Oh! I'm so relieved Ican is going to get his chance! I think he'll be perfect too! I hope the Town Council sees it that way! (well... you knOw how they can BE sometimes...)

5:16 AM  
Blogger roughterrain crane said...

Very interesting story. Kindness is like water which can grow a seed of happiness.

5:16 AM  
Blogger aims said...

Good to see Ican is getting himself over to Pigeon Falls - finally!

10:50 AM  
Anonymous Alice Audrey said...

Oh boy. Why do I get the feeling a cage might not do it?

10:59 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

WOW Dr. John You did two. I love this one as well. I love these Elf Tales. Great about the wishes.

WOOT I'm so glad Ican is going to Pigeon Falls...please oh please let him be hired :)

Cant wait to see if the cage works :)

11:46 AM  
Blogger Nessa said...

Those elves sure are trouble makers. Someone should give them a wish.

Rabbit, rabbit.

12:07 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Rabbit, rabbit

12:45 PM  
Blogger Bill ~ {The Old Fart} said...

Good Elf Tale Dr John, Liked how the story turned out.

12:50 PM  
Blogger Roan said...

Great story! Loved the elf. Now if that little green man came to visit me! ;)

7:49 PM  
Blogger KB said...

NIce story. Loved the quote for the day too.

12:56 AM  
Anonymous quilly said...

You & Betty wrote the best stories together! You make such a great and inspiring team.

3:01 PM  

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