MODERN FABLES, Helpful, Ch. 17, Tickled Pink

                                                CHAPTER 17: TICKLED PINK

"When the cat's away, the mice will play." So goes an old saying. In this case, the cat was Mrs. Williams, out of town for three days at a teachers' conference. The mice were Tess, May, and Emma, and they were going to paint Tess's bedroom pink. Pizza and sodas were also involved in the plan.

"Dad, can I paint my room?" Tess asked her father.

"Why?"

"It's boring!"

"A room can be boring?"

"Mine is."

"Who will buy the paint?"

"I will, with my allowance."

"Will you have help?"

"Yes, May and Emma will come."

"Why will they help?"

"They're good friends…and we'll have pizza."

"We should ask your mother, but she's not here. I guess it's okay."

Where Mr. Williams fell short was in not asking what color the room was going to become. He should have stopped reading his newspaper and asked that important question.

When Mrs. W. called home that night, her husband forgot to mention the painting party. He did ask her how the meetings were going and listened more than he talked. When the phone call ended, he felt he should have told her, but they'd be talking the next evening.

The next day, there was no school. Emma and May showed up dressed in old clothes, ready to paint. First, everything had to be moved out of Tess's room. With help from Rick and Tim, the crew got the furniture out and spread newspapers on the floor. Then the girls took over.

Midway through the project, they took a pizza-and-soda break. After that, Rick and Tim looked in on the partly painted room. "Pink?" Rick asked.

"Pink!" Tess replied.

"Oh," said Tim, who preferred red or blue or even white.

Rick thought they were doing a good job so far. "Well begun is half done," he said, happy to have a chance to quote an old saying.

The girls finished up, opened the windows, and closed the door to air out the room. Tess slept on the living room couch that evening.

Mrs. Williams called that night, too. After she told her husband what had happened at the meeting, Mr. W. mentioned the painting project.

"What color is it?" she asked.

"Pink."

"What kind of pink? Dark pink, hot pink, pastel pink?"

"I don't know. Pink pink."

"Are there any stripes or polka dots?"

"No."

"So it could have been worse."

The next day, Tess, Rick, and Tim moved Tess's stuff back into her room, shortly before their mother returned.

"Close your eyes, Mom," Tess said, having closed the door to her bedroom. After her mother closed her eyes, Tess opened the door.

"Ta da! Open your eyes," Tess said.

Mrs. W. opened them. "Not a bad color. Better than I feared. Quite good, in fact. Goes well with the curtains. I like it. I really do. Congratulations!"

You could say Mom was "tickled pink."

When told of his wife's approval, Mr. Williams sighed a contented sigh and returned to reading the newspaper. Was he tickled pink, too? Hard to tell.

 

 Moral: There is no disputing taste, or its absence, but help is almost always appreciated.

 

MODERN FABLES, Friendly, Ch. 16, The Almost Date

                                            CHAPTER 16: THE ALMOST DATE

"Mom, Eddie wants to take me to the circus. It's in town at Bradley Field this week. Can we go?"

"Eddie who?"

"Eddie Gomez, the boy who walked me home when those guys in the convertible were bothering me."

"Sounds like a date. I doubt your father will agree to it. You're awfully young to be dating."

"But there'll be lots of other kids there our age. It's not exactly a date. Nothing bad will happen. If Dad agrees, is it okay?"

"I'll have to think about it."

When Tess asked her father, he said he'd have to talk it over with her mother. After the kids went to bed, Mr. and Mrs. W. discussed it. Tess was changing from a tomboy to a young woman, in mind and body. An interest in boys was natural, as long as things didn't go "too far"—words that worried any parent of a young girl.

"I hate to say 'no,' and I hate to say 'yes,'" Mr. W. stated.

"We have to decide."

"We need some rules, maybe a curfew. It's been so long since we were her age. I can hardly remember what it was like."

Mrs. Williams suggested they invite Eddie to join them at the circus, making it a family affair rather than a date.

When they told Tess, she was briefly disappointed, but then cheered up, seeing she'd gotten some of what she wanted. When she told Eddie, he thought it was fine. They went and had a good time.

That night, Tess wrote in her diary: "It had been fun." Not exactly romantic, but pleasant—an "almost date."

 

 

 Moral: Love starts with friendship.