This is called a "popcorn" story. I've started it and when I quit, you pop in and write as much or as little as you want to and then someone else will take it up!! Pat

Ethel’s Got a Brand New Bag……..

Ethel slowly opened her eyes…….she’d been napping in the hammock, that
her momma had hung in the old magnolia tree by the house….that old tree sure surprised everybody. When her momma planted it, people said that it wouldn’t live…..it lived all right….it was now three times bigger than the house and the house used to look so big…..now it’s just a little rock ranch house, living in the shadow of a big ole magnolia tree.

Ethel knew she needed to get up and get things moving. Her born again sister, Darla, was coming to pick her up to go shopping for an Easter hat…Darla wasn’t born again in a church. No, she was a born again waxer….of the hot kind. She was the only one in the whole family that was a professional. For years she had had her own waxing salon in Tucumcari, New Mexico. She wasn’t very busy…..seems the Spanish people didn’t go in for many waxing treatments and the Anglos that lived there were pretty wrinkled and gray….they didn’t care about their bikini lines..not the way Darla needed them to care. So the retirees there weren’t really giving Darla much business. Darla had closed her little shop for two weeks and was visiting family now. Ethel had stopped in town to see her relatives, while on a trip with Xavier and the cute airline clerk. She and the boys were on their way to California to see if they could get parts in a Tom Robbins movie that was being cast….Ethel didn’t think that it mattered that none of them had acted professionally before. They had done some mighty fine acting recently when they had managed to get that money from the three Ralphs. Those men actually seemed happy to finance a trip for Ethel and the guys….they acted really glad to see them go! That just proves that you shouldn’t judge a person by their past actions. Taking them at face value sure paid off this time! (Ethel suspected that Ralph Nader would not be trying to retrieve anything from between the twins any time soon!)

Ethel was thinking about all of this when Xavier shoved a newspaper in her face with the headlines that James Brown was getting a divorce! Ethel snapped out of her reverie and started humming, “Please, Please, Please”…..James Brown had always been one of her favorite singers. She had had more than one fantasy about joining him in that hot tub when she had seen him on SNL so many years ago….but wait, was that James Brown or Eddie Murphy playing James Brown?

Back to Darla..she would be here any minutes and Darla was the picky sister! The one who got annoyed so easily if you were late or your panty hose were sagging or you weren’t wearing a bra! She was so finicky!! So Ethel straightened herself up and sat down to wait on Darla.

[gardenergirl]

Meanwhile, Darla, who just KNEW that Ethel was going to be late, was purchasing some new stockings. A girl never could have too many back up pairs of stockings now could she? She was tapping her purple Mary Jane's while she waited for that snotty cashier to finish gossiping with old Mrs. Heggamuffin about the mailman's daughter, Carla, who had run off with that boy from Tupelo last week. Darla sniffed as she thought to herself, "I can't abide by gossips." As she waited and shifted a bit closer to hear, Darla noticed a newspaper headline that was shocking. "James Brown was getting a divorce?", she thought. Just wait til Ethel hears this!

[Ganesha]

Ethel was fanning herself under the magnolia tree as she sipped a pink lemon aid.
She leaned back in the worn white wicker chair. Let’s see, if I slipped into the hot tub as Darla was serving Little Richard as black russian...no that would be racist! She shook her head and pondered what would he like to drink in the heat of her presence? I know I’d give him a cube of ice to rub all over his forehead. How I’d love to see the drops run down his face, chin, and neck. My god that man is my idea of heaven. she was sinking into her day dream as the phone rang.
Darla in a crisp voice asked, “where are you? How long do I have to wait for you darlin’”.
Ethel sat up and wiped her mouth as the lemonade rolled onto her chest and stained her new white blouse.
“I totally forgot! I am so sorry sweetheart,” as she pivoted in the white chair a man was ambling toward her from the house. My god, she thought he looks just like Little....

[gardenergirl]

popcorn!

[gardenergirl]

.

[Ganesha]

okay, did I kill the story?
or are you busy doing something else?

Richard or was it James Brown? And now Darla is going to be all righteous and tense while we shop! Why, oh Why, are we so different? Why is it that you have to live with family? Ethel felt so stressed now and started worrying about her appearance...would Darla pick her outfit apart? Oh, Lord, do I have spinach on my teeth? Oh, wait, I haven't had any spinach lately..so I'm good there.....Where is Xavier? If only he would go with them, it would divert Darla's attention from her to him....Ethel didn't think there were many gay men in Tucumcari...so he'd be a novelty to Darla.Well, that was that, she flipped her cellphone open and quick dialed Xavier. He would have to go with them or Darla would.......................