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Beth C
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Rough Times Need Caring Friends
~By Beth C
Summary: Well, April is turning out to be the worst month of this year. No jokes, no fooling. I’ve had car problems, money problems, landlord problems, work problems, and child problems. Not just small problems either. If you are really curious about the black cloud that is my life and want to drop me a cheerful note, please email me. Trekie386@aol.com This short story is my way of coping with the tragedy that masquerades as my life for this month. Yeah, we all need a hug every now and then.
Rating: PG, mainly because I don’t think little kids should be reading about problems in life. Let them enjoy the fantasy that life is great, life is grand for a while longer.
Feedback: Sure. Trekie386@aol.com. Only if you want to.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
In every year there is 12 months. Some months are just everyone’s favorite, such as summer July to relax and get away from school, or December for winter holidays.
Then there are some months to dread, such as September with back to school shopping or March when nothing is going on that month.
I personally have now discovered a new month to dislike. April. This month this year has given me more disasters than any in the past 4 years. To me, it seems like one big April Fool’s joke that doesn’t end.
From the first day, I’ve had problems with my bank as they switched to new systems and my paychecks refuse to post, to problems with my car where I’ve had to all but replace the whole engine. Day after day, week after week, the problems grow.
And so, on this one day, when I’m feeling particularly down, something happens to change my way of thinking about my luck.
I usually go to work from 9-5, a normal type of job. Today I get to work early just because I don’t want to chance getting there late and having problems with clocking in.
So, it’s a bit too early to go inside and I’m sitting in my car, brooding over my string of bad luck and misfortunes when I hear someone call my name.
“Beth?” The voice itself is low and soft, like a whisper upon the wind. I can just barely hear it even though my car windows are down. Well, the one window that works, anyways.
I look around, but the parking lot is still kinda empty, and I don’t see anyone that would be calling me. I go back to brooding when I hear it again.
“Beth?” This time it’s a bit louder, and sounds kind of urgent.
I grab my keys, purse and badge, then get out of my car and lock it up. Still when I look around I don’t see any one.
“Over here, Beth.” The sound comes from our outside lunch area where a few tables are topped with big umbrellas for those that would rather not eat in the cafeteria.
“Who’s calling me?” I ask as I walk over to the tables, kinda curious at this point, hoping like heck it’s not my supervisor that wants an off-the-clock discussion about my current lack of enthusiasm for the job.
“It’s just me,” I hear back as I walk closer and come around to one of the tables that was hidden from the main parking lot.
It is then that I see him, just sitting on the table, his skinny green legs dangling down the side of it, swinging gently. His face clearly conveys concern from his ping-pong ball shaped eyes, to the tip of his pointed seemingly lipless mouth.
I step up to the table, dropping both my keys and purse in surprise as I glance around behind me to see if anyone else sees him, or maybe I’ve really lost it and I’m hallucinating now? It’s still early enough that no one else is here yet to confirm or deny what I’m seeing.
I rub my eyes once, and he grins at the gesture as if he was expecting me to do just that. “Kermit?” I manage to croak out, then clear my throat awkwardly.
“Don’t look so surprised,” he tells me then gestures with one hand that I should sit. “Please, sit down, Beth.”
I do so, as I’m still in a bit of a shock to see him in the flesh or foam so to speak. “What are you doing here?” Something wants me to check under the table, to see if there is a hidden muppeteer there, but I already know that there isn’t. The design of the tables and the benches precludes someone from hiding underneath.
He shrugs at my question. “I’m always around, you’ve just been too busy to notice me before.”
“Well, how come I can see you now?”
His head tilts slightly and I can see from his expression that he has given this a lot of thought. “I noticed just how down you were, and I thought you could use someone to talk to.”
His voice, so gentle and caring reaches my ears like a well-needed hug. I can feel the weight of my problems settle on my shoulders and make them sag. This burden has been too much for me, and I know it’s time to let some of it out. “Oh, you don’t know how much.” I hear my voice crack on the last word as I try to hold back my tears.
All my problems are now coming back to me and I drop my head into my hands unable to meet another’s eyes, no matter how friendly they appeared.
“Shhh, It’s going to be alright,” I hear him say as he scoots closer to where I’m sitting, choking back sobs.
“No, it’s not!” I manage to squeak out before bursting into tears. They slide down my cheeks as hot, wet drops. I don’t even stop when I feel his small hand on my arm, both cool, reassuring, and somewhat strong.
The tears keep streaming down my face, and I try to wipe them away, but I am unable to stop the flood. It’s as if a dam had burst and it was unable to be plugged back up.
So there I am, sitting at a table, sobbing like the world was ending with a frog beside me. To anyone else, the situation would have been quite amusing. I sat that way for a few minutes until my sobs finally became something I could control.
I feel something press into my hand and lift my head to see Kermit handing me a few of the napkins from the table dispenser. He gives me a wry look and apologizes, “Sorry, I couldn’t find any tissues.”
He takes the top one and wipes my tear-stained face gently. “I can see you are very upset now, would you like to talk about it?”
I nod as I take one of the napkins to blow my nose. Gee, I must look a sight to him, my eyes now puffy, my nose reddened, and I’m quite sure my hair is a mess. Not the best way to present myself to someone I’ve idolized for years. With a heavy sigh, I begin to tell him one by one about my problems and my rotten string of luck.
He listens to my ranting and rambling, never once interrupting, and nodding with infinite patience all the while. When I’m finally done, he answers my tirade. “It’s easy to get down with all those problems, Beth.” As he talks, he crosses his legs one over the other to keep them from swinging. I almost want to grin, just at the sight of his casual pose, as if this was afternoon tea instead of early morning misery.
He continues, “But what you don’t realize, is that you are strong enough to handle these problems, and even more.”
I was expecting sympathy, not a lecture. “What?!?” I exclaim, raising my voice and standing at the same time. I sure as heck didn’t want any more problems.
“Beth, please,” he wraps his long fingers around my arm. This time I take actual notice of how his skin feels against my flesh and that alone stops me. He’s not foam and rubber, or cloth. He’s alive, and feels to me like any frog would feel, minus the slimy part. He guides me back to sit down, then continues speaking. “I don’t mean to upset you, not at all.” Once he was sure that I was sitting and that I wasn’t going to jump back up he releases my arm. I’m actually sorry to lose that connection. “What I meant to say, is that you are capable of handling these problems, Beth, because you are much like me. You may get sad and feel a bit lonely at times but when you look inside you find ways of dealing with your troubles and come out stronger because of it.”
“It’s just so tough,” I whine now, wanting more than just fancy words to placate me.
“Life is tough,” he agrees with me, looking a bit sad himself. “Do you think it’s easy being green?” I see a twinkle in his eye and I know he’s just making a point. “No matter how you look at it, life is rough. I would like to be able to solve all your problems for you, Beth. But if I did that what would it solve in the long run?”
I want to blurt out that if he solved all my problems, everything would be fine, but I actually stopped to think about it. What would it solve if I ran to someone else every time something came up? Nothing. I’d still have problems, and I’d be running all my life from them. “It doesn’t really do anything,” I tell him. “These are my problems, and I have to be the one to solve them.”
He nods now, clearly happy that I was at least thinking straight. “Yes, that’s right. But I’ll let you in on a small secret.” He leans forward and says in a whisper, “You are never alone, even when you think you are.”
“I’m not?” I whisper back to him, sounding a bit wary of what his words might mean.
“No, because I’m always around to help you. I may not appear to you the way I am today, but you carry me with you in your heart and mind.” He sat back now and smiled his trademark grin.
His smiling face made me smile for the first time that morning. “What if I want to talk to you again, though? Like this,” I indicated the space between us. “Face to face?”
“You can.”
“I-I can?” I ask, puzzled.
He nods again. “Just think of me and whisper my name. I’ll find you.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really.”
To him, it was that easy, Just believe and it will happen. I glance down at my watch and notice that I really should be going in, or else I would have another problem to add to my list, being late for work. “Hey, I really hate to cut this short, but…”
“I understand. You need to get inside.” He starts to get up and this time I stop him. “Kermit?”
“Hmmmm?”
“Thank you. For listening to me, for being there for me.”
“That’s what friends do, Beth.”
I had to ask one last thing before he left and I went inside back to my normal life, yet this one thing seemed to be the hardest thing to ask. For some reason I felt awkward now and warred with my conscience over whether to ask or not.
He noticed my change in demeanor instantly. “Beth? Is something else wrong?”
I looked down at my feet and blushed. “It’s just, well, I’ve always wanted to…”
“To what?”
I look up at his well loved face. I can feel my cheeks flush as I tell him. “To hug you.”
Instead of answering, he walks on the tabletop over to where I’m standing. He opens his arms and I open mine. He then wraps his small body around mine in a full hug.
My eyes slide closed and I feel the tears start up again. This is what I’ve needed all along, someone to talk to and someone to just hug my troubles away.
“Thank you, thank you.” I whisper to his smaller head, as we embrace in the early morning sunlight. After a few minutes in which my troubles seem to vanish with the morning fog, I release him and wipe the fresh tear tracks from my face.
“Will you be alright now?” He asks me, still concerned for me.
I nod. “I’ll be fine.” I tell him, finally believing in the words. Then I turn away for a second as I hear one of my co-workers calling my name. When I turn back I find the table empty.
Did I imagine it? Was he really here? I shrug as I pick up my fallen keys and purse.
It was real to me and that is what mattered. As if to answer my questioning thoughts, I look up to the sky and see the arc of a rainbow, the end somewhere behind the building.
“Thank you, Kermit,” I whisper, then enter the building, ready at last to face my day and all of life’s problems that it wanted to throw at me, for I had found what I needed most- my inner strength and my secret friend.
~End
~By Beth C
Summary: Well, April is turning out to be the worst month of this year. No jokes, no fooling. I’ve had car problems, money problems, landlord problems, work problems, and child problems. Not just small problems either. If you are really curious about the black cloud that is my life and want to drop me a cheerful note, please email me. Trekie386@aol.com This short story is my way of coping with the tragedy that masquerades as my life for this month. Yeah, we all need a hug every now and then.
Rating: PG, mainly because I don’t think little kids should be reading about problems in life. Let them enjoy the fantasy that life is great, life is grand for a while longer.
Feedback: Sure. Trekie386@aol.com. Only if you want to.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
In every year there is 12 months. Some months are just everyone’s favorite, such as summer July to relax and get away from school, or December for winter holidays.
Then there are some months to dread, such as September with back to school shopping or March when nothing is going on that month.
I personally have now discovered a new month to dislike. April. This month this year has given me more disasters than any in the past 4 years. To me, it seems like one big April Fool’s joke that doesn’t end.
From the first day, I’ve had problems with my bank as they switched to new systems and my paychecks refuse to post, to problems with my car where I’ve had to all but replace the whole engine. Day after day, week after week, the problems grow.
And so, on this one day, when I’m feeling particularly down, something happens to change my way of thinking about my luck.
I usually go to work from 9-5, a normal type of job. Today I get to work early just because I don’t want to chance getting there late and having problems with clocking in.
So, it’s a bit too early to go inside and I’m sitting in my car, brooding over my string of bad luck and misfortunes when I hear someone call my name.
“Beth?” The voice itself is low and soft, like a whisper upon the wind. I can just barely hear it even though my car windows are down. Well, the one window that works, anyways.
I look around, but the parking lot is still kinda empty, and I don’t see anyone that would be calling me. I go back to brooding when I hear it again.
“Beth?” This time it’s a bit louder, and sounds kind of urgent.
I grab my keys, purse and badge, then get out of my car and lock it up. Still when I look around I don’t see any one.
“Over here, Beth.” The sound comes from our outside lunch area where a few tables are topped with big umbrellas for those that would rather not eat in the cafeteria.
“Who’s calling me?” I ask as I walk over to the tables, kinda curious at this point, hoping like heck it’s not my supervisor that wants an off-the-clock discussion about my current lack of enthusiasm for the job.
“It’s just me,” I hear back as I walk closer and come around to one of the tables that was hidden from the main parking lot.
It is then that I see him, just sitting on the table, his skinny green legs dangling down the side of it, swinging gently. His face clearly conveys concern from his ping-pong ball shaped eyes, to the tip of his pointed seemingly lipless mouth.
I step up to the table, dropping both my keys and purse in surprise as I glance around behind me to see if anyone else sees him, or maybe I’ve really lost it and I’m hallucinating now? It’s still early enough that no one else is here yet to confirm or deny what I’m seeing.
I rub my eyes once, and he grins at the gesture as if he was expecting me to do just that. “Kermit?” I manage to croak out, then clear my throat awkwardly.
“Don’t look so surprised,” he tells me then gestures with one hand that I should sit. “Please, sit down, Beth.”
I do so, as I’m still in a bit of a shock to see him in the flesh or foam so to speak. “What are you doing here?” Something wants me to check under the table, to see if there is a hidden muppeteer there, but I already know that there isn’t. The design of the tables and the benches precludes someone from hiding underneath.
He shrugs at my question. “I’m always around, you’ve just been too busy to notice me before.”
“Well, how come I can see you now?”
His head tilts slightly and I can see from his expression that he has given this a lot of thought. “I noticed just how down you were, and I thought you could use someone to talk to.”
His voice, so gentle and caring reaches my ears like a well-needed hug. I can feel the weight of my problems settle on my shoulders and make them sag. This burden has been too much for me, and I know it’s time to let some of it out. “Oh, you don’t know how much.” I hear my voice crack on the last word as I try to hold back my tears.
All my problems are now coming back to me and I drop my head into my hands unable to meet another’s eyes, no matter how friendly they appeared.
“Shhh, It’s going to be alright,” I hear him say as he scoots closer to where I’m sitting, choking back sobs.
“No, it’s not!” I manage to squeak out before bursting into tears. They slide down my cheeks as hot, wet drops. I don’t even stop when I feel his small hand on my arm, both cool, reassuring, and somewhat strong.
The tears keep streaming down my face, and I try to wipe them away, but I am unable to stop the flood. It’s as if a dam had burst and it was unable to be plugged back up.
So there I am, sitting at a table, sobbing like the world was ending with a frog beside me. To anyone else, the situation would have been quite amusing. I sat that way for a few minutes until my sobs finally became something I could control.
I feel something press into my hand and lift my head to see Kermit handing me a few of the napkins from the table dispenser. He gives me a wry look and apologizes, “Sorry, I couldn’t find any tissues.”
He takes the top one and wipes my tear-stained face gently. “I can see you are very upset now, would you like to talk about it?”
I nod as I take one of the napkins to blow my nose. Gee, I must look a sight to him, my eyes now puffy, my nose reddened, and I’m quite sure my hair is a mess. Not the best way to present myself to someone I’ve idolized for years. With a heavy sigh, I begin to tell him one by one about my problems and my rotten string of luck.
He listens to my ranting and rambling, never once interrupting, and nodding with infinite patience all the while. When I’m finally done, he answers my tirade. “It’s easy to get down with all those problems, Beth.” As he talks, he crosses his legs one over the other to keep them from swinging. I almost want to grin, just at the sight of his casual pose, as if this was afternoon tea instead of early morning misery.
He continues, “But what you don’t realize, is that you are strong enough to handle these problems, and even more.”
I was expecting sympathy, not a lecture. “What?!?” I exclaim, raising my voice and standing at the same time. I sure as heck didn’t want any more problems.
“Beth, please,” he wraps his long fingers around my arm. This time I take actual notice of how his skin feels against my flesh and that alone stops me. He’s not foam and rubber, or cloth. He’s alive, and feels to me like any frog would feel, minus the slimy part. He guides me back to sit down, then continues speaking. “I don’t mean to upset you, not at all.” Once he was sure that I was sitting and that I wasn’t going to jump back up he releases my arm. I’m actually sorry to lose that connection. “What I meant to say, is that you are capable of handling these problems, Beth, because you are much like me. You may get sad and feel a bit lonely at times but when you look inside you find ways of dealing with your troubles and come out stronger because of it.”
“It’s just so tough,” I whine now, wanting more than just fancy words to placate me.
“Life is tough,” he agrees with me, looking a bit sad himself. “Do you think it’s easy being green?” I see a twinkle in his eye and I know he’s just making a point. “No matter how you look at it, life is rough. I would like to be able to solve all your problems for you, Beth. But if I did that what would it solve in the long run?”
I want to blurt out that if he solved all my problems, everything would be fine, but I actually stopped to think about it. What would it solve if I ran to someone else every time something came up? Nothing. I’d still have problems, and I’d be running all my life from them. “It doesn’t really do anything,” I tell him. “These are my problems, and I have to be the one to solve them.”
He nods now, clearly happy that I was at least thinking straight. “Yes, that’s right. But I’ll let you in on a small secret.” He leans forward and says in a whisper, “You are never alone, even when you think you are.”
“I’m not?” I whisper back to him, sounding a bit wary of what his words might mean.
“No, because I’m always around to help you. I may not appear to you the way I am today, but you carry me with you in your heart and mind.” He sat back now and smiled his trademark grin.
His smiling face made me smile for the first time that morning. “What if I want to talk to you again, though? Like this,” I indicated the space between us. “Face to face?”
“You can.”
“I-I can?” I ask, puzzled.
He nods again. “Just think of me and whisper my name. I’ll find you.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really.”
To him, it was that easy, Just believe and it will happen. I glance down at my watch and notice that I really should be going in, or else I would have another problem to add to my list, being late for work. “Hey, I really hate to cut this short, but…”
“I understand. You need to get inside.” He starts to get up and this time I stop him. “Kermit?”
“Hmmmm?”
“Thank you. For listening to me, for being there for me.”
“That’s what friends do, Beth.”
I had to ask one last thing before he left and I went inside back to my normal life, yet this one thing seemed to be the hardest thing to ask. For some reason I felt awkward now and warred with my conscience over whether to ask or not.
He noticed my change in demeanor instantly. “Beth? Is something else wrong?”
I looked down at my feet and blushed. “It’s just, well, I’ve always wanted to…”
“To what?”
I look up at his well loved face. I can feel my cheeks flush as I tell him. “To hug you.”
Instead of answering, he walks on the tabletop over to where I’m standing. He opens his arms and I open mine. He then wraps his small body around mine in a full hug.
My eyes slide closed and I feel the tears start up again. This is what I’ve needed all along, someone to talk to and someone to just hug my troubles away.
“Thank you, thank you.” I whisper to his smaller head, as we embrace in the early morning sunlight. After a few minutes in which my troubles seem to vanish with the morning fog, I release him and wipe the fresh tear tracks from my face.
“Will you be alright now?” He asks me, still concerned for me.
I nod. “I’ll be fine.” I tell him, finally believing in the words. Then I turn away for a second as I hear one of my co-workers calling my name. When I turn back I find the table empty.
Did I imagine it? Was he really here? I shrug as I pick up my fallen keys and purse.
It was real to me and that is what mattered. As if to answer my questioning thoughts, I look up to the sky and see the arc of a rainbow, the end somewhere behind the building.
“Thank you, Kermit,” I whisper, then enter the building, ready at last to face my day and all of life’s problems that it wanted to throw at me, for I had found what I needed most- my inner strength and my secret friend.
~End
{regard}regard