Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: Flowers (10/03/05)
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TITLE: You don't bring me flowers...Thanks! | Previous Challenge Entry
By Shari Armstrong
10/10/05 -
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“Yeah!” She grinned and dove back under the water. I wasn’t sure if she was more excited about getting to swim more, or that her mom was meeting us at the club.
I was pretty happy about it too, since it meant I got to go home early. I got my phone back out to call home. I hit the speed dial, and waited for him to answer. “Hi Hon.”
”Hi, Sweetie. What’s up?” he asked.
”I’m getting off early, I should be home soon.” I smiled. “Do you want to go out for dinner tonight?”
”Sure.” He paused for a bit. “I have a surprise for you.”
“A surprise? Do I get a hint?”
”Nope.” I could almost see his grin through the phone.
“Ok, I’ll see you soon. I love you.”
”Love you, too,” he replied.
Sarah swam to the edge of the pool, “Can you put the noodle back for me?”
”Sure,” I walked cautiously to the edge of the pool, and took the blue worm-looking thing from her and put it with the others, making an odd bouquet of foam. I turned around and saw Deborah coming through the pool door. “Hi.”
”Hi. How did things go today?”
”Pretty good. She had a little homework that we finished before we came over. She might need to go over her spelling words a bit more though.”
”Good. Sarah, Daddy will be home later tonight.”
“Yeah” Sarah bobbed up and down in the water. “Can we eat here?”
“Sure. I’ll order it, you can swim till it’s ready.”
I grabbed my purse, “Anything else?”
“No, but Mike surprised me at work with flowers today.” She beamed. Her husband had been out of town for a trial for nearly a week.
“That’s nice. I have a surprise waiting for me at home, too, but I doubt it’s flowers.”
”Oh, why’s that?” she asked.
”My husband doesn’t believe in buying flowers, because they just die after a couple days. He thinks it’s a waste of money.”
”True, but they are still nice to get now and then. Have a good weekend.”
”Thanks, you too. Bye, Sarah. See you Monday.”
”Bye! Thanks for bringing me swimming today!” she waved.
”You’re welcome.”
The whole drive home, I tried to figure out what my surprise could be. Chocolate would be nice.
I saw my surprise almost as soon as I walked in the apartment: two kitchen cabinets with a counter top spanning them. The microwave was on it, instead of the floor! “Oh! Thank you!” My husband met me at the door and I gave him a hug and a kiss.
“The new cabinets are going to be in on Monday, so I asked if I could take these during demo. I got another piece of counter top to make into a computer desk, too.”
“Great! Now I actually have somewhere to put all the kitchen stuff that won’t fit in there. Having a counter top the size of a toaster just doesn’t cut it,” I said looking at our kitchen that was the width of the doorway and twice as long. “The cooler will fit in that open space nicely.”
”I thought you’d like it. Where do you want to eat?”
”I don’t care, as long as I don’t have to cook. Oh, Deborah got a surprise today, too.”
”Oh?”
”Yeah, Mike sent her flowers at work, but I like my surprise better. I’ll be able to keep it a lot longer than she will the flowers. I’ll probably be throwing them out next week after they die.”
”Probably. I’m glad you like it.”
* * *
I popped the kids in the shopping cart. “Here we go.”
”What are we looking for, Mommy?”
”Remember how you helped Daddy with the new shelves for the open part of the cupboards in the kitchen?”
”Yeah. That was loud!”
“I want to make a curtain to make it look nicer, since it doesn’t have a door.” We wound our way back and forth through the bolts of fabric. I pulled out two of them to look at closer. “Here, which one do you like better?” I showed her two different patterns of blue and yellow flowers, both coordinated with the window curtains. “Which do you like best?”
”This one,” she pointed to the one I was leaning toward.
”Good choice. Let’s go.”
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Your dialogue flows well and the interaction between characters is entertaining. With a little work on the ending, it would be just perfect! Overall, good job though!