Selections from the Vault

This page contains a short story, a snippet and an entry in a micro-fiction challenge, all of them added in June 2025.

Please note that none of these have been edited and they may not be expanded or continued.

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Change of Plans

Notes: A short story featuring the three Bob-White girls and an unexpected development.

“Hey Honey, I’m here,” Trixie greeted, as she pushed open the door to Honey’s room. “Sorry I’m late. My study group ran overtime.”

“That’s no problem; I’ve only just got here myself and I’m not quite ready.”

Trixie took a seat on the bed while she waited and the conversation turned to their respective days, the classes they’d attended and the places they might go that evening. For a week or more, they’d been planning a fun girls-only night to catch up. Originally, they had planned to meet Di, too, but something had come up for her and she had cancelled on them.

They were just about to leave when Honey’s phone chimed for an incoming text message. Her eyes widened.

The text read, “Wait for me. I’ll be there soon.”

“It’s from Di,” she told Trixie. “I thought she wasn’t coming.”

“I thought so, too,” Trixie answered. “Has she changed her mind?”

Honey nodded. “Apparently. She’s asking us to wait.”

Trixie settled back onto the bed, while Honey typed a quick answer. They chatted between themselves for the five or ten minutes until their friend arrived.

“Thanks for waiting,” Di told them, as she breezed in the room, her head high but with rather more pink to her cheeks than usual.

“Any time. But weren’t you going somewhere with Brody?” Trixie sat up straighter to see the expression on Di’s face at the mention of her boyfriend’s name. “What’s happened?”

“I’ve dumped him,” Di announced. “I’ve had enough of his selfish, lazy, inconsiderate behaviour and the way he expects me to just give in to everything he wants and do what he wants all the time and his never considering my needs or wants, and I’m not being controlled by him any more. It’s completely over and there’s nothing he can do to get me back. Nothing.”

The other two shared a brief look, then Honey spoke. “Are you all right? Is there anything we can do?”

“Distract me. Get my mind off all the time I’ve wasted on that filthy dirtbag. I want a fun girls’ evening, where I don’t have to think about the mess my life is going to be in the morning – because it is going to be a mess and I know it. I’ve made the most horrible decisions, these last few months he and I have been together. I wish I’d never met him and that I’ll never see him again, but he’s going to still be around tomorrow and I’m going to have to face him, every single day until the end of the semester. And that’s months away.”

“We’re going to be here for you, whatever you need,” Trixie told her. “And right now, of course.”

“We were thinking of going to the Blue Flamingo,” Honey mentioned, naming a lively venue that they all enjoyed. “Will that be okay, or do you want something a bit quieter?”

“Quieter? No!” Diana began to pace the room. “Do you know what he did? What he had the nerve to do? He told me to cancel my plans with the two of you, which I did. And I thought he and I were going to do something fun together – because that’s what he hinted. He had something planned, he told me, and it was going to be a surprise, and I just needed to wear a specific outfit and not bring anything. Then, this evening, when I got to his place, it turned out that he was hosting a games night for all the boys and he expected me to serve their snacks and drinks and generally act as his slave for the whole night, while they all played stupid games.”

“When I see him, I’m gonna slap him,” Trixie replied.

“Trixie! Violence doesn’t solve anything!” Honey chided. “What did you do?”

“At first, I didn’t do anything.” Di made a helpless gesture. “I was too shocked. And I just stood there and he said, ‘Aren’t you pleased?’ and I said something about it not being quite what I expected.”

Trixie snorted. “That’s an understatement!”

“And then his friends started arriving and they all started setting up and then that scrawny guy with the pathetic excuse for a beard said, ‘Dude, your girlfriend’s wearing too many clothes.’ And Brody just laughed.”

“I would have slapped them. I would have slapped them both!”

“Trixie!”

“Well, I would have.”

“But what did you do?” Honey asked.

Di gulped. “I picked up the bowl of corn chips and I threw it at them.”

“Good for you, Di! I hope it was a breakable bowl.”

“Trixie!”

Di shook her head. “It was plastic. But the bottle of Coke I threw next was glass, only it didn’t break.”

“Pity.”

Honey turned on her friend. “Trixie, will you stop it?”

“No way. He deserved it, and more.” She grinned at Di. “What did you throw next?”

“I tore open a bag of M&Ms and threw them everywhere, too.” She sighed. “I don’t think the friends cared all that much. They thought it was funny. And I’m pretty sure they were going to eat the food anyway, even the stuff that fell on the floor. Not Brody, of course, because he has a thing about germs, but his friends were already picking M&Ms out of the sofa cushions and eating them when I left.”

“You did tell him that you were breaking up with him, didn’t you?” Honey asked. “He knows it’s over, right?”

Di nodded. “While those greasy idiots were giggling among themselves, I told him straight out that I’d had enough and that it was over. And he had the temerity to ask what he’d done wrong.”

Again, Trixie snorted. “I would have told him, in great detail, and loud enough for everyone to hear.”

“That wouldn’t have helped,” Honey pointed out.

“And I was too angry to be coherent right then, but I told him I’d send him a list.”

“We’ll help you write it,” Trixie offered.

Honey shot a look skyward. “Please, Trixie!”

“I think that’s something I’d be good at,” Trixie explained. “No tactfulness required.”

“Some tactfulness would probably be helpful if she doesn’t want to make an enemy of him,” Honey suggested. “And of course we can help, if you need us to, but I don’t think you actually do, because you’re a capable person, all by yourself.”

Di pulled Honey into a hug. “Thank you. I think I needed to hear that.” She took a breath. “Now, let’s go out and have some fun. I have someone to forget all about.”

“I’ve forgotten his name already,” Trixie answered. “Except, if I happen to see him, I’ll remember enough to be able to slap him for you.”

“Trixie!”

Missing Moment from Sasquatch

Notes: After the excitement of the book, Hallie and Trixie take a few moments to talk.

Trixie looked up at the stars overhead and sighed in contentment. “It’s beautiful out here,” she commented. “The stars look so close, you could almost pick them out of the sky.”

In the tent opposite her, Hallie made an affirmative noise. The two of them remained awake, while Honey and Diana had fallen asleep during their giggle and gab session. The mystery had been solved and they could all sleep easier, knowing that the culprits had been apprehended.

“Do you ever wish things had been different?” Hallie asked. “Between your family and mine, I mean.”

Trixie paused a moment, thinking. “We haven’t really seen much of each other until lately.”

“Yes, that’s what I mean. If we’d known each other better, maybe things would have been different.”

“Maybe.” Trixie shook her head, even though her cousin couldn’t see the gesture in the dark. “I don’t even know why it’s been this way. I kind of remember seeing you more often when we were little and then… it sort of stopped.”

“No one’s ever admitted it, but I think our fathers argued.”

“Do you know why? Or why they might have stopped?”

“I don’t know. But I don’t think they have stopped. I think it was an act of desperation on the part of my parents, sending me to stay with you. Because they’d run out of other options. And I think it was kind of a peace offering on the part of your father, sending you and your brothers here. But you notice that they’re not involved at all. Your father and my father haven’t met in years.”

Trixie remained silent for a minute, thinking this through.

“Does Uncle Andrew visit you?” Trixie asked, at last.

“Sometimes. But I’ve never even been to his farm.”

“I’ve only ever been there once,” Trixie admitted. “But he does visit us once or twice a year.”

“That’s more often than I see him.” She sighed. “I can’t imagine being so distant from my brothers. It seems wrong.”

“It does,” Trixie agreed. “I’m close to mine, too. But one day soon, Brian’s going to go to college and we might never all live in the same place again.”

“That’s a scary thought.”

“It is. But I know that we’re going to be okay.”

“I asked my father, once, why we didn’t see extended family more often. He said there were more important things to do. Or something like that.”

“Well, I’m not going to live my life that way,” Trixie declared, with outrage shaking her voice.

“Shh!” Hallie urged. “Don’t wake everyone!”

Beside her, Honey made a grumbling noise and settled further into her sleeping bag. Trixie took a firmer control of herself before she continued the thought.

“Family is important. And while we might not live close together, I can’t imagine not being a different sort of close to my family. It’s something that’s worth working at.”

“And what if there’s an argument?” Hallie asked. “A really terrible argument. The kind that you can’t ever go back from. Because I think that’s what happened to our fathers. I think my father did something terrible and your father told him the truth about it and my father couldn’t bear to have this thing pointed out to him, and then they couldn’t ever go back to being brothers. They were always enemies, after that. They’re still kind of enemies, even though it’s been more than ten years.”

“I just hope that never happens between Brian and Mart and me,” she answered. “Or between Knut and Cap and you.”

“But it might. And one of us might find ourselves completely alone.”

“No. Not alone. There will always be someone to help, if you just reach out.”

“You might have that, but I don’t.”

Trixie shook her head again. “I meant me. And you.”

“Oh.”

“Family’s important,” Trixie repeated. “And even though it’s been a bit rocky at times, we can be there for each other if we need it.”

“Thanks, Trix.” The end of Hallie’s words trailed off into a yawn. “Good night.”

“Good night,” Trixie answered, settling in a position where she could look at the stars.

Worst First Sentence

Notes: A piece of micro-fiction for CWE#29.4. The first sentence of a story that you probably do NOT want to read.

Looking back on the events of the last few hours, Jim wondered whether it had been a mistake to steal the Stop sign from right in front of the police station, in broad daylight, while people were watching, to take it to the field where the Hawks were working out and use it to hit that dirty, double-crossing Tad Webster over the head, for having the temerity to tell the Bob-Whites to their faces that he would never give them away and not ten minutes later to rat them out to Principal Stratton for their role in the leaked exam paper scandal.

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