Story-time.

Once upon a time, in a far-away land, there lived a girl*. One day, the girl met a boy**. The boy and the girl liked each other, which wasn't a big deal or anything. Until eventually, it was. That's when they figured out that sometimes, when you like each other for a long time, you fall in love-- which is exactly what they did.

Then one day, while they were both busy with other things, they realized that being in love was great. It was so great, in fact, that they decided that someday, when they were a little less busy, they should get married.

Well, the Other Things kept coming around to bother them, and they kept taking care of them, which kept them pretty busy for a while. And the boy thought to himself, "Man. These Things won't quit. What's the point in waiting around 'til they do?" (Full disclosure: the girl might have been involved in this conversation).

So he bought the girl a ring, and got down on one knee, and asked her to marry him.

She said yes, obviously.
(She also asked if she could wear the ring yet. He said yes to her, too.)

And in the next few weeks, the boy and the girl floated around on a cloud of joy and love and really shiny jewelry.

But the Other Things were there below, lurking. So when the boy and girl finally decided it was time to climb back down into their real world (which mostly consisted of books and un-met word-counts), the Things pounced!

Feeling frightened and wholly unprepared for a battle against the Other Things, the girl and the boy clambered straight back up to their cloud where they could daydream in peace about world travel and wedding venues.

Note to the Reader: this story is in search of an ending. Will the boy and the girl ever come down from that cloud? How will they ever defeat the Other Things? Why does Christy tell such crappy stories?
Stay tuned to find out.




*unnamed, to protect her identity.
**unnamed, to protect the story's continuity.