1It was around 9 A.M. when Gail left for the mall,it was a nice spring morning she couldn’t help but notice all the flowers begining to bloom. Winter had gave way cool mornings and pleasant afternoons. As she left the driveway she made her usual stop at the mailbox there she grabbed the multitude of papers,bills,sales flyers,the latest political inserts but one postcardcaught her attention there a bright yellow postcard without any markings only an email adress”WWW.dreamscape.com”. She laid the mail on the passengers seat without much thought.
2As Gail drove into the local Starbucks for a latte, bittersweet memories began to invade her mind again. For ten months, her ex-fiance’, Shawn McClain had always accompanied her to the mall. The stop at Starbucks had been a pleasant part of their Saturday morning routine.
Would anything ever be the same again? Since Shawn had left her standing at the altar on their wedding day that was to take place on March fourth, she had just been going through the motions of living.
She was tired of the sympathetic looks and comments she kept getting from her friends and family. Their expressions of concern only proved to remind her of her broken heart and shattered dreams. Maybe she should take a vacation; and get away from everything and everyone she knew for a few weeks. She had been thinking about doing that for a few days now, but the big question was: where should she go? She had three weeks vacation time coming to her. Why not take it now and go somewhere and get her head on straight again?
3Shawn had quite a resourceful day with help from his blonde bomb-shell girlfriend, Ashley.
He had managed to withdraw the 300K from Gail’s bank account very easily. She ought to have better
sense than to leave her withdrawal slips and her savings account book in the drawer of her home office.
Just a bit of clever make-up and a brunette wig had been all that was necessary for his friend, Ashley to pass herself off as Gail at the bank. Now he would take the money, go on an extended vacation to some secluded resort, and live it up. They would be long gone before Gail realized that she had been hood-winked.
Stopping at the front desk of the “Bedbug Inn” they had rented while waiting for their plans to fall in place,
he picked up his mail and continued on to room 213. Ashley lay on the king-sized bed reading a copy of “Not So True Romances,” while stuffing her face with bonbons.
Shawn sifted through the mail and noticed a strange looking postcard with only a website address on the front of it: “www.dreamscape.com. Humnnn? That sounds interesting was his only comment before approaching Ashley for a chocolate covered kiss.
4“How are you doing, baby? Have you any clue as to where we’re going when we blow this joint?” ” No, not yet. Did you bring your laptop?”
“Sure, I have it, answered Ashley between bonbons. ” Why do you need it?”
“I want to look up this web site, or better yet, you can do it for me while I shower.”
Within an hour, they had booked their reservation online to the Dreamscape Resort Hotel in Port Orange, Florida. Ecstatic, they began to pack for their early morning flight out of Raleigh.
5At first Gail dismissed the thought of spending so much money on a vacation, but it did seem like a better than ever time to get away. She thought of taking one of her close friends with her, Julie. She hadn’t had much quality time with her best friend since her prolonged engagement that went sour. Maybe this was a great time for them to both get some fresh scenery. Julie had been married and divorced recently, what better way for them to relax and get a new lease on life. Whatever that is supposed to be. She called her parents to ask if they could sit the dogs~ two huge labrador that made her mother cringe at the thought of having to look after them. Then, there was her crazy neighbor, Alice, that would need to have a heads up that she would be gone for a bit. Alice, poor woman had about 6 furry critters that drove Gail crazy but then again Alice her self was as crazy as her cats. The longer they were neighbors, the longer Gail wondered how the woman had sense enough to go to the mailbox.. Oh, she would be sure to be all in Gail’s mailbox while she was gone. After all, crazy Alice seemed to know everything that came to the mailbox. She wondered if she had also seen the postcard. She probably would know more about this vacation spot than Gail.
“Plans are set!” Gail told her friend Julie. “I can’t wait to get out of this town and find some real excitement.” Julie and Gail load all of their suitcases, lock up the house and head for the airport.
This was going to be a chance of a lifetime getaway. The wind was blowing thru their hair, music blaring on the radio. What a great idea. Seemed almost like a pre-destined journey. They couldn’t wait to get there. Maybe they would finally meet someone interesting, have the Thelma & Louise adventure that they had always joked about. Who knew? But she did know that whatever their plans included, had to be far away from her no good cowardly fiance’ and that cheating ex-husband that belonged to Julie. A third world country wouldn’t be far enough distance from those two losers.
6However, Julie had her heart set on going to the sunny beaches of Florida. Gail obliged her and they decided that Port Orange would be far enough. After, all there was Ponce Inlet, and the big lighthouse she had found interesting. Daytona was just a short drive down the road, and there was plenty of white sandy beaches there. The Dreamscape resort seemed to be just the place they were looking for to find some peace and quiet.
They parked their car in the long term parking lot, entered the airport, and without too much trouble with the security check, they were soon aboard the jet that would carry them away from sleazy, stealing ex-fiances and unfaithful scum bag ex-husbands.
Their plane landed right on time and after securing their luggage from the baggage area, and renting a spiffy little red Chevy, they were soon settled inside their suite at the Dreamscape Inn.
7Meanwhile back in North Carolina, Bill Coleman, Julie’s ex-husband had been booted out by his new girlfriend because of his lazy no work kind of attitude. A tv remote and plenty of free food at his girlfriend’s expense was all he wanted, but it left a bad taste in her mouth. She told him to hit the road; but not before he was able to raid her home safe for a couple thousand.
With no place to go, he decided that the best thing to do was try to get back into Julie’s good graces and try to get her to take him back. Going first to her apartment, he found her gone and decided to go looking for her. She could be at her friend, Gail’s he thought. He headed down Em street and stopped in front of 225.
He rang the doorbell, and before he could ask Gail’s mom anything about her whereabouts, two huge black lab dogs pushed past her and out the door, growling and nipping at his heels.
Bill saw that he had to get out of there, so he took off running. The dogs chased him around the house and the only way he could see to get away from them was to make a run for the six foot chain link fence which out of fear, he scaled in record time. Knowing he was out of the dogs reach, he jumped down into the yard of Alice the crazy cat lady. The only problem was he had landed with his number twelve Nike’s right on the tail of one of six of the biggest, fattest cats he had ever seen. The injured cat let out a loud squall attacked. She began to scratch and claw at the legs of his trousers. The other five cats soon joined in the fight.
Bill scrambled to the nearest tree and climbed up on a limb out of reach of the six irate cats. Hearing the commotion, Alice came out the back door to investigate. Seeing a strange man up in a tree in her back yard, she hollered: “Hey, you there. Who are you? What are you doing up there? Do you want me to call the fire department to come get you down, or can you get down by yourself?”
Bill finally found his voice and answered: “I can get down, if you’ll call off your feline army.” Alice lured her cats into the house with a bowl of cat food, and returned to the yard. Seeing it was now safe, Bill shimmied down the tree.
After talking with nosey Alice for about five minutes, he had the information he wanted. She told him she saw Gail and Julie loading their luggage into the car and leaving. She claimed she found a postcard on the ground near Gail’s mailbox; and being the good neighbor that she was, she had put in back in her mailbox, but not before she had noticed the name of the web site on the front of the card.
With little effort, Bill found the name of the resort after searching for it on the internet at the local library. Since his funds were low, he decided he would drive to Port Orange. He could be there in about eight hours. He would find Julie and woo her back with his manly charm.
8Bill arrived at the resort the next day, and after checking out the amenities, he found Julie and Gail just where he thought they would be–at the inn’s private fishing lake. Knowing her love of fishing, where else would she be?
She and Gail were sitting with their backs to him, and turned quickly at the sound of his familiar irritating voice. “What are you doing here? Julie hissed at him.” ” I was looking for you darling. I’ve missed you so much.” “Well, I haven’t missed you, so go right back where you came from, and leave me alone,” Julie retorted angrily. “Ah, honey you don’t mean that”, crooned Bill. Julie’s anger flared fiercely and she said,”I never meant anything more in my life so beat it.”
Not one to give up easily, He bent to his knees and kissed her on the back of her neck. What he did not know was that since they had separated, Julie had taken a course in self defense. Shifting her rod and reel to her left hand, she grabbed Bill’s arm with her right hand, flipped him over her head, and right into the middle of the lake. He came up sputtering, spitting water and cursing. “I said beat it”, Julie screamed at him.
Without another word, He struggled to the shore, and took off running, squealing the tires on his old beat up jalopy as he went. Julie and Beth collapsed into a fit of laughter, and went right on fishing.
9After their afternoon fishing experience, Gail and Julie spent some time cooling off at the hotel pool, and then went to their room to dress for dinner. As they entered the dining room, Julie spotted the two culprits first. Grabbing Gail by the arm, she quickly pulled her behind a huge plant. “What are you doing, girl?” Gail questioned. Julie whispered in a hushed voice, “don’t look now, but I just saw Shawn and his blonde bimbo sitting in the middle of the dining room”
It was all Julie could do to keep Gail from going after him immediately, but Julie talked her into using her cell phone to call the police. “We can’t take a chance on them getting away, said Julie. After all they are wanted people.” Gail explained the situation to the police and they said they would be there as quickly as possible.
Spotting the hotel security officer standing by the front desk, Gail motioned him over. She pointed out the two varmits to him and explained to him what was happening. As soon as they saw the police cars pull up in front of the hotel, Gail headed over to Shawn and Ashley’s table. “Well, well “,she said. If it isn’t Boney and Claude in the flesh.” “Ah, ah!!! What are you doing here Gail.” ” I might ask you the same thing” Gail said through clenched teeth.
Not realizing that he had zipped the corner of the table cloth up in his pants when he realized his fly was open a few minutes ago, he rose quickly, preparing to make a run for the side door. When he stood up, the table cloth came sliding off the table, and everything else with it. Only a single bottle of wine still remained on the table. Pasta and tomato sauce flew into the air and landed everywhere. It was all over the floor, and a big pile of spaghetti with meat sauce lay in Ashley’s lap. Gail reached down and scooped it up with both hands and none too gently plopped in right on top of Ashley’s bleach blonde head.
Jumping up, wringing her hands and shouting obscenities, she was fit to be tied, so Julie grabbed a large cloth napkin, from the floor, pulled her arms behind her back and tied her hands together with it. Gail snatched a wine glass that had survived the crash, poured it full of red wine from the bottle on the table, and dumped it right over Ashley’s head. “How about some wine to go with your pasta”, she laughed.
Meanwhile, Shawn stood there gaping at the scene taking place before his very eyes. He seemed like he was wanting to get away; but he was too much in shock to move. Suddenly seeing three police officers rushing through the front door of the dining room, he found his feet, and started to make a run for the side door. He stepped in a pile of pasta sauce lying on the floor, lost his footing and landed on his backside right into the mess on the floor. The police officers lifted him to his feet and slapping the hand cuffs on him, started reading him his rights. Then he led him outside to the waiting patrol car, while the other police officer took Ashley into custody.
After securing them both in the back seat of the patrol car, one of the officers returned to the dining room to speak to Gail. He told her that they would be obtaining a warrant to search his room, and look for her money. He requested that she come down to the police station the next morning and they would inform her as to the results of their search. It turned out that they had found two hundred and ninety-seven thousand dollars concealed in the lining of one of their suitcases, and they assured her that they would assist her in returning the money to her bank account where it belonged. ” So much for airport security,” the officer said smiling.
After their visit to police headquarters, Gail and Julie came downstairs for lunch. Gail, looking at Julie and grinning said: “What are you in the mood for Julie–Italian or seafood?” Julie laughed and said: “I think I’ll go for seafood. After all, I’ve already washed it in the lake yesterday.” “You know Julie, Gail said, they say there’s more fish in the sea than one.” Yes, I know, Julie replied, but before we go fishing again, let’s pray about it. Okay!” “That’s an excellent idea,” beamed Gail.
1Jimbo
2,3,7,8,9, Phyllis Powell
4,6 PPP48
5,bdm
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