Where is My Life?: One Last Snow Cone

Aspen became employed in the law enforcement career track immediately after aging. I’m not sure how she planned on stopping criminals for a living when she couldn’t do a thing against one robber.

I suppose it wasn’t any of my business what either of my daughters chose to do. They were both self-sufficient, but neither one of them would ever be beautiful. It didn’t really matter how much money they made if they couldn’t pay the other half of the fee to break the curse.

With nothing better to do, I casually listened in as my daughters had a powwow in the bathroom. They shared their dreams for the future, and they were quite large and unrealistic. I could have told them that they’d never get anywhere without looks or money.

Eventually Aspen went off to bed, and yet Odessa still conversed. Not wishing to know, I went to retire as well.

The next morning was Aspen’s graduation. She begged me to come with, and so I did.

She won valedictorian and most likely to have a large family. That was good to hear; the more kids she had, the more likely she’d produce one not so atrocious. She snuck out so quickly after the ceremony that Odessa and I stood around waiting for her like idiots for nearly an hour.

Later I was told that she’d had a blind date she decided to attend. They were out for most of a day, so he better have damn well been attractive.

There was no news from Dustin about the party having been moved to another night or plans of whisking me away to elope.

And as if that wasn’t depressing enough, I began to age. Odessa thoughtlessly celebrated me becoming a withered old hag. How cruel!

Being an elder was literally a pain, I found as a first impression.

Odessa went to sleep and I dared to change into my every day wear. I prayed for that ugly shirt not to reappear. It didn’t, but I was stuck with something much worse. “Really? A housecoat?” I grumbled to myself over a bowl of cereal.

“Not to your liking?” The witch spat into my head.

“You!” I snarled. “I haven’t heard from you in a while.” Every so often I’d catch a short snippet from her, but it’d been quite some time since I’d heard her so clearly.

“You’re not the only thing I have on my plate.”

I finished eating, but could feel her in my head still. “What do you want?”

“It’s time for you to begin to move on from this life.”

“I’m dying?” I wasn’t scared of death, but I was nervous that witch wouldn’t keep her end of the deal. I’d happily die if it meant getting my old life back.

“Not yet, but soon. You need to get things in order.”

“Like what?”

“First, retire. You won’t last long if you keep working at your age. Especially in your field.”

It was the only thing to make the clock tick faster. “I’m not going to quit my job.”

“Everyone deserves to retire, even you.”

The witch wasn’t going to let it drop, so I dialed up Dr. Allison and grumpily told her that I could no longer work. She said she completely understood, her voice as youthful as it had been when we first met.

“Congratulations,” the witch said. Somehow she made confetti dance around me. I found myself clapping, because it did actually feel nice to no longer have to worry about getting myself ready for work. Aspen could take care of the bills. I could just spend the rest of this life in my bath.

“Uh, what are you doing?” Odessa asked. Teenagers, they’d never get it.

“Now what are you going to force me to do?”

“I haven’t forced a thing. Besides your body, your land, and your clothes. Oh, and money to an extent.”

The witch asked me to step outside, so I did. The air was cold, making my thin skin bristle with goose bumps. “Think back to how this place was when you first woke up. A shed as you called it. Now look at your home. It nearly passes as a house, and you did it yourself.”

“It’s still a shed.”

“Can’t you feel any pride for what you’ve accomplished?”

If she was right and I was close to death, then I didn’t feel as if I had any time to indulge in her ridiculous gratification speech. I passed the mirror and threw my hands up angrily. “I still look like a monster, so nothing else matters!”

“What about your daughters?” she pestered, pulling up an image of them. “Looking the way you do, you still managed to have two girls. And they’re bounds ahead of you in so many ways.”

“And how many times have their fathers called me?” I knew damn well that Dequan wasn’t my savior, my soul mate, nobody was. Nobody could love something like me.

I woke up and I could still feel the damn witch was with me. “Is my nightgown really the only somewhat decent thing you’ll let me have?”

“I could swap it for another house coat.”

“Will you just leave me alone?”

“Not until I’ve told you what you’ve got to do next.”

“And what is that?”

“You must pick an heir. A torchbearer, if you will. We’ll only be able to monitor your descendants who reside in this home, and there can only be one chosen child out of any generation. So, you must pick one of your two daughters to take over. And then they’ll have to choose one of their kids and on and on until my requirements are met.”

Neither one of my girls leapt out at me as the obvious choice. “Fine, I’ll pick one. Now can you get out of my head?”

“Certainly. But maybe you should go outside again. I have one more surprise for you.”

Sitting out in the frosted grass was my snow cone cart. She somehow got the order to come in early! I was nearly happy, but then I remembered that she had put me in that hick town in the first place.