Sequel
Karma Is A Bitch
Once upon a time, in a small, picturesque village nestled in the rolling hills of Tuscany, lived a young woman named Isabella. Isabella was known for her radiant beauty, but those who knew her well understood that beneath her charming exterior lay a heart cold as ice. Her beauty had granted her many privileges, and she wielded them mercilessly to get what she wanted, often at the expense of others. Isabella worked as a seamstress in the village, a skill she had inherited from her late mother. Her mother had been kind and gentle, a stark contrast to Isabella's calculating nature. Though her craftsmanship was impeccable, Isabella had a reputation for overcharging and underdelivering. She exploited the villagers' trust, using her beauty to manipulate and deceive. One day, a new family moved into the village. They were humble and unassuming, and they brought with them a mysterious air. Among them was a young man named Luca, who quickly became the talk of the village. Luca was not only handsome but kind-hearted, a combination that drew people to him effortlessly. Unlike Isabella, Luca's warmth and generosity were genuine, and he soon became a beloved figure in the village. Isabella, intrigued by the attention Luca received, decided she would make him hers. She approached him with her usual charm, expecting him to fall for her as others had. However, Luca, perceptive and wise beyond his years, saw through her façade. He treated her with courtesy but maintained a respectful distance. Isabella's frustration grew. She wasn't accustomed to rejection, and Luca's indifference was a blow to her ego. She began to devise ways to win his affection, each more manipulative than the last. She started spreading rumors about other women who showed interest in Luca, tarnishing their reputations and driving them away. She enlisted the help of her few remaining friends to create scenarios that would place her and Luca together, hoping to spark a connection. Despite her efforts, Luca remained unaffected. He continued to treat everyone with kindness, including Isabella, but his heart remained untouched by her schemes. Isabella's obsession grew darker, and she became increasingly desperate. Her once-beautiful exterior began to reflect the turmoil within, and the villagers started to notice the change in her demeanor. One fateful day, an elderly woman named Nonna Maria, known for her wisdom and insight, visited Isabella's shop. Nonna Maria was revered in the village for her knowledge of herbal remedies and her uncanny ability to see into people's hearts. As she examined a piece of fabric, she spoke to Isabella in a soft, yet firm voice. "Isabella, my dear, I see a darkness in your heart. Your beauty has been your blessing, but it is also your curse. You must change your ways before it is too late." Isabella, defensive and angry, brushed off Nonna Maria's words. "You don't know me," she retorted. "I do what I must to survive." Nonna Maria sighed, her eyes filled with sorrow. "Remember, child, karma is a force that cannot be escaped. The energy you put into the world will return to you threefold. Choose wisely." Isabella dismissed the old woman's warning, but her words lingered in her mind. Days turned into weeks, and Isabella's schemes grew more elaborate. She spread a particularly vicious rumor about Luca, hoping to isolate him and make him vulnerable. The village, however, knew Luca's character and refused to believe the lies. One evening, as the sun dipped below the horizon, Isabella found herself alone in her shop, consumed by her thoughts. The silence was broken by a gentle knock on the door. Startled, she opened it to find Luca standing there, his expression solemn. "Isabella, we need to talk," he said. She invited him in, her heart racing. This was the moment she had been waiting for. Perhaps he had finally realized he loved her. Luca sat down, looking her straight in the eyes. "I know what you've been doing," he said calmly. "The rumors, the lies, the manipulation. I don't understand why you would go to such lengths to hurt others." Isabella's face flushed with anger and embarrassment. "I did it because I love you!" she exclaimed. "I wanted you to see that we belong together." Luca shook his head, his eyes filled with pity. "Love doesn't work that way, Isabella. Love is about honesty, kindness, and respect. You can't force someone to love you by hurting others." Isabella felt a surge of rage and desperation. "You're just like everyone else," she spat. "You think you're better than me, but you're not. You'll see." Luca stood up, his expression resolute. "I hope you find the peace you're looking for, Isabella. But until you change, I can't be a part of your life." With that, he left, leaving Isabella alone with her anger and regret. Days turned into weeks, and Isabella's actions began to catch up with her. The villagers, once charmed by her beauty, now saw the ugliness within. Her business suffered, and she found herself increasingly isolated. One night, as a storm raged outside, Isabella sat in her shop, staring at the flickering candlelight. She was haunted by Nonna Maria's words and Luca's rejection. Her heart felt heavy with the weight of her actions. Tears streamed down her face as she realized the depth of the hole she had dug for herself. Suddenly, there was a loud crash as the door flew open. Nonna Maria stood in the doorway, drenched from the rain but with an aura of calm and authority. She stepped inside, her eyes filled with compassion. "Isabella," she said softly, "it's not too late. You can still change. You can make amends and find redemption." Isabella sobbed uncontrollably. "How? I've done so many terrible things. No one will forgive me." Nonna Maria placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "You must start by forgiving yourself. Acknowledge your mistakes and seek forgiveness from those you've wronged. It's a long and difficult journey, but it's the only way to find peace." Isabella nodded, her heart heavy with remorse but also with a glimmer of hope. She knew she had a long road ahead, but she was determined to make things right. In the months that followed, Isabella began her journey of redemption. She apologized to those she had hurt, made amends where she could, and started to live her life with honesty and integrity. It was not easy, and many villagers were skeptical of her change, but she persevered. Luca, watching from a distance, saw the transformation in Isabella. He saw her genuine efforts to become a better person and began to soften towards her. One day, as she was helping a young girl mend her torn dress, Luca approached her. "Isabella," he said gently, "I've seen the changes you've made. I'm proud of you." Isabella looked up, her eyes filled with gratitude and relief. "Thank you, Luca. Your words mean more to me than you know." As time passed, Isabella and Luca grew closer, their bond built on mutual respect and understanding. Isabella's heart, once cold and calculating, began to warm with genuine love and compassion. She realized that true beauty came from within, and it was this inner beauty that finally won Luca's heart. In the end, Isabella learned that karma was not just a force of retribution, but also a path to redemption. By facing her mistakes and choosing to change, she found the love and peace she had been searching for all along. The village, too, came to see her as a different person, and she earned their trust and friendship once more. And so, in the rolling hills of Tuscany, Isabella's story became a testament to the power of karma and the possibility of transformation. She lived her life with a newfound sense of purpose and joy, knowing that the energy she put into the world would always come back to her, threefold.
By Leroy payne2 years ago in Chapters
spell jar
*NOTE: these characters emerge from my short story, Capturable , which would be Ch.1 in this thread of vignettes* // She couldn't help but feel bad for that blue-eyed freckled kid. Marshall's son, that is. He looked like he hadn't worn a suit since his senior prom. And not really a kid anymore, truth be told. He was college-aged. Tall. Slightly effeminate with the remaining dregs of his fidgety boyish charm.
By Erin Latham Shea2 years ago in Chapters
Old Enough; Surviving Summer
Clara, being Pearl's niece gets told what to do as I am still a guest in their house, not family. I have always wanted to live with Pearl but now that I am here, I miss Paw-Paw like crazy. Who knew my sleepy eyed, sometimes grumpy ole grandfather would be missed at all? It wasn't until Clara had set up a card table for kids and we all washed up and sat down that I heard why I was at Pearl's in the first place. A kid's mind seems to stay in the present, not wander too far into the future or dwell on the past, at least that's so in my case.
By ROCK aka Andrea Polla (Simmons)2 years ago in Chapters
Ten strange true stories (Part 2)
1_ The story of the king who died from a monkey bite King Alexander inherited the rule of Greece after the death of his father Constantine in 1917 AD. He was known for his great love for animals, and one day while he was walking his dog in Athens in a park called the National Park, a monkey attacked the dog, and when King Alexander tried to keep them away from each other، Another monkey bit the king's hand, causing him severe complications that kept him bedridden for nearly ten days until he died in 1920 AD due to a monkey bite. 2_ The story of the quintuplets It tells the story of a French-Canadian woman who gave birth to five female twins who were born before their natural due date in 1934 AD. Despite the fear of their death and incomplete development, they survived, as large sums of money were offered to the girls’ father in exchange for displaying them at the Chicago World’s Fair. However, The Canadian people considered this an exploitation of childhood, which prompted the father to refuse to display them again، After that, the Canadian government took the girls from their parents as part of the guardianship system over them, and their nursery site was transformed into an exhibition that contributed to their fame, and their pictures were published in magazines and newspapers, and they were used to present advertisements, and their pictures were placed on postcards, and in the 1930s, four films were produced that dealt with Their story 3_ The story of shipping children via mail. In the past, postal and shipping companies shipped anything weighing less than 32 kilograms and measuring less than 275 cm in length, and among the appropriate things for shipping with these specifications were children, as the parents, in order to save the value of the train card that They used to pay it to their children, instead shipping them for a small amount in exchange for postage stamps only، It took postal shipping companies about a year to close this loophole in their system, and during this period many shipped their children in this way 4the story of the simple worker and the precious watch This story tells of a simple worker who noticed an expensive watch belonging to a senior official falling into one of the non-hydrogenated oil stores, and when night fell, the worker went undercover to get the watch and sell it to a German jeweler, and to benefit from its price by buying food and drink, but it was found The worker's body was found in non-hydrogenated oil the next day، This is because the worker does not know that non-hydrogenated oils have a lower density than water, and therefore it is considered impossible to be able to swim in them, which led to his death. 5_the Story of Helping Voices In 1997 AD, the British Medical Journal published a report stating that there was a woman who told them that she had heard two voices asking her to visit a specific address in London, and to go there immediately because she was suffering from a brain tumor, and the woman who was not suffering from any pain By going to that address to finally arrive at a brain scanning hospital in London, and when the woman performed the tests, it was found that there was indeed a brain tumor، She began immediate and intensive treatment sessions, and after a while she heard the same two voices again telling her that she had recovered from the tumor, and they thanked her for believing them. Indeed, the woman underwent tests and it was found that she had actually recovered from the tumor. 6_the story of Julia Pastrana Julia Pastrana, who was living in Mexico in 1834 AD, suffered from a hereditary strike called Hypertrichosis Terminalis, which caused black hair to appear all over her body to the point that it reached her ears and nose in an unnatural way. Theodore Lint in the United States of America proposed marriage to her.; This was aimed at pushing her to work in shows aimed at scaring people, and she was called the ugliest woman in the world, but she was distinguished by her beautiful voice and her taste for music and dancing، In addition to speaking three languages. 7_the story of cows Cows in Switzerland have the rights of a citizen, as a birth certificate is issued to them, and in the event of their death, the Swiss authority undertakes to investigate the causes of their death as if they were a human being 8_ Roy Sullivan Anti-Thunderbolt Roy Sullivan was the national park ranger The state of Virginia, who died by suicide at the age of 71 in 1983 from a gunshot wound, after being rejected by a girl he loved dearly. Even here there is nothing surprising, but this Sullivan broke the Guinness World Record as the person most struck by lightning in history, and every time he miraculously survived. The first time this happened was in 1942 when he was a child. Then in 1969, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1976 and the last thunderbolt in 1977. This situation is considered even more strange if we know that the probability of exposure to lightning is 4.15 in 1 billion or a trillion years! 9_rainer is the only person in history who was a dwarf and a giant at the same time. Born in Austria. In 1917 he was tested to join the army, but it was too short to join. During the test, his height was measured at 4 feet 6.3 inches at the age of 18. And 4 feet 8.3 inches by age 19. After that, as a result of a tumor in the pituitary gland, it was growing significantly and rapidly. In 1930, Adam Rainer underwent surgical intervention, after which he measured his height at 6 feet 9.1 inches, which caused him a curvature in his spine . Due to the failure of the operation, he died in 1950 at the age of 7 feet 8 inches and weighing 241 pounds. 10_ The next person on our list is a man who appears to have come out of an ancient mythological book. His name was Li Qingyueen, and he is probably the man who lived the most on this planet, as he was 256 years old. However, there is no conclusive evidence of Yuen's longevity .Yuen himself claimed to have been born in 1736 while disputed records indicate 1677. It was not possible to determine his true date of birth when Li was asked about his secret, Li Qingyueen replied: "Keep a calm heart, sit like a turtle, walk wonderfully like a dove and sleep like a dog" Some said he buried 23 wives when he died ، He lives with his wife, number twenty-four, at the age of 60, and has grandchildren from eleven generations. In 1930, Professor Wu Zhong of Chengtu University found records that the Chinese imperial government had congratulated Li Qing in 1827 on his birthday.
By Mosap Homa2 years ago in Chapters
Old Enough; Surviving Summer
Pearl's house has different rules than me and Paw-Paw's, we must try our best to sit still and not bother Pearl's in and out family unless they say something to us first. Cousins, uncles, old feeble looking blood family strolled through like ants on watermelon. Clara and I sip our cold sweet tea on the living room floor and gobble up vanilla wafers pretending to like playing Old Maids while whispering about stuff we overhear.
By ROCK aka Andrea Polla (Simmons)2 years ago in Chapters
Love will Never Be Destroyed In An Explosion
In the bustling city of Gaza, where life is always a mixture of resilience and hope, lived two young lovers, Yasmin and Ahmad. They had known each other since childhood, growing up in the same neighborhood, their lives intertwined by the narrow, crowded streets and the constant backdrop of uncertainty.
By Umi Laelatil Choeriyah2 years ago in Chapters
Old Enough
As you know I am all about adventure, new places, faces and a lover of secrets; meeting Pearl's niece Clara has been so far the best part of summer, maybe even my life. We did exactly as Pearl said, "Ya'll go play", which is a grown ups code for skedaddle. Skedaddling we did. I had never seen a girl my age with eyes so dark it was hard to tell where the dot in the middle was; Clara had eight braids in her long, shiny black hair with many colourful beads and ribbons to make her easy to find when she ran off ahead of me. First thing she did was laugh at me when I kicked off my shoes, "You're gonna be all cut up with them little pink feet down here!" I wondered what down here meant as I tried to keep up with my newly introduced playmate. I ran back to the porch and put my sneakers back on, unsure what might be cutting me up. "You're the first white girl Aunt Pearl brought home; probably the first white girl in this whole part of town except for bad news kind." I slowed down as I had a side ache from running, sweat was pouring down my red, freckled face, I asked Clara what "bad news" white girls was. She said, "they ain't girls like you, grownups I mean, always poking 'round seeing if we are living right." Hmm. "What is living right?" I guess I was poking 'round, too. As we stepped over broken glass, trash and passed some men drinking on the curb out of bottles in paper bags I thought of Hank the hobo, train jumpers and wondered if they was living right. Probably not. I sorted this conclusion in my mind as if they were living clean then I would likely not be told not to hang around the train tracks. Clara continued, "white women come and look around to see if we are living clean in our houses, if we are we get to stay, if we aren't they give us some situations that need to be fixed or they might for example take a girl like me and put me in a foster home." Of course I asked what a foster home was. Clara said it was a place for kids who didn't have anybody home takin' good care of them. I started to get scared; why did Paw-Paw send me off with Pearl? Were we not living clean? Was he really giving me away to Pearl until some white woman came to fetch me here? I started to cry. "What's wrong with you May? Why you crying like a baby right here on the street?" I looked into her mysterious, spacious eyes, filled with years of memories I didn't have or know and wondered if my heart was too soft like my pink feet. "Aww, now stop, stop right now, hear me May?" I had a mind to run as fast as I could back to the house but then the most amazing thing ever happened. "What you need is a blood-brother, in our case, a blood-sister; let's fix this problem now so when you feel sad some of me will rub off into your head and toughen you up. C'mon!" Clara ran toward the backyard where we'd started our day together and then motioned for me to go into some shady spot under some scrawny trees. "Sit down; I'll get what we need. I squatted in the poky weeds, grateful to be off the boiling hot street. I followed Clara's eyes as she plucked little twigs then cast them away as if they weren't good enough, then I heard an "ah-ha!". "Gimme your wrist." of course I asked which one, "don't matter", so I held out my left wrist while she explained that our ritual was going to hurt just a little but would keep us safe from foster homes. She first ran a sharp stick across her chestnut coloured inner wrist and bits of blood appeared. "You can can do your own or I can do it for you"; I opted for Clara to do it as it was her idea. "Wait!" she barked, "Are you a bleeder? Cause I don't want you to die!" Now I felt more fright than curiosity, am I a bleeder? I shook my head no as I really didn't want to go to a foster home. Dying seemed like a slim chance considering I had skinned my knees, elbows and had sure had my share of childhood damage thus far and survived. "Okay, here we go May. No turnin' back." Clara ran the stick harshly across my pale, inner wrist and blood trickled out; she then took my wrist and pressed it into hers, our blood mixing together so we could be each others protectors and sisters for life. She gave me a big magnolia leaf and told me to wipe my wrist. As we walked toward the house Pearl came to the side door smiling. "Tea for two?" ~
By ROCK aka Andrea Polla (Simmons)2 years ago in Chapters
