John Nickelson is having a bad day. He is stuck in this dead
end job as an Elvis impersonator no thanks to his genetics, and his father
pushing little Johnny to put on shows for the neighbors as “Lil’ Elvis, the
golden years.” It’s a safe assumption to believe that little Johnny never got
any action from any of the girls on the street. His fame grew locally and by
the time he had graduated high school he was a bit of a celebrity. He had been
featured on three news shows.
The problem was that no one would hire him outside of town.
His father had been banking on him being a famous impersonator, and never
taught him any life lessons and didn’t believe in school education. Johnny
couldn’t read above a fifth grade level.
Johnny’s favorite thing to do, on his days off, was go to
the local library and sit behind the children’s section during story time. He
loved to hear all about the adventures all of the characters in the books went
on and more so how much joy it brought to the children. In fact, he had a
pretty serious crush on the children’s librarian who everyone called Miss Nan.
He knows that if he writes a world famous children’s book, that one day she
would read it to the class and he would be able to come out of hiding and
introduce himself. Sure, she knew him as Elvis, but she never met the real John
Nickelson.
When story hour is over he secretly follows Miss Nan to the
local café where she sips her mocha café mmmmmlatta while reading her big kid
book, as he referred to it. He didn’t know what it said, but there was a
picture of a really good looking man holding a beautiful woman, so he got the
idea.
Of course, just his luck, those mean old boggarts had to
choose this moment to crash his party. They went right up to him reminding him
of the money he owed from the last poker match. He was able to talk them into a
double or nothing match right here right now.
Maybe he could beat them, and impress Miss Nan, and then with the money he
would be sure to win, he could take them to a movie! Money up front, the
boggarts said.
Oh man those boggarts were the worst. Miss Nan’s attention
was peaked, and he didn’t have more than two dollars to his name, but he did
have.. no he couldn’t…. well… for Miss Nan? And anyway it isn’t like he was
going to lose this time. Johnny pulled out his golden flashlight. It was the
first prize he won impersonating Elvis, and a professional impersonator of
Elvis gave it to him himself! The real impersonator had met Elvis in real life!
So this was like touching the hand, of the man, who touched real Elvis’ hand,
and this golden flashlight. He left him with these words, “Hunka hunka burning
light. Don’t ever be left in the dark kid.”
The reflection of light off of the golden flashlight blinded
the boggarts with awe. They accepted the challenge greedily, and so the match
began.
(Now the fun really
begins, choose your own adventure ending. What will happen is slightly up to
you. If you are a lovey dovey happy go lucky, happy endings or bust type a
guy/girl then go to A. If you are one of those loves-to-see other people have
worse lives than them types go to B. And if you are one of those wishy washy
meh, I could go either way sorts go to C.
A. The Greatest Happiest Bestest Ending that
Little Johnny Could Ever Ask For
This was the most high stakes poker match
this town had ever seen. People began pouring into the little coffee shop just
to try to sneak a peak of a group of grisly boggarts sharing one hand of cards
against that famous local “Little Johnny.” Little did we know that the coffee
shop was about to go out of business because of the big bad star bucks
corporation buying up the space around it to open a mega den of mediocre coffee
to the masses. This sudden burst of business really saved the day for this
coffee shop to remain in business for at least another month!
John’s father made special arrangements
with his nursing care facility to have him, and his friends from the floor,
transported by the volunteer candy stripers just to see his famous son play.
His dad hadn’t left his facility in years on the count of depression and being
too sad to ever go feel the sun shine on his face again. Boy did that sun feel
good today! The air was crisp, the sun was high, and there was not one cloud on
the horizon.
After four grueling hours of serious card
throwing it came down to one last turn of the deck. It would be with this final
hand that Little Johnny would make his triumphant return into the lime light.
In the slowest possible toss of the card,
that some folks say lasted at least 45 minutes of the card soaring through the
air, Little Johnny held his breath and just looked deeply into the eyes of his
love Miss Nan who returned the electric gaze. In this moment he thought no
matter what he would finally ask out Miss Nan. He no longer wanted to be that
creepy guy in the book shelves spying on the story hour. He wanted to be
recognized as a man, a man who loved Miss Nan, and of course her story telling
magical ways.
The roaring crowd shook him from his locked
stare to see that, he in fact, as impossible as it was, having never won a hand
of poker once in his life, he had actually beaten the bogarts.
Those nasty heathens growled, and howled,
screamed and punched at each other sending blame around and around. The golden
flashlight never looked so golden. Johnny picked it up and waved it
triumphantly. He then went over to Miss Nan and dipped her like on the cover of
her book, and kissed here in front of the cheering crowd.
Oh Miss Nan, he said. Please call me Miss
Nan, she said. And he laughed. “Why don’t you come back to my place and read me
some bed time stories, while I tuck you in,” Miss Nan blushed.
A sprite older man interrupted the
smooching, “Little Johnny, my name is Max Wellington, and I would like to
co-write a book about you, what do you say?” Little Johnny could not believe
how much his luck had changed in one day. Johnny’s smiled spread in a funny
direction, with his lip curling just so“Yes. Why thank you, thank you very
much.” All his dreams came true.
B. For those anti happy endings folks….
This was the most high stakes poker match
this town had ever seen, played in a coffee shop. People didn’t even notice. On
more than one occasion near buy patrons told the group to be quiet, and to take
their business elsewhere. Little did we know that the coffee shop was about to
go out of business because of the big bad star bucks corporation buying up the
space around it to open a mega den of mediocre coffee to the masses. The few
customers that frequented this shop had had enough of this noise and left to
bring their green to star bucks.
The manager knew that if they didn’t have a
sudden surge today, this would be the shop’s last day. He started firing his
loyal employees one by one. Many of them were actually on parole, as the owner believed
in second chances and this was their last hope. This would mean they would have
to turn back to a life of crime, or worse go to jail for breaking parole.
John’s father heard the news from his
nurse, at the nursing home, who had just been at the coffee shop buying coffee
and cookies for her staff. His father knew how bad Little Johnny was at
everything but being Elvis, and his father also knew it was mostly his fault
for putting all this hunka-hunka eggs in one basket. The thought of his son losing
the only thing of value that the family had left, that golden flashlight, gave
him a massive heart attack and he died on the spot.
After four grueling hours of serious card
throwing it came down to one last turn of the deck. It would be with this final
hand that Little Johnny would make his triumphant return into the lime light or
suffer the dire consequences.
In the fastest possible toss of the card, Little
Johnny held his breath and tried to look deeply into the eyes of his love Miss
Nan. Miss Nan however was giving a serious seductive stair to one of the
bogarts. In this moment he thought no matter what he would finally ask out Miss
Nan, because maybe he was mistaken about who she was looking at. Maybe she was
near sighted and didn’t realize she wasn’t looking at him. He no longer wanted
to be that creepy guy in the book shelves spying on the story hour. He wanted
to be recognized as a man, a man who loved Miss Nan, and of course her story
telling magical ways.
The cackles of his enemies quickly snapped
him back into reality. He had just lost his golden flashlight. Worse yet, Miss
Nan was kissing a bogart! “Miss Nan, how could you, I thought, I thought maybe
you would want to go out with me?” But Miss Nan had other plans.
“Actually sir, you are under arrest, for
one count of illegal gambling, and 1097 counts of pedophilia. Sir we have
multiple witnesses who can attest to your spying on children every day for the
past three years. And we know for a fact that you do not read, as you have
never checked out a book. I’m not actually a librarian, I am an undercover homeland
security agent, who was assigned to this library because of you and your ties
to the boggarts.” Miss Nan said.
Two of the boggarts ripped away their skin
to reveal two other homeland security agents. How could they do that, the makeup
artist they used must be from that show Face Off. They put cuffs on Little Johnny
and took him away. Leaving his beautiful flashlight in the hands of Miss Nan. “I
am going to write a book and become famous,” she said, loudly so that John could
hear. But, but all he had ever wanted was to write a book.
C. For the inbetweeners.
This was the most high stakes poker match
this town had ever seen. People began pouring into the little coffee shop just
to try to sneak a peak of a group of grisly boggarts sharing one hand of cards
against that famous local “Little Johnny.” Little did we know that the coffee
shop was about to go out of business because of the big bad star bucks
corporation buying up the space around it to open a mega den of mediocre coffee
to the masses. This sudden burst of business really saved the day for this
coffee shop to remain in business for at least another week!
John’s father begged to make special
arrangements with his nursing care facility to have him, and his friends from
the floor, transported by the volunteer candy stripers just to see his famous
son play. His dad hadn’t left his facility in years on the count of depression
and being too sad to ever go feel the sun shine on his face again. Of course
the facility only allowed him to be taken by the janitor who was on his lunch
break, and making a coffee run for the group. But boy did that sun feel good
today! The air was crisp, the sun was high, and there was not one cloud on the
horizon.
After 45 grueling minutes of serious card
throwing it came down to one last turn of the deck. It would be with this final
hand that Little Johnny would make his triumphant return into the lime light or
suffer the miserable consequences.
In the slowest possible toss of the card,
that some folks say lasted at least 3 minutes of the card soaring through the
air, Little Johnny held his breath and just looked deeply into the eyes of his
love Miss Nan who returned the electric gaze for one second until she went back
to her book. In this moment he thought no matter what he would finally ask out
Miss Nan. He no longer wanted to be that creepy guy in the book shelves spying
on the story hour. He wanted to be recognized as a man, a man who loved Miss
Nan, and of course her story telling magical ways.
The roaring crowd shook him from his locked
stare to see that, he in fact, as impossible as it was, having never won a hand
of poker once in his life, had actually beaten the boggarts.
Those nasty heathens growled, and howled,
screamed and punched at each other sending blame around and around. The golden
flashlight never looked so golden. John’s
father stood up from his wheel chair and clasped his son on the back, while
holding his oxygen mask in the other hand. “Well done my boy, I knew you were
special.”
Johnny picked up his father and hugged him.
He then grabbed his golden flashlight and waved it triumphantly. He then went
over to Miss Nan and dipped her like on the cover of her book, and went to kiss
here in front of the cheering crowd. But she politely stopped him, and stood
back up just as her fiancée came into the café. He was in fact the model on the
cover of the book. That was why she was always reading those books he was
always on the cover. “This is my fiancée Raul,” said Miss Nan, John’s heart
sank, “and let me also introduce you to my twin sister Priscila. Johnny had
never seen anyone so perfect, and so beautiful… “Hi, I’m Priscila, it’s nice to
meet you.”
“Yes, Priscila is the brain of the family,
she is a big time literary editor.” Said Miss Nan.
“Well I also I teach adults how to read at
the youth center if you ever want to stop by. I never get to meet such handsome
men at work.” She winked.
“I would really like that. Thank you, thank
you very much.” Said John.
This was the best, worst, best day of Little
Johnny’s life.
(Hope you enjoyed it! --Samantha)
I loved this by the way, I was laughing. You do good at incorporating humor into your stories. And I have to choose the super happy ending!
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