three little stories

We meant to come back into town to watch fireworks from the top of my building, but the fire took a long time to start, which is what happens when you try to make it using a bow and a spindle, and so the s'mores were not ready until nearly 9:30 and the fireworks started at 10-ish. So we did what any logical people would do: we fired up the bucket truck and, one at a time, we rode to the top of the arc of the bucket and watched all the fireworks in a 360 degree span. When it was my turn, I rode up tremulously, clinging to the edge of the bucket, afraid of mechanical malfunctions sending me tumbling 55 feet to the ground. I don't mind heights, but falling is a fear. At the top, after only seconds, I called down, "Hello? Hello? I would like to come down now," but when the bucket touched down on the cab of the truck, I asked to be sent back up, now confident that it would hold. I stood 55 feet up in the air, dangling in a little bucket, turning around and around to watch a row of fireworks to the north and the sky lighting up like lightning to the east where the fireworks were just beyond a hill, and the sporadic flashes to the west and south.

...

Three little girls had a lemonade stand on a corner. I was half a block away when they started calling, "Lemonade!" The little boy a few feet in front of me, running back to join them, said, "I KNOW there is lemonade."

"Not you!" they called. "Her! Lemonade!"

I bought a big glass of strawberry lemonade for 50 cents, and wished them good luck with their sales. "Thank you for choosing ***, ***, and ***'s lemonade!" one called after me, as if my lemonade stand options were numerous.

...

A man stood at the front door of a big old house, holding open the screen door and talking to the dog just inside the glass door behind. "Prince William! Tell them that I'm here! Tell them that I'm here! Bark! Just bark, so they know I'm here!"

It took me a few minutes, walking by, to figure out what he was saying, and that he was actually begging the dog to bark (that "Prince William" part threw me off).

Finally he started barking himself. "Bark! Arf! Arf! Bark! Bark so they know I'm here! Arf! Arf!" and finally the dog responded with a high-pitched yapping "Erf! Erf! ErfErfErfErf!"