I was cleaning up my desktop when I came across something I wrote last summer. I really loved this story and hoped Woman's World would too but, alas, it was not accepted. I thought I may as well post it here so someone reads it besides Patricia. LOL
When Ramona saw the lemonade stand manned by two little girls, she had to stop. Almost fifty years ago, she and her sister had spent several Saturdays one summer similarly occupied with a wooden stand that their father built them.
One of the little girls waved enthusiastically. Grabbing her wallet, Ramona got out of the car and approached the card table with a poster taped to it. The poster, decorated with big daisies and hand-drawn glasses of lemonade, said, “All profits go to the Halfway Home Shelter.”
“Boy, am I thirsty,” Ramona said.
“Then try our lemonade!” the younger girl exclaimed. She wore a pink T-shirt with a kitten on it.
The front screen door to the house opened and a handsome man about Ramona’s age, presumably the girls’ grandfather, came out.
“I’d love some lemonade,” Ramona said. “Especially since the money is going towards a good cause. What are your names? I’m Ramona.”
“I’m Olivia,” the one in pink said.
“I’m Grace. We raised twelve dollars yesterday, but we want to triple that today!”
“My granddaughters are nothing if not ambitious.” The man smiled as he laid one hand on each of the girls’ shoulders. Ramona noticed he wasn’t wearing a wedding ring. “I’m Tom,” he said, “Tom Richardson.”
Ramona liked the merry twinkle in his brown eyes and his short salt and pepper hair.
Grace tugged on Tom’s shirt. “If we’re going to triple our money, we need a fresh idea, Granddad,” she said.
“You know,” Ramona said, eyeing their canister of just-add-water mix. “I just happen to have lots of personal lemonade stand experience and I might be able to help you increase your sales.”
The girls gasped. “Please tell us! Please!”
Grinning, Tom met her gaze over their heads and all of Ramona’s nerve-endings zinged with awareness. Although her husband had passed nine years ago, she hadn’t been attracted to a man in ages.
“Let me taste the product first.”
She took a sip and nodded thoughtfully. “This is good, but we can make it much better. My grandmother made the best blueberry lemonade in the state. People came from miles around to get some. It was so good that the Queen of England herself bestowed the special title of ‘Duchess of Deliciousness’ upon her.”
The girls stared at her with wide eyes.
“I think I saw something about this on the nightly news. Didn’t the First Lady have her over for tea at the White House?” Tom asked, spontaneously adding to Ramona’s tall tale.
“I believe so,” Ramona said, stifling a laugh.
“Grandpa, let’s go buy some blueberries right now!” Grace said. Olivia nodded eagerly.
“Hold on,” Tom said. “I don’t think it’s as simple as just dropping blueberries in our lemonade.”
“It isn’t,” Ramona agreed. “If you want to make lemonade as good as Grandma Esther’s…”
“We do!” both girls exclaimed.
“You have to make it from scratch. Fresh lemons, fresh blueberries. You should put that on your sign, too. ‘Blueberry lemonade, made from scratch!’”
“Wait. Are you saying you’ll actually share the Duchess’ recipe with us?” Tom asked with exaggerated shock.
Ramona had to laugh. “Of course, I will. The Duchess was always generous with her recipes. I also happen to know of a blueberry farm where you can pick your own and get more for your money than at the grocery store.”
The girls clapped their hands in delight as their grandfather laid out a plan to go to the blueberry farm the next day, bright and early. “That way,” he said, “we can come back home, make the lemonade and be selling it by the time it gets hot and people get thirsty. In the meantime, you can make your new sign, like Ramona suggested.”
Brimming with excitement, the girls abandoned the stand and ran inside.
Tom chuckled. “Thank you so much, Ramona. I think your recipe will give this little enterprise a real kick in the pants.”
“My pleasure. The memories I have of selling lemonade with my sister are priceless.”
After getting his email address so she could send him the recipe, she turned to go, but Tom said, “Say, if you’re free tomorrow, would you like to come with us to the farm? And maybe help us with that first batch?”
Their eyes met and Ramona felt a thrill she hadn’t felt in a long time.
“I’d like nothing more,” she said, her heart filling with hope.
Photo by Amy Gizienski via Flickr cc license
8 comments:
What a cute summer story, Kate. Sorry WW passed on it, but so glad you put it here for us all to read. Love the idea of lemonade stand. The characters were wonderful.
Kate, this was such a fresh, crisp story full of love and even that nice touch of the promise of romance. I am so sorry that Woman's World evidently is no longer publishing the little romance stories of years past. Most of their stories now read like novel synopses, so one has to wonder if the print space has been contracted out not only to Harlequin but to more book publishers to advertise their brands. Such a disappointment to freelance writers and readers alike if this is true. It would be helpful if WW would let writers know exactly how limited their market is now. Are their editors listening?
Thanks, Pat! I'm glad you enjoyed it. Anonymous, I'm not sure that anyone has a contract with Woman's World other than Harlequin. You'll notice when it's a HQ story, the banner says Harlequin story instead of 5-minute romance. Unfortunately, we writers have little influence on what they publish. We can only try and hope for the best.
Such a well-written, rich story with elderly characters for a nice change. I like especially liked Ramona's nerve-endings zinging with awareness, a great way to describe her attraction. Well done. One of those, "Why didn't they like this one?" stories.
Kate, I haven't seen any of those Harlequin banners in at least a year, although some of the authors have been Harlequin authors with their books advertised at the bottom of the page. Tina Radcliffe knows one of the recently published Love Inspired authors and when she asked if her story was submitted through the publisher, she told her it went through the regular submission process.
Sorry about the story, they should have snapped it up!
Cute, sweet story, Kate! I enjoyed it and the funny interaction between the kids and the couple.
Thank you, Anonymous and Mary Ann. :)
Betsi, I must have been imagining that banner. I could have sworn I saw it in the past few months. Okay, I just looked at the past several months of photos I took of the stories and you're absolutely right. Attention police detectives! I would make a lousy eye witness. LOL
This is a great little story with good pacing and structure. PLUS the characters are well developed which is a huge accomplishment for the genre of flash fiction. I might have changed the title to THE DUCHESS OF DELICIOUS :) but chalk that up to all my years as an editor.
It might be worth your time, along with those who follow your blog, to research publications in the UK. They have a large number of magazines that publish short stories. Unlike so many Americans, the Brits are avid readers and their magazines hire experienced editors.
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