Raven's Wordzzle Challenge #90

Raven's Wordzzle Challenge #90

love is a many splendored thing, trucks, inspector, symbols, rising, organic, liberation, costly, smug, naughty,

the nature of the beast, identical, charcoal, braggart, vacation

If you're new to my story, there is a Summary here.

The Slumber Party Mystery
Chapter 37 - Love is a many splendored thing


William, late on Saturday afternoon, was still stuck at the grocery store, unloading trucks and handling costly goods marked "organic" and with some strange symbols he took to be Chinese signs. His boss was just watching from behind his glass windows and acting inspector, looking very smug and not even rising from his chair. William in the meantime was getting naughty thoughts of practical jokes but realized that any such attempts would only get him into more trouble. Finally his hour of liberation came, and he was allowed to go home and watch the DVD he had rented: Love is a many splendored thing.

Diana was sitting in her room making a charcoal picture, but she had problems quite catching the nature of the beast she was drawing. In her head she could hear the voice of her friend Sandy saying: "All men are such braggarts!" Diana threw the picture aside and started on another identical one. It struck her that her vacation would soon be coming to an end and there were decisions to be made. 

Raven's Wordzzle Challenge # 89

Raven's Wordzzle Challenge # 89

officer, candid, drowning, turtles, sugar-coated, prospecting, shame on you, reclinder, luggage, brains, paragon of virtue, cats-in-the-cradle, swamp, sprinkles, garbage

The Slumber Party Mystery
Chapter 36 – Cat's Cradle

Getting home on Saturday evening, John Skittles called up his friend Turtles, who was also a police officer.

"To be quite candid with you, I don't understand what's happening," he complained. "I thought I was solving a mystery, and then suddenly I seem to be drowning in a sugar-coated romance instead."

"Sounds like interesting prospecting to me," said his friend. "Shame on you for moaning about it! You know you always fall in love with a good mystery. Perhaps this time the mystery has also fallen in love with you! I suggest you lean back in your recliner and put those Sherlock brains of yours to some good use for once. Try and figure out what it is about this girl that attracts you."

"I have no idea," said Skittles, still in a grumpy tone of voice. "She comes with such a lot of strange luggage. Her grandfather's house is only part of it. The place is a veritable swamp full of garbage, in some ways. She's hardly a paragon of virtue herself either. And she's not in love with me, she's in love with that doctor. She said so yesterday."

"Ah," said Turtles. "The cat's in the cradle, and sprinkles of jealousy on top."

"What?" said Skittles, irritably. "You know I'm no good at metaphors, you always end up having to explain them to me."

"This one is kind of hard to explain over the phone, John," said his friend. "Cat's cradle is an intricate game, and it takes the combined efforts of two people to sort it out."

Later in the evening, Turtles emailed this web page to his friend John Skittles:

http://www.ifyoulovetoread.com/book/chten_cats1105.htm

Raven's Wordzzle Challenge # 88

Raven's Wordzzle Challenge # 88

Cute, come with me to the Casbah, bloodhound, respiration, Facebook, Canada Geese, modern, gravity, spider webs, sea shells, curiosity killed the cat, charming Victorian, railroad tracks, tower, salt and pepper

The Slumber Party Mystery
Chapter 35 – A Curious Phone Call

What Skittles actually said to Diana when he asked her to have lunch with him was "Come with me to The Casbah", referring to the Algerian restaurant by that name a few blocks away from the Modern Arts Museum.

Diana, for some reason, said she thought it was very "cute" of him to say so. When he asked her why she said that, she just smiled and said "Curiosity killed the cat". He did not dare ask again. Then Diana asked if he was on Facebook. John said no, and she said no matter, she could show him how to set up an account – he would soon learn.

On their way out, they passed another work of art in the entrance hall.. Skittles found himself rather liking this one, which was called "Sea Shells and Spider Webs". At least he could see what was what in it.

The Casbah restaurant, as Skittles knew from before, was in a charming Victorian style building. On each of the tables, they had little tower-shaped containers for salt and pepper. Skittles had always liked those.

Just as they sat down, Diana's cell phone rang. Skittles listened anxiously to the part of the conversation that he could hear.

"What do you mean, respiration problems?!" she gasped to the person at the other end. Skittles immediately thought of her grandfather, and found his bloodhound police instincts aroused. This sounded like a situation of gravity that might be requiring their immediate presence back at the hospital.

However, what followed did not quite seem to fit.

"But what on earth was she doing on the railroad tracks?" said Diana.

After listening a while longer, she said "Okay, we'll talk more later," put the cell phone back into her handbag, and turned to Skittles with a deep sigh and tears in her eyes.

"That was about Puddles," she said. "It seems curiosity killed the cat for real this time. Apparently she was hit by a train while chasing Canada Geese along the tracks."

Skittles did not know what to say, but reached out over the table and patted her hand, rather clumsily.