There was only half a worm in the apple.

At first, Judy didn't quite comprehend what

this meant. "Why would only half a worm be living in an apple?" she wondered. And
then it dawned on her. Judy quickly spit out the bite she had just taken expecting to
see the other half of the worm. It ended up being much worse than that.
Dave wasn't exactly sure how he had ended up in this predicament. He ran through
all the events that had lead to this current situation and it still didn't make sense. He
wanted to spend some time to try and make sense of it all, but he had higher
priorities at the moment. The first was how to get out of his current situation of being
naked in a tree with snow falling all around and no way for him to get down.
Matt told her to reach for the stars, but Veronica thought it was the most ridiculous
advice she'd ever received. Sure, it had been well-meaning when he said it, but she
didn't understand why anyone would want to suggest something that would literally
kill you if you actually managed to achieve it.
I've rented a car in Las Vegas and have reserved a hotel in Twentynine Palms which
is just north of Joshua Tree. We'll drive from Las Vegas through Mojave National
Preserve and possibly do a short hike on our way down. Then spend all day on
Monday at Joshua Tree. We can decide the next morning if we want to do more in
Joshua Tree or Mojave before we head back.
It wasn't quite yet time to panic. There was still time to salvage the situation. At least
that is what she was telling himself. The reality was that it was time to panic and
there wasn't time to salvage the situation, but he continued to delude himself into
believing there was.
He wondered if he should disclose the truth to his friends. It would be a risky move.
Yes, the truth would make things a lot easier if they all stayed on the same page, but
the truth might fracture the group leaving everything in even more of a mess than it
was not telling the truth. It was time to decide which way to go.
The piano sat silently in the corner of the room. Nobody could remember the last
time it had been played. The little girl walked up to it and hit a few of the keys. The
sound of the piano rang throughout the house for the first time in years. In the
upstairs room, confined to her bed, the owner of the house had tears in her eyes.
It had been a late night. To be more correct, it had been an early morning. It was
now 3:00 AM and George was just getting home. He wasn't sure if it had been worth
it. He was supposed to have been finished by 10:00 PM, but his boss had implored
him to stay and help when it was clear they weren't going to meet the 10:00 PM
target time. So, he had stayed an extra 5 hours and lost a good night's sleep for
something he didn't really believe in, but he did anyway because he was afraid if he
refused he might lose his job.
My pincher collar is snapped on. Then comes the electric zapper collar. Finally, my
purple at-home collar is taken off and I know I’m going for a walk to the dog park. I’m
so excited to see my friends. I hope Spike or Thunder are there already. They're the
most fun to chase and tumble with. My human is pretty strict with me. I’m only
allowed on the grass and not on the sidewalks. I think she’s afraid I’m going to jump
on the other humans. I don’t understand why everyone else gets to jump on the
benches and run wild on the sidewalks. They don’t listen to their humans. I know I
could ignore mine but if I do she may zap me and it’s just not worth it. She probably
wouldn’t let me back at the dog park if I didn’t listen to her. I just love the dog park.
She patiently waited for his number to be called. She had no desire to be there, but
her mom had insisted that she go. She's resisted at first, but over time she realized it
was simply easier to appease her and go. Mom tended to be that way. She would
 keep insisting until you wore down and did what she wanted. So, here she sat,
patiently waiting for her number to be called.
There were a variety of ways to win the game. James had played it long enough to
know most of them and he could see what his opponent was trying to do. There was
a simple counterattack that James could use and the game should be his. He began
deploying it with the confidence of a veteran player who had been in this situation a
thousand times in the past. So, it was with great surprise when his opponent used a
move he had never before seen or anticipated to easily defeat him in the game.
He stepped away from the mic. This was the best take he had done so far, but
something seemed missing. Then it struck him all at once. Visuals ran in front of his
eyes and music rang in his ears. His eager fingers went to work in an attempt to
capture his thoughts hoping the results would produce something that was at least
half their glory.
The red ball sat proudly at the top of the toybox. It had been the last to be played
with and anticipated it would be the next as well. The other toys grumbled beneath.
At one time each had held the spot of the red ball, but over time they had sunk
deeper and deeper into the toy box.
The trees, therefore, must be such old and primitive techniques that they thought
nothing of them, deeming them so inconsequential that even savages like us would
know of them and not be suspicious. At that, they probably didn't have too much time
after they detected us orbiting and intending to land. And if that were true, there
could be only one place where their civilization was hidden.
He couldn't remember exactly where he had read it, but he was sure that he had.
The fact that she didn't believe him was quite frustrating as he began to search the
Internet to find the article. It wasn't as if it was something that seemed impossible.
Yet she insisted on always seeing the source whenever he stated a fact.
There were two things that were important to Tracey. The first was her dog. Anyone
that had ever met Tracey knew how much she loved her dog. Most would say that
she treated it as her child. The dog went everywhere with her and it had been her
best friend for the past five years. The second thing that was important to Tracey,
however, would be a lot more surprising to most people.
They decided to find the end of the rainbow. While they hoped they would find a pot
of gold, neither of them truly believed that the mythical pot would actually be there.
Nor did they believe they could actually find the end of the rainbow. Still, it seemed
like a fun activity for the day, and pictures of them chasing rainbows would look great
on their Instagram accounts. They would have never believed they would actually
find the end of a rainbow, and when they did, what they actually found there.
It was going to rain. The weather forecast didn't say that, but the steel plate in his hip
did. He had learned over the years to trust his hip over the weatherman. It was going
to rain, so he better get outside and prepare.
She had a terrible habit o comparing her life to others. She realized that their life
experiences were completely different than her own and that she saw only what they
wanted her to see, but that didn't matter. She still compared herself and yearned for
what she thought they had and she didn't.
It all started with the computer. Had he known what was to follow, he would have
never logged on that day. But the truth was there was no way to know what was
about to happen. So Dave pressed the start button, the computer booted up, the
screen came alive, and everything Dave knew to be true no longer was.