Around the Bend: Promises, Promises

"Yeah?" said Mick.

"So the gods should have let the king know they were going to give him exactly what he wanted."

"The king should have known they were going to rip him off." I said.

"I give up!" said Lefty.

"I remember," said grandpa suddenly entering our discussion, "When I was about your age ... I made a foolish promise too."

Amazing. All this time and I'd forgotten he was there. He must have been listening right through.

"Not one of your 'When I was a boy' stories!" I said.

"Yes, its another one of those," grandpa said, chuckling. "I was with my friends, in the house, just like you three are today. That was nearly eighty years ago. My word, doesn't time fly! It seems like only yesterday.

"We were talking, like you are, about promises. It got quite heated too, till we were shouting, like you boys are. I said some stupid thing like "I promise to marry the next thing that comes through the front door!"

"You see, you're all laughing at me, but I didn't think it was such a foolish idea, because, I'd seen someone coming up the street, through a chink in the window. It was a girl I'd had a crush on for years. She was prettier than a butterfly! Just thinking about her made my heart jump about! Anyway, she was coming to our house, to play with my sister. She never seemed to notice me, but I never missed her... and now she was coming to our house, so I said "I promise to marry the next thing that comes through the front door," expecting it to be her.

"Well, it looked like I was on a winning streak with this one, but just like that king Midas feller, my plans were totally mucked up. Just as the girl of my dreams knocked on the door, my kid sister - she was about five years old at the time - dropped something through the letterbox slot.

This is for you," she said, "Mum told me I had to share them."