The Rest of the Story

Got a quick, early start this morning with breakfast and an episode of Perfect Strangers from the fourth season. Larry and Balki hold a Halloween party to watch a 12-hour horror movie marathon, but Larry's the only one who stays up for the whole show. He ends up having a nightmare about Balki being an alien who's bent on conquering the planet!

Spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon finally finishing out my current fanfic. The summer ends with Vader - now calling himself Adam Walker again - turning himself in to Officer Madine and the Ocean View Police. Even if he saved Luke, he still killed people, including his boss, not to mention took part in Palpatine's wave of arson. He knows everything about his boss' dirty dealings and is willing to state evidence.

Everyone else returns to the Cottages to watch the Labor Day fireworks. Hank tells Leia he and Charlie will take her to Drexel to catch up with classes. Luke will remain with his uncle until his hand's healed and he's able to join the Coast Guard. Lance and Nino will return to Bespin Island to sell the Cloud City Club. All of the kids are going back to school the next day. The money from the surfing contest, the Boat Pageant, and hocking the trophy and Leia's fancy Atlantic City outfit was more than enough to pay for the Cottages.

We fade in on Luke Walker in June of 2015 relating the story to his adopted daughter Rey, Rey's friend Finn, and a now-adult Poe Dameron. Luke inherited the cottages and Ben Kenobi's surfboard collection after his uncle passed away and he left the Coast Guard. Leia is now the Governor of Pennsylvania. She and Hank married, but broke up after their son Ben turned to robbery and arson. Luke and the kids are hoping to hold a dinner for the two of them to talk their problems over and rekindle their marriage.

Poe's working in his father's boardwalk surf store with his friend Snap. Yoda passed away of old age in the mid-80's. Davy Wicket writes sci-fi novels; Lance Callahan manages the Cantino Bright Club, the new incarnation of the Desert Sun Casino. Hank and Hera are still fishing with their respective crews. Adam Walker got out of prison early for good behavior. He briefly told his siblings he was moving to the West Coast, then vanished without a trace. No one's seen or heard from him since.

The story ends with Luke bequeathing Twilight, Adam's original blue surfboard from the 1960's, to Rey. She immediately wants Luke to show her all the moves that Ben and Yoda taught him. He races her and the three boys to the water, giving his beloved Cottages one final look before hurrying after them.

Whew! At over 95,000 words, that was my second novel, and my first really adult piece of work. Needless to say, after two very long fics in a row, it'll be a while before I write anything this daunting again! I'll be catching up on novellas (short chapter stories), fairy tales, and short stories for the rest of this year and likely through the winter.

At any rate, here's The Summer Strikes Back, currently available at my writing blog and Archive of Our Own:

The Summer Strikes Back at Writer's Desk By the Riverside
The Summer Strikes Back at Archive of Our Own

It took me so long to finish the story, I barely had enough time to eat lunch, change, and rush out the door to work. As it turned out, the rush probably wasn't necessary. We were only slightly busier than yesterday. I did have some trouble early-on. I tried to do the bathrooms when I arrived, only to be constantly interrupted with helping customers or doing returns. After that, I had no problems. We were so dead, I was mainly either shelving the few remaining returns or doing carts. Once again, it was much too nice to be shopping, warm, breezy, and dry, probably in the mid-70's.

After I got off work, I thought I deserved a treat. Headed to the shopping center behind the Acme to have dinner at Tu Se Bella's, creators of South Jersey's most creative pizza. It was just past 6 when I strolled up to their counter. There was a line of people picking up pies, hoagies, and pasta dishes. I opted for a slice of shrimp-spinach-tomato, a slice with ricotta and sweet potato fries, and a bottle of Dr. Pepper. I settled down at the table by the front window to wait for dinner.

While the shrimp and vegetable slice wasn't bad, the sweet potato fries pizza was amazing. Who knew strips of sweet potato, blobs of ricotta, enough mozzarella to start a dairy farm, and what I believe to be a cream-based sauce would work so well together? It was decadent, but utterly delicious.

Headed back to work after I ate to do a little grocery shopping. Needed to restock sugar, buttermilk, peanut butter, pasta, I Can't Believe It's Not Butter (had an online coupon for that), skim milk, and yogurt. Didn't desperately need cereal, but Quaker's brands were on a good sale, and I wanted to get the Pumpkin Spice Life again before that season ends. They were having one of their occasional "buck a bag" produce sale. The price was too good to resist; grabbed celery, a bag of spinach, mushrooms, those tasty rice-pea snacks I had a few months ago, and a bag of Seneca cinnamon dried apple chips. Found a new brush, hair bands, and a bottle of Acme's generic allergy medicine for great prices on the clearance racks.

My schedule next week is pretty much par for the course for the time of year. Slightly fewer hours, and all in the afternoon this time. Tuesday and next Friday off, Tuesday for counseling.

Went straight in the shower as soon as I got home and put everything away. Oh, and incidentally, at press time, Charlie still isn't around. Haven't seen him for almost a month. Someone did take out the air conditioner a few days ago, though, probably his father.