Ending

We would like to begin today with a suggestion for those of you who comment on our blog (and those of you who don't but should).
But, before we begin with that, we shall begin with this. We would like to give credit where credit is due to Jake for eating the cake with the black frosting. For those of us who witnessed this, it was great, and for those who didn't, you missed out.
That is the end of the interruption to the beginning of today's post. Back to the suggestion: When you make a comment, you might think of something you would like to read about in our blog. If you make a good suggestion we will consider it and discuss our thoughts, feelings, and even future actions on your subject. If you don't make a good suggestion, we will of course publicly humiliate you for all the world to see. So, if you feel so bold, get to writing.


And now, the rest of the story:
That evening, after a good long run on the treadmill, Katie went into the bathroom to take a late in the day shower. A moment not too long after this, Amanda walked into the apartment. As you may remember, our two main characters last left each other in not the best of terms. They had quarreled that morning; nothing had yet been resolved, and Amanda felt a bit hesitant to talk to Katie, not knowing if she'd still be angry with her. Hearing the shower running, Amanda thought, Hmm, Katie must be in the shower. If Katie had heard Amanda's thoughts€, she might have said, rather sarcastically,"You're the smartest!" and their tiff may have been further deepened. Thankfully, Katie didn't know how to read minds, so Amanda was allowed to keep her thoughts, obvious as they may be, to herself.

Kicking her shoes off, Amanda turned on an episode of Robin Hood of the BBC, and started making some taco salad, knowing the combination would be a sure fire way to win over her roommate, and hopefully put to rest the early morning's harsh words.

Deep in the heart of the bathroom, Katie suddenly screamed. Amanda, greatly concerned, ran to the bathroom door to find out what had caused Katie's shriek. Knocking loudly, Amanda yelled, "Katie?! Are you okay?"

Katie's voice came through the thin bathroom door, "I just read on the white board in here that the giraffe vomited. That's disgusting."

"Oh. I thought you had died or perhaps been hurt. But, you're fine, though?"

"Yes. But can a giraffe vomit? I mean, look at their necks. They'd have to puke it all the way up their throat, and out their mouth. That'd have to be some strong reflexive throat muscles."

Amanda smiled. It seemed that Katie wasn't hurt and, from the light hearted tone Katie was taking, that their friendship was on the mend. "Good point. By the way, I'm making. . . " Amanda was about to say "By the way, I'm making taco salad for us to eat for dinner while we watch an Episode of BBC Robin Hood," but before she could finish, Katie let out another, only more shriekier and much louder than before, cry of alarm.

"Katie?!" Amanda gripped the door knob to the bathroom.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" came Katie's reply, along with the sound of spraying water. Seeing there was nothing she could do for her friend from the hallway, Amanda burst into the tiny bathroom. What she saw startled her beyond what any story of an animal with an extremely long neck upchucking could do.

The faucet was on full blast, so high powered that the water in the sink shot up and into Katie's face. Katie, in her lovely, blue fleece robe that her mother had given her for Christmas, was unable to see to move away from the bursting water, and because of this, was slowly being drowned in her own bathroom.

Amanda, not aware that the faucet seethed with murderous intentions, reached towards the nozzles to turn off the water, but as she did so, the faucet increased the pressure coming through its mouth (for that is what the spout is to a faucet--its mouth), and hit Amanda in the face, full force, as well as the bathroom door, slamming it shut, keeping both girls from escaping.

The two roommates struggled to shield their faces from the pounding water coming at them from their bathroom sink (more accurately, their bathroom faucet) without any success.

Feeling it was winning the battle rather easily, and enjoying this feeling of victory, the faucet smiled to itself (which it was able to do while spurting water all over the two roommates, for a faucet never closes its mouth, not even to chew--rude, yes indeed, but true--because a faucet has no nasal passages, and cannot breathe if it doesn't keep its mouth open). The faucet thought darkly, Now, I will be able to have peace and quiet, without blow dryers, power outages, and yelling voices in the morning. I have defeated the two who have invaded my place of dwelling, and I shall live on as the most intelligent. . ." The faucet, who was in the middle of thinking, "as the most intelligent, bilingual water faucet of them all," felt its mouth suddenly clogged, and the water, which had been spewing forth in such strong gusts, unable to come forth any more.

Amanda and Katie, their eyes still blinded by the onslaught of water that had been aimed at their faces, squinted at each other.

"Kate, was that you who stopped the water?" Amanda pulled the collar of her shirt up to wipe her dripping eyes, which did little to dry anything, considering it was as completely drenched as the rest of her.

"No. What the heck happened? I was in here, getting ready to blow dry my hair, when, without any warning, I got a face full of water, and I couldn't see or breathe."

"I don't know," Amanda bent over the sink, and eyed the faucet carefully. "But look," she said pointing at something hanging out of the faucet.

Katie leaned closer to the sink, and saw what Amanda had first noticed. The cord to the hair dryer that she'd been about to use, but had not yet plugged in, was folded over and stuck inside the faucet's mouth.

"How in the crap did that happen?" Katie asked, as she grabbed both the cold and hot water taps and turned them all the way off. "There's no way the cord could have made it's way in there while that water was blasting at us. The pressure was so freaking strong."

Nodding in agreement, Amanda reached under the sink and turned off the water valve, afraid of what would happen if the blow dryer slipped out of its current place of water-stoppage. "I don't know how, but thank goodness it did, or who knows what would have happened. I think I'll go call maintenance. You'd better not stay in here, just in case, until someone comes to fix it. How about some taco salad and Robin Hood?" Both roommates left the bathroom together, thinking how blessed they were that by some fluke, their lives had been saved by an electric hair dryer.

But, unbeknown to them, that "fluke" of a hair dryer had been sitting on the counter, next to the bathroom sink all day listening to the faucet murmur its plans to kill both girls that evening. Not being the violent type, and also having had time to grow fond of the girls (since the day the electricity had gone out and rendered Katie's old hair dryer useless, and they'd both started sharing Amanda's), this royal blue hair dryer had decided$€€€it's duty was to protect the unsuspecting duo from being killed by The Killer (as the faucet was known in Mid-World), and had kept it's guard up all day and into the evening, ready to do what was needed to prevent any harm from being done to the two girls. As the hair dryer hung with it's cord in the faucet's dead mouth (for the faucet had suffocated to death, having no way to breath with it's mouth completely stuffed, and no nasal passage for air to flow through), it thought sadly, but proudly, how the two roommates would never know how it'd saved their lives.

As Amanda and Katie watched "Who Shot the Sheriff?", while eating a bowl full of lettuce and taco meat with salsa and sour cream with cheddar cheese, the apartment's emergency maintenance man changed the water fixture in their bathroom sink. The new faucet slid gently into place, as the old one lay on the floor, unmoving. Coming out of the bathroom, the maintenance guy brought out the fixture pieces, including the dead faucet. "Well, I got this one off, and put in the new one. Don't know why it acted all funny. I think the knobs were lose or something. Your water pressure is fine now, and I don't think you have anything more to worry about. Anyhow, sorry 'bout this mess. For your trouble, we'll get the ozone machine back here for you to keep, so the cigarette smell in the bathroom will be taken care of for good. It's the least we can do after this mayhem. " He walked towards the door, and then stopped, and added, "Oh, I couldn't get your hair dyer out of the spout. I had to cut the cord. We'll pay for a new one of those. It was stuck in there really good. You must have pushed hard to get it in there. Real genius move. Don't know what else would have worked quite so well." He laid the hair dryer and the sliced cord on the brown corduroy ottoman in the living room and left.

Amanda and Katie looked at the hair dryer for a moment, both wondering again how in the world it had gotten stuffed into the spigot (which is another name for faucet, but not a very nice one).

"Want to go to Costco and get another hair dryer tomorrow night?" Katie asked Amanda, as she started on a cottage cheese cup.

"Sure. I want to see if they have a green one."

"Cool. I liked the black one I had awhile back. I think I'll see if they have one like it."

Amanda smiled sadly, and turned back to the TV, "You know, I almost feel guilty getting another hair dryer, though. It's kind of like this one saved our lives."

Katie tilted her head to the side for a moment, considering what Amanda said, "Yeah, you're right. You know what, I wonder if someone could fix this one. I mean, that might sound silly, but what do you think?"

"Yeah, let's ask our dads or someone. I'm sure it can be done. And it's not silly. I think it's quite fitting."

Two days later, the two roommates were able to mend their blue hair dryer that had indeed saved their lives, but it never quite worked the same way as before the incident with the murderous faucet. So, they had gone to Costco and bought a black one and a green one for everyday use. The roommates never threw away the royal blue hair dryer, though. It sat on the side of the sink, waiting for another day, when it might be needed again to save their lives.

The End of Was there a Journey, After All? by Amanda Johnson and Katherine Schnose.

Well, good and faithful readers, I hope you enjoyed that tale. Katie seemed to be enjoying it while I typed it, but soon fell asleep. I'm not sure if that is a sign of the lack of interestingness in the story, but alas, I have no way of knowing now that she's gone to bed. But she gave me her blessing to post--so, no solo posting going on tonight! Have a red Valentine's Day. Goodnight all.

(One last comment: On my way to bed after writing this, I was frightened by the darkened bathroom as I passed it by. For a brief moment, I wondered why, and then remembered what I had just been doing, and thought, wow, I've gone and scared myself. Well done to bravery. I'll admit it, my bedroom door is closed tightly now. You can never be too careful when there are killer faucets about.)