When Alex was 12 years old his mother passed away. His father quickly married another woman. Stella, who was always referred to as Madame, was his new stepmother. She had two children from a previous marriage, Margaret and Stacy. Only a year after his father got remarried, he too passed away in a tragic accident leaving Alex behind with his stepmother. Stella promised to take care of Alex and treat him like her one of own daughters when her husband passed away. Very quickly Alex learned that he was not welcome in his own home.

Sam's long hair and his refusal to cut it has caused him problems. His smart mouth hasn't helped. Attacked in the locker room by Leon, Sam defended himself and through luck or happenstance, left Leon out cold and bleeding on the floor...

2. I'm in so much trouble...

Sam is constantly in trouble for wearing his hair long. Really long. And it's beautiful hair. Cutting it would be bad luck for someone and leaving it long is bad luck for Sam...

“The parody is the last refuge of the frustrated writer. Parodies are what you write when you are associate editor of the Harvard Lampoon. The greater the work of literature, the easier the parody. The step up from writing parodies is writing on the wall above urinals.” - Ernest Hemmingway.

“Turnabout is fair play.” — Angela Rasch

The following parody has many references to Cary Grant and his movies. . .above and beyond the obvious. Should you get bored with this story, or if the story runs against your grain. . .use it as a puzzle. . .try to pick out all those references.

This story also contains several un-attributed quotes. We apologize for trying to be someone or something we’re not. We suspect the nature of the story supports this decision.

Here's a light-hearted bit of fluff I came up with the other day. Descriptions have deliberately been kept vague, both to keep it nice and short (so I had more chance of finishing it, rather than leaving it abandoned!) and to allow your imaginations to fill in the gaps.

Hot Water Helps You Clean
by Angela Rasch

I had just finished conditioning the oak woodwork in our twenty-year old home’s basement with Murphy Oil Soap when the doorbell rang. I scanned myself in the wall mirror and wished for the millionth time that my uniform fit me better. There’s only so much you can do to make a maid’s dress look natural on a forty-year old male body that weighs in excess of two hundred pounds, unless you make drastic changes. . .operations and hormones. I sighed . . . Once again considering things that could never happen.