There's something special about sharing a meal, I think it creates memories, strengths the  bonds and such. So mom and I sat there, enjoying our pizza. I could feel the ice starting to melt away. Mom had ordered a jumbo slice of cheese pizza. I had ordered a jumbo slice of pepperoni pizza. One thing I loved about Sbarro's pizza was it was the style, it was New York Style, meaning the slices were huge, like massive and thin enough for you to fold them in half like a sandwich. A gooey, greasy, cheesy, pepperoni sandwich, a tiny bite of heaven.

Once I left the library I wanted to go straight home. But like I said before I was craving a milkshake. So I placed the borrowed books into the wire basket of my bike and mounted it and then I started to ride. There was one thing I'd admired about Benton was the historic architecture of the town. The main street of the town was paved in interconnecting cobblestone and running down the center of the street was the trolley line. Now I've ridden the trolley once or twice, but the trolley was not free.

When you live in a town as small as Benton, your choices of entertainment are very limited, the more popular choices include the skating rink, the local movie theater, or if you were sixteen or older you could attend a popular teenage dance club that had just opened last spring in the countryside called “The Mill”. Most of those only opened once the sun had set. And most of those catered to the popular kids, or kids who had could get a ride or owned their own set of wheels.

So I was thirty minutes into my one hour shift of the kissing booth. And so far I had handed out no kisses. I thought the whole thing was a bust like the rest of the fair. I mean, when you think about it, it was nothing more than a thrown together event. Thirty minutes in and the cake-walk had run out of cake, the bobbing for apple's thing had run out of apples. And only the food booths seemed to be thriving, I guess when you consider the quality of the cafeteria food. Okay let me tell you about the cafeteria food, most of the time it was decent.

What happened when Linda left me? I don't know. I remember taking a deep breath and closing my eyes. I knew I was alone and I was facing a hostile crowd. The minutes turned to hours and slowly I started to sweat. The girl's running the thing had no remorse or empathy. I was treated like a number. One by one the girls in charge dressed us down, most boys shrugged it off. Most of them had been drafted into wearing a frilly gown and three inch heels. And once they completed their walk across the stage, many left.

The minute I uttered the word “Halloween” a sudden hush fell. Now, besides having a love for ghost stories, and gathering out in the woods to roast hot dogs, and make s'mores that decadent summer time treat that a heavenly blend of crunchy and sweet and gooey. Yes, beside having a love for ghost stories and good camp food, we've also had our fair share of real life paranormal encounters. I for example have been visited by the ghost of my late mother. Jamie is supposed to have been hunted by a demon, and Daisy's supposed to have the gift to see spirits.

when you live in a small town, you have to be creative when it comes to having fun. I was never really into football, but I do attend all the home football games at my high school. I really don't watch the game, I wander around the bleachers and around the grounds visiting with friends and chatting with people who might be from out of town. If there are no home games, then nine out of ten times I'll pester my sister or Heather to drive me out to the skating rink located just off Highway 16 three miles from town.

There is something special about sharing a meal with somebody. When you share a common meal with somebody a bond is formed. And existing bonds become stronger. It's that reason that when me and my friends gather out in the woods, I always have us share a simple meal. Most of the time it's a snack, like somebody would bake cookies or something. Other times we'll go the whole hog and have a little cook-out in the woods. If we have a cookout, you know then there's going to at least three or four good stories told that night.

I took a deep breath and tossed myself down upon my bed and rolled over onto my back. As far as I was concerned, my plans for the weekend had been smashed like an egg being dropped down on the ground. Sheets of rain started to pelt my bedroom window pane. It was one of those late summer downpours that are all too common in my region. It was not only rain, but lightning and thunder. Every so often a loud boom would echo across the sky, causing the house to shake. 

Introduction by the Author: This is the second chapter of “Genesis of a Cosplayer”. Again I would like to express my most profound thanks to two well known Mississippian authors. The First one being William A. Percy who wrote Lanterns on the Levee. The second one is William W. Morris who wrote North Toward Home. You took me from beyond the realm of fiction and planted me firmly in the coffee colored soil of my native land. This chapter continues the story started in chapter one. Again writing this story took a lot of effort.

Introduction by the Author: This story is the genesis of what makes me a writer and why I write the way I do. I was inspired by Lanterns on the Levee, and North Toward Home. Both were written by local authors, both wrote of a world in transit. This story is true, I know because I lived it. Pulling this tales from the dark recesses of my mind took courage, and several bottles of spirits. I hope this would the first story in a trilogy of three genesis works. I hope you will find this story enjoyable.

Just east of Benton is an unguarded railroad crossing. According to legend, one cold, foggy, autumn afternoon a school bus full of children became stalled on the tracks. Before the driver could get the children off the trail, a freight train came barreling through and smashed into the side of the bus, crumbling it up like a sheet of paper. In the blink of an eye, the bush became nothing more than a twisted collection of metal and wire, reaching the wreck, fireman found the mangled bodies of six school children tangled up in the spiderweb of bent medal, broken glass that bus had become.

I took a deep breath as I folded my skirt around my bottom and eased it down upon the hard wooden surface of the chair. I winced as my bottom came into contact with the hard wooden chair. My rear was still sore from last night's spanking. Slowly I released my breath. I was here now, in the heart of downtown Benton. It was Halloween and the whole town seemed to have been crowded into the two square mile area that made up Downtown Proper.

Mom and I returned from our shopping expedition around one in the afternoon. Mom quickly decided that tonight's dinner would be tenderized beef steak, smothered in homemade brown gravy and home style mashed potatoes. And of course, me being a girl now, I was required to help. Mom had become quite keen on teaching me to cook and that included helping with every meal.

I found myself standing in the middle of a field or maybe it was a meadow. I could hear the babbling of a nearby brook. The soothing sound of water running over stones put me at ease. The buzzing of big fat bumble bees from one flower to another added its own charm. The sky was a deep blue color. A very peaceful blue. The whole area was surrounded by trees, huge fir and pine trees that reached high into the sky. Past the line of trees, I could clearly see snow capped mountains and beyond that I felt there must have been tiny little settlements.

My eyes followed Jamie as she vanished into the crowd. And speaking of the crowd, the crowd just lingered around the dunking booth. If a person did not want to buy three balls for five dollars, they could just walk up and push the button for ten dollars. Like Jamie she had dropped ten dollars to drop me in freezing cold water, the little brat also managed to sneak in another push of the button when nobody was looking.

In a clearing eight miles north of Benton there stands an old wooden railway depot. It's a simple white wooden building with a rusty tin roof. It stands next to another wooden building that was once the town's post office and beside that another building that was once the town's trading post. Beside the depot there's an old steam locomotive resting in an old section of line. A quiet section of road runs pass these three buildings before crossing the mainline of the “Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad” that runs straight to Benton.

Jane took a deep breath as she entered through the front door of the manor house. A sudden blast of warm air greeted her and for a brief moment her breath was taken away at the sight that greeted her. It was something out of a storybook. The living room had over the course of the school day been transformed into a homily little scene of domestic bliss. An evergreen tree thrice as tall and wide as her was sitting in the far corner of the living room.

For generations the legend of 'Jenny Greenteeth' has haunted the imagination of the children of Benton. The tall tales of the malevolent water hang with green, mottled skin, long hair and sharp, pointed teeth. That is supposed to lurk out of sight beneath beds of duckweed in ponds, canals or gravel pits. Biding her time, waiting for her chance to rise up and snatch from the banks careless children or the elderly that had strayed too close to her hiding place.

The gymnasium was filled to the brim with costumed revelers. Kendalgroves Jr. High School annual Halloween celebration was in full swing with all the students dancing their cares away as the DJ was playing the latest pop hits. The room gym had been decorated in full Halloween style, with spooky glow in the dark skeletons hanging from invisible strings and plastic bats too. And in the center there could be a strange attraction.

Hospital about a day or so ago. The girl had developed a nasty case of pneumonia that had gone under the guise of a really nasty common cold for several days, slowly withering away her heat till at last her mother had enough. The woman taking the bull by the horns, barged into Jane's room, and quickly bundled her up in a cocoon of colorful, woolen blankets. She then tossed her into the back of one of the many SUV's that belonged to the house. Once Jane was safely locked away, she then climbed into the drivers side of the SUV and made a light night, bat straight out of hell and ran to St.

Potter's Mercantile is a family owned and operated general store located in the heart of downtown Benton. According to local legend and lore the shop has stood at the corner of main and sixth street since the founding of the town way back when. The store has a little bit of everything and the owner Mr. Potter often extends credit to those who need it. Mom also likes it, because the owner's wife has a small selection of gently worn dresses, blouses, skirts and shoes she sales on the side. Most of my clothing came from Potter's.

I have always been a Sentai fan since I saw the animated versions of GForce (The Science Ninja Team) and Voltron and when SABAN brought it to the US in the form of Power Rangers, I had to wonder what if such powers were given to others who weren’t exactly “worthy”...but that’s another a story that I’m trying to complete. “Q-Men” uses a mix of Sentai, James Bond, and budding superheroes formed under former MI-6‘S “Q”.