STORYTIME TAPESTRY

The Newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness throughout the world

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Halloween Contest

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Oct 25, 2005? 

Subscriber? 

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Today??™s Announcements:

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? The contest begins.?  Deadline to enter submissions remains Oct 30^th.?  Nothing will be accepted after that date.? 

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The membership will vote according to their favourite writer.?  Each day the entries of what has been published to date will be posted at the beginning of the newsletter and the list will grow daily as the submissions increase.?  Voting will be held after the contest ends.?  The contest ends when there are no more submissions.? 

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All members can access the archives of Storytime Tapestry http://archives.zinester.com/98907 to reread an entry before voting if need be.?  If you have any problems please contact me at: winterose@videotron.ca

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Contest winner will get a copy of my new book, Angels Watching Over Me upon release.

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Sharon Bryant will start off our contest with a bang!

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Submissions for the contest to date:

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Name? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?  Title? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?  ? ?  ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?  Date

Sharon Bryant? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?  Halloween Cupcakes? ? ? ? ?  ? ? ? ? ?  Oct 25

Sharon Bryant? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?  Pay Attention To Your Dreams?  Oct 25

Sharon Bryant? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?  The Coke Glass?  ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?  Oct 25

Sharon Bryant? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?  The Fire Wall? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?  Oct 25

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Now on to the good stuff..........

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Halloween Cupcakes

Sharon Bryant

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This time of year always brings back so many memories for me.?  I lost my son one week before Halloween.?  For years I never touched the little ghost costume packed in the box that he never got to wear.?  For years it was just too hard to open the box and let memories flood my mind.

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Last night I was lying in bed thinking of a happy time, something to celebrate that would bring a smile to my face, and then I? thought about? the Halloween cupcakes.

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Andy was in kindergarten.?  The teacher sent a note home telling about the Halloween party the class would be having.?  She asked if there was any way I could make cupcakes for the class.?  I sent a note back telling her to count me in.

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Andy and I went to a cake decorating shop and got the cute little plastic figures, little pumpkins, witches, ghosts, etc. to put on top of each cupcake after I frosted them.?  We then packed them in a cute box, and Andy wanted to carry them to school on the bus that morning of the party.

The bus stop was at my driveway.?  I stood in the door as he held onto that box when the two little girls from across the street crossed over to our driveway.?  One was eight, the other ten-years -old.

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"Whatcha got there, Andy?" I heard one say.

"Nothing," was his reply.

"Well, let us see nothing," the other one said.

Andy was bound and determined not to let them get the box open.

Suddenly one tried to grab the box away from Andy, and he yelled at the top of his lungs, "You better not touch my cupcakes, my mom made them!"

One girl smirked and said, "Oh yeah, we'll just take them and eat them!"

Andy dared her to try.

Andy and I both knew the girls' mother would never help with anything at school.

Those two taunted him, but he was holding his ground, and soon the bus pulled up.?  I stepped out on the porch when he got inside the bus, and for the first time ever, he made it to the back seat? of the bus.?  It was a happy little five-year-old you gave me the "high-five" sign to let me know he'd finally made it.

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Since that day long ago in 1977, whenever I see a cupcake with orange frosting and some kind of little plastic trinket on it, I remember those cupcakes from long ago and how one little boy had the biggest grin a mom could ever imagine.

He never lived to go trick or treating that year, but he delivered the cutest cupcakes to his class for the party, which I knew meant the world to him.

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Sharon Bryant

1946 @bellsouth.net

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~**~**~? 

Pay Attention To Your Dreams

Sharon Bryant

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Someone called me last night and wanted to ask me if I thought a message from the other side,? could be given to you through a dream.?  I told her yes.

She recently lost a friend.?  The friend had promised if there was any way she could get a message to her, she would.?  She even said, "I'll see you in your dreams."

The other night this friend told me before she fell asleep, she prayed that tonight there would be some kind of message.?  Then she drifted off.

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In the dream, her friend was standing before her in the friend's backyard.?  She motioned my friend to follow her and said, "Come with me, I've got something to show you."?  The woman had died of cancer, had no hair, was very thin, and this is how she looked in the dream.

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She took my friend around to the back side of the house to her and her husband's bedroom.?  She told my friend to look inside.?  She did.?  Curled up in his bed, lying on his side, was the husband, crying.?  The lady turned to my friend and said, "I can't stand to see him like this.?  I touch him, I sit on the bed with him, but he can't feel me there.?  I don't know what to do."

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My friend said, "Do you want me to try and tell him something for you?"?  "Yes," was the reply.?  "Please tell him I love him very much and it hurts me to see him cry.?  Tell him I'm right here.?  Tell him I am always around him."

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My friend turned to look at her friend, and in an instant she had? hair on her head, weight back on her body, smiling.

My friend said, "You look so healthy."

"I am healthy here," was the reply.

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My friend woke up when the dream ended.?  She was crying.?  It woke her own? husband up and he asked what was wrong.?  She told him about the dream.?  She told him she had to call her friend's husband and give the message to him.

"He'll think you are stark nuts if you do." he stated.?  "That's ok, I have to do it, I'll take that chance, she said.

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That? day she made the phone call to her friends husband.?  She told him she had to ask him a couple of questions and she hoped it would not hurt him but she had to do it.?  He told her that was ok, to go on and ask.

She said, "At night, do you lay on your side curled up and cry?"? ?  He said, "How do you know that?"? 

She said, "I have to tell you something."?  She then told him what his wife has asked.? 

He then said, "I go to the cemetery everyday and talk to her there."

"You don't need to go to the cemetery to talk to her, she's right there with you, she can hear you." my friend told him.?  "She wants you to know she loves you very much and she's near you all the time."

He began to cry on the phone then said, "If you get another dream, and she has a message for me, would you please call me?"

"Of course I will."

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This is a true story.?  It just happened two days ago.?  My friend said there was such a feeling of relief that came over her when she had the dream.?  She said to me, "She pomised me she'd see me in my dreams and that she has done."

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Pay attention to dreams if someone gives you a message.?  You never know how many lives can be touched by passing that on.

Sharon Bryant

1946 @bellsouth.net

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? ? ~**~**~

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THE COKE GLASS? 

Sharon Bryant

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It was a cloudy day on that December 26 day, 2004.?  I still had wrapping paper to pick up, leftovers were still plentiful in the frig from Christmas dinner the day before, and I was excited to learn how to work my new digital camera my husband and son had given me the day before.

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I finished my chores, worked on some crafts, fixed everyone something to eat, then I sat down with the instruction sheet to the camera.?  It sounded simple.?  I took a few snapshots in the living room, and sure enough, they showed up on the screen as I thought, "Boy, I must be doing this right."?  (I'm not patient when it comes to electronic things!)

I always fix myself a glass of diet coke evenings when I go to my computer room to work.?  I have a glass I call my special glass.?  Being a Coca Cola collector, it's an insulated metal Coca Cola glass on the outside and red on the inside.?  I never use the top but prefer to just sip from the glass when I'm typing.

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I went to the computer room, set my glass down with the ice floating on the surface of the liquid.?  I picked up the camera and took a couple shots of things in the room.?  A friend had just made a gorgeous wall hanging for me and I took a photo of that.

Suddenly, I didn't HEAR anyone say it out loud, but the thought just came into my head........"Take a picture of the coke glass."

I thought I was nuts to even think of taking a photo of the glass, but again, "Take a picture of the coke glass" was there again.? 

I was standing up at the time, camera was in my hand, so I turned and aimed the camera at the coke glass.?  I could not believe my eyes what I saw in the little frame on the camera.

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Inside the glass, the ice was gone, which was impossible as I'd put plenty of ice in it just minutes before.?  In the place of the ice was an Indian man.?  I saw his long dark hair, high cheek bones, and he was moving and smiling.?  I stared for a second, then threw the camera down and ran into the living room where my husband was watching television.?  "Come here now," I said.?  "Wait, I'm watching the show." he replied.?  "NO!?  NOW!?  Hurry!" I stated.?  He jumped up from his chair and I ran for the computer room.?  He was right behind me.

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"Pick that camera up and aim it at my coke glass and tell me what you see," I said.?  "WHAT??  Why would I do that?" he asked.

"Just do it, do it NOW!" I replied.? 

He picked the camera up and aimed it at the glass, and I watched every movement he made when he did.

"WHO is THAT?" was his reply.

"What do you see?" I asked.

"A man, looks like an Indian." he said.?  I asked him if he was smiling and moving and he said yes.

He then set the camera down and stepped outside the room in the hallway.?  I followed him.

I knew the camera was new.?  I had opened it myself Christmas morning.

"The camera is haunted." I said.?  "It CAN'T be!" he replied.?  "Then you tell me how did both of us see the same thing in a coca cola glass, which you know is impossible."?  He backed up and said, "I don't know....I don't know.?  I don't want any part of this."?  And off to the living room he went.

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Two readers in Storytime know about this story.?  I was afraid if I wrote about this earlier, many would think I was stark nuts.?  But I want answers.?  I want to know why an Indian man showed up in my glass.?  I want to know WHO he is, and why and how? he showed up like he did.?  Today I was watching Sylvia Brown on television and a woman had something similar happen to her with an Indian girl, showing up in her home.?  It triggered me to write this story tonight.

If anyone can come up with an explanation, I would like to hear from you.

If anyone tells me it's my guardian angel, then how did my husband see it also??  Everyone is supposed to have their own guardian angel.?  And why an Indian??  I'm not an Indian nor is my husband.

I just wish when it happened, that I would have snapped the button on the camera.?  But I didn't.?  I wanted the camera out of my hands so fast, I didn't think to take a picture.

Sharon Bryant

1946 @bellsouth.net

~**~**~

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THE FIRE HALL

? Sharon Bryant

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I'm not going to lie, I have never been fond of the darkness.?  Maybe my imagination was strong as a child, maybe I just always wanted to be able to see things well, whatever, I just never liked dark places.

Some experts say a child will outgrow this feeling.?  They lie.?  I'm still not fond of the dark even at my age.

I guess that's why what happened on Halloween in 1992, happened.

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I had just moved to Alabama the month before.?  I met the neighbor and her five-year-old daughter.?  My kids were 10 and 13 at the time.?  We live in a remote little town that doesn't have much activity.?  The biggest event around here is the fire hall putting on a haunted house and everyone meeting a few days before Christmas at a sign at the four corners, to sing Christmas carols.?  That's about it.?  We have two gas stations, one beauty shop, no grocery store, nothing else but a hamburger joint.

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After meeting the neighbor, as Halloween neared, she told me everyone, EVERYONE was going to the haunted house in town.?  I remember asking, "Where's the town?"?  She replied, "At the four corners."

The morning of Halloween she called me and asked if I wanted to bring my kids with her and her daughter to the haunted house.?  Naturally, my son jumped at the chance to do something for Halloween.?  My daughter didn't want to go.?  So that's how I ended up at the fire hall that fall day several years ago.

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When we got to the fire hall, there were a lot of people lined up to get in the haunted house.?  I noticed thick black tarp extending off the back side of the fire hall.?  I thought, "Oh man, this has got to be a joke."?  Coming from a large city, I was used to big events for Halloween, real scary things, not some little haunted house that probably didn't have much in it.?  But my son wanted to go.? 

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We got in line and soon a man motioned for us saying, "Four can come in now."?  My neighbor said, "Well, here we go, we're next."?  I entered the door from a yard light outside the fire hall, and instantly inside, I could not see my fingers in front of my face.?  My son grabbed the back of my sweat shirt, and I grabbed the jacket of my neighbor.?  Her daughter began screaming.?  My neighbor was laughing.?  So was I.?  Funny how laughter can come so quickly and leave so quickly.

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Have you ever heard anyone go from a hearty laugh into a blood curdling scream in a split second??  In the pitch dark where you can't see a crack of moonlight filtering through a hole anywhere??  The sound is creepy.

I made that sound.?  Now, I'm not even the screaming type, but when something furry grabs your ankles and you have no idea what it is, your imagination plays games with you.? 

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One furry thing let go of my one ankle but the other didn't.?  As I began screaming, I began kicking.?  I heard this sound like "Umph," and knew I'd hit my target.?  The furry thing let go of my ankle.?  And that's when I made a dash for it.?  I had no idea where I was going, but I knew I wanted out of there.?  My son was choking me from holding my sweatshirt so tight and I kept screaming at him, "LET GO OF ME!"?  And all he could say was, "MOM!?  HELP ME!"? ?  I abandoned my son that night.?  Every man for himself.

I ran dragging my son behind me until his hands broke loose from my sweatshirt.?  Everyone was screaming.?  I headed to the right and hit my head on something hard.?  I turned and headed to the left and ran into something not as hard, but whatever it was, it sounded like I broke it.?  It wasn't until I heard, "Oh Lord, someone broke the wooden braces."?  That was me.

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Holding the black tarp up was these wooden poles about 2 by 2 inches.?  (I've always blamed the fire department for not having something more sturdy for their display).?  When I ran to the left, I ran into one and it split.?  So that section of the tarp began caving in.?  I felt all the heavy plastic coming down on my head, so I hit the ground and looked for the bottom of it.?  I ran into another wooden pole, and naturally, that one split in half also, so there went another part of the "wall" down.? 

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If so many wouldn't have been screaming, maybe I would have found my way out without harming the fire hall's little haunted house.?  But they wouldn't stop screaming, and all that went through my mind was someone was grabbing THEIR ankles scaring them like they did me.? 

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I managed to feel the bottom of that thick black tarp and lift a section of it up.?  WOO HOO, I could see a LIGHT!

And I dove for it.?  I was outside the fire hall, hearing people waiting to get into the haunted house yelling saying, "Run, something's gone wrong in there!"?  I knew then I had to hide.?  I ran for some parked cars and crouched down.?  I could hear my son yelling, "MOM, MOM, where are you?"? 

I heard more wood splintering.?  And I watched as the whole wall of the haunted house came falling down.?  It was then I saw the man in a black jumpsuit with two big furry looking gloves on.?  I wanted him.?  I wanted to knock him down, beat the daylights out of him, so I decided to make a dash back towards the display to get him.?  Just then my neighbor came crawling out from under the tarp with her daughter and my son behind her, everyone still screaming.

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I can close my eyes still today and see all those eyes looking at me when my neighbor called out my name.

She was crying, laughing, gagging, and what a sight she was.?  My son was wild-eyed as he glared at me, "Mom, WHERE did you go?"?  "Out," I said.?  I left.

"Yeah, you sure did, and you took the whole wall down with you," said my neighbor.

I guess that's why for a good year everyone would point and say, "That's the Yankee woman who ruined the fire hall display that one year on Halloween."

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Sharon Bryant

1946 @bellsouth.net

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About Me:

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? I am Sharon Bryant,? 59 years old and reside in Alabama.

I lost my child in 1977 when he was five and I write
articles on bereavement often.

I am a chocolate/candy maker and also a wood crafter and knitter.

I am married to a wonderful man, and have two remaining children, a daughter 25,
Amy, and a second son, Randy, age 22.

My main goal in life is to help those who
have lost a child. My website is: www.angelsremembered.tk

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Writers Feedback

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Carol, - The First Time I Saw The Light

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? ? ? ?  I know a lot of people like you my friend who follow their feelings through life and let their intuition guide them.?  I find myself becoming more like them as I get older and depending less and less on charts and grafts.?  Wishing you every joy, Joe

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Prayer Requests and Updates

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To all;

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Prayers are needed for our financial further, we are not badly bent,

we are down right broke. So please pray? that our Father God will

bless us and help us get out of our financial mess we are in.

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God bless you all and be with you always

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Walking In His Loving Light

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Richard & Jackie Sims? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?  Online Prayer Warriors!

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Send all inquires about the newsletter including submission requirements: