When Life Gives You Lemons: A Collection of Short Stories

By Christy Larson

When Life Gives You Lemons is a collection of short stories of varying length. The main characters are females, mostly young adults trying to find their way in the world. All had at one time had hopes for a good life, but things did not turn out the way they had anticipated. They are faced with making decisions and choosing what they think is the best fit for them. In these stories, one encounters Ginny, who at fourteen was cheerful and ambitious, and follows her through life until her early thirties, when she decides to try to become a nun. One also encounters Kelsey, who always strove to succeed and to do the right things, only to end up feeling like it never got her anywhere. There are other characters as well who were faced with situations in life they had not anticipated.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 28, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524527983

Christy Larson

Christy Larson has written fiction stories since childhood and continued doing so as an adult. She has attended college and graduate school. Like some of the characters she writes about, she is still a virgin. However, unlike Ingrid in “Bitter Pool,” she has never turned to drugs or alcohol, and unlike Ashley in “The Tall Girl,” she is against homosexual activity. The most important thing in Christy’s life is God and Christianity.

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Copyright © 2016 by Christy Larson.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2016911903

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-5245-2800-3

      Softcover      978-1-5245-2799-0

      eBook         978-1-5245-2798-3

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 07/25/2016

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Contents

When Life Doesn’t Make Sense

Bitter Pool

Starting Over

The Greatest Crime

With My Life and Body

Unexpected Outcomes

The Tall Girl

When Life Doesn’t Make Sense

By the end of her last semester at the university, not knowing what she would do afterwards or even where she would go, Andria did what her roommate had done a year earlier. She started applying for jobs anywhere and everywhere, dropping off applications all over town. If she got a job by graduation, she’d stay in town. If not, she’d go somewhere else.

She talked on the phone one day with her friend Gracie. Gracie was the only friend from high school with whom she still kept in contact with. They e-mailed each other, and once in a while wrote a letter or called each other. Andria found some irony in that because she and Gracie had not been best friends or even close friends in high school. She hadn’t expected to still be in touch with her after all this time. Other friends had stopped writing and calling over time as they went on with their lives, and there’d been nothing Andria could do to keep the friendships going.

But Gracie, as she discovered, possessed the same quality as Andria in that she, too, was faithful about writing and keeping in contact. Hence, years later, they were still friends. Probably, Andria mused, they were better friends now than they’d ever been in high school.

You could always move here after you graduate. There are more jobs here and there’s a lot going on. Lots of opportunities to meet people and stuff. I really like it here, and I think so would you, Gracie was telling her.

Well, I don’t know, Andria said, feeling unsure. She’d never considered that possibility before. Gracie lived on the other side of the state, about an eight hour drive from where Andria went to college. She’d been there, to Fentonville, before, and it wasn’t too bad. She decided to think about it.

Gracie had graduated from college a year and a half ago already, more on time than did Andria. Andria had taken a total of nine semesters to finish her degree. Ordinarily that would’ve been four and a half years, but it seemed much longer because she’d taken time off at one point just to work and earn some money. But finally she would get her degree. It had been six and a half years since she had graduated from high school. It was hardly something to be excited about. A bachelor’s degree in something like psychology didn’t go very far these days. You had to get graduate degrees if you wanted a decent job, but Andria didn’t know when, if ever, she’d have the chance to go to graduate school.

As the last weeks of the semester passed by and as Andria prepared for finals, she hoped for a phone call, for a job offer. She’d applied at several places across town; someone just had to hire her. But there weren’t any job offers. She took the initiative and called back a few places where she’d applied for a job.

Sorry, we already filled all of our positions, she was told more than once. By the week before graduation, Andria still didn’t have a job and had become discouraged. The idea of going to Fentonville no longer seemed so bad. Gracie had, after all, said it was a nice city and that there were more jobs there.

Andria didn’t have much time left to take action. She had to be out of her dorm room by Sunday morning. Commencement ceremonies were scheduled for Saturday morning. With some uncertainty, she called Gracie to talk about coming to Fentonville after all.

That’s a good idea, I’m sure things will work out. And besides, Fentonville is only about an hour two from where we went to high school, so it’s not like you’ll be moving to completely unfamiliar territory, Gracie said cheerfully.

Andria agreed with her, and they made plans. Andria could live with Gracie while she looked for a job in Fentonville. Gracie assured her it was no big deal; she’d had other people stay with her before, and besides, it would be fun seeing Andria again after all this time.

Feeling somewhat more hopeful about things, Andria started packing, in between studying for her finals. She called her family, or whatever she had that could be considered family. Her mother had always been critical and unsupportive, and Andria wasn’t so sure she’d told her most recent husband, Tom, that she had a daughter in college. When Andria had last visited her mother, four years earlier, her mother had told her not to tell anyone that Andria was any relation of hers.

Her mother hadn’t called her in three years and often wouldn’t pick up the phone when Andria called (she had caller ID). Nonetheless, Andria felt it was her Christian duty to call her to tell her she’d be graduating and moving out of town. So she called, but no one answered. And tried calling again over the next few days, but again there was no answer. Well, at least she’d tried. Somewhat resigned, Andria send her family a Christmas card and left it at that. If they ever wanted to get in contact with her, they could, but she wouldn’t bend over backwards to stay in contact with people who wanted nothing to do with her.

Andria knew that if she ever did become successful, her mother would suddenly want to be on good terms with her again. She’d talk to Andria and would be civil to her. But since Andria, by her standards, was sort of a loser with nothing going for her, she thought there was no point in keeping any kind of relationship between them going.

****

One of Andria’s acquaintances from church planned on driving to Fentonville for Christmas break and offered to give Andria a lift. He owned a truck, a relief to Andria. At least they’d be able to fit a majority of her stuff in the back of it. By Saturday morning, Andria had finished most of her packing. IN the evening, she and Ben started loading her stuff onto the back of the truck. Would it all fit? Andria wasn’t sure what she’d do if it didn’t. She’d already dropped off two bags of old clothes at the thrift store, and she’d thrown away everything she didn’t absolutely need.

They managed to squeeze most things in. With great reluctance, Andria left behind a box of books and another box of summer clothes. That’s life, she told herself, sighing. At least she had a place to go to. It was so nice of Gracie to offer to let her stay with her for a while.

By the time she and Ben were ready to leave their college town, it was already beginning to get dark outside. The air was brisk, cold, in the December evening. It had snowed a few days earlier and there were still patches of it on grass and the roads were a bit slippery. They’d have to drive carefully.

The trip seemed long. Andria tried to make small talk at first, but Ben didn’t seem very communicative. He was a quiet guy who had graduated from the university in 1991 with a degree in business administration. Andria started to read a novel, but as it got darker, she put the book aside and took a nap instead, realizing she was pretty tired. She was relieved to have finished her finals and all that packing.

They arrived in Fentonville early the next morning, around 3 p.m. Ben’s folks had lived there for 15 years, and he was familiar with the city. They found Gracie’s apartment without too much trouble.

Hope Gracie won’t mind that you’re coming at this time of the night, Ben said.

Oh, it’s all right. I’m sure she’ll understand, Andria said, hoping she was right. She felt suddenly nervous. She hadn’t seen Gracie in so many years, since they graduated from high school, practically. But they had kept in contact, Andria reminded herself, and Gracie sounded as friendly as ever on the phone, maybe even more so. Besides, if things didn’t work out, if she didn’t find a job here either, she could always go back to the college town, stay with a friend from church, and try again to get a job there. It wasn’t as if her life depended on things working out here in Fentonville.

Gracie’s apartment, #387, was dark. No lights were on. Not surprisingly, Gracie was probably long asleep and would be reluctant to get up. But the apartment next to that, #388, had a light on, and Andria could hear classical music coming from it. Well now. She rang the doorbell and waited. In the meantime, Ben started to unload the truck, bringing first her large suitcase to the front door, then going back to get the next item.

Gracie opened the door after the third ring, wearing a green housecoat, her long dishwater blonde hair disheveled. She didn’t look irritated, just a bit tired.

Gracie, hi! Sorry we came at this time, we started so late on our trip and it took a long time to get here. There was ice on the road… Andria immediately started to explain.

Oh, that’s okay, I know how that goes. It’s great seeing you again! We’ll have to put your stuff in the garage, I think. She peered outside and noticed Ben bringing a box to the front door now.

I’ve got to help him bring stuff out of the truck, I don’t want him to do all the work for me, Andria laughed and hurried to the truck to grab a box and another suitcase.

It didn’t take them very long to bring Andria’s stuff into Gracie’s garage. As soon as they had done so, Ben, glancing at his watch, smiled wryly and said he thought he should get going.

Okay, thanks so much for the ride and everything. You’ll be visiting your folks for Christmas, right?: Enjoy your holidays, Andria said, wondering suddenly if she’d ever see him again. She searched for her purse and pulled out a couple of bills to give him. She wanted to help pay for gas, at least.

You don’t have to, really. Besides, I was coming down here to Fentonville anyways, Ben objected.

No no, I insist, Andria thrust the money at him, said goodbye once more, then disappeared into Gracie’s apartment.

Andria and Gracie were both tired, but it somehow didn’t seem right to go to sleep immediately. They hadn’t seen each other in years, and besides, Gracie claimed, now that she was up, she was wide awake. So Gracie made some coffee and they plobbed onto the couch with the TV on, and talked for a while. For an hour or so, Andria estimated.

Gracie’s apartment wasn’t that big. There wasn’t an extra guestroom or anything, so Andria would have to sleep on the couch, but that didn’t bother her.

Christmas was only a couple of days alter, and then New Year’s Day passed too. Andria started looking for a job right away, sending out resumes, searching in the employment pages and on Gracie’s internet for job openings.

Gracie went back to work two days after Christmas. She had a job working in a department store, a full-time 8 to 5 job that she said got wearisome sometimes. She was hoping to find something better eventually. She had a degree in English and was keeping her eyes open for some kind of writing or journalism job.

Gracie’s life, Andria observed, seemed to be coming along okay. She seemed reasonably happy. Ever the psychology major, Andria decided that Gracie was emotionally stable, sanguine, laid-back without being lazy, neither a real introvert nor particularly extroverted, not a true perfectionist but not really satisfied with mediocrity either. Gracie seemed so, well, Andria couldn’t think of one work or phrase that really summed her up. She was a nice person, but not super nice. She wasn’t extreme in any way. She also didn’t seem to have any big problems. Andria hadn’t known too many people like that.

In high school they’d gotten to know each other because they had a class together now and then and both of them participated in some of the same activities. There had been Key Club, the tennis team, and one semester they had the same lunch period and sometimes sat together. Both Gracie and Andria were Christians and had talked about starting a bible study in their school, but somehow they never got around to it.

As a teen, Gracie had been a lot the way she still was: relaxed and well adjusted. She hadn’t been popular though, which was probably why she and Andria had become friends. Gracie knew lots of people though. Andria’s family had moved around a bit, so she had only been at her last high school for her junior and senior year. Gracie had been a good though not excellent student. The impression Andria had was that getting A’s was not Gracie’s first priority. She seemed fairly casual about it. In spite of that, she did do pretty well.

In those days, Andria had been the more ambitious one, the one who strived for perfect grades, tried to get involved in more activities, and wanted to be a big success in life. Andria was the more competitive one, the more driven one.

Somehow, though, over the years things hadn’t gone as Andria had hoped and planned. She had already turned 25, yet all she had so far was a measly bachelor’s degree! There were people her age who’d already obtained Master’s degrees and had begun working on their Ph.D.’s. It was discouraging, but Andria tried not to worry too much about it. Besides, she’d dropped out of the rat race a long time ago, not because she truly wanted to, but because things had just not worked out that way. She’d had the desire, or at least she used to, but it seemed she lacked the ability. Her IQ of 108 just wasn’t enough. It had been when she was younger, but it had become apparent when she reached the college level that more was needed if she wanted to stay on top.

Andria wasn’t even all that motivated anymore. In some ways, it just all seemed pointless. What could become of her life anyway? But as a Christian, she was called to have hope and not to become discouraged, so most of the time she tried not to dwell on depressing things.

Gracie seemed to be happier and more successful now. She had a car, liked her apartment, and though she was less than enthusiastic about her job, had hopes of finding something better before too long. She was praying for God to open the right doors for her.

Gracie had a boyfriend, Tom, whom she spent a lot of time with. Often after work, she came home to unwind for an hour or so, then went out to dinner with Tom. Frequently they also went to a movie or over to Tom’s house. She began spending the night over at his house occasionally, leaving Andria with the apartment to herself.

On weekends Gracie was sometimes invited to parties. She knew co-workers and also still kept in contact with friends she’d known in college. Most of these parties, actually, were more like get-togethers, with 10 or 15 people all pitching in for a potluck dinner and lots of conversation. Andria came along usually thought she didn’t know anyone at these parties, other than Gracie. She tried to join in conversations, but found that no one really made an effort to include her.

The weeks went by, and Andria still didn’t have a job offer. Finally she did get a call back for an interview, so on a cold Wednesday morning, Andria took two metro buses to her job interview for a job as a receptionist. She was familiar with that part of the city; she’d dropped off a resume in person in the building across the street only a week earlier. The interview went well, actually, or so she thought. But then a few days later she got a call back from the company saying they had hired someone else instead.

Andria kept trying. There really was no other choice. She send off more resumes and applied in person at some places. Gracie recommended going to the nearby elementary school and checking on the bulletin board there – they had job listings posted there – in the office. Andria did, without much success.

A lot of times she was told that she just didn’t qualify for a job. She needed a master’s degree, or counselor certification, or a teaching certificate, or she needed several years of experience.

The job market is really bad right now. It’s usually not this hard to find a job here," Gracie told her. It was early March by that time, and Andria was becoming discouraged. She didn’t feel right about living rent-free with Gracie all this time. She had a little money still in her savings account, but that went for basic necessities like food, shampoo, and toothpaste. Was she going about things the wrong way somehow?

So far in life, Andria had worked mostly at fast –food places, usually part-time. But she had a college degree now and should be able to find something better. Besides, at 25 she felt that she was too old to be working at a fast-food job. Yet she really needed a job, and she couldn’t’ afford to be picky. Should she settle for another fast-food job, at least for the time being?

You shouldn’t have to settle for that, Gracie said. "There’s got to be something out there."

Unbeknownst to Andria, Gracie talked the matter over with Tom and they brainstormed a bit. Tom knew one of the managers at a drugstore downtown. He and Gracie picked up an application for Andria one day and gave it to her to fill out. Afterwards, the three of them went there together to drop the application off. Gracie and Tom put in a few good words for Andria, and she was actually hired. Whew, what a relief, Andria though, though she would’ve preferred to have gotten the job on her own. Working in a drugstore at cash register wasn’t all that great, but it would do for now.

Andria started work the following week. She took the bus to get there and then to come home again. She didn’t enjoy the job a lot, but she wasn’t complaining. Often during work she snuck a peak at her wristwatch. She looked forward each day to getting her shift over with.

There were plenty of public libraries in town, and Andria started checking books out regularly. In college she hadn’t had much time for fun reading, but now she did. She’d always loved reading, especially biographies, Christian literature, books on psychological disorders, as well as some fiction novels. Many of Andria’s evenings were spent reading. A lot of times she preferred her books to watching TV, even. Gracie seemed to prefer the TV set, but then again, Gracie was only home a few evenings a week.

The days started to become routine. Andria started to help pay for rent. She and Gracie talked the matter over and decided Andria might as well continue living there instead of looking for her own apartment. Sharing the rent would make it easier on both of them. But Andria already knew it wouldn’t last forever. Gracie had mentioned to her that she and Tom had already begun talking about marriage, though a wedding date hadn’t been set yet.

Andria wasn’t unhappy about how things were coming along, but she wasn’t happy either. She wasn’t sure what she really wanted.