Friends and a Bottle of Ketchup

"Oh dear my mother is going to kill me. I lost one of her favorite earrings."

"How did you lose it?"

"I was so stupid. I can't believe I let them talk me into doing it."

"Are you going to tell me what you did or am I going to have to drag it out of you?"

"Be patient, I was getting to it. Jimmy, Johnny and Susie dared me to take off my mom's earrings. Which was an easy enough thing to do because those colored feathers were making me itch. Then they told me to close my eyes. I should never listen to Susie... everytime I agree to do something that she suggests I get into trouble and this time I think I'm really going to get it."

"Can't you tell me what happened without all of the side bars?"

"Did you learn that at law school? Side Bars, that is so Matlock-ish.

"Ok, here is the rest of the story. I took my earrings off, closed my eyes and I heard the three of them doing something...It sounded so gross that I'm glad that my eyes were closed.

"Then they told me to open my eyes. I was horrified... my mom's earrings were in pieces. I saw the dangly feathers, the rawhide laces, but I didn't see the red beads. When I asked where they were they told me to look for them.

"This is when I noticed the ketchup bottle, which I could have sworn was nearly half full before I closed my eyes. There was also small red dots on the table, so I figured they hid those red beads in the ketchup. I grabbed the bottle. Not a sound was made by the pranksters. I unscrewed the lid and turned the bottle upside down. The thick red liquid didn't want to come out so I stuck a knife in the bottle, wiggled it and tried to dump it out again. The ketchup then came pouring out the bottle, it went all over the table. I even got the red stuff on Susie's notebook, I guess she was writing another poem"

"What happened then?"

"I found all of those red beads but one. I grabbed John's glass of water and started cleaning the ketchup off of the cheap plastic beads. The water turned red immediately and it was hard to dig the beads out of the glass with a spoon without making more of a mess. I still needed that last bead to reassemble those earrings.

"They were having so much fun, laughing at me. Then to add insult to injury they wanted me to bowl with this hot pink bowling ball. My fingers would barely fit in the holes and when I did I found more ketchup. Yuck I hate ketchup now. I wonder what mayonaise tastes like on french fries?

"I was so grossed out by the whole thing that I started to cry. And would you believe that Susie started to read her new poetry item out loud while I stood there bawling... I still heard her every word...

"Hot pink bowling ball,
ketchup in the finger holes,
If Aimee cries,
she'll never find the missing bead,
or discover we also hid,
her bag of socks."

"What an awful poem."

"How about what they did to me?"

"Well I never did like those earrings and you did get your socks back didn't you?"

"I can't believe I'm hearing this from you...I thought you were my friend!"

"I'm sorry Jennifer. I am your friend and I want to be in your scheme to get them back."

"Now you are talking."

"What do you have in mind?"

"Hmmmm let's see, naaa I couldn't be that mean or could I?"

"What?!?!"