Ol’ Bessie
Sasha was sitting on the couch in the living room, Sprig was beside her and Polly was perched on her head.She was showing them the pictures on the phone.”This is when a mall cop chased me and friends out of a mall.”Sasha waved her free hand to the photo, before swiping to show them the next one.“This is the time Marcy nearly drowned.Don’t worry I jumped in after setting my phone down.”She told them, swiping again.
“The time Anne got dared to climb to the roof, she actually did it but we kinda had to call the fire department to get her down.”Sprig turned to Sasha then back to the phone.“Wow, you’ve taken a lot of photos.”He observed before grinning.“Next time we have an adventure, TAKE PHOTOS!”Then Hop Pop came into the room.“You kids forget the chores I sent you to?”
“Uh…yea?Sorry.”Sprig apologized, laughing a bit nervously before he jumped up the stairs.“My room’s gonna be spotless!I swear.”He called while going up the stairs.“It better be.”Hop Pop called back.Polly had bounced away to do whatever Hop Pop had sent her to do.And since Sasha wasn’t about to do anything, she kept going through the photo.“You two.Sasha.You’re gonna have to chip in!”
“Bye doing what?”She asked, not looking up from her phone.”Well, since you’re gonna be living here a while, I think you should meet Bessie.”Sasha looked up at him.“Who is Bessie?”She thought she’d met the whole family and a good enough chunk of the frogs in town.”She’s our snail.She has her own pen, and you’re gonna clean it.”
“Yea…nooo.Never happening.I’m assuming you mean poop and you’re never getting me to do that.”Sasha replied looking right back down at her phone.“Sasha you have to.I’m letting you live in MY house and I even feeding you!”
Sasha let out a groan.She hated being put in the basement but honestly she didn’t really like the idea of going back to that rotten log.”Fine.”Hop Pop smiled, and led her out side.Sasha set her phone down before she followed him.“This is BESSIE!”Hop Pop exclaimed, presenting a calm looking purple-pink snail.She was actually a little cuter than Sasha had expected.
“This place should be spotless.And after you’re done, you can read this!”Hop Pop said, before handing her this huge book.“Orrrr, I can go right back inside.”Sasha offered, causing Hop Pop to mutter something about “Kids these days.”After he was gone Sasha looked back at the pin.Letting out a sigh as she started.She let Bessie out to graze or whatever Snails did while she cleaned up this mess.
There were gloves so she took them.She started at about the beginning, trying her best not to mess up her clothes.Spot after spot after suspicious mud splotch.She was pretty sure she’d done the bare minimum.So she went back to get Bessie.AND THE SNAIL WAS GONE.
Her heart stopped as she looked around wildly.But there was no Purple-pink snail in sight.”Hop Pop, CANNOT know about this.”She muttered to herself.She turned around,took the big book about Bessie and ran into the woods.
There was a trail of grass that had clearly been eaten and last she checked frogs didn’t eat grass.Hoping that maybe she could find the run away snail she went even deeper.
”BESSIE?!”Sasha hollered, still searching for the snail.Who she found in the middle of a clearing.“Bessie!”But she was grazing, she had retreated into her shell.“Bessie!Girl if we don’t get back to your pin then Hop Pop will probably disown me!”She informed Bessie, who didn’t have a reaction.
Ugh, who knew snails were so difficult.But that’s why’s she’d brought the book.She started flipping through the pages.She wasn’t too interested in a snail’s story.While skimming the pages she found that Bessie only really did this when…predators were nearby.“Well, that’s not good.”Sasha said looking around.There were trees—duh, a rock or two, and some dead looking bushes.
But familiar dead looking bushes, Sasha approached it quietly, inspecting it.That’s when it unraveled itself as one a hedgehog!She’d met a trio of these evil Sonic the hedgehogs and didn’t want no part.She high tailed it right back to Bessie and climbing to the top of her shell.Apparently they couldn’t really climb, but what they COULD do was SHOOT their spikes at her.”BESSIE!Hedgehogs are trying to eat me!”
And so she was juggling skimming the book for a way to get Bessie to MOVE, dodging their projectiles, and kick some of the one’s that got a little too close to the top.”Bessie!”She called down to the snail.“I’m sorry.”She knelt down so Bessie could hear her.“I’m sorry I let you out, put you in danger, and now, WE’RE BOTH probably gonna die.”
“Wow, you got your self in quite some trouble.”Said a distantly familiar voice.Looking up, she saw Ivy perched on a branch in one of the tangled together trees.“Little help please?”
“Oh, uhh…I think there’s a saying to get her to go real fast.Something along the lines of ‘Bessie things are insert words that means bad.”Ivy offered.“I can get you a rope and like…pull you out maybe?”
“No!I’m getting Bessie out of here too!”Sasha refused, she got Bessie into this mess, she was getting her out.“Bessie!Things are getting scary!”No movement.“Bessie, hedgehogs are trying to eat us!”Not it either.”Think Sasha, what’s a word that means bad and HOP POP would use?”Ivy called from the tree.
“Bessie?Uhh…things are getting messy?”For a moment she thought it wasn’t gonna work.But then Bessie popped out and wiped around, hitting one of the Hedgehogs into a tree.“HAH!That’s what you get!”She called to it, holding onto Bessie right before she took off.
“Woooh!RUN GIRL RUN!”Sasha cheered.“That actually WORKED!”Ivy exclaimed, from the trees in the woods.“Thanks, Ivy.”Ivy smiled.“Thank yourself and Bessie too.I probably need to get home, tea rush is coming in a bit.”And so it was just Sasha, Bessie, and a few monster hedgehogs chasing them.
Sasha pulled on the rope thing she was pretty sure would get Bessie to go right to try and lose the hogs, Bessie made a sharp turn.The hedgehogs were gone, and Sasha and Bessie were back on the Plantars’ property.“We…made it.”Sasha realized, jumping off Bessie’s saddle, she turned around and hugged Bessie.“WE MADE ITTT!”
“Am I…interrupting something?”Asked Hop Pop’s voice from behind her.Sasha jumped in shock before turning back to him.“Heh, hey.I cleaned her shed and even got to know her just a bit…can I uh, have some time to read her life story book?Because this girl definitely had some secrets.”Sasha replied, patting Bessie’s shell.Hop Pop nodded with a pleased look.Sasha picked the book back up and sat on the couch.“Eww, why do you SMELL like that?”Polly asked, staring at her.
“I cleaned Bessie’s shed…and I probably sweat a waterfall.”Sasha answered, not even that offended because in fact, she DID smell awful.Probably a good time to ask if there was a shower.