Runaway train/ Switchback/Cloud cover
Eureka!/Hex/gumball
Labyrinth / *Blacksmith / sand-worm
Puzzle box / Cellar door/goose
Toolshed/painting/lamppost
I’ve used 12 of the fifteen words. Haha, what immeasurable fun!
Jezebel wanted to turn the old toolshed into a roadside cafe. The shed stood at the end of her garden on a busy road, under an old-fashioned, uniquely beautiful wrought iron lamppost. She figured that it would be easy to fashion an inviting entrance to her imagined enterprise, under the auspicious glow cast by the lamp.
‘Why,’ she thought, ‘the light is almost magical. It’s a perfect place to hang a sign - Jezebel’s Coffee Corner.’
Of course, she knew that dreams were notoriously difficult to forge into reality, but she was determined. The place was an unhinged disaster; she decided to deal with it as if it were a puzzle box and, naturally, in her mind, the only thing puzzles needed was a solution.
Jezebel was good at list making, so she sat down at her dining room table sucking on a delicious fruity gumball, the kind that always helped her think clearly, and ticked off the things she thought she might need :
A blacksmith, to make the sign and the wrought iron furniture to match the lampposts’ stunning design.
Paint for painting
Brushes, screwdrivers, a drill…a toolbox to offer the handyman she planned to employ
And then it hit her…it was an Eureka moment!
‘What I really need is the greatest coffee on earth to attract a healthy customer base.’
The conundrum confounded her. She lifted the pen she’d been using and tapped it on her teeth in consternation. She abandoned her comfortable chair and rushed to the toolshed, only to see that she was right in her assumption. The shed lacked the magic of the lamppost, it would need a special kind of coffee to convince customers to congregate in its lackluster environs. She was standing, forlornly, under the lampost when she heard a slithering sound at her feet, and there she saw a sand-worm poke his head out of the soil. The worm looked at her as if he felt her pain,
“It’s an ugly edifice, if I say so myself.” He offered in sympathy.
“We’ll, then what am I to do?” She cried in return.
“Nothing in life comes without sacrifice.” The wily worm said, with a twinkle in his eye.
“What on earth are you talking about? All I want to do is find the best coffee on earth to bring the most interesting people on earth into my shop, Mr Earthworm. See?”
“Yes, I see. But this is your fate, that’s what you don’t see. It’s a labyrinth, a maze for your mind to ponder. I hope you don’t have to think about it for too long?”
“You’re making no sense, it’s nonsense. What is this about?”
“As you can see, I’m suffering from the ill effects of a curse. A curse was cast upon me in the prime of my youth. I was the best, most renowned coffee farmer in the land, my coffee was the best in the world until a greedy witch stole my farm and set me to grovel in the soil unless the hex could be broken. The witch knew there wasn’t much chance of that.”
“So, spill? You intrigue me with the promise of the best coffee in the world, but you don’t tell me how to break the curse.”
“Oh, come on! You know how this story goes. You have to kiss me.”
“You’re joking, right?” The worm simply stared, a serious expression in his gruesomely rummy eyes. Jezebel’s mind darkened, thoughts swirled.
Then, without warning, she bent down and kissed the worm.
Things happened really fast after that. When she opened her eyes (who kisses with open eyes, right?) A gorgeous,tall, strapping, dark-haired man stood before her. The shed had transformed itself, as if by magic, into a chic, classy building with massive floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the lamppost.
But most of all, the gorgeous worm-man held a foil bag up to her for inspection. The label read :
‘Goose and Gander Coffee. Coffee of distinction.’
