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Cannot believe what has happened!

Whenever Lucy Lou can't believe something, you can go ahead and assume it's true. She has an unerring ability to be wrong about, well, just about everything. But she's so cute about it - so genuine - that folks just love her anyway.

Every Friday before the fourth of July they set her up in the village square as an oracle. She's good humored about it, thank goodness, because it works like this:

Someone asks her a question. It can be about anything, such as "Should my mother make her fruitcake this year?" or "Will there be a vodka shortage?" or "Will one of us win the lottery?" and Lucy Lou answers. Then everyone runs right out and does the opposite.

This year, Lucy Lou decided to have some fun with everyone.

Benjy asked "Where should we sit at the fireworks tonight?" and Lucy Lou, who wanted to say "out on the River Barge" decided to say instead "anywhere on the shore of the river"

You wouldn't believe what happened next.

Listen, I've just realized, I've got so much work to do this weekend that I really have to stay home

There they all were, out on the river barge with the fireworks about to start, when the captain says he's going home, and dives off the barge. The barge is an old steam engine barge, the kind with the big paddle wheel, and folks come from miles around to take an expensive ride on. That captain made so much money from Lucy Lou's prediction this year, that after he collected all the money for this night's rides, he finally had enough money to make a break from this one-horse town. Overboard he went. Not one person on the barge knew a thing about boats, especially about this old relic, which just sat there and started taking on water. They were pondering what to do when the first BOOM sounded.

sirens sounded all over the street.

Lucy Lou had known to stay off that boat, but when she saw the predicament the townsfolks had gotten themselves into, she felt something awful guilty. She knew no one would listen to her, but the fire department would have no choice but to respond if she pulled all the fire alarms she could find.

Pretty soon, every fire truck in the county was racing to the river's edge. The fireworks couldn't be told from the lights of the emergency vehicles. To those on the barge, it looked like the whole town was on fire.

The folks stranded on the sinking boat thought "As usual, Lucy Lou was wrong, and here we are, safe and sound on this dead-in-the-water barge."

This is my entry to @mariannewest's daily freewrite challenge. On Saturdays we have a second option of the fabulous Three Part Freewrite: we write for one prompt for five minutes, then move onto the second and third prompts, no peeking ahead. It's always a trip! The prompts are in bold italics in my entry today.

Notice for Newbies on Hive

Real people read your posts in this community! There are no rules!!! A post doesn't suck up your entire day!!!! You can safely let your imagination take flight! You will feel the love!

Try to remember to leave a link under @mariannewest's . That will help us find you. The easiest way to find the daily prompt is to go directly to @mariannewest's blog. Here is today's post for a single prompt freewrite if you don't feel up to the three prompt option.

To maximize readership, you might also post in the Freewriters Community (or @hive-161155), use a first tag of #freewrite or #freewritepoetry, go leave comments on others' freewrites, or any combination of those.

We are good people, it's a no judgment zone, and #freewriters is an excellent community to get your feet wet on Hive.