Sandra Seamans lives in Uniondale, PA. She is a retired farmwife who loves to write stories. Her fiction can be found in "Short Stuff for Grownups", "PA Sportsman", "A Long Story Short", and "A Flasher's Dozen", where she's also the co-editor.
Click here to visit A Flasher's Dozen.
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Sandra Seamans
"Joe, you promised to rake the leaves today," shouted his wife, Pearl, from the kitchen.
Joe glanced out the bay window of their double wide. Wall to wall leaves three inches deep blanketed the front yard. He should have cut down the trees for firewood, could have saved himself some work, he thought.
"After the game," he shouted out to Pearl.
When the half-time activities blasted onto the screen, he closed his eyes and drifted into one of his fifteen minute snack naps.
As the game wound down and flickered into a commercial break, he eye-balled the yard. Raking all those leaves would waste the rest of the afternoon, but what the heck. He lumbered outside and started pulling leaves into a huge pile.
"Joe," shouted Pearl.
"What does she want me to waste my Sunday on now?" he muttered. Looking at the pile of leaves, his brain kicked into high gear. He stooped down and burrowed in. Snug as a rabbit in a hole, he thought.
He heard the screen door slap shut and Pearl shouting for him. She'd never find him in here. A whiff of smoke tickled his nose and Joe found himself dead center of a giant fireball. He came up out the pile screaming.
"Joe, are you alright in there?" asked Pearl.
Joe glanced around the living room. Out the window he could see the leaves raked into neat little piles and Pearl out on the deck barbecuing ribs.
He stretched and yawned. Autumn and football. Life didn't get any better than this.