Kapitel 144: Group text (141)

Bella got up early to go over some notes. She had a test today.

Zane felt her get out of bed. "Good Morning my beauty."

"Mornin, I'm going to study." she said coldly.

"Bella, please forgive me." Zane said.

She walked out and sat down at the table and opened her notebook.

Zane got up and dressed. Then left. He drove to the office and called his lawyer. "I needed an annulment. We have only been married a few days."

"All right how soon do you need it?"

"Today if possible." Zane heart acked but he could think of no other way to fix this. Bella heart hurt cause it happened on their wedding day so he had to try someway to fix it.

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Ben got off the phone with Betty with a smile. Then he sent a group text.

[Sunday family dinner. My home to celebrate three new family members] Ben

[We will be there 😝] Betty

[👍] Bert

[See you there 💖] Babs

[Ok] Tinkerbell

[Can't wait ] Dad

[I'll be there 😀] Josh

[Josh you dork it's your house!!] Ben

Ben seen the ok from Bella so he called her.

"Hey want to talk?" Ben asked.

"No, not really. I just can't seem to get passed what happened." Bella said.

"Then I think you need to see a doctor. Dr. Kelly was your doctor after mom died make an appointment with him." Ben said.

"Ok, if you think it will help."

"Hey sis, if it doesn't then I'll take you to Neverland. Second star to the right and straight on till morning."

Bella smiled a little, even if Ben could not see it he knew.

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Bella finished her morning classes and called Dr. Kelly's office. She made an appointment for monday at 2PM.

She then pulled out her book of fairy tails to get lost in one of her stories.

◇◇◇♡♡♡◇◇◇ THE LAUGHING HIPPOPOTAMUS

On one of the upper branches of the Congo river lived an ancient and aristocratic family of hippopotamuses, which boasted a pedigree dating back beyond the days of Noah—beyond the existence of mankind—far into the dim ages when the world was new.

They had always lived upon the banks of this same river, so that every curve and sweep of its waters, every pit and shallow of its bed, every rock and stump and wallow upon its bank was as familiar to them as their own mothers. And they are living there yet, I suppose.

Not long ago the queen of this tribe of hippopotamuses had a child which she named Keo, because it was so fat and round. Still, that you may not be misled, I will say that in the hippopotamus language "Keo," properly translated, means "fat and lazy" instead of fat and round.

However, no one called the queen's attention to this error, because her tusks were monstrous long and sharp, and she thought Keo the sweetest baby in the world.

He was, indeed, all right for a hippopotamus. He rolled and played in the soft mud of the river bank, and waddled inland to nibble the leaves of the wild cabbage that grew there, and was happy and contented from morning till night.

And he was the jolliest hippopotamus that ancient family had ever known. His little red eyes were forever twinkling with fun, and he laughed his merry laugh on all occasions, whether there was anything to laugh at or not.

Therefore the black people who dwelt in that region called him "Ippi"—the jolly one, although they dared not come anigh him on account of his fierce mother, and his equally fierce uncles and aunts and cousins, who lived in a vast colony upon the river bank.

And while these black people, who lived in little villages scattered among the trees, dared not openly attack the royal family of hippopotamuses, they were amazingly fond of eating hippopotamus meat whenever they could get it.

This was no secret to the hippopotamuses. And, again, when the blacks managed to catch these animals alive, they had a trick of riding them through the jungles as if they were horses, thus reducing them to a condition of slavery.

Therefore, having these things in mind, whenever the tribe of hippopotamuses smelled the oily odor of black people they were accustomed to charge upon them furiously, and if by chance they overtook one of the enemy they would rip him with their sharp tusks or stamp him into the earth with their huge feet.

It was continual warfare between the hippopotamuses and the black people.

Gouie lived in one of the little villages of the blacks. He was the son of the chief's brother and grandson of the village sorcerer, the latter being an aged man known as the "the boneless wonder," because he could twist himself into as many coils as a serpent and had no bones to hinder his bending his flesh into any position.

This made him walk in a wabbly fashion, but the black people had great respect for him.

Gouie's hut was made of branches of trees stuck together with mud, and his clothing consisted of a grass mat tied around his middle. But his relationship to the chief and the sorcerer gave him a certain dignity, and he was much addicted to solitary thought.

Perhaps it was natural that these thoughts frequently turned upon his enemies, the hippopotamuses, and that he should consider many ways of capturing them.

Finally he completed his plans, and set about digging a great pit in the ground, midway between two sharp curves of the river. When the pit was finished he covered it over with small branches of trees, and strewed earth upon them, smoothing the surface so artfully that no one would suspect there was a big hole underneath.

Then Gouie laughed softly to himself and went home to supper. That evening the queen said to Keo, who was growing to be a fine child for his age: "I wish you'd run across the bend and ask your Uncle Nikki to come here. I have found a strange plant, and want him to tell me if it is good to eat."

The jolly one laughed heartily as he started upon his errand, for he felt as important as a boy does when he is sent for the first time to the corner grocery to buy a yeast cake.

"Guk-uk-uk-uk! guk-uk-uk-uk!" was the way he laughed; and if you think a hippopotamus does not laugh this way you have but to listen to one and you will find I am right.