“I'm good,” she said, sighing deeply and drifting off to sleep.
-The End -
Epilogue - Rumpus
Las Vegas
Coraline ended her story of Thom Brown and his train driving wife to a thunderous round of appreciative applause.Hands popped in the air like Meerkats bobbing up heads to check the status of predators on the Kalahari.Coraline didn’t want to answer any of their questions, but it was unavoidable.
“Yes, in the red blouse,” Coraline said, pointing at a woman who was bouncing as if she had to tinkle and repeating the word oranges wasn’t helping her dilemma.
“Did the client get his jazz fest, and everything he wanted?Did he open his museum to the public, and did he work with the ghost hunting group?Better yet, did his wife drive a trolley for the ghost hunting tour?”The woman with the frazzled hair asked still bouncing up and down.
Coraline smiled as hands in the audience went down.“Ah, I see most of you had the same questions.Let me see if I can answer this for you all.”
She took a breather, taking a sip of water.“The client opened a virtual museum of his train collection.Visitors can view the collection through the internet, learning about the different trains, the uses and purposes of the different train cars.”
“And his wife, does she drive the trolley car for the ghost hunting?”Another woman asked.
“No, she has a simple living lifestyle channel on YouTube, and last I heard, one of the home style channels was offering her a television series,” Coraline said.
A silence fell over the audience.A lone voice in the back yelled out, “does he get his money back since you didn’t actually make him a match?”
Coraline’s green eyes sparkled.“Technically, I made him ten matches, which he narrowed down to three, but chose none.I provided the service, the testing and the background information on his three choices.”
“So that is a, no?”The snide person commented as the audience gasped.
“Love isn’t something we can schedule or plan,” Coraline said.“There were ten choices.He narrowed the ten to three based on what he believed would be the perfect match for himself, not understanding his own biases led to those choices.Fortunately for him, fate intervened and showed him what he actually needed versus what he thought was required for a happy life, and in my estimation, it was worth the price and technically, he didn’t make the payment for the services.”
The lone figure would not let it go.“Not all of your matches have a happily ever after.Tell us about the one in Alaska, and the one who went missing in Georgia!”
Coraline scowled, “obviously you’re late to the conversation because I started it there with the bride who was catfished by a man who was mauled by a bear in Alaska.Honestly, I’m unclear on what are you trying to accomplish here with your line of questioning?Sometimes what we do for others works well and the bride in Georgia did get her happily ever after, but not with the intended groom.She came out better, just as Mr.Brown came out better with a woman who not only checked all the boxes but lit up his heart.”
Some person in the corner yelled, “I want to know about the porcupine man!Did he and the lady get married?”
“Yes, and she got her happily ever after and the little house in the back is her work space where she expanded her business and shares items she makes on the YouTube channel with her new best friend,” Coraline said.
