Cookie Trouble - Part 2

Good Morning Friday Fiction Fans!
It has been a hot week here with heat index in the 90s. At least we don't have heat index of 115 like we have had the past few summers.

 If you are a new reader to this blog, welcome! I'm delighted to have you and hope you'll stick around and read for a while. :) Feel free to check out my other stories and leave me comments about anything.

I need your help! I received 21 brands for Triple Creek Ranch and after looking them over and getting others to pick, we've narrowed it down to 7 semi-finalists. This is where you come in. I'm going to post a picture with all five of the brands on it. Your job, should you choose to accept it and I hope you will, is to vote on your favorite brand.
Two things to remember:
* This brand will be on all the cattle of Triple Creek Ranch and must be easy to read.
* Also, be careful of cattle rustlers. (Men who steal cattle) They like to add something to brands to make them look different so they won't be so easy to recognize.

Click on the picture to see it larger.

Just leave your vote in a comment. You can leave your name or vote anonymous. I'll let you know next week who won. 

Not too busy of a week. I've been working on another story for "Project 12." I really need to write a few short stories just for the blog. Anyone have any ideas of what they'd like? Plots, instructions, story ideas, sequels to other stories, etc. If so, let me know by a comment or by e-mailing me at readanotherpage@gmail.com

Now I suppose I should let you all get back to Ria who was left locked in her room by "the gang" while they ate the cookies. It was fun to hear that Ria wasn't the only one who would have locked all those boys out of the house. But here is the end of the story. Enjoy!

Cookie Trouble

Part 2

    Left alone, Ria laughed heartily for several minutes and then began to wish someone would let her out. She tried the door in a vain hope that Al had slipped up and unlocked it for her, but it was not so. She could hear the lads talking and enjoying themselves below. Sitting on her bed her eyes glanced about the room for something to occupy the time. Alas, she had left her book downstairs. What could she do? She didn’t want to do anything really. And then her eye fell on the half open window.
    In a flash she was across the room and looking out. Her window was on the front of the house and looked out over the porch roof. To the side of the porch a large tree grew with several branches stretching out above the roof. The more Ria gazed, the more convinced she became that she could do it. Without waiting for second thoughts, she pushed the window open all the way and clambered out. Once on the roof, she stifled a giggle and carefully shut the window. Cautiously she crept closer and closer to the tree. She had climbed the tree many times, but never had she started from the roof. Before she began her descent, she paused and listened. No voices were to be heard on the porch.
    “Just the same,” she said to herself, “I’ll stay on the farther side of the tree if at all possible. I don’t want them to know that their prisoner is escaping!”
    The green leafy branches soon hid her behind them as limb by limb she climbed down. When she was level with the porch windows she peered around the trunk and saw no sign of any boy.
    “Good, they’re probably still in the kitchen or dining room.”
    One final drop, a dash across the yard and a spring up to the porch of their neighbor. The storm door was wide open allowing the fresh breeze to blow in through the screen door.
    “Come on in, Ria,” a voice called before Ria had a chance to knock.
    Breathing hard from excitement Ria slipped quickly inside.

    The clamor in the kitchen had somewhat died down and the cookies were vanishing with great rapidity before one of the boys asked, “How long are we going to make Ria stay up there?”
    “Until we finish the cookies,” Chris suggested.
    “Well that won’t be long at the rate you are devouring them,” snorted Walt giving his cousin a friendly shove as he reached for yet another cookie.
    “I think we ought to let her out if she promises never to do the like again,” Sam laughed.
    “Oh, come on, Sam,” Fred put in quickly. “Would you deprive her of all her fun? I say we let her out now.”
    “Second it,” came Al’s quiet voice.
    Ed jerked his head towards the stairs. “Go do it then.”
    Al and Fred took the steps two at a time and were soon knocking on Ria’s door. There was no answer. “Ria,” Al called turning the key to unlock the door.
    Still no response. The cousins looked at each other. Why wasn’t she answering? Fred knocked again. Still silence. Al pushed open the door quietly and looked in. The room was empty!
    “Hey, where is she?”
    “Got me! Maybe she’s hiding.”
    However, a quick search of the room soon showed that Ria was not there.
    It didn’t take long before the entire gang were searching in every conceivable place about the house. It was useless, and finally Ed called them all together in the front room.
    “Since Ria is not in the house, she must have gotten out somehow--”
    “Hey!” Chris broke in, “what about the tree?”
    Raising an eyebrow, Ed looked questioningly at his youngest brother. “What tree?”
    “You know, the one by the porch. I’ll bet she climbed out her window, went across the roof and then down the tree.”
    A chorus of agreement filled the room and Chris was sent up to check the window. He quickly returned saying the window was shut but not all the way.
    Rapidly the guys were divided into groups to go around the yard and neighborhood. The twins and Jack were sent to check with a few neighbors where Ria might have taken refuge.

    Corporal lowered his paper as Jimmy knocked and called for the three boys to come in. “What can I do for you?” he asked pleasantly.
    The twins, after glancing around, saw no sign of Ria. “Well, we were wondering if you had seen Ria.”
    “Oh yes,” Corporal said, “she is not quite five feet, has dark hair and--”
    Johnny interrupted him with a grin, “We meant have you seen her today.”
    “Today? Why yes, she did come over this morning. Have you lost her?” There was a twinkle of amusement in the older man’s eyes.
    “We didn’t exactly lose her, Sir, but we can’t find her.”
    “So what did happen? You boys weren’t picking on her too much now, were you?”
    Grinning, the three lads told their story, not omitting Ria locking them out of the house. Having inherited the art of storytelling from their mother, it was several minutes before Johnny finished the last of it.
    Corporal looked at them momentarily and then burst into a roar of laughter as from behind the couch, Ria’s head popped up while she asked sweetly, “Were you looking for me?”
    Johnny rolled his eyes and Jimmy shook his head. Jack just chuckled.
    “Go call the others in, Jack,” Johnny begged, “before they disturb all the neighbors. We should have known she was here when she wasn’t at home.”
    “And you,” Jimmy pointed a finger at his sister, as she crawled from her place of concealment, and pretended to speak sternly though his twinkling eyes betrayed his amusement, “are going home with us and with us you will stay so we can keep you out of mischief.”
    Ria giggled as she darted over to hug Corporal. “Thanks for the fun time. If the gang didn’t eat all the cookies, I’ll bring you some later.”
    “You are most welcome, Ria. Remember, my door is always open to you.”
    With a merry laugh, Ria darted out the door with cousin and brothers hot on her heels.

Did you enjoy the story?

Would you have climbed out the window or just waited?

If you were one of the "gang" would you have been for letting

Ria out with Al and Fred?