Review: What a delightful short story...and FREE! So what's the ruckus?
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 3, 2013
I am really surprised, amazed even at the amount of negative and almost angry reviews this delightful short story garnered. Short as it may be, it elicited  so many different emotions. Just by Carly Kelly's short walk from a large home store Mayer's, who's trying to buy her out, to her own little quaint plant shop called Plant People has already provoked a feeling of contentment, a sense of security and belonging where you know almost everyone not just by face but by their name. Talking to her plants as she gently cleanses each individual leaf, almost like cooing them will put a smile to your face. Feeling a little unsure should she merge with Mayer's or not, you feel for her, you can't help commiserate with her. Carly found herself having a heart to heart talk to a total stranger ( Charlie ) on the phone when she accidentally dialed a wrong phone number trying to reach some friends who lives a few hours away from her. With Charlie's smooth warm voice and his open candidness, Carly ended up pouring her heart out eliciting good advice and great wisdom from Charlie. Before they even realized it, they were asking each other personal questions, you can feel the tension through  the line, the strong attraction and connection is palpable. Unfortunately Carly dropped her cellphone into a bucket filled with liquid brew for her plants and rendered her cell dead and useless. They got disconnected before they even had a chance to ask for each others phone number, can you imagine that feeling! Like regrets, like a loss of something that might be something wonderful. Not one to easily give up, she ran down the street to the nearest store and bought a new cellphone, she then tried different number combinations, frantic to get connected with him again but no such luck. She relentlessly tried for the next three days and what follows was several different funny responses from those who got her calls, some are hilarious  you'll get a real good laugh. At the end of the third day she decided to give it up, turned her open sign to closed, locked the doors and was about to go upstairs to her apartment when her phone rings, she answers ...it's HIM! Just like Carly, Charlie was so taken with her he called all the Mayer's store and a plant shop in the neighboring cities and found her. Wow, it's like serendipity! The first word he says when she answered was "hey"... one word was all it took, her heart stopped, he tells her what he's gone through to find her, drove all the way to her instead of just calling. The ending was even sweeter... He asked her to dinner, she says "when" and he says "in ten seconds", "where are you" she says..."across the street" he says...she looks out her window and saw the only man standing holding a phone to his ear. He was of average height but stood tall, wore jeans and jacket with dark brown hair, wire-rimmed glasses with sweet unsureness on his face that as she looked him over, she fell in love, there and then..."so" he said with a tentative hope "dinner, are you free?"...she smiled and said " yes thank you, I believe I am" and unlocked the door and walked out. That feeling of hope, love and triumph, if this indeed a prequel to a coming book, it needn't be explained to us. After all, it's a short story...delightful, sweet and short, a great beginning to a great book! That is, if Ms. Delinsky decides to write and graces us with one. Short stories have no set length and is a brief work of literature. In terms of word count there is no official demarcation between a short  story and a novel, so what's the big ruckus?