This is a short humor story that I did for Faithwriters. Based on a true story of my brother and me when we were little. Please comment!

 

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A Compromise

 

The sounds of fighting outside had gone on long enough. Mrs. Williams opened the back door and stepped out.

“Stop fighting, you two! Just compromise and you can both be happy!”

Ethan and Lily went silent.

“What’s a compromise?” asked Ethan, tugging at his Spiderman gloves that were on his hands.

“It’s where you use both your ideas and make a game of that!” Ethan and Lily looked at each other and Lily slowly nodded, her mob-cap she was wearing bobbed up and down.

“Okay, Mom.”

*

Mabel walked along the old, time worn road to school, scuffing her brown shoes reluctantly. Another day of teasing at her Amish community’s school was almost more than she could bear. There was no reason that Mabel could see why they teased her and she’d asked them to stop, but it didn’t do anything.

The dusty looking, red painted schoolhouse appeared over a small rise in the road and Mabel sighed. Pushing her mob-cap up on her head, she walked the short distance down the rise and into the schoolyard.

A few whispers mingled with the laughing and chatter as she walked past the other children. Ignoring them, Mabel pushed her whole weight against the heavy door, then slipped inside the school to find her seat for the first class of the day.

The bell rang and classes began. The day in the classroom went by without incident until it was time for lunch.

She took her bucket that held the lunch that her mother had packed her and scurried past everyone else towards the door. Mabel pulled on it hard and managed to squeeze through the crack that she’d created before the door swung shut again.

The sun shone through the tree leaves from directly above and filtered down into little spots covering the ground. Mabel ran towards a tree at the edge of the yard, her brown boots crunching on the grass.

She sat down by the gnarled old trunk and pulled her sandwich out of the bucket. The other children started filing out of the school and finding places to sit with their friends. Mabel nibbled at her sandwich and silently prayed that someone would sit next to her. No one did and she finished her sandwich alone. She reached into the bucket to see if there was anything else and smiled.

Her mom had packed her a piece of apple pie. Mabel pulled out the plate and fork and began to eat.

“Oh, so goody-two-shoes Mabel is too nice and clean to play with any of us?” Mabel looked up to see the two girls who usually teased her, Sharon and Laura, standing there. She shrunk in on herself and turned away.

“How’s that pie?” asked Sharon. “Can I have some? Or are you too selfish?”
Mabel looked at what was left of her tiny piece of pie sadly.

“You pig, you’ve almost eaten it all! Gimme that!” Laura swiped at the plate, trying to grab it and accidentally tipped it over.

“Splat!” the pie landed facedown in the dirt. Tears filled Mabel’s eyes and the two girls began to laugh.

Suddenly, there was a swooshing sound in the air, the sound almost of… was it … spiderwebs sticking to something? A strongly built, red-clad figure dropped between Mabel and the bullies and took a protective stance. The two girls stumbled back in shock.

“Sp-spiderman?” stuttered Sharon. The red mask moved ever so slightly by the mouth.

“Yeah. And I can shoot webs at you if you try and take any more pie from little girls. You got that?” The two girls nodded vigorously.

“Go away then!” He shot a few webs at the ground in front of them and they ran away screaming. A gleeful laugh came from behind his mask, then he turned to help Mabel.

“Are you okay?” Spiderman asked.

“Yes,” Mabel sniffed. “Thank you for saving me, Spiderman.” She jumped forward and hugged him around the waist. Spiderman smiled,

“Hey, no problem. Just doing my job. Someone has to fight bad guys and keep the world in order.”

*

“Kiiiiiiids!” A voice called out through the yard, “It’s time for dinner!” Lily let go of Ethan.

“Coming, Mom!”

*

Mabel clasped Spiderman’s strong, red gloved hand in her own small one and smiled up at him.

“Come on, Spiderman. I’ll take you to the best Amish restaurant in town.”