Marlee Dreams She's A Beautiful Peacock

Grandma Lu went outside as quick as she could. Her husband said, "Look at what the children did to my piles of leaves. Now I have to start all over again."
Grandma Lu grinned and said, "Have you forgotten what it feels like to be a child in the fall? Didn't you ever play in the leaves and laugh with your brothers and sister? Come on. I'll help you rake some more. It's a beautiful day."

Grandma Lu's husband grinned and said, "Okay. Let's get busy."
He stooped over and said, "Look what I found. It's a ladybug. I've heard they are good luck. Isn't this little ladybug beautiful? I have always thought they were really good for our flowers. You know they eat little mites that ruin our rose plants, but they don't eat the plants. They are good to have in your gardens. Hey, where did you get that hat?"

"I have heard that too, but if I remember right Marlee found out that making wishes on ladybugs didn't work when she tried it. You never mind about my hat. It keeps my head warm and besides that I think it's beautiful. Let's rake these leaves, Mr. Grumpy."

As Grandma Lu and her husband were raking leaves that day Grandma Lu was still thinking about the story she had heard about ladybugs and peacocks. "It's really strange that my husband should find a ladybug today just when I was thinking of that old old story. I wonder if Kaysyn has remembered the day she found a ladybug all those months ago. Probably not, she was so little."

While Grandma Lu and her husband were busy busy doing yard work, Marlee was fast asleep with a stuffed peacock in her arms. It was a gift from her Grandma B's friend. She was having a wonderful dream. She was such a beautiful peacock. She could see Grandma Lu's husband picking up that lady bug though. She didn't like him calling it beautiful. She was the most beautiful in all the world not some silly old ladybug...

Grandma Lu heard a scream in the timber. "Mercy, it surely can't be a peacock in this neck of the woods. They usually scream when they hear planes or loud cars. Oh wouldn't you just know it, there goes my son in his Jeep. It sure is noisy. I'd like to scream too sometimes when he goes down the road." But she grinned when she thought of him and how much he loved his Jeep.