A/N-I don't kow if anybody guessed it but in my earleir chapters, there was some neighbors of Sherman that I used in a poker game and the one that showed Walter his house. They were Rob and Jerry from the Dick Van Dyke show...or thin copies of them. Just wanted to have some fun and they may show up again! You'll never know.

A few nights later, Sunshine and Walter stand in their new kitchen , she's putting up her new beautiful sunshine yellow curtains and she turns around beaming to Walter and on the floor is a picnic setting and two chairs right beside the picnic and Sherman and Mildred come in and Sherman asks,

"What's this?" He points to the picnic on the floor then Sunshine says, "Well, the furniture comes tomorrow but I thought it would be nice to have a picnic like this tonight with all of us" Sherman smiles then says,

"Hey, that sounds great!" Then he points to the chairs and asks,

"What's this?" Sunshine looks at Walter and he looks around and Sunshine clears her throat then says,

"Well, we bought those chairs from your house to make things more comfortable for you"

His face turns angry red then he explodes, "Cow cookies!"

Mildred walks over to Sunshine and puts her arms around her to help her hold in the tears and Sherman says,

"I may be old but I can still sit on the floor and have a picnic!" Walter then says, "Pop, Sunshine didn't mean anything, she just thought it would help"

He softens his face then says,

"I know it's just that, I don't need a chair like a dodderling old fool"

Mildred then smooths down Sunshine's hair then says, "Let's just sit down in Sunshine's new kitchen and have our picnic"

They sit down and eat fried chicken, potato salad and fresh grown corn with lemonade for drinks and the rest of the meal is set in loving friendship and growning relationships and Sherman asks,

"You said the furniture will be delivered tomorrow?"

Walter shakes his head and takes a drink of lemonade then says, "Yes, Jerry and Rob said they would help us with the furniture"

Sherman nods his head then says, "Good neighbors"

Just then little drops of rain come down on the window and they look at them and Mildred says, "Oh, it's raining"

Sunshine looks at the raindrops and with concern in her voice, she says, "Yes, I just hope it doesn't..."

Just then they hear a gigantic boom ( thunder ) and they hear Misty come running down the all and she is crying and when she sees her grandfather, she cries out, "Grandpa!"

She runs and falls in his arms and he pats her gently and smooths down her hair and he says,

"Shhhhh, It's okay Misty, hey, let's do something to pass the time so that storm will pass more quickly?" She wipes her little tears away then asks, "Like what?" He thinks on it then says,

"Well, we can read 'Black Beauty' I think Beauty goes through something like this, a storm, you want to read how he does it?"

Another huge clap of thunder comes and she puts her head on his chest then when it stops, she says, "C-c-can we grandpa?" He smiles then says, "Sure we can, where's the book Sunshine?"

She smiles and says, "It's in the side of the chair"

He signals for Misty to get up and he gets in the chair and gets the book and he gets in his lap and he looks up at Sunshine and says,

"It'll be easier for her up here" He winks and Sunshine giggles. Walter smiles and the whole family settles in for a read of a good chapter of 'Black Beauty'

'One day late in the autumn,... Sunshine refills everybody's glass of lemonade as they listen to the story with every bit of interest that Misty has,

'...There had been a great deal of rain, and now the wind was very high, and blew the dry leaves across the road in a shower. We went merrily along till we came to the toll bar and the low, wooden bridge. The river banks were rather high, and the bridge, instead of rising, went across just level, so that in the middle, if the river was full, the water would be nearly up to the woodwork and planks..."

Young Misty was listening to every word that her grandfather was reading from the book and even though the thunder was still coming , she was only flinching.

'The man at the gate said the river was rising fast, and he feared it wold be a bad night. Many of the meadows were under water, and in one low part of the road the water was halfway up to my knees...'

She then says in anticipation, "What happens to Black Beauty?"

He smiles then says, "Hold your reigns in and we'll find out"

'The wind was then much higher, and I heard the master say to John that he had never been out in such a storm: and so I thought, as we went along the skirts of a wood, where the great branches were swaying about like little twigs and the rushing sound was terrible'

It is almost like everybody in the room takes a deep breath to hear the next words that Sherman reads from Beauty's master and John then he reads,

'The words were scarely out of his mouth when there was a groan and a crack and a spliting sound and tearing, crashing down among the other trees came a oak, torn up by the roots and it fell right across the road before us. I will never say that I was not frightened, for I was. I stopped still, and I believe I trembled; of coarse I did not turn or run away, I was not bought up to do that.

The more words that Sherman read the more quiet the room got, everyone was so involved in the book and to Misty the storm that was about her house was gone because of her grandfather's words from a childhood book.

'So back we went and round by the crossroads, but by the time we got to the bridge it was very nearly dark. We could just see that the water was over the middle of it; but as that happened sometimes when the floods were out, master did not stop. We were going at a good pace, but the moment my feet touched the first part of the bridge, I felt sure there was something wrong. I dare not go forward, and I made a dead stop."

Sherman looked up and saw that the storm had stopped but he knew that if he quit reading the tears would flow and the way the rest of his family was acting, he would get booed out of the house for sure so he read some more then he came to the words,

'The bridge is broken in the middle, and part of it is carried away: if you come on you'll be in the river' 'Thank God!' said my master. 'You beauty!' Said John...

Collective sighs were made and Sherman read the rest of the book then when he finally finished the chapter, Misty gave him a huge hug and she says,

"Thanks Grandpa! I love you!"

He then taps on her little shoulders and says, "Look"

She looks up at the kitchen window and sees that the storm has passed and she squeals then says,

"You were right Grandpa! The storm has gone away!"

She hugs him and happily runs to her room and they all laugh with the happiness of the moment then Sherman asks,

"Now, would you like to hear a real storm of a story?"

Mildred asks him perplexed as she cuts a piece of chocolate cake that Sunshine has made for the picnic and hands it around the 'table' of sorts then he says,

"Well, reading her that story about the storm that Beauty went though, I couldn't help but remember the bad storm that I went thorough the first few days I was in college" Walter picks up his chocolate cake and cuts into it and asks, "What happened?"

Sherman gives out a sigh then picks up his untouched lemonade then sits back, takes a sip then tells them,

"Well, I started college early one week and things were going rather good and more smoothly than I thought then a few more weeks later we realized that the work was getting harder. I had made a few friends there but nothing like the friends I had in those dark days of the war but...they were good men, even if they were stupid as potato sacks in the beginning..."

They all laugh and Walter asks him after taking a drink of cool lemonade,

"Why, what did they do?"

Sherman laughs then says, "Well, nothing out of the ordinary but that first few weeks, they weren't so bright, there was four of them...Alvin, Emmet, Bucky and Mitch. One day we were all sitting around in the gym..."

The guys and I were laughing then Mitch gets up and get something out of the top of his locker, a small bottle of Gin. I was fixing to go to my room, small as it was, but it was a place to escape and study. Mitch saw me and asked, 'Hey, Sherman, where you going?' I looked at Alvin and said, 'I'm going to my room, I'm going to study these books for awhile then go to bed, I'm beat'

He got that bottle down and showed it proudly to all the guys and said, 'Why don't you stay and get some of this? This will help you relax'

Sherman then tells Mitch, 'Nah, I'm not in the mood. I'm going on, night boys'. Mitch just couldn't help himself but give one last plea to get me to drink with him...wasn't sure why I didn't take that drink but something told me not to so I just straightened my back and said, 'I said 'No' dammit and I mean it! I'll see all you boys in the morning'

I looked at my friend Alvin who became my best friend in those days and he had respect in his eyes so he smiled and nodded his head and the other guys said 'Night' and so I left. I think Mitch was left standing in shock and awe, I don't know, didn't care. Anyway, I went to my room like I said and I studied for a few hours but then finally went to bed. I could hear the wind blowing outside that sounded like a witch crying for a spell but I was so tired that I didn't care, I just flopped myself in the bed tired to the bone and for a few hours I got some peaceful sleep but I woke up to a whirling nightmare!

A tree limb hits my window, it didn't break it but it did give it a good crack. I got up and ran over to the window and looked down and it was like watching swirling water! Except it was limbs, leaves, rocks and such! I then heard a big crash and a female scream, so without even thinking, I ran, opened my door and looked and the scream was coming down the hall...it was a girl named Elvie I think, she was studying to be a nurse, that's why I knew her. The tree had come through her window and scraped her bad on the arm.

Alvin came and helped me get the falling branches on her arm and we got her to safely in the hall. There was more screams and a few more rescues and on the last one, I fell and twisted my ankle pretty bad so in the morning, I found myself in the campus hospital...I guess you could say I had become a living guinea pig!'

They all laugh then Sherman says, "After that, I had found respect from everybody ! It sure helped with Mildred's father a whole lot! And when they took my picture for the paper, I got connected with family that I had forgot all about...my only aunt and uncle from my dad's side."

Mildred then says, "I had nearly forgot, I don't think my father ever forgot about it though. He was proud of you until the day he died Sherman"

He beams and Walter and Sunshine look at each other and Walter beams with pride at Sherman.

A/N-I was trying out a new writing format, some of my reviewers were saying they were having a hard time reading...please tell me if it is good...yay or nay?

Sand n' Sable