nearly gave up on her dream of becoming a professional slide show operator. She knew she would carry on, however. After all, her middle name wasn't Perseverance for nothing. Well, that wasn't really her MIDDLE name; it was actually her sixth name. Sally had been named after her aunts. All of them. Samantha Ann Louise Louise (she had two aunt Louises, one on her father's side and one one her mother's) Yasmine Perseverance (because, wait for it, the end was coming) Sackbutter. Her parent's hadn't wanted to slight anyone when they named her, but she thought they might have gotten a little carried away. She didn't know anyone else with six names. Then there was the problem of what to call her. It got tiresome saying all those names. At first they tried just shortening them to Samanloulouyas, but it still wasn't very short and Aunt Samantha, Aunt Louise, Aunt Yasmine, and Aunt Louise all complained that their names had been shortened and Aunt Ann's hadn't. "But no!" cried her parents, "We shortened Ann's to An." But the Aunts said that was a difference without a distinction. So in the end, to be fair, they just called her Sally, and for the most part that worked out, except sometimes Aunt Samantha lorded it over the others that her letter was capitalized and the rest of them were lower case.
But here she was thinking about her middle name when she was supposed to be studying her slide projector manual. How else was she ever going to convince her parents that being a world renowned slide show operator was her life's work? They already were skeptical of her dream. Sally let her mind drift back to when she told her parents of her decision, how long had it been, now? At least 15, maybe 20 minutes.
"Ludicrous!" cried her mother. "There's no such thing as that job, who's going to hire you! And you're always getting the slides in the wrong order or upside down. Face it, Sally, this isn't a viable plan."
Sally bit back a sob, and stoically lifted her chin before declaring, "You've never believed in any of my dreams! But I'll succeed. You'll see!"
Her father didn't even lift his head from his hand's before replying, "Sally, you're 34. You have a new dream every week. This is the dumbest one yet. Just get a job already, will ya?"
"You don't understand the soul of an artist, Daddy." She sobbed before fleeing to the sanctuary of her room.
"Maybe one of our sisters should talk to her," mused Sally's mother.
"Have you lost your ever-loving mind! It was their pushing her and pulling her in 20 different directions that turned her into this indecisive wreck." Then, the germ of an idea began to form in Sally's father's head. Could it work, he wondered? Was it possible? Yes, it might. They were all just dumb enough to buy it. Now to put the plan into action. "Oh Sally, Sally dear. Can Daddy talk to you for a second, sweetheart?" He told her he thought the idea of being a professional slide show operator was wonderful. (Sally tried not to take her mother's sputtering and gaping to heart during this speech.) "What you need though, is a sponsor. Someone to back you up, someone to believe in you, someone to stand by you."
"A standmate, you mean," said Sally, her eyes brightening.
"A wha... yeah, whatever," said her father. "Do you know who would be perfect? One of your Aunts. Call them up, see if one of them wants to do it."
"That's just what I'll do." So she called her aunts and told them of her dream. They all fought to have her come live with each of them. But she couldn't make up her mind who to choose. "I know what we should do! Why don't you all come and live with me?" And that's just what they did.
"You and your bright ideas," said her mother.
"Oh, shut up," said her father.
And they all lived happily ever, well in all honesty her parents didn't seem all that happy for some reason, her mother was always slamming doors and her father spent a lot of time in the corner muttering to himself, but still the aunts were... well actually, they had begun having some really loud arguments for some reason, all-in-all it seemed only Sally was really living happily ever after. But that was OK, she had her dream, and this one had stuck! So life was good. It would be great once her aunts quit fighting and came to a decision. As it was, they were still vying over who would be her standmate.
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