Anna: Determind To Succeed

Anna George was 23 years old. She had just graduated from uni with a journalism degree. Now, she was out in the real world and Anna was determind. She was determind to suceed in journalism, and more importantly, she was determind not to fail. In fact, she didn't even say that. What she said was, 'I will not fail.'

Anna tried everywhere to get a job. Every tine, there would be a polite rejection letter awaiting her in the mail a few weeks later. That was until she tried Sunrise. There, they welcomed her with open arms into their company. Their executive producer had just left see and now Anna was Sunrise's executive producer. She was a darn good one at that too. After a few months with Sunrise, Anna really did have it all. A great job, wonderful family and friends and a great boyfriend who she now lived with. The thing is, they were both journalists. He at That's Life! magazine and she at Sunrise. Now Anna was living the dream and was the happiest she'd ever been.

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This is the second in a series of short stories based on the faces of That's Life! Magazine

Jodie: Perfect With One Thing Missing

Jodie Forster was a beautiful woman. The only problem was, she was nearing her thirties and desperate for a partner, but she just couldn't seem to find one. At that point in time, her life revolved around exercise and her office job as a receptionist. Yes, Jodie was an aunt, but she wanted to be a wife, a mother. She wanted a family.

All her dreams came true when she met Richard, a sucessful lawyer in the city. He also loved exercise. Jodie met him at the gym. He was new in town and didn't know many people yet. Richard and Jodie dated for 3 years before Richard finally proposed.

They had a simple, small wedding on the outskirts of Melbourne. 3 months later, Jodie fell pregnant. It was then that Jodie realised that all her wildest dreams had come true.

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This is the first in a series of short stories based on the faces of That's Life! Magazine.

Richest Man On The Planet.

Oliver hadn't seen Jake since high school, so when they ran into each other for coffee, Oliver just couldn't resist making his life sound 100 times better then it actual was.

"So it's Sunday night, right. And I'm just sitting having a good soak in the tub with my glass of wine. But it's not just any bath. See, I wasn't lying in a tub full of water. Oh no my friend, my tub. My tub was full of money. Cold hard cash. It was great. Lying in a tub full of cash. I had the fan going, so it was raining money too." Oliver smiled to himself at the cleverness of his lie. "Wow man." Jake sighed. "You must be the richest guy on the planet." Oliver knew he'd won him over. Now, the two had switched roles. Jake was now the loser and Oliver the winner. "That wine. It was the most expensive money could buy." Oliver couldn't help adding. "You know, my kids favourite game is making different objects out of all the piles of cash." He smiled, satisfyed at Jake's response. A small hint of a smile turning to a frown, the dropping of his head and the slouching of his shoulders as he exited the cafe.

Then, Oliver realised, he had never felt better.

Shelly

Many years ago, there was a young couple, Logan and Skye. Logan and Skye's favourite place in the whole world was the beach. One day, when the two were in their early twenties, Logan, like he always did on a Saturday, took Skye to the beach. Here he made her close her eyes and turn away whilst he burried a ring box in the sand. He then told her to dig. And that she did until she came to something hard. She pulled it out and he proposed. She said yes.

A year from that moment, they were married at that same beach. When they had been married for 3 months, Skye discovered she was pregnant. She had a little girl 9 months later. Logan and Skye named her Shelly.

When little Shelly was 3 months old, Skye was involved in a car accident on her way home from work. A shift a Seaweed and Sand. The minute Logan heard the terrible news, he called Skye's sister, Sandra over to take care of Shelly and raced to the hospital, just in time to hear them calling Skye's time of death.

Logan himself joined Skye in heaven when Shelly turned 13. He passed away after he fell off his horse while going on a ride across the beach with Shelly. He had burried something there that morning, a package for Shelly. Things of Skye's and a few of his as well as a small gift for her. Luckily he had told Shelly's Aunt Sandy of his plans.

Sandra took Shelly to the beach on her 15th birthday, and told her to dig in the spot Logan had told her the things were hidden two years ago. Shelly dug and dug until she found a lovely white box. She pulled it out. In beautiful curvy coral pink writing across the top was 'Shelly'. Shelly opened up the box. On one side were things of her father's. Surfing trophies, a picture of his horse and him when he was a child and a ring as well as a note. 'Happy Birthday, Shelly. I love you always. Dad.' On the other were things of her mothers. Various shells she'd collected, a picture of Logan with Skye and Shelly herself as a young baby. As well as those was a locket in the shape of a shell and a note. 'My lovely Shelly, if you are reading this, it means that I have passed away. I'm sorry I couldn't be there now. But take my locket, and I will always be with you. I love you Shelly. Love, Mum.' In the midde of the box was a box. Inside was a beautiful sky blue cup with hibiscuses all over it. On one side, whitten in beautiful cursive, white letters was Shelly's name.

Eversince that day, Shelly has always worn her mother's locket and her father's ring. Shelly swears that the breeze is her mother's voice, and the waves are her father's. She believes that that is how they watch over her.

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For my Mum. I am the luckiest girl in the world to have a Mum like you. Happy Belated Birthday.

The Dream Queen

Elle was famous in her neighbourhood for something rather strange. Her dreams. Yes, Elle was famous for the dreams she had. She was 19 years old and wasn't doing TAFE or uni, and had a permrnant night shift position, which meant she had pretty much the whole day to herself. It also meant that she was exhausted when she got home and fast asleep the minute her head touched the pillow.

Little did Elle know, she would soon be famous nationwide. Elle was discovered through her blog, Dream Queen. Every morning, as she drank her hot chocolate and ate her cinamin toast and fruit, she wrote about the previous nights dream. 365 posts a year, 30 per month.

It all started with a call from That's Life! Magazine who wanted to do an interview about one of Elle's dreams. Elle saw her story three weeks later. "Dream Queen's Dream Revealed!" Read the headline. It then went on to tell about one of Elle's dreams.

In this particular one, she was walking down a corridor. At the end of the corridor was a T intersection. There was two signs. One pointing left read 'hell' and the other, pointing right read 'heaven'. Elle explored both halls to find that down the whole length were a series of doors on either side. Elle opened one from each hall. In the one she opened from the hall named 'hell' was, lying in a basket, one of the things she hated the most- spiders. Behind the door she opened in the hall named 'heaven' was one of the things she loved the most at least 5 blocks of pure white chocolate. But just as Elle reached for them, something grabbed her hand, it grew dark and with that she woke up.

Then came a call from Sunrise, who also wanted to do an interview with Elle, two weeks after the debut of her That's Life! article. They did a story on another of Elle's extraordinary dreams.

In this one, Elle went to some sort of secret garden. Waiting for her there was all sorts of magic. There was a beautiful, crystal clear lake with mermaids, a cloud garden with fairies and a beautiful, flowery grotto with unicorns. Elle was a little girl again. She watched as the fairies put on a magic show for her, flew on a unicorn and swam with the mermaids. The last thing she remembered was spinning around and flew up and into the clouds.

After these two interviews, Elle landed a position as a regular columnist for That's Life! writing once a week about her dreams and also as an 'Angel' on Sunrise, coming in once a week to talk about different issues.

Elle is now married with two beautiful daughters, Skye and Tiarna.

Disturbed Peace

Old Mrs. Saunders loved it where she lived. In a long, peaceful street where it was always suny with a clear blue sky, only a few white clouds dotting the horizon. And there was always a nice cool breeze whispering through the trees that lined the street. Mrs. Saunders had always thought of it as her calm, tranquil haven that was her serene heaven. And she had lived there as long as she could remember. She and her husband had moved in there when they were first married. They had raised their three children, Skye Logan and Ava there and they had lived ther when her husband had passed 3 years ago. Now it was just Mrs Saunders and her little dog, Ella. Her three kids had all finished school and had moved out.

The street was just as it always had been until one day, a family with two rowdy, loud teenage boys moved in next door. They completely disturbed Mrs. Saunders' peace. They made it harder for she and Ella to go to sleep at night and they also made it hard for her to enjoy her Sundays. Ehere she would start by going and doing the groceries and getting the paper and her copy of the latest 'That's Life!' magazine. Then'd she'd sit on her front porch in her favourite chair and read the paper and magazine and then do the puzzles.

So one day, when Mrs. Saunders just couldn't take it anymore, she marched over to the house next door to have a chat with their mother, to find that she was heavily pregnant. "Eversince you and your family have moved in here, I've had awful troubles getting to sleep and my Sundays have been destroyed by that awful racket your sons make." The woman stood there, shocked, a baffled look on her face. It soon turned into a fight. They only found a solution when the woman's husband came in and sat down with the two women for a mediation. It was there that they reached a compromise. The boys had to stay quiet after 8 each evening and after 3 on Saturdays and all day Sundays. The rest of the time they could make all the noise they wanted.

From that day on, everything was once again peaceful, and eventually, Mrs. Saunders and the woman, Olivia grew to become quite good friends. Olivia went on to have two more daughters and Mrs Saunders stayed living in the street until the day she died.