The Ghosts of Royal Cactus
Chapter Four
By Missy

SERIES: Goosebumps!
SUBSERIES: Ghosts of Royal Cactus
PART: four of five or so for this arc
Author: Missy
Email: lasfic@yahoo.com
RATING: PG-13 (For language and possible memories that are a bit explicit)
PAIRING(s): L/L; S/C; S/R

DISTRIBUTION: To LW, Kai, and FG so far; any other archives are welcome to ask (Please Email Me), but disclaimers must be included, my email left intact. send a URL, and provide full disclaimers as well as credit me fully. Please inform me if you are going to submit my work to any sort of search engine. Please do not submit my work to a search engine that picks out random sets of words and uses them as key words, such as "Google"

Please contact me in order for this story to be placed on an archive, or if you want know of a friend who would enjoy my works, please email me their address and I will mail them the stories, expressly for the purpose of link trading. MiSTiers are welcomed! Please do inform me that you'd like to do the MiSTing, however, and send me a copy of the finished product. I'd also love to archive any MiSTings that are made of my work!

DISCLAIMER: Laverne and Shirley, of course, not my property and belongs to its creators.

CATEGORY: Epic Drama
CANNON/SPOILERS: Pre-Reunion Show Cannon; set five years after the series' conclusion.
FEEDBACK: PLEASE?!
SPOILLER/SUMMARY: Can Laverne trust Lenny? A return to an old disaster causes them to wonder if they were meant to be together. Also, Squiggy and Rhonda hear wedding bells.
NOTES: The third chapter in the fifth portion to this series, "The Ghosts of Royal Cactus"

****

Squiggy's voice was, if nothing else, dramatic as he read the scrap of paper before him.

"I, Andrew Squiggman, ask ta be forgivin' for the following stuff: One, lookin' up Shirley Feeney's dress in eleventh grade..."

Shirley squealed in horror, and Squiggy stuck a finger into his ear, trying to clean out the disruptive influence within.

"Two, peekin' through yer lin-jerry drawers, back in Milwaukee. Four..."

"You mean three, Squig?" Laverne asked.

"Laverne, everyone knows four comes after two," He cleared his throat, "Four, maulin' Shirl back in Royal Cactus. It is kinda yer fault, Shirl. I know ya couldn't resist my hair worm..."

Shirley shrieked once more, this time striking Squiggy with a pillow. He threw down his list and put his fists up.

"NO!" Laverne ordered, stepping between the two of them. "Squig, how many more things do you got on that list?"

Squiggy frowned, "Eh..." He proceeded to pull out a series of balled-up notes from his pocket, layering them onto the bed. When he got to the tenth example, Shirley cut him off.

"Aww heck," Squiggy stuffed his hands into his pocket, "Laverne, Shirley; I'm sorry for bein' a jerk."

The girls looked to each other, in disbelief at Squiggy's declaration. "Well, Andrew," Shirley finally said, albiet reluctantly, "We forgive you."

"Really?" Squiggy asked. The girls nodded. "Good!" He ran to the door and shouted, "Rhonda! They said 'OK'!"

Shirley groaned, "What's this all about?"

Squiggy looked to his feet, "Rhonda wanted me ta be an honest man before we hitched our rocks togetha," He admitted. "Just lettin' ya know I ain't gonna be peekin' in yer window no more...I know that's gotta kill ya, Shirl."

Shirley rolled her eyes, "Of course, Andrew."

"I gotta go...They're breakin' up the swan ice thing downstairs, and Rhonda said I could have a beak!" He ran out the door, leaving behind the impression that his entire existence had been a mirage.

Shirley folded her knees, staring in disbelief after Squiggy. "Well, that's not exactly something you see every day," She mused. "Back to your problem."

"Yeah, what does 'get over it' mean?" Laverne snapped.

Shirley took a deep breath and sighed, "Laverne, you and Leonard have a magic together...now that I've gotten to know Lenny a little bit better, thanks to our time together in New York, I understand how much he cares for you. In other words, don't throw away something beautiful because of something silly that happened in Royal Cactus so many years ago."

Laverne shook her head, "You spent twenty years drivin' me away from Len!"

"Well, maybe I've grown up," Shirley sighed, "Maybe, after being with Walter...I know that, sometimes, real love isn't what you see on the outside...It's what's inside of a person."

"I thought you and Walter were OK.." Laverne remarked, her expression confused.

Shirley sighed, and for the first time, admitted, "Walter and I are divorcing. He's sleeping with a woman he met in Vietnam."

Laverne's eyes bugged out, "I'll kill 'im!"

Shirley's hands dug into Laverne's arm, "That won't help, Laverne," She sighed, collapsing onto the bed, "He's suing me for custody of Veenie, too."

"He's dead! I'll call my uncle Vito!"

"Your uncle Vito wouldn't hurt a fly!"

"He has connections!"

Shirley groaned, squeezing a pillow tightly with her arms, "A dead Walter wouldn't solve anything. We have to work this out like two rational adults."

Laverne laughed, "We ain't rational adults, Shirl."

Shirley laughed, pitching her pillow playfully at Laverne, "Go apologize to Lenny."

"Later," Laverne sighed.

"You never were good at 'I'm Sorry.'" Shirley sat up, "Come on; I've got to see how Rhonda's doing with Veenie..."

***

Downstairs, Shirley found her daughter wrist-deep in an éclair, sending her to the bathroom to wash the young lady up. Squiggy, Carmine and Lenny were headed off to, from the way they were chatting, Squiggy's "Hachelor Party".

"Len?" Laverne said, very softly, but he ignored her. She waited until Carmine and Squiggy had vacated the room before placing her hand on his shoulder, "Len, please."

Anger shone clearly in his blue eyes when he turned to face her, "Waddya want, Laverne? Ta poltergize?"

"Apologize?" She smiled, weakly, "Well, I...I...I'm half-wrong..."

His face turned to rock, "That ain't good enough, Vernie," He stepped out of the door frame, "I'm sorry, it just ain't good enough."

And he slammed it shut, leaving Laverne alone with her wounded emotions.





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