I recently remembered a thread that we had on Card Talk several years ago that was a lot of fun. It involved writing a short story in a paragraph and leaving it off for another poster to complete the next paragraph. The story could go in any direction based on whatever came before. I don't know if we will have as much participation this time around, but you can pick up as many paragraphs as you like and hopefully many people will join in. We got a pretty good story last time, but I think it is too far back to recover. So I'll start this new one off and see where it goes.

It was a dark and stormy night. Major Jim Harris could barely see the road ahead through the rain streaked windshield. He was down to under 10 miles an hour and moving along the Maine back road with heavy tree lines on either side. He had no idea why his sister left an urgent message on his phone begging him to come to her country house right away. She wasn't answering any of the numbers he had, so he left the Army post to take the 3 hour drive to her vacation retreat. It was now 5 hours later and he couldn't tell how close he was in the rain and pitch blackness. Suddenly he spotted movement to his left and something broke out of the trees. He slammed on the brakes and the car fished tailed in the rear, but it did not come to a stop soon enough and he heard the unmistakable thud of an impact.

He quickly got out of the car and to his great surprise saw . . .

a dwarf!
Major Harris quickly yelled, "Are you the guy from 'Game of Thrones'?! I have to have your autograph!" The dwarf gazed at him. "So you think anyone with a height condition is Peter Dinglage? What kind of person are you. Why I ought to!" The Dwarf raised in fists in anger, positioning himself in a boxers stance ready to punch Major Harris. Unaware of what to do the Major got back in his car and tried to back up only to find that it was too damaged to move. The dwarf meanwhile began to pound his fists against the car chanting.....

"Oh, a wise guy? Why I oughtta..." it wasn't so much the words, as the way he said it, in a nasally tough guy voice. Major Harris recalled watching old Three Stooges comedies. He had heard rumors that there was a Three Stooges cult somewhere in the Maine backwoods, obviously the dwarf was a member of the group. Harris knew the best way to avoid injury from the little guy was to hold his hand sideways next to his nose, but why, he wondered...

was the dwarf out here all alone. Could there be other Stooges all around them? He decided not to wait and find out. He screamed over his shoulder "My insurance is in the glove compartment. Sorry!" and ran like hell in the direction he hoped was the house. He slowed down once he was sure no one was chasing him and was about to relax just when the cell phone in his jacket pocket rang. "Hello" Major Harris answered cautiously and the voice on the other end replied . . .

"Hello, this is Lisa from Credit Card Services. There's nothing wrong with your account.." Harris hit the close button. He hated Lisa, and she called him every few days. He couldn't even tell her he would never use her services, because Lisa was just a recording.
The rain was letting up, and as he walked through the dark, he let loose a shudder, it was eerie out here at night, the unpleasant experience with the dwarf didn't help, but Harris was an officer in the United States Army, and he couldn't show any fear, even out here, alone. Through the trees he could make out some dim lights, was this is his sister's place, or was it...

that motel he saw advertised on the neon sign back on the highway. What was that name? Gates? Tates? Oh yeah Bates, the Bates Motel. As he got closer he saw that he was in fact turning into a small parking lot. Hell of a place to put a motel, right out in the middle of nowhere he thought, but maybe the people inside could get him another car and some directions. He walked through the door marked Office and Major Harris came face to face with . . .

Actor Freddie Highmore. "Excuse me" said Harris, "Aren't you that kid who starred in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory?"
"Yes,that was me, Just call me Freddie. Did you like the movie?"
"Yeah, it was okay, I guess I liked the first movie a bit more..." admitted Major Harris.
"Yeah, I get that a lot."
"What are you doing out here?"
"Oh, my cousin and his mother own this motel, I'm just visiting and helping out. Norman is on a date tonight.Did you want to get a room?"
"Well, no, my car is in a ditch a couple of miles back, I ran off the road avoiding a dwarf..."
"A dwarf!?" cried Freddie, "It could only have been Frank Nesbitt, he's the only dwarf around here, used to be a pretty nice guy before he got involved with those Stoogites... Is he okay?"
"Oh yeah, he was a little mad at me."
"The Stoogites are like that, but they are pretty harmless, they might poke you in the eyes, but all you have to do is hold your hand up sideways next to your nose to block them. So what can I do for you?"
"I'm in need of a car, or maybe directions at least, I'm looking for my sister's place. She has a cabin in the woods near the lake, just off the road out here."
Freddie thought for a while, then said, "I think there's a cabin like that down the road 2 miles, I don't know who lives there, but they say that place is..."

haunted by some nut job in a hockey mask, but people only see him during sleep away camp season and once on prom night".

"Oh well that's good because I've had enough weird things happen already and it's very important that I get to my final destination as soon as possible". So you're pretty sure about that cabin in the woods?" the Major asked. "If I remember it was the last house on the left."

Freddie nodded, "That could be, there's a half dozen cabins on Crystal Lake, they're all in a ring. Here, take the keyes to my aunt's old car Christine, it's out back."

"The car is called Christine?"

"What can I say, she named it. She has a wicker man standing in the yard that they call Ben. I guess that's what the locals do for fun out here."

"Yes", Major Harris agreed as he reached for the offered car keyes, "It's a nice place to visit, but like they say . . ."

His voice trailed off in mid sentence as the front door was flung open and the outline of a figure in a wet, shiny red rain slicker appeared. "Don't look now", Freddie whispered, "but . . .

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