A Story-Sentence Game

My thanks to Walter of The Silver Screening Room for tagging me to participate in a game in which players add another sentence to a story in which the first and last sentences have been provided.

It's like the old telephone game!

I have been slow to respond owing to----well. life....so I apologize for cooling the momentum...But I smell a best-seller here, and I sure as heck want to get my share of the royalties!  And so, with Sentence #8--Here goes:

1. Jane never expected to visit Belarus, but it was the only possible solution after what had happened.

2. Her lonely planet guide had advised her that it was a great place for birdwatching- so she packed her binoculars- Todd would have been proud, had he not been lying in a coma.

3. Poor Todd; Jane remembered the incident so well: he had spotted a rare long-whiskered owlet, had ran out into the street to snap a photo, and had thusly been hit by an ice cream truck.

4. Except the ice cream truck was actually a roasted salmon!

5. Upon seeing this strange occurrence, a Portuguese fisherman who happened to be standing on the other side of the street (and who was also, coincidentally, the resident expert on salmon) ran to scene and called 911, prompting Todd's speedy - albeit smelly - rescue.

 6. Naturally, Jane was distraught over the entire salmon/ice-cream truck affair , moreover considering that she was the one who had wanted the photo of that owlet; they were both avid birdwatchers, but she was particularly fond of the owlet.
 
7. She had gone off owlets since then, and as she checked into the little hotel by the river, she wondered if she could find solace in the azure tit, a beautiful bird that, while easily spotted and hardly rare, at least had a name that sometimes made her giggle.

8.  Surrounded by beautiful little azure tits as she wrote in her journal to un-bird-en herself of thoughts of fish, and fowl, and Todd (who was slowly recovering, and would join her soon); and as room service arrived with her vegetarian plate; her phone vibrated, signaling a text....

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30. The three of them left as quickly as they could and vowed never to return again, especially if Jane was in town.

I would now like to invite my friend Tom from Sophisticated Lunacy to add his unique vision; Tom is an expert in the short-short story, and I'm sure he will keep this running beautifully...