A line from my upcoming novel:
Kate said, “Abby, you don’t know Miles anymore and he could have changed, maybe not in a good way.”
“Dad, can we go to the Children’s Park today?” Jeremy asked.
Greg had been promising his son, Jeremy, that they could go to the Children’s Park in the Town Square during the weekend for a while now.
“Get your stuff together. Let’s go, son,” Greg said.
When Greg and Jeremy got to the Children’s Park, Jeremy cried, “Look, Dad, something new!” He ran toward a number of large, wooden statues that had been placed in a central location in the park. There were even statues of green Martian men. Jeremy played while Greg purchased a replica of a statue for him.
A tired Jeremy and Greg arrived home in the late afternoon. Jeremy put his statue in his room. Right before he went to bed, there was a loud knock at the door. Greg answered. It was the large green Martian statue.
In a loud voice, the statue said, “Where is my child?”
Jeremy ran to his room, grabbed the small statue, and threw it at him!
“So this was what an adventure tour was like,” Michael thought, as he and Sasha disembarked the small vessel onto Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific.
Pitcairn is one of four volcanic island, still under British control. Population 54. They trudged up the path to their new digs, lodging with a local family. Most families were descendents of the mutineers of the past.
Their family spoke some English. The young girl followed him everywhere he went, aggravating Sasha. Pitcairn was not heavily visited and she hadn’t seen many outsiders. He and Sasha had planned to fish as the waters held all kinds of species of fish. The young girl watched.
Michael and Sasha were fishing in shallow water. Their idea was to get a big fish, something the entire family could have for dinner. They snagged a large white fish. The Pitcairn family would have a wonderful dinner tonight..
“Grandpa, you said you’d tell me a story about my momma.”
“Yes, Dolly, Here goes.”
Old Man Red saw everything. He sat on the fence, behind the well box and within sight of the backdoor. He dominated his territory. Those cats that live around here sometimes tried to bother him and he scared them away.
What really bothered him was the girl. He remembered when she was young. She was only just fifteen. Almost every night, when they didn’t know he was sitting on the fence, she snuck out the back bedroom window. He didn’t know where she went. She came home right before he woke up in the morning.
Today, he couldn’t wait on her. He woke up and crowed. The sun was coming up. She wasn’t home yet. She came running in and I caught her around the waist. I sat down with her, held her, and talked to her. Old Man Red had done something good. The girl never snuck out again.
“Grandpa, what do you mean that he crowed?”
“Dolly, Old Man Red was a rooster.”
“Oh Grandpa, roosters don’t think like people!”
The little Blenheim spaniel ran to greet every visitor that came into the old bookstore. Josie bent down to pat her. Josie had one book she wanted to find and she was told she might be able to find it here.
She started down a row of books marked “Fantasy.”
“Odd,” she thought to herself. She didn’t recognize any of the books. Some smaller books were lying on the floor around a stool, so she sat down and started reading. Later, she realized two hours had passed and she was almost finished with the book. The shopkeeper walked up to tell her he was closing for the day, but she could come back the next day and read.
As Josie walked home, she mused on what a wonderful book she’d just read, but she didn’t recognize the title or the author. She read a lot of fantasy.
She went back to the bookstore the next day. She only had 20 pages left to read in the book she read yesterday. She started reading and the same thing happened. Two hours later, she was still reading the book. The book was growing longer, and even better, every day. A real-life fantasy.
Tonight had been high school graduation for Jacob’s class. Mom, Dad, and Sara, his sister, had been there to watch him walk across the stage. He was pretty proud of himself. It had been a struggle at times to get to this stage.
Jacob had straightened up and graduated with straight A’s. He had slipped up tonight. After graduation, he had gone out for a while with friends and had a few drinks. He was walking home.
He was only two houses away from home. A car pulled up and a guy jumped out and tried to pull him in the car. He started fighting and yelling. He was just about to lose the fight and he felt someone pulling back and he heard Dad yelling in return. Dad had heard the commotion. The car sped off and he fell to the pavement. Dad picked him up and held him. He saved him again. He’d been watching out the window for him to come home.
I’ve never really believed in fate. Never believed that something that happened could be taken as a sign. I’ve always thought that we make our own fate through hard work. I guess that shows you where my head has always been – my work, my career. Never really on personal relationships except in the most tangential way. Even though I’m loathe to admit it, I suppose that’s still true. There was a time, early in my career, I was convinced I could have it all. Fulfilling personal relationships and at least one successful career. Wrong. I was really wrong. At least as far as I was concerned. Not possible. Maybe it is for some people. I chose career, but by then, it was too late to make any other choice.
Back to signs and fate. I can’t quite wrap my head around the fact that people believe that if one thing happens it means, in the vast space that is the universe, something else is going to happen, something random. That they just have a “feeling” it is going to happen. That the first thing is a “sign.” What is that? That “sign?”
I surely see connections between things, even random events. But fate? Signs? Too random for my taste. I prefer to call it logic. I have made some huge mistakes in my life. Some would say there were signs that those mistakes were going to happen. I can look back now and I don’t see signs, but I do see logical reasons that my actions caused my mistakes. Is that the same thing as a sign?
What do you think?
She had escaped him. She found a room in this hotel over 100 miles away. Why was her judgement always so poor? Why did she always end up with the wrong man? She was still shaking as she put a few things away and went to shower. Those were questions she had tried to answer for years.
After showering, she realized she hadn’t eaten much in two days. He had yelled. Then pouted. Then yelled again until she was able to sneak out. She dressed and went down to the restaurant.
She was eating. Suddenly, a voice behind her said, “Surprise!”
Photo credit to Dale Rogerson
Ruth barely heard something ringing. It was the blood curdling phone call in the middle of the night. Ruth was so startled she dropped the phone. She picked it up and heard her sister talking between screams. Someone had broken into her house and attacked her.
“Come,” she said. “Please help me.”
Writespiration 52 Weeks 52 Words
The Write Scribe 