100 Word Challenge: Less Than Meets the Eye

This was written for this week's prompt, "sanitary," at Velvet Verbosity's 100 Word Challenge.

Less than Meets the Eye

Oh, sure, she put up a good front. From the tricked-out look of her, you’d swear she was one of the “good” ones. All proper and polished, the way she was. Not like the rest of us, who, Mama always said, looked like we’d slept in our clothes. “Why cain’t ya'll be more like her,” Mama said after she saw her for the first time. “Girl’s got class.”

And then she opened her mouth and, oh, my, the words that came out. Mama was appalled. “You cain’t be carryin’ words like that around in your mouth. It just ain’t sanitary!”

Remember, Part 2

Remember back when we could play outside morning till night? My favorite childhood years were the four years I lived on a street where nearly every house had a least one child. I was nine years old when we moved there, and I had about 15 friends within two years of my age.

One summer, the day began at around 7AM, when my friend Barbara came over and we had fried bologna sandwiches for breakfast. You remember, a slice of bologna with a hump in the middle from the frying, grease seeping into the soft white bread you could smoosh up into a pea-sized ball to use for bait (except for when you needed it flat for a sandwich).

And then we’d head outdoors for the rest of the day, joining the others in the game of the moment. Sometimes it was jacks, sometimes four-square, sometimes dodge ball or keep- away. I was a major tomboy and I liked to play Cowboys and Indians because I always got to play an Indian with the boys. They let me play because I could shoot my imaginary bow and arrow straighter than any of them.

But my favorite time was the evening. It started at dusk with an important ritual. Every night, as we all sat with our families at the dinner table, the street lights would come on. With some innate sixth sense given only to kids, we all knew just when those lights came on. A minute or two before, kids would jump up from the table, saying “I’ll be right back!” and run outside. Up and down the street, you’d hear the screen doors slam: Slap! Slap! Slap! We’d all run and put our hand on the nearest light pole so we were touching it when the light came on. (This was important, because if you weren’t touching the pole when the light came on, you were a monkey’s uncle.) Then “see you later,” and we went back in to finish dinner.

After drying the dishes, we were back out, playing hide and seek in the shadows, or just laying on the warm sidewalk, looking up at the stars and sharing secrets. And if one happened to have a “boyfriend” or “girlfriend,” there might be someone to hold your hand.

Television? We didn’t need no stinkin’ television.

You remember.


Epilogue: I went back to that old neighborhood 30 years later. I found my initials still there, carved into the street light pole nearest my house.

Yeah, Huh?

This was written for G-Man's Flash Fiction 55.

Yeah, Huh?

I never understood the term “frenemy” till then, but that’s exactly what a few of my daughter’s friends were. I wasn’t all that surprised when they turned on her. What did surprise me was when they turned on me.

What the…?

“Well,” she said, “if I’m “Satan’s spawn,” what does that make you?”

Good point.

 

We're In This Together

He’s not much to look at, but he’s mine.    He’s happy to just be with me, and seldom requires me to entertain him.  Oh, I don’t mean to say that he doesn’t enjoy a good conversation, because he really does.  And he always listens to me when I speak, which is something of a rarity in my life.

When I stumble out of bed in the morning looking like something the cat dragged in, he still looks at me with love in his eyes.  Unconditional love is a wonderful gift, one I’d never known until I met him. 

He is unfailingly loyal. That’s the best part.  “We’re in this together, “ he says, “till death do us part.”   I worry that I don’t deserve him, but that doesn’t matter, because he thinks I do. 

I look up from my book, and smile at him, sitting on the other end of the couch.  He smiles back, and slides down and gives me a big kiss.  Laughing, I wrap my arms around the big dog, and kiss him back.  “We’re in this together,” I say.

In Memorium
Trevor Dog

This was written for Theme Thursday. This week's theme is Pets.

The Superhero

Like everyone younger than logic, she was fearless. Flying high on wings of inexperience, she took risks most learn to avoid and tempted Fate at every turn. She lived in a Land far from reality. She was eternally optimistic: there was plenty of time to grow up, time to move on, time to get ready, and time to get ahead. She had, after all, all the time in the world. There were endless Tomorrows stretched out ahead of her. Playing fast and loose, she beat odds she didn’t even know were against her. She was invincible, indestructible, immortal.

And then one day, her Land was invaded by a Monster and his legions. They assaulted many of her givens, and caused the rest to take shelter in denial. The air became rank with fear, as the Monster’s bombs of destruction exploded first here, then there, threatening the very way of life throughout the Land. She had never thought something like that could happen to her, and she was terrified.

But the one thing she wasn’t was dumb. She quickly realized that the Monster could not be allowed to run rampant though the Land, and that he had to be stopped before everything was destroyed. Casting fear and denial aside, she dug out her best cape, always useful back in her flying days, and put it on. And she became the first Superhero the Land had known.

She fought with all her might, long and hard and desperately. There were times when she was down, wounded and tired, but she quickly got up again, took up her sword, and resumed the battle. The war raged for many months, and though she won some and lost some, she never lost her will to survive. She fought on, until one day she realized the Monster was gone. She had won.

After the war was over and the smoke had cleared, she looked around and surveyed the rubble left behind. Many parts of the Land had been ravaged. Where once there had been bounty, there was now barrenness. Structures had been flattened. Expectations had been unalterably altered.

But she knew the Land could be rebuilt, and it was. New structures were erected, looking as good as those taken down by the Monster. The seeds of new prosperity were planted, and new expectations developed.

But one unexpected outcome of the war was her realization that life in the Land was perhaps not as eternal as she had once thought. Perhaps there really wasn’t all the time in the world. Though one might suppose that this was a bad outcome, one would be wrong. After having fought and won against the evil Monster, the Land was moved closer to reality and life was made forever better. Foundations and armaments were reinforced, made stronger than before to protect against any future attacks. Social programs were put into place to prepare the Land to be more self-sufficient and successful in the future.

So while she occasionally missed the wild and free antics she’d enjoyed before the Monster came, she was happier than ever before. She had learned that, true, there were not endless Tomorrows laid out in front of her, but Today was a much better place.

She never really put away her cape after the war, though. Battered and torn though it was, she kept it nearby, just in case she might need it again. She was a Superhero, after all.

Remember, Part 1

Remember what it was like before we got caught up by the high-speed technology train, and were rushed into the future at breakneck speed? Life was simpler. I know many would say that it wasn’t better, that all our technological advances are, well, advances. But it was simpler; you can’t argue that. 

Take toys. Kids today yearn for complicated whiz-bang toys that, at the end of the day, often languish on the closet floor. Remember when a refrigerator came boxed in a magical castle, and after the pesky refrigerator was out of the way, you could climb into the castle and rule your kingdom?  Remember when a bike was just a bike, and the jazziest accessories were a bell, handlebar tassels and playing cards clipped to the spokes for that zoom-zoom-y "putt-putt-putt" noise? Remember when skates had four wheels, and you attached them to your shoes with a skate key that hung around your neck?

You don’t remember that??? (sigh...)

Friday Flash 55: Walking Into the Light

This is my entry for Friday Flash 55. For lots more 55s, visit G-Man here and look in the comments.

Walking Into the Light

Photo by Asit Kumar/AFP/Getty Images

Brand new, they crawl from Earth’s womb.

They move toward the light, following an instinct born before man.

The siren song of the sea calls them home, 

a place they have never been.

It’s the natural order of things. 

But human beings are so disorderly.

Tonight, when they walk into the light, they will die.

Ft. Lauderdale Tries to Help