Friday's Feast

AppetizerName a great website you would recommend to others. Very difficult assignment, since the prompt clearly states "a" (meaning singular) website. Hmmm. I may have to come back to this.

Soup On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 as highest), how often do you dream at night? Technically, we always dream every night, we simply don't always remember the dreams. (I'm being a bit peevish with today's entree's, aren't I?) However, I recall my dreams about most every day, or about an 8 on the scale. Last night, I was living in a huge, beautiful home, and continually yelling at people who kept coming in and messing it up. Salad Did you have a pet as a child? If so, what kind and what was its name? Dogs - always. The first dog I remember was a cocker spaniel mix named Ginger. She was a patient and willing participant in my favorite game (playing school), in which she was forced to sit on the couch and listen to me expound the days lesson at my miniature blackboard. When I was 10 we got Honey, a cocker spaniel puppy, and then my heart was broken when my severe allergies forced us to give her up. Happily, she went to live with an elderly couple who treated her like royalty for the rest of her days.

Main Course If you had the chance to star in a commercial, what would you choose to advertise? Cars,~hopefully gorgeous, exotic, very fast ones. Zoom, zoom. Dessert What is your favorite kind of hard candy? I am an obssessive mint eater. I have a package of hard mints in every purse. Back in the days when I was "on the road" with my handbell group, I joked about living on Altoids - it wasn't far from the truth. to enjoy more feasts, go here

Writer's Island-The Stranger

Once it had been Anna's favorite time of day, this hour just after supper when the sun was settling in behind the stand of pine trees in the western fields, the length of the front porch cast in cool shadow. She would come outside after helping Mama wipe the dishes, pour pitchers of water over the huge ferns swinging gently from the rafters, and settle into the rocking chair, book in hand, ready to read until dusk overtook her page. Yet ever since Clayton had been gone, Anna's restful evenings on the porch had been spoiled. She felt anxious sitting there, the long dirt road leading from town staring her in the face, the road that might bring an ominous stranger bearing the worst of all possible news.

Eleven months, fourteen days since Clayton left with Harrisburg's First Militia and sailed across the Atlantic to France. Anna smiled sadly, thinking of the dreams she had once harbored about France, her imagination filled with ideas of love and romance. And now, it could be the place where her beloved Clayton lost his life, fighting in this horrible World War that made no sense to her or anyone else in their small town.

Anna glanced nervously at the dusty road, squinting for a moment against the sun's glare. Her imagination was now preoccupied with tales she'd heard of smartly clad soldiers in dress uniform, black armbands adorning their sleeves, soldiers that always came in pairs, politely knocking on your door, hat in hand, to deliver news that would shatter your life forever.

Turning quickly away, Anna grabbed up the heavy glass pitcher that served as a makeshift watering can and hurried down the steps toward the back yard pump."There's no use in thinking about such awful things," she firmly lectured herself. "I just have to believe with all my heart and soul that Clayton will come home safely."

And so it was that Anna remained busy refilling her pitcher, pouring fresh water into each ferns dusty bed, while the sun eased itself lower into the evening sky ~ so busy that she almost didn't see the lonely figure trudging toward her, dressed in the unmistakable khaki colored puttee's that looked so odd on boys barely out of knickers and more accustomed to overalls.

Catching sight of this stranger, Anna literally felt her heart sink, powerless to stop the pitcher as it slipped from her hand, shattering in a million shards of glass on the wooden floorboards. The seconds passed like hours, her gaze fixed on this solitary man coming ever nearer, until the first glimmer of recognition began to dawn.

This lonely figure, thin and long legged, one arm swinging familiarly at his side, the other - wait, the other caught up in a sling!-but there, definitely there, and yes, the shock of blond hair catching the last flicker of sunlight. This was no stranger, she realized. Impossible as it seemed, it was Clayton.

He stopped abruptly when he caught sight of her slender body come flying off the porch, and he continued to stand stock still while she raced over the yard and down the road to meet him, heedless of any rules of grace or propriety, her dark hair unloosened from its pins and streaming in the breeze behind her.

"My God in heaven!" Anna cried, throwing her arms around him, almost pulling back in surprise at the frailty of his body, aware that she could feel every rib as she pressed her own sturdy torso against him, and then pulling him even tighter into her chest, willing him to take strength and sustenance from her.

Clayton's one good arm enfolded her and he buried his face in the fragrant smell of her clean, sun warmed hair. Anna felt a deep shudder pass through him, and she pulled back, raising her eyes to meet his.

And then her heart sank once again.

Staring off into the horizon beyond her were not the bright blue eyes of the boy she had loved and sent sailing off to war, determined to lead the victory charge for freedom. These eyes were empty and dim, filled with nothing at all like hope or pride.

They were the eyes of a stranger after all.

for more stories of strangers, go here

Cafe Writing- Timed Writing

Written for Option Three at Cafe Writing: Take seven minutes (you have to use all seven, you can’t go over), and write about class. Any format (fiction, essay, verse) is acceptable. Perhaps it's the perpetual student in me, but my first interpretation of the word had to do with a "class" in which you learn something. So, that's what I wrote about.

If Carol hadn't been so close behind her, Sarah would have turned around and gone right back out the door. The minute she opened it, she felt faint, overcome by the moist heat, the powerful aroma of garlic and olive oil, the festive clinking of glasses, the eager chatter of women's voices. A cooking class. Why had she ever thought this would be a good idea?

Sarah pulled her jacket protectively around her neck, tucking her head inward, turtle-like, even as she felt Carol insistently pulling her forward into the room. She hadn't cooked anything substantial for months - why bother to cook without Scott there to eat? Scott was the one who appreciated cooking. "Mother, this meal is a work of art!" he would exclaim, holding his plate up to the light, as if making an offering to the gods, while she smiled shyly, inwardly pleased that she could offer this one thing to the wondrous man who was her son. How she had loved to watch him arrange the food on his plate just so, settle into his chair, gracefully placing the napkin (always linen) across his bony knees, as if he were laying an altar cloth. He would insert his fork gently for the first bite, and raise it slowly to his lips, savoring the ritual perhaps more than the taste.

Sarah's eyes closed, inadvertently taking her back in time to her own elegant kitchen, where she had lovingly prepared hundreds of meals for her son. How could it be that he would never eat from her table again?

Grief rushed over her, its power by now familiar to her, literally rocking her body and threatening to send her tumbling to the floor in a dead faint. Why was she here in a room filled with people who were happy, whose lives were normal and secure, when her world had been shattered forever in that one momen when her son had chosen to fling his own life away? "Come, Sarah," Carol urged. "Let's grab a good place to sit before class gets started."

Encyclopedia of Me Monday: J is for...

Jumping. Through hoops. "How high can I jump" season has begun, with concerts, work ramping up, and, NaNoWriMo beginning in just 10 days. Pressure begins to build, and I went to bed last night with the heavy weight of obligation bearing down on me. Women's live are filled with this kind of jumping, aren't they? We are multi-taskers extraordinaire, flitting from one responsibility to the next, caring for children, parents, homes, careers, paying bills, maintaining social obligations, scheduling doctor appointments...the list goes on and on. Close your eyes and imagine this mental picture: women throughout the world, jumping through all the hoops necesssary to function in modern life. You would think none of us would have a minute's worry about weight, with all that jumping going on. How about you? How high are you jumping?

I'm Dreaming of A Home Office...

My house has turned into one big office this week. My son is visiting, and he works from home all the time, while Jim and I both work at home at least 50% of the time, so my little house is bursting with business. This has set me dreaming about setting up a real home office, as opposed to the dining room table, kitchen table, and small desk shoved in the corner of the guest room. So, in between writing my medical reports, I cyber trekked over to Furniture From Home office department. Within two seconds I had picked out the perfect credenza desk for Jim, one I would love to prop my feet up on as well.

Of course I couldn't resist shopping for some living room and bedroom furniture on this site, which offers a world of lovely pieces organized in nicely appointed virtual rooms.

Now, if I could only get a raise...