Wednesday's Words on a Friday
On Wednesday’s, Delores,
from Under The Porch Light, has a meme which she calls
“Words for Wednesday”.
She puts up a selection
of six words which we then use in a short story, or a poem.
I’m hopeless at poetry
so I always do a story.
It’s a fun challenge…why
not join in?
This week's words are:
1. servitude
2. plodding
3. cast iron
4. frequent
5. fanny
6. desperation
Here is my not-so-short story:
Plodding slowly back from the well with yet another bucket full of water, Nora thought how similar parts of her life seemed to the lives of servitude she had learned about during history class in high school when she was fifteen and sixteen.
Those people coming across the ocean in boats from England had been sold to landowners and had work for years to earn their freedom. Nora could imagine the desperation they must have felt.
"At least my life not exactly like theirs", she thought. "I have my freedom and I'm here on this farm by choice. And there are more than a few modern conveniences in the main house. It's just the cabins that have the more rustic ambience".
Ron had bought the run down old place three years ago and together they had restored the main house and now were working hard to repair the barn and cabins to a state where they could welcome the first visitors to their "authentic-as-possible, mid 1800s, Bed and Breakfast dream."
The huge old farm style kitchen was Nora's pride and joy. The big wood-fired range taking up most of the south wall needed frequent stoking and cleaning, which Nora was happy to do in return for the delicious roasts, breads and cakes that came out of its spacious oven.
She even had a genuine cast iron frying pan that Ron had found in the antique store in a town across the river. It was easily wide enough and deep enough to scramble a dozen eggs at a time!
Nora emptied the bucket of water into the reservoir on the side of the oven where it would heat nicely in time to wash up the dinner dishes tonight. She checked on the scones to find them rising nicely, then plopped her fanny down onto the overstuffed small couch and put her feet up for a few minutes, thinking about the grand opening planned for next spring and the two advance bookings they had already received.
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I like it--A LOT!!
ReplyDeleteEchoing fishducky. And impressed that you too used these words in a positive way. Not a dark story at all - filled with hope and achievement. Which worries me a little that my mind takes the darker path so often.
ReplyDeleteThis is so good...excellent use of the words.
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ReplyDeletePardon me, I find the last paragraph - grand opening of her fanny with two advance bookings - extremely vulgar!
ReplyDeleteYou have done well.
ReplyDeleteMerle.........
A great story and I wondered if you had used some of your own experience as a youth in the telling.
ReplyDeleteIs R.H. joking with those comments or is it just tongue in cheek I wonder? I realise you are using the word fanny in the American way and not the other way so could see nothing vulgar about it. I actually used it as a girl's name to safe any confusion.
fishducky; thank you so much!
ReplyDeleteElephant's Child; thank you too. I go to the dark side now and again, but not usually in these stories. I like what you write too, possibly your subconscious takes over a little and lets loose a little frustration.
Delores; I knew you'd like it.
R.H. you've misunderstood, she's thinking of the grand opening of the bed and breakfast farm.
Merlesworld; thank you, this was an easy one.
Mimsie; the only similarity is the size of the cast iron frying pan. R.H. is a bit of a bugger, he knows perfectly well that I meant the opening of the bed and breakfast farm. When he gets too cheeky I'll tell him off.
You sexy thing.
ReplyDeleteR.H. mind your manners now. And thank you.
ReplyDeleteLove it! Sounds like a place I'd like to visit. (As long as someone else is doing the cooking...) Some years back, my hubby and I spent a weekend in a 100+ year old log cabin in the mountains. OY! I wasn't counting on the OLD cast iron stove in the kitchen. (But I managed to cook our food... eventually.) The stairs leading up to the loft sleeping area were extremely steep and narrow, and the bed was so short, even my feet hung over the end. But it was fun... for a couple days. It would be even more fun if somebody ELSE were dealing with the old cooking facilities.
ReplyDeleteSusan; the 100 year old cabin sounds wonderful! But like you said, for a couple of days. In my story, I'm imagining the cabins as very rustic like farmhands quarters with Nora doing the cooking in the big old kitchen which has a very large dining room attached with a table that can seat twenty people and a couple of smaller tables off to one side. eventually she is going to have to hire kitchen help because the bookings really take off.
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