Wednesday's Words on a Friday

The original Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and eventually taken over by a moveable feast of participants when Delores had computer troubles.

The aim of the words is to encourage us to write, a story, a poem, whatever comes to mind.
If you are posting an entry on your own blog, please let us know so we can come along and read it.

This month the words are supplied by Elephant's Child and can be found here.

This week's words are:

1. watch
2. rush
3. limit
4. luminous 
5. dashing 
6. quack

and or:

1. print
2. cactus
3. creep
4. shake
5. haircut
6. shadow

This week we have chapter seven of Tom's Memories. If anyone can think of a better title please let me know. I haven't used all the words, but I have included a few that I didn't use from last week's list.

Here is my story:

first: a little backstory: 16 years ago, Cherie Kendall sat on the pier as dusk faded into night. She felt no need to rush this moment, the days of dashing about were over. She would put no limit on her time, just let the hours creep away as she sat on the pier to watch the luminous moon glowing from behind the shadow of the clouds.

Tom's Memories Chapter Seven

Ed asked Tom, "did you see the face of the person who wrapped you up and took you away? Or did you notice anything at all about him that you remember?"
"Not a thing," said Tom. "He seemed big, but I'd only just turned four, so everyone grown up seemed big to me. I do remember it was a man and he didn't say anything, it was very quick I think."
"Must have been a stranger then, you'd have known if it was your Dad," said Sara. "The thing is, no one has seen or heard of your Dad this whole time either. He vanished just like you did."

"Your Mother's body was found by young Stephanie," said Ed. "Well, we say young, but she must be just over forty by now.  Around forty-two do you think Sara? We should have kept track of the years better."
"I think she is forty-two," said Sara. I'm pretty sure her birthday is in July, it's May now and Stephanie was twenty-two when she helped with baby-sitting. Do you remember that Tom? Stephanie would watch over you when your Mum was out with her camera and too far away for you to go along, then she kept you busy when your Mum was in the darkroom to print her pictures too."

"Nothing comes to mind," said Tom. "But you said Frank and Cherie stayed here? In that room just off to the side? I thought we were at the hotel, I remember loving being up on the balcony there. It was so high."

'Yes, that's right," said Sara and Ed together. Sara continued, " you were all at the hotel for a day or two, then we met your parents and they came to stay here a lot, the views were great for Cherie's photography and when it got late, we'd all eat dinner in the kitchen here and then you would all sleep in that room over there. We put an old army cot in one corner for you Tom. We ended up all feeling like one big family."
"So what happened?" asked Tom. "Where was my mother killed? Was I taken from here?"

"No," said Ed. "Your mum had finished taking photos and gone to the Post Office to send a good selection to the buyer, she took photos to be used for calendars and tourism books, then she decided to stay one last night at the hotel with you and pack up everything she had left there, ready to leave in a couple of days. She said you'd all spend your last night here with us, but early next morning, poor Stephanie had the misfortune* to find your mother's body and discover you were gone from her room."

"She was hysterical," said Sara "and she's been a bit neurotic* ever since. Always checking every shadow before she goes into a room, she was admitted into a psychiatric ward for a while, just couldn't seem to calm down from her hysteria. We think she saw or heard something on her way back to the hotel the previous night. She'd been to an audition* for a part in the Christmas Play, and wanted to tell Cherie all about it if I remember right. She was so full of fire, Stephanie was, always in a rush, dashing here and there, no limit to her energy. It's been really hard all these years watching her creep around, nervous and afraid."

Ed said " the psychiatric people haven't been able to help either, they say all we can do is help her keep calm and take notice if she starts to talk about it. So I've been helping her learn to paint, as therapy, it's what I was doing when you knocked on the door. Steph's become really good at landscapes, especially the almost empty kind, with lots of space and maybe a cactus or two. I think it represents the way her mind is now and that's what Dr Jones thinks too. He wants us to let him know if Steph starts to paint anything different, with more detail."
"Would it help if I met her?" asked Tom. "Maybe shake up something in her memory?"

"I don't know," said Sara. "You look so much like Frank, it might be a shock for her. I want her to put sheets on the bed in there for you, get the room set up nice, but I'll take you down to the kitchen first so she doesn't see you.  You and Ed can open up that shoebox and have a good look through everything in there, maybe it will shake up your own memory."

"Come on then," said Ed, we'll go and freshen up the teapot while your room gets made ready. You don't mind staying here?"
"No, it's fine, I'd love to stay," said Tom, but I'll need to get some things from the hotel before dark. Do you need anything from town that I can pick up while I'm there?"

"Nice offer son, but we have everything we need for now." said Ed. "You could leave a message with Bill at the Post Office, tell him I'd like Dr Jones to drop in as soon as he can. He can advise us about you and Stephanie meeting. He's a good doctor, knows what he's doing. He's no quack that's for sure. Tell you what, you go down and get what you need, bring everything if you like and just stay here instead, that way Steph won't see you accidentally just yet, and we'll open up the shoebox when you get back. Let me just check with Sara, see if she needs anything from town."
Ed walked a short way into the hall and called out, "Sara love, Tom's going back to get his things. You need anything from town?"

Sara's voice came back, "nothing I need immediately, but could Tom stop in at Curly Cuts and make me an appointment for a haircut?"
"I can do that Mrs Saunders," said Tom, "any particular time and day?"  "Maybe make it for next Thursday, your parents will still be here by then and Vanessa and I can have a good natter about you while we get beautified. Make an appointment for her as well."
"That's a great idea," said Tom.  "Mum loves a bit of pampering and she doesn't get much of that back on the farm."

* words from last week's list