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 Lissa and can be found here.
This week's words are:

1. birthday
2. dream
3. cake
4. sugar
5. wishes
6. grant  

and/or:

1. joyride
2. promise
3. wishing well
4. ghost
5. flowers
6. love

My story this week is NOT related to the previous chapters, something completely different. I hope you are not disappointed. I have added some pictures for which I thank Google Images.



 The Perfect Birthday Party

I lay in bed thinking about my birthday, it was still three months away, but I would be ten. My first double digit birthday! I thought about what Mum had said earlier this afternoon. “If I could grant you three wishes, what would you like your birthday party to be this year?” As I opened my mouth to answer, she shushed me and said I should take my time and think very carefully about these wishes, perhaps not all of them could be granted.

With thoughts of sugary cakes in my head, I decided I should sleep on it and maybe it would come to me in a dream. When I woke the next morning, I recalled vague snippets of a dream, and quickly wrote down what I remembered. Over the next week, I tried to put these snippets together, with little luck.

When the new school term began, I asked my friends about their perfect ideas for a tenth birthday party. Many of the boys said they weren’t too fussed about any theme as long as there was cake and ice cream with not a vegetable in sight. Carl declared he would love a joyride to the moon as a birthday gift which set them all off on cakes shaped like rockets and other spaceships, like the starship Enterprise, Dr Who’s TARDIS, and the millennium Falcon from Star Wars.

Sandra sulkily said it didn’t matter what she thought of, her mother always made her a pink cake with pink icing in the shape of a love heart and she was thoroughly sick of it all. I asked her what she herself would choose and she admitted she had never given it much thought because her mum was so dead set on the pink thing. I immediately decided Sandra would be on my guest list and maybe her mother too, so she would see girls parties could be something other than pink.

As the afternoon wore on I had my idea and couldn’t wait to get home and tell Mum all about it. She thought it was a wonderful idea and quite a change from the usual “little girl” fairies and sparkles parties that had been common in the past few years. “I’ll speak to Dad about it when he gets home from the office and I think he’ll agree your idea shows how mature your thinking is becoming. Now, remember I can’t promise definitely, but I’ll do my best.”


Three months later, I was happily handing out invitations to a birthday afternoon tea at the Wishing Well Tea Rooms, for eight girls, three of the boys and their mothers. All invitations were accepted by the weekend and I happily began deciding what dress to wear. Last year’s birthday dress was out of the question, it was way too short now. I finally settled on the pale blue and cream lacy dress my grandmother had sent me for Christmas. She had died soon after, but the dress had been made from the enormous skirt of her wedding gown and when I wore it I could feel the ghost of my grandmother still loving me. 


The best part of the day wasn’t the flower filled party room, not even the wishing-well birthday cake. No, it was seeing Sandra’s mother gazing around at everything not-pink and hopefully getting some different ideas for Sandra’s future parties.


Comments

  1. That was fun to read, River. I felt like I was seeing everything the main character was feeling. Neato. Keep up the great writing and boogie boogie.

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  2. Oh, how happy I am to have grown up in a time when pink was not in fashion. I sure hope Sandra's mother had some non-pink ideas then and there.

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    Replies
    1. Uglemor; I grew up without birthday parties altogether, although I did get invited to a couple, just never had one myself.

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  3. As always, I loved your story!!

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  4. I don't recall ever having had a birthday party (pink or otherwise). Great use of the prompts.

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    1. Elephant's Child; I never had any either, and didn't feel I missed out. I did get invited to a couple.

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  5. A sweet, verging on grown up, party with the added benefit of giving someone's mother a little jolt. I like it a lot.

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    1. only slightly confused; thank you very much :)

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  6. Oh how nice to wear a dress from your grandmother's wedding dress.
    Lovely story R.

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    1. Margaret-whiteangel; I don't know where the wedding dress idea came from, but it fits the story nicely.

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  7. I love the wishing well cake and the wish theme!

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  8. YAY for the doesn't-have-to-be-pink idea for girls' parties. Our daughter hated pink when she was growing up, so she never wore it, and rarely wore a dress. When she came over recently, she was wearing a pink tee shirt and pink sneakers! I almost had a heart attack. She just kinda laughed and shrugged it off. Nobody forced the color down her throat, so she feels it's her choice if she wants to wear it now. ('Course, she's in her forties now, so it took her a long time to come to that conclusion. HA!)

    Terrific story. I especially like the idea of her dress being made from her grandmother's wedding gown. Such a nice sweet touch.

    And CONGRATULATIONS on adding the extra page for your stories! I knew you could do it!

    Have a super weekend. Stay cool!

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    1. Susan; I was never a fan of pink either, still rarely wear it and never wear dresses either. I like the idea of little girl's parties being any colour they want, a forever pink theme just seems wrong. My grand daughter loved pink and everything fairy until she was at school.

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  9. What a thoughtful young lady to consider Sandra's plight also.
    We didn't have birthday parties except with family, cake and presents. They became a rage much later on with a few generations down the line. Today they are productions.

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    1. Arkansas Patti; I liked the idea of a young girl being more thoughtful of others. We didn't have birthday parties either and I think these days many of them are way over the top with far too much money being spent.

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  10. Now I want to make a wishing well cake, you know just because. You are a clever wordster, spinning a tale. My mom wasn't much for parties or sleepovers. Most of my friends were a bit scared of her and her strange ways. Usually she would just give the gift in the store bag rather than to "waste " wrappings.

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    1. Kathy's Klothesline; welcome to drifting and thank you. I enjoy these weekly challenges to write.

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  11. As always...you've excelled once again, River. This is great. "_

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  12. I kind of like pink but I've never had a party with pink things so I don't know. but I do like the idea that girls don't have to conform to all things pink. good story and good use of the prompts.

    have a lovely day.

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    Replies
    1. lissa; I've never had a party, but I've been to a couple and there wasn't much pink at either of them.

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