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. Sadly, Delores has now closed her blog forever due to other problems.

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 prompts are supplied by Elephant's Child and can be found here.

This week's words/prompts are:

1. mild
2. uncertainty
3. haircut
4. consultation
5. mystery
6. movie

and/or:

1. joy
2. surface
3. agreement
4. freckle
5. fixture
6. solo

Here is my story:


“Dear me Jessie, is that Kathleen O’Connell in my waiting room again? She has become quite a fixture hasn’t she. She’s had a consultation almost every week, she shows a lot of uncertainty, I’m guessing she has no family or friends that she trusts enough to help out.  Or maybe she is just one of those people who insist on seeing a doctor for every little thing. First babies can be a big worry for some. Send her in and we’ll see what’s wrong this time.” 


Jessie called to Kathleen O’Connell, “you can go through now.” “Thank you so much Jessie. Doctor Spiers, nice to see you again.” “What’s the trouble this time Kathy?” “Jason has a running nose, I’m sure he’s caught something dreadful from that Day Care place and he was only there for a few hours, please look at him. He needs to be well, I was planning to have his haircut on Friday, his very first haircut and he has a mystery mark on his hand, right here, this thing that looks like a freckle.”


Doctor Spiers took Jason and sat him on his knee. “Hey there you, how’s my little buddy today?” The joy on the baby’s face was lovely to see. So many babies cried when seeing a doctor. Alan Spiers wished he could bottle whatever Jason had and dose several other babies with it. He took a tissue and wiped Jason’s nose while observing the clearness of his eyes and feeling his forehead for fever. There was none. “Kath, I think he’s just got a mild sniffle, if he gets hot and cranky, bring him back, but this is most likely nothing at all.” He held Jason carefully as the baby wriggled to get his feet on the floor. “What’s this now? Are you ready to go solo already?” Alan let go of Jason once he was steady and they both watched in case Jason was about to take his first steps. 


Instead Jason plopped down on his bum and clapped his hands. “What about that freckle thing Doctor?” asked Kathleen. “It’s gone,” said Alan. “I wiped it off right before I wiped his little nose. It looks like it might have been chocolate. Just a surface speck, nothing embedded or growing in his skin, nothing at all to worry about. “Oh,” said Kathleen. “I must have dropped a crumb of icing from the chocolate doughnut I had. I should remember now and try to wash off anything before I come running in here again, but I’m so worried about things like melanoma from the sun. This is Australia you know.”


“Yes it is, but melanoma in a baby just a year old is rare and I know how careful you are with his sun exposure.” Kathleen gave a half smile. “It’s the one thing my neighbor and I are in agreement about. Everything else I do, she criticizes. She thinks I should let loose the apron strings a little. Leave him with me while you go out and see a movie or something, she says, but I just don’t know. Her house seems to have far too many children and two dogs besides. How will she manage to care for Jason with all those others around?”


“Sara Patterson does have a lot of children,” said Alan Spiers, “but they are all well, all healthy and cared for. I’d say Sara is very experienced in managing a houseful. Maybe you think a movie is too long for you to leave Jason, but he survived a couple of hours at the Day Care, remember?” “You’re right,” said Kathleen. “Maybe I’ll go and have afternoon tea with Sara like she has asked, and see how Jason manages being around all of her children and the dogs. I could watch to be sure he is okay before I start going out without him.”

Comments

  1. Poor Kathleen. Parenting is SUCH an important job and she is doing the very best she can. I hope she does go and have afternoon tea with Sara - and learns to relax a bit.
    Great use of the prompts.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Elephant's Child; I think she will learn to relax as she spends more time with Sara. she's excruciatingly shy and doesn't make friends easily.

      Delete
  2. You wove a good story around the prompts, River. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Being a first time mom can be delicate and a bit scary. It takes time to relax into it, i hope she does.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. messymimi; I remember it took me a while, the first month was the hardest. it didn't help that a neighbour would say, again, "I heard your baby crying last night," but never offered any clues or help. and my family was clear across the country.

      Delete
  4. By the time Jason has a sibling, they'll probably be eating mud pies and petting stray dogs. Kathleen will realize that kids are not as fragile as she first thought.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Val; do kids actually eat their mud pies? Kathleen learns a lot from Sara and her kids.

      Delete
    2. They're not supposed to! But you never know when they'll pretend too vividly, or lick their fingers on a dare...

      Delete
  5. Like Val said, Kathleen won't be so overprotective and paranoid by the time babies two and three come along. Unfortunately, babies don't come with instructions. but most of us learn how to cope... eventually. Great job with the word list, as usual. Have a super weekend.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Susan; in my mind Kathleen is a single mum, so she doesn't have help, but learns a lot from her neighbour. I'm glad babies don't come with instructions, imagine the confusion and worry when the baby doesn't follow the book!

      Delete
  6. Excellent story, some difficult prompts, I'm off the writing game at the mo. More into the knitting :)

    XO
    WWW

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. WWW; I'm off my writing game a bit, doing unrelated short pieces instead of working on the 'book', but I think the break will help.

      Delete
  7. Poor Jason--- had to smile at the chocolate freckle. Kid number 2 will have a much less scrutinized life.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Arkansas Patti; I remember my kid number 2, he was so independent from a very early age, I barely glanced at him.

      Delete
  8. Brings back memories of me with my kids but you just never know how kids are going to interact and hen you throw animals into the mix, my fear was always biting.. Kids and animals!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Magical Mystical Mimi; I worried about biting too, especially after my baby girl got scratched by the neighbour's cat. she was just under a year old and tried to catch the twitching tail of the cat lying in the shade of the fence.

      Delete
  9. Oh, you write so well, I never noticed the Words. I hope Kathleen will eventually learn to relax just a bit more. Babies after all survived the hardships of being born :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Uglemor; thank you, I do try to make the words un-noticeable. Kathleen learns once she gets used to the rowdiness of the neighbour's house.

      Delete
  10. Taking kids to doctor can be harry at times.
    Coffee is on

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

kitchen tip #?????

being unaccustomed to public speaking,

I've been trying to contact Haagen-Dazs