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 Mark Koopmans and can be found here.

This week's words/prompts are:

1. koozie
2. porche
3. dinosaur
4. watergate
5. Douglas
6. soften

and/or:

1. castrated
2. chateau
3. lego
4. router
5. suncream
6. Freudian 

Here is my story: 

Grandma Emilie arrived just as Dad was yelling at the TV, "ba----d should be castrated!" and just about fainted dead away, or at least pretended to, just inside the front door. The look on her face was pretty funny, almost like that painting "The Scream". I held her arm as she recovered and led her down the hall into the big sunny kitchen where she immediately berated mum. "June! Have you heard what's coming out of Dan's mouth! how can you let him say those things in front of the children!"

Mum, calm as always, simply told Grandma to sit down, there'd be a cup of tea ready in just a minute, and went to remind Dad that Grannie was here. He apologised as he followed her back to the kitchen, saying he'd got angry by that story about the child abuser getting a reduced sentence. "Ten kids June, just little tackers around five and six years old and he gets "time off" for good behaviour. That Parole board needs a quick kick up the...Grannie! Nice to see you, you're looking well." He hugged his wife's old Grannie and kissed both her cheeks. 
"Did you have a peaceful flight? No turbulence or hijackers or luggage lost?"

"The trip was uneventful, but I'm glad to be back on sturdy ground again, you're looking well Dan, retirement agrees with you. Where are the children?" "I'm not retired Grannie, you're thinking of my dad, Dan senior, I'm little Dan and the kids are all around here somewhere. Where's that cup of tea June?" Grannie winked at Mum, she knew very well which Dan was which, she just liked teasing Dad.

"Cuppa's coming right up Dan," said Mum. "Sasha go and find the rest of the tribe will you? Tell them tea and bikkies will be ready in just a minute." I scooted off to find them all and almost tripped over Conrad, playing on the floor with his newest dinosaur, it had been an early Christmas gift from Aunt Renae. "Watch where you're playing Connie, this is a doorway and you might get squished lying there." "Koozie wants to see Grannie and don't call me Connie!" said with all the indignation a four year old can muster. "That's a girl's name!"

I walked on, saying "and you're such a he-man," as he puffed up his little chest and tried to look manly. Impossible really, with his cherub face, golden curls and sky blue eyes. 
"Amelia! Jeanette! Grannie Emilie is here! Where's Anthony?"
My sisters jammed themselves in the doorway of their room, each wanting to be first to get to Grannie. Barely a  year apart in age they looked so much alike they were often mistaken for twins. They sorted themselves out and went racing to the kitchen as Jeanette said, "I think Anthony's in the study. Mrs Watergate gave him homework! hahaha."

I found Anthony and let him know tea and biscuits were ready in the kitchen and asked what homework he was doing. "Mrs Watergate wants us all to do a page on Christmas trees and whether pines and firs are the same thing and what the differences are. I've got as far as them all being conifers, now I'm printing pictures of Douglas Firs, Spruce and Pine trees. I'll just let that run by itself for now, how's Grannie?"

We arrived back in the kitchen where Mum was explaining to Grannie the icecream was out of the freezer to soften so the chopped fruits and brandy sauce could be stirred in, then it would be refrozen and become our Christmas dessert instead of a hot steamed pudding as the weather was much too hot this year.  "I suppose that means no hot meal?" asked Grannie. "That's right," said Mum. "We have salad, cold ham, and Dan will grill some garlic prawn skewers on the barbecue." "Well thank goodness for that!" declared Grannie. "I've just come from your cousin Suzette's fancy Chateau where they stuffed me so full of delicacies I thought for sure the plane would never get off the ground with me inside. It's pretty cold there too, why she had to go and marry a Frenchman I'll never know."

"Perhaps they're in love," I pretended to swoon at the thought of being so much in love and Grannie snorted. "She's in love with his bank account I'd bet. Pass those biscuits here love, before Conrad scoffs all the chocolate ones." I pulled the plate of biscuits away from Conrad and placed it in front of Grannie. 

Anthony slurped his tea, which earned him a frown from Grannie, as he said he had to get that paper done so he'd have a free day tomorrow, with nothing school related on his conscience. Grannie asked about the homework, then asked if he'd received the Porsche he'd asked Santa for. "I did," said Anthony, but Santa must think I'm six not sixteen because he sent me a tiny scale model only six inches long. At least he got the colour right. I'll show you later, I haven't put the model together yet though," and he grabbed a handful of biscuits as he headed back to where the printer had finished. 

"And what's this you're playing with Conrad?" asked Grannie. "My new dinosaur, his name is Koozie, he's a brontosaurus and now I've got no more room on the dinosaur shelf. He's from Auntie Renae and she gave me some Lego too, a picture of dinosaurs is on the box, but Mum says I can't open it until Dad is ready to help me with it." 

Grannie turned to me then and handed me a small, prettily wrapped package. "With the weather being so hot and sunny, I think you should open this right away Sasha dear." I did of course and found a tube of suncream. My look of disappointment was brief as I rallied up a smile for Grannie. "You need to start wearing suncream Sasha, you only get one skin per lifetime and yours is so pretty, you don't want sunburn to spoil that." I thanked her and opened the tube to see what it smelled like, not stinky at all, almost like roses, I thought. 

Grannie finished her tea and said, "Right, let's go and get me unpacked, am I in the front room again? I do like the way the sun comes in there at dawn."  Amelia, Jeanette and I all trooped along behind Grannie, each of us lugging a large suitcase which the cab driver had left just inside the front door. Soon, two of them were unpacked and we put Grannie's clothes in the wardrobe and drawers, then the final case was opened to reveal gaily wrapped Christmas packages. We decided we could just take the case as is back to the living room to place the gifts under the tree, which Anthony told us was a Douglas Fir as he passed the doorway heading for his room. 

"What's this big heavy one, Grannie" asked Amelia. Grannie looked around to be sure Dad wasn't anywhere near, then said, "It's a router for Dan's workshop. June told me he's been needing a new one but she couldn't buy it herself without him noticing. He does make beautiful cabinets, doesn't he?" We all agreed, Dad was a master carpenter, he even had awards won at local shows.