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 words/prompts are supplied by ME and can be found right here

This week's words/prompts are:

1. wrap your teeth around that

and/or:

1. treehouse

2. ferry

3. statue

4. step

Here is my story: (some of you my remember one or two of these characters)

A hissed whisper woke her from her light sleep, "Phyl! You there Phyl?" Phyllis turned on her stolen maglite, almost blinding Bryce Johnson who hissed "shut this thing off" as he quickly grabbed the torch from her. "I can't be seen here, I need you to do me a favour." 

He leaned in to the shipping crate that was home to Phyllis and her belongings, placing a blanket wrapped bundle on the pile of cardboard that was her bed. "What's this?" she asked, too loudly. "Shhh!" said Bryce. "The job's hit a hitch, Andrea's idiot brother killed a woman and dumped this sleeping brat at my door. I had to drive all the way here hoping he didn't wake up." 

"What am I supposed to do with him?" said Phyllis. "This box ain't no home for a kid Bryce." "You don't have to keep him," said Bryce, "and I'm going by Bruce these days, remember? Dr Bruce Jones." "Right, I forgot. Anyway, I thought I was out of all that. I did my bit getting you and Andrea into that clinic, you said that was all you needed, now you bring me someone's brat and what? I'm supposed to look after it?" 

"No, you don't keep it. Just feed it when it wakes up, then take it somewhere and leave it, somewhere there's lots of people who won't notice if you just slip away from him. Just use your noggin and think of something, okay? I have to get back before Andrea wakes up, I doubled her sleeping pills so she should stay asleep, but she's been a bit queer lately, missing the city." 

He dropped the torch and disappeared into the darkness. Phyllis gently moved the blanket aside and lay back down wondering what on earth she was going to do. Kids needed things like milk and fruit, Phyllis had neither in an old shipping crate with no refrigeration. She unwrapped the blanket a bit to have a look at the child who stayed asleep. "He's a good sound sleeper," she said to herself and lay down beside him to wait for morning or his wakening, whichever came first. 

He woke just after dawn and sat up, sleepily rubbing his eyes, then looked around, frightened as big tears filled his eyes. "Where's my room? Where's my mummy?" he asked with trembling lower lip and tears running down his cheeks. "I don't know where your mummy is," said Phyllis gently. "All I know is I woke up and here you were. Do you remember where you were before?" The child shook his head  and looked around at the shipping crate as he wiped his eyes on his sleeve. He seemed reassured that Phyllis wasn't going to hurt him and asked if there was any breakfast. 

"I don't have much here," she said, "what about some bread and vegemite?" He nodded and Phyllis reached into a bag of sliced bread, checked it for mould then used a plastic knife to smear vegemite on the crusty end bit. Handing it to him she said, "there ya go kid, wrap your teeth around that," and smiled, showing the few teeth she had left. "Just like daddy says," he said taking a big bite. 

He ate neatly and Phyllis was glad to see he seemed sensible and not inclined to tantrums. "Can you tell me your name?" He swallowed and said "I'm Tom and I had a birfday and now I'm four. Can we look for my mummy and daddy after breakfast?"

Phyllis said "I'm pleased to meet you Tom, my name is Phyllis and this big box is where I live. After we get you washed up, we'll take a ride on a big ferry across the bay and I'll take you to a police station where we can ask about your mum and dad. How's that?" Tom nodded and asked if there was any milk. "Only water," said Phyllis. "Hurry up now, we should get going. You'll have to stay in your pyjamas though, I don't have any little boy clothes, lucky it's still warm enough you won't need shoes." 

They both enjoyed the ferry ride with Tom delighting in watching the wake spread out behind the boat and the seagulls wheeling overhead. Once across the bay, they walked further into the city and as Tom looked everywhere at once Phyllis reminded him to watch his step so he didn't stumble. "Everything is so big," said Tom. "I don't like it here, I like the water and I want my mummy and my puppy and my daddy." 

His eyes filled with tears again and Phyllis worried that he might be going to cry too loudly and people would notice. She saw the police station across the road and told Tom to sit, "right here by this big statue, it's Queen Victoria, don't move away. I'm going to cross the big road and talk to the policeman in that big building," she pointed to the huge office block with police cars parked out the front. "Don't move," she said, "I'll be back soon with a policeman to help us find your mum and dad." 

She hurried across the road into the police station and told the desk sergeant where Tom was, then vanished as he turned away to ask for help. She ran down a side alley and Tom never saw her again. He waited and waited and eventually saw a policeman coming across the road.