Words for Wednesday
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. pipes and drums band
2. patch
3. setbacks
4. garnish
5. rubble
6. costly
and/or:
1. dropout
2. espalier
3. sari
4. cloudless
5. trace
6. fabric
use either list or both, or mix and match, just have fun.
My story will be right here on this blog on Friday, as always, unless I can't think of anything to write.
Don't laugh, it happens, I wake up and find my brain has gone AWOL.
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Ruth had become a drop out. A drop out from many of the things that the media and antisocial media told her were imperatives. They were just too costly (literally and metaphorically) for her now.
ReplyDeleteShe didn’t need or want expensive consumables to garnish her life. The high drama of pipes and drums band music was for other people. Her beat was quieter, simpler. Yes, the breakdown of her marriage created a few setbacks, but they were not insurmountable. In the rubble left behind she chose to patch together a simple life. It seemed a tragedy at the time, but she could trace the start of her simpler, happier life to that time.
A life where she could stop and appreciate a cloudless blue sky, an espalier apple tree in bloom, and the sumptuous fabric of her neighbour’s saris hanging on the line to dry…
It's good to drop out of the competition for more, bigger, better. In fact, the world might be a better place if we could all do that.
DeleteElephant's Child; this is excellent! So much better than what I have half-formed in my mind. I like it very much :)
DeleteWell written. A simpler life appeals to me as well, but together with my hubby, please.
DeleteYes, simple is better. Zen is the way to go and often moving beyond catastrophe is a new beginning. Well done.
DeleteXO
WWW
Brilliant use of the words. Not how my mind worked at all!
Deleteexcellent words and you used them well. She made some difficult and wise decisions.
DeleteA simple life is always a good thing if you can find it in this world.
DeleteMy words will be over here.
ReplyDeletemessymimi; I'm on my way...
DeleteI´ll join you come Friday!
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteHe walked through the street kicking the rubble aside that was in his way. He was prepared for setbacks that would hinder his movement as he began the walk that would trace the path the tornado had taken. He stopped and looked up at the cloudless sky with the sun shining down in complete contrast to the damage inflicted just 10 minutes ago. Storms were not uncommon here, but this one hit fast and furiously. The devastation was mind boggling, but what shocked him even more was how random it was.
One shop would be demolished and the one next door would still be standing with no outward damage. He passed a restaurant that was blown apart and looked like gigantic toothpicks with the exception of a single table that stood in place with a plate of a half eaten meal including the parsley garnish still on it.
Looking around he tried to put a price on the damage. Costly, you bet, but he could not imagine the amount of money it would take to replace the buildings alone, much less all of the rest that was long gone. He wondered how many of the damaged stores would even reopen.
One other thing he was not prepared for was the silence immediately after the storm passed. That saying "It sounded like a freight train" which he always thought was trite turned out to actually be true, except it actually sounded like you were in a tunnel with freight trains on each side and on top of you. Now all he heard was the sound of distant sirens, making their way to the scene.
The survivors were beginning to climb out from beneath the ruins of once thriving businesses and he raced over as quickly as he could to give them a hand digging out. He hoped he could be a help, but he knew he had limited skills to help any injured person. Even so it became evident rather quickly the victims did not care if he were a high school drop out or a surgeon. Help was help, and each person he aided was grateful beyond measure. Slowly but surely several more people came to the site and all of them began to lend a hand.
Because the emergency vehicles could not get through all the debris covering the roads, some people worked clearing a path and others took those with minor injuries to an undisturbed patch of grass for a make shift triage area. They guessed the apple tree espalier was the only thing that held the fence upright, and some bolts of fabric scattered from a nearby fabric store and a single sari, from who knew where, provided a layer of protection from any glass shards that might have blown into the grass.
And to his amazement about 5 minutes later, the EMS vehicles were there, first aid was given to those needing immediate care, medical transports were arranged, several local news crews were on hand, and gawkers by the hundreds had managed to find their way there.
Several of the people he helped were pointing toward his direction while they talked to the news people. A couple of them started walking toward him with mics in hand and cameras following. Luckily for him the number of onlookers had grown so large they impeded the anchors progress. Meanwhile the tragedy was growing into a three ring circus. All that was lacking was some popcorn and a pipes and drum band.
Yeah__it was time for him to leave. The last thing he wanted to happen was an interview. It felt really great to be a good Samaritan, maybe it would mitigate some of the bad karma he was due, but he had worked hard to vanish from his former life and the last thing he wanted was to be found. And just like that, he threw his hat on the ground, took off his outer shirt, rolled his pants up to look like shorts, and disappeared into the crowd.
Well written, I hope your villain turned good samaritan did slip away.
DeleteAnne in the Kitchen: This is amazing. I hope it has counteracted any bad karma due to him.
DeleteSo vivid, I hadn't read any contributions before writing my own story but we are strikingly similar in concept. Well done!
DeleteXO
WWW
Sounds like he really did mitigate the bad karma on the way. I do hope so.
DeleteAnne In The Kitchen; a great story and I hope he did manage to get away after first helping so many. There's nothing worse than being found when you don't want to be.
DeleteNow I also used some of your Words for Wednesday. I'm afraid your last remark "My story will be right here on this blog on Friday, as always, unless I can't think of anything to write. Don't laugh, it happens, I wake up and find my brain has gone AWOL." jinxed me because all of a sudden my brain went empty.
ReplyDeleteStill a huge thanks for the words, which made me begin a chapter in Susan's story, I need to write.
Charlotte; sorry for the jinx, but it has been happening to me more than usual. I look at the prompts and get nothing.
DeleteThe pipes and drums band had costly setbacks. An expensive patch on the bass drum. Shoes destroyed by rubble in the streets. Uniforms with costly garnish. Where will more money come from?
ReplyDeleteMile: That is so often the question. I love the images you have painted with so few words.
DeleteShort and to the point, good work.
DeleteWell done Mike - as EC and Charlotte have both said ... congratulations ... cheers Hilary
DeleteLove the scene you set. I wish my thoughts had been equally contained.
DeleteClever and I have a friend who would identify with this poor band.
DeleteMike; nicely done. Perhaps they could hold a fundraiser with cake stalls etc.
DeleteI chose the first set - but see Mike has published a really good challenge ... but - as one says 'ah well ... here goes' ...
ReplyDeleteOn the rubble bank they sat with their costly garnished sandwiches – sadly showing us up as how the other half lived – well that’s what they thought.
Yet we were the pipe and drum band with our beautiful instruments … local leaders asked us to play at their events … while the snobby rabble on the rubble slope played their Boombox disturbing the neighbourhood.
We were happy in our patched clothes … patches made in the shape of pipes and drums … we stood out and were respected for our musical ability.
I like the contrast in your story. Well done.
DeleteXO
WWW
Very, very nice!
DeleteI really like this Hilary. And am happy not to be a part of the snobby rabble.
DeleteGood one Hilary.
DeleteHilary Melton Butcher; nice contrast between the haves and the have nots. I bet I know which group is happier :)
DeleteGood use of the prompst. Very picture-painting text.
DeleteMy contribution:
ReplyDeleteThere was only a trace of the fabric left and she worked diligently to patch the damaged uniform.. A setback, but she could garnish it with a borrowed brooch from Parmina. If any of her jewellery had survived, that is.
The sky was cloudless, the air clean, denying the rubble of their former homes demolished by last week's hurricane. The cleanup would be costly.
She glanced over at one of the walls where an espalier clung as if holding everything together.
Parmina emerged from the remains of her house and walked over to her, her scarlet sari covered in dust, her face smeared with her herculean efforts to do something, anything to bring life back to normal.
Can you gather up our little pipe and drum band? she asked Parmina, tell them no dropouts allowed. I think it would cheer everyone up if we managed to march through the village. I just finished repairing my uniform.
Wisewebwoman: Oh my. Pipes always make my eyes leak (even at the best of times). It would not be the music I chose to lift my spirits - but love your take on the prompts.
DeleteSounds like a lot of people really need that encouragement.
DeleteWWW; this is a sad one. I do hope a march through the village will at least lift a few spirits and perhaps bring people together to help each other clear away rubble and sort what's left.
DeleteA bit of chher to hurry on the necessary work sounds like a good thing here. There's something in these situations, that brings out the best in everybody. Well written.
DeleteI love your take on the words. When I read them they had disaster written all over them too.
ReplyDeleteHere is my tale...fact, not fictional....
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a child I always looked forward to Saturdays. Saturdays were filled with much fun, none of which was costly. There was nothing so important that would cause me to be a Saturday dropout!
My Saturday afternoons were spent at the matinees in the Olympia Picture Theatre watching Indians (not of the sari-clad variety) defend their land from gun-toting invaders who stormed over the rubble of broken trees and displaced rocks. Instead of trees trained and trimmed to form a protective espalier, the cowboys circled their wagons to form a barrier between them and the raiding Indians.
Movies about cutlass-wielding, eye-patch-wearing pirates battling their foes thrilled us, too. High seas and stormy weather were never setbacks. Under cloudless skies, or otherwise, the swashbuckling pirates never displayed a trace of fear in their efforts to garnish whatever property they could.
Once home from the pictures, it was soon time to go back down to the town’s main street, escorted by our grandmother, to follow the Scot’s Pipes and Drums Band as the band members dressed in their Stewart Hunting tartan wool fabric kilts marched proudly along Mary Street.
Lee: This sounds lovely and very different to my own Saturdays which were much less structured (and never included a trip to the movies).
DeleteI remember as a child being taken to Saturday morning movies, frequently Roy Rogers. The young woman who used to take me had parents who owned an ice cream shop and it was some of the best ice cream I ever remember.
DeleteLee; I love this. I remember Saturday afternoons at the pictures too, although not every week, as the beach often had a stronger call on me. I didn't discover Pipes and Drums bands until my soldier husband joined the Army Band as the bass drummer. I do remember the New Years Eve when he and his mate stayed out all night playing mates bagpipes on one of Brisbane's bridges and getting home at dawn so drunk they could hardly stand.
DeleteYes, Saturday was often picture day. The early afternoon tickets being cheaper. We did not have a drum and pipe band, but a girls' band with everything from big drums echoing deep inside your stomach to teeny tiny flutes. Thanks for the walk down memory lane.
Delete