being unaccustomed to public speaking,

 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 to read it and add a few encouraging words.

This month the words/prompts are supplied by River (that's me) and can be found here

This week's words/prompts are: 

1. frozen 2. calendar 3. dollop 4. crazy 5. Bazzar 6. bizarre 

and/or: 

1. belt 2. boomerang 3. gallon 4. running 5. newspaper 6. cakes

also including Charlotte's colour of the month Antique Pink

Here is my story:

“She’s here! She’s here!” cried Frankie as the taxi stopped by the garden gate. “Mum! Aunt Paula is here!” “I see that,” said Marie, pulling Frankie away from the front window and opening the front door to help Aunt Paula with the bags. There seemed to be an awful lot of them. Marie told Frankie to go and ask Dad to please come and help, then went along the path to welcome Aunt Paula home. “How was the holiday?” she asked after a hug from Aunt Paula. “Morocco was fabulous,” Paula said, “Hot, crowded, busy. We stayed at a hotel in Casablanca, hello Gerald, thanks for helping with the bags, as I was saying, the hotel in Casablanca was so cool with the airconditioning and we took bus trips to sightseeing places.” They managed to get all the bags inside and piled them in a corner to deal with, “After I’ve had a gallon of tea,” said Paula. “I have gifts for everyone.”

Frankie eyed the suitcases and bags and wondered what Aunt Paula might have in there for him. When everyone was settled with cups of tea and plates of scones, “A nice big dollop of cream on mine please,” said Paula. Marie called up the stairs for Abby to come on down. “I don’t want to,” came a tearful voice. Gerald said, “come down sweetie, there’s no need for you to feel ashamed, these things happen and you have all our support.” Abby, hugely pregnant, made her way slowly down the stairs, wiping away tears of embarrassment. Aunt Paula rose from her chair and hugged her gently, “I heard what happened darling, he’ll get what he deserves in the end. He’s what we used to call a “boomerang” man, bouncing between towns with a different family in each.”

Abby accepted a cup of tea and said, “the police called yesterday and they’ve found he has three other wives, one of them has two children, and his parents aren’t dead as he told me, but very much alive and his “inheritance” is fake. No one knows where he gets his money, but he’s not getting one red cent more from me!” Frankie said, “I bet he’s been running scams and conning people out of their money.” “Frankie?” said Gerald, “how do you know about such things?” “I read the newspapers Dad, and we are always being warned about internet scams and phone scams, so I bet Julian is one of those crooks.” “I was crazy to fall for the sweet-talking,” said Abby. “He fooled me at first too,” said Marie, “that charm, the melted chocolate eyes.” “Well I’m just glad the police are on his tail now,” said Gerald. “Let’s clear away these tea things and quiz Aunt Paula about her holiday.”

Frankie was sent to bring in the big purple suitcase which held all the gifts. “We went on a trip to Marrakesh, to a Bazaar, oh I wish you could have been there Marie, the things they had to sell were just amazing!” She unwrapped a length of delicate antique pink silk with a braided silk belt in a deeper shade of the same pink and handed it to Abby. “This is perfect for your colouring,” she said, “It’s a Sari and the woman who sold it to me showed me how to wrap it in the way of Indian women so there’s no buttons or zippers.” “Thank you Aunt Paula, it's gorgeous,” said Abby folding it carefully. “My baby is a girl,” she said to Paula, “I’ll be able to hand it down to her eventually.”

Frankie received a wooden perpetual calendar with months , days and numbers carved onto blocks of rubberwood attached to a frame. “I know you like calendars and this one will last forever,” said Paula. “Thank you, Aunt Paula,” said Frankie and rushed to his room to make space for it on his desk. For Marie, Paula carefully unwrapped an entire set of delicate silver plates and forks, “These are for cakes,” she said, “I saw many small cafes where people would sip tea from tall glasses and eat cakes from plates just like these and I knew you would love a set for your book club meetings.” “I love them,” said Marie, giving her Aunt a big hug. “Thank you so much.” “It’s bizarre how you managed to find the perfect things,” said Gerald. “I know you are waiting,” said Paula, “and there is a story attached to yours. We were meeting up to discuss one of the day trips and one of the gentlemen wanted to sell a couple of tickets he’d booked for a trip to Antarctica. His wife had fallen ill and travelling to such a frozen place was not recommended by her doctor. They’d planned to go after a short break at home after this Moroccan holiday, but he couldn’t face going alone. I had the tickets checked by a travel agency and they are genuine, so I bought them from him. What he did was return them to the agency and have new ones printed with your name on them,” she handed Gerald a buff coloured envelope which he accepted with shaking hands. “You have no idea how much this means to me,” he said hugging Paula. “Yes I do,” said Paula. “You take your dad on his most wished for trip before he kicks the bucket. He’s my brother and I know he really wants to go one more time.”