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 to read it and add a few encouraging words.
This month the words/prompts are supplied by Charlotte and can be found here
This week's words/prompts are:
1.ferry 2.determined 3.box 4.convey 5.paste 6.first
and/or:
1.family 2.astonish 3.obtain 4.avoid 5.magnificent
also including Charlotte's colour of the month: writing passion purple.
Here is my story:
I stared at the neat
row of coloured inks lined up across the back of her desk, “One of these won’t
do?” I asked. Dramatically she answered,” Purple is the colour of passion. My
passion is writing, so of course the ink must be purple! I simply cannot
produce my usual magnificent work with any other colour!”
I studied my ten year
old daughter, wondering how on earth she was so different from her peers, every
day she managed to astonish me. Carly stared back, unblinking and challenging. “Well,
alright then, let’s get you that purple ink, where do we go to obtain it and
how much does it cost?”
“Daddy would remember,”
she muttered. “Daddy has to be away right now, this international meeting is
very important for his company.” Carly nodded, then said "We catch the Midland
ferry and get off at the Greenfields dock, the Big Box Warehouse is a mile away
on the eastern track. It’s a great store, I can get more of my favourite paper
there too and a couple of buckets of paste for the collages to go with the
poems.”
“Buckets?” I said, “how
big are these buckets? Should we bring the four wheeled cart?” She pointed to
the row of two inch tall paste buckets already on the shelf, “that size Mum, just
a basket will be big enough to hold everything.” I looked at her determined
little face, so much like Ian’s and wished he was here, he understood Carly so
much better than I did.
I remembered what he
had told me before he left. “Compromise,” he’d said. “She wants something, she
has to earn it.” I took a deep breath. “We can do this,” I said, “but you need
to do something for me. One household chore in return for the trip and the
supplies.” I hoped I’d conveyed the message without sounding panicked. Carly’s
face hardened a little, fire flashed from her eyes. Her therapist had declared
her ready to try being part of our family without his help and so far we had
managed to avoid confrontation.
We knew she was clever
enough to want to try, and that our first loyalty would always be to her. She
wanted to belong, to learn, and had worked hard to control the tantrums. “I
agree,” she said. “What is the chore?” “You
need to make your own bed from today, every day, including sheets changing
days, though I can help you with that part.” “I would prefer to learn to use
the washing machine,” Carly said. “We can add that once you master the
bedmaking,” I replied. Her stance relaxed and she almost smiled. “Let’s go
catch that ferry,” she said.
Good compromises there. I'd like to read some of Carly's purple prose. 😁
ReplyDeletejabblog; I wish I had any idea at all what she might be writing. Thank you.
DeleteWhen I boarded the ferry, I was determined to reach Paris by midnight. I gripped the velvet box, hardly able to convey what the trip meant to me. Inside was a tube of garlic paste - soon to be the first my family had ever received. It would surely astonish them. Where did I obtain it? I think it's best to avoid the fine details and simply accept the truth that my box - coloured writing passion purple - contained a rare culinary treasure.
ReplyDeleteYorkshire Pudding; an unusual gift, I hope they like it. Thank you.
DeleteGood job, mama! It sounds like they are working it out.
ReplyDeletemessymimi; they are working things out, slowly but surely.
DeleteParenting must be such a tough job. What irritates me... where does the story take place? How come it is miles not kilometer? Also the nurse in Joondaloop told me how many feet to walk.
ReplyDeleteOh, think life would be boring if it was too easy ;-)
And of course you need to write with purple ink! What else is passion about?
Iris; I hadn't thought about where this is taking place and I wrote miles because that's what came into my head. We used to have miles before we had kilometres, so my mind just goes that way. I remember a girl in school had purple ink, but she wasn't allowed to use it in class or for her homework. I don't think I have ever seen it anywhere since, although truthfully I don't look for it.
DeleteIngo... has pink ink! He once bought a bag of colored inks. When he was far away, recovering from his sickness he wrote me letters with them.
DeleteI always have to "calculate" for American declarations, Fahrenheit I still have to look up.
one mile is 0.6 kilometre approximately, so I know if I walk from home to the city and back again I have walked about 5 or 6 miles. I almost never walk to the city, but have walked home a few times if the weather is nice and my goods aren't too heavy. I have a chart on my fridge with Celcius and Fahrenheit conversions.
DeleteWell done R, nice story.
ReplyDeleteMargaret D; thank you.
DeleteI’m determined to book a ferry across to see my family members that have been so keen to avoid me.
ReplyDeleteThe internet is playing up, and the first time I enter the words into the search box, I would struggle to convey the colourful language that escapes my lungs.
“ferry crossing to isle of wight, prices and times” yields 404 page not found.
I quickly copy the search string again to avoid having to retype it. Paste it back into the search engine and click the magnifying glass.
A magnificent array of results is generated this time. The number of options astonish me, and I start to filter through them to obtain a credible link that isn’t one of the purple ones, suggesting I’ve previously visited or any obviously sponsored ad, or spam.
Click…..
I hope you do get to catch the ferry and see the family members, even in a fictional story if this isn't real.
DeleteThey are building a foundation of trust. I'm sure there will be many relapses, but this is a good start. Staying calm, and working out compromises, is indeed the right path.
ReplyDeleteVal; a foundation of trust takes a while but the parents are calm and the daughter is smart enough to make allowances while also trying hard to avoid tantrums. I'm picturing her as one of those super smart people whose brain is far far ahead of where their age is.
Delete