Use the picture above (horizontally or vertically) as inspiration for your story. Number of words: 100 Style of writing: Any Pictures: Any you want to share
If anyone does Saturday Centus you might somewhat
remember this story started as a centus. In June of 2010, I wrote a
few chapters on Mary and then stopped. I had so much to write about
her, writing weekly for centus wasn't enough. I then wrote and wrote
until I had over 30,000 words so far. In writing it though as I got
further and further my original premise somehow got blown out of the
water, ha, ha. I stopped writing her story in March of 2011. I still
haven't quite figured out how I'm going to work this out but I thought I
would put out what I have so far. Please remember this is a really
rough draft and when I wrote it, I had no chapters. Before I decided to
put this on the blog I had to go back and figure out where I could make
them. I would suggest this is a terrible way of doing it lol. The
first chapter started on March 23rd, 2012.
10
Mary jumped out of bed, put her clothes on and went to
Johnny's room to see if he was up yet.
She knocked on the door and then opened it; it looked like he never made
it upstairs. She started going down the
stairs very slowly so the old steps wouldn't creak. Since Johnny was still sleeping she would
make his breakfast and then wake him up.
When she got to the bottom she looked at the sofa and he wasn't
there. The afghan was folded up and put
on the back of the sofa. Mary went to
the back door and looked out and his car was gone. That's odd she thought, it's only 6 in the
morning and he's gone already.
She got Lulu's food out and fed her. She started the coffee and did the dinner
dishes while she waited for the coffee to get done. When she looked outside, it was a beautiful
sunny day and she could tell it was already warming up. She decided to get the rest of the weeding
done. It would be muddy but it should
be easier to get the weeds out she thought.
When she was done with the dishes, she poured a cup of coffee and
decided to grab a couple of chocolate chip cookies that were in the cookie jar
that Jimmy had brought.
As she headed to the front porch, she noticed a piece of
paper on the coffee table. She went
over, picked it up and took it outside with her to read.
It was a note from Johnny that said "Sorry I had to leave so early but I still had
one more day of work for the week and I can't be late. I don't have a Sadie to watch my back. I had a great time. Maybe we could do it again if you’re up for
it. Love, Johnny."
Mary put the note in her pants pocket and thought about
what she would do after the weeding while she ate her cookies. If she started pretty soon she could be done
by noon and would have the whole rest of the day ahead of her.
Mary loved being back but she was starting to get a
little tired of just being on the farm. She thought maybe she could go see a
movie. She wouldn't go to the theater in
her town but she knew there had to be some in another town a little farther
away. She hadn’t checked yet to see if she had
Internet access on her phone. She would
check it out later and see what movies were out and as long as she would be
out, she would stop and pick up some bubble bath for the tub.
Mary went to the barn, got the trowel and the rug and
went to work on the flower beds again.
Sure, enough by noon she was finished. She looked up to the sky and said "How's
that Pa? Ma's flowers look pretty good
without all those weeds in there" and she went inside.
She was a little hungry and looked in the fridge. There was some salad leftover from last
night's dinner so she put it on the table, got a fork, a glass of water and
started eating.
"Good thing Jimmy's not here, he would be tattling
for sure that I was eating out of the serving bowl." Mary said to the
always present Lulu.
When she was done eating, she got her cell phone to see
if she could get the Internet. Thank
goodness, she thought. Now let's look up
theaters that will be far enough away. She saw there was an older movie she hadn't
seen starting at 3:00. She thought that
gives me enough time for a quick bath.
She ran upstairs took a quick bath and headed for her
bedroom. She put on her make-up and
combed her long brown hair. She put on a
pair of white jeans, a pink T-shirt and grabbed her pink cardigan. She said her goodbye to Lulu and headed to
the car. She was excited to get
going.
She drove for about an hour and found the theater. Before she got out of the car, she grabbed
the pink baseball cap she had in the car and put it on and headed to the ticket
counter.
"I'll take one for Julie
and Julia please". She stopped at
the candy counter and bought a small bag of popcorn and a small coke and found
her seat.
She was about 20 minutes early. The theater wasn't very crowded so she
decided to clean up the calls on her cell phone since she hadn't had time to
delete messages.
All of a sudden she
heard what sounded like a familiar voice.
She looked up and there was Elizabeth's sister, Jody, with someone she
didn't recognize. She put her head down
and lowered her cap. The two women were
talking so much they never even noticed Mary.
However, they did sit about two rows right behind her. Oh no she thought, I'm going to have to get out of here.
A black squirrel - I've never seen one before in my life. Apparently, they live in Kent, Ohio which is about 50 minutes from us. I don't know how it got here but I only saw it one time.
A mallard duck- It flew right in front of the patio when I was sitting there. It made a turn and then flew through the trees by out garage. I didn't see where it went . Hippie said he's seen them fly in the neighbor diagonal behind us. They have a pool. They have a privacy fence but he thinks they might be going in their pool.
The patio guy is supposed to come on Friday. Last week hippie hosed it off and water leaked under it. I told them I think the whole thing needs to be re-caulked. We'll see what he does.
Saturday we went to a surprise birthday for my girlfriend from high school. She turned 60, she wasn't too thrilled about it. I talked to her in the morning because I didn't want her to be suspicious if I didn't call, ha.
She was very surprised when she came to her son's house thinking he and his wife were taking her out to eat.
She doesn't like to be the center of attention but when I saw her daughter was there from out of town; also her one brother and his wife were there too from out of state. I knew she would survive LOL.
Sunday we had a party for mom's birthday. It's next Saturday she'll be turning 85. My brother was able to bring mom's friend that she knew since kindergarten. They haven't talked since mom went into the nursing home. It was very touching when they saw each other they were crying and hugging. We had about 20 people. I ordered food instead of preparing it. I loved it, it took a lot of the pressure off me. The nursing home provided all the dishware, tablecloths, silverware,napkins. They even gave us coffee and bottled water. So I saved money not having to buy that stuff.
If anyone does Saturday Centus you might somewhat
remember this story started as a centus. In June of 2010, I wrote a
few chapters on Mary and then stopped. I had so much to write about
her, writing weekly for centus wasn't enough. I then wrote and wrote
until I had over 30,000 words so far. In writing it though as I got
further and further my original premise somehow got blown out of the
water, ha, ha. I stopped writing her story in March of 2011. I still
haven't quite figured out how I'm going to work this out but I thought I
would put out what I have so far. Please remember this is a really
rough draft and when I wrote it, I had no chapters. Before I decided to
put this on the blog I had to go back and figure out where I could make
them. I would suggest this is a terrible way of doing it lol. The
first chapter started on March 23rd, 2012.
9
Johnny felt like a little kid again with Mary home taking
the steps by two's. It had been many
years since he was upstairs and he wondered if his Ma had done anything to his
room. He opened the door and it was the
same. The little nightstand he made that his Pa helped him with was still in there.
He went over and looked at it, thinking it still looked in good shape. Then he saw the little pencil holder he made
in wood shop at school still holding the pencils with the name of his high
school on it. He looked in the closet,
no clothes but then he saw something on the top shelf. He pulled it down. It was his high school letter sweater that he
got in 12th grade. He reached his hand
up to see if there was anything else but no.
He then went over to the big dresser. He pulled out the bottom drawer and all the
trophy's he had ever won seemed to be in there, wrestling, baseball, and
basketball. He smiled to himself. The next drawer were books that he gotten on
woodworking. He loved wood shop and when his Pa helped him make that nightstand, he couldn’t stop making things.
"What's in this envelope", he said
out loud. He opened it up and it was
pictures of everything he ever made from wood.
Also, pictures of him when he thought no one was around cutting wood and
sanding. That's strange he thought, why they
didn’t ever show me these. He looked in
the last drawer but it was empty.
He came to the kitchen wearing only the letter sweater
and still wet pants.
Mary laughed when she saw him. "I guess no clothes, huh? Except for that fabulous sweater that's a
little too small. I found these old
pair of pants in the cleaning closet if you want to try them on. We can throw your clothes in the dryer. By the time we're done eating they should be
dry" handing the pants to him.
He went to the bathroom in the cellar, put the pants on
and threw his other stuff in the dryer and came up. "Let's eat, I'm starving.”
"It's on the
table in the dining room.”
"The table looks nice, Mar. I don't know though it feels a little strange
eating on Ma's good dishes. Look you
even lit the candles in the candle holders.
All these years, I've never seen them lit. What do you think Ma would think?”
"I asked her the other day when I ate on the China
by myself and lightening hasn't struck so far.
I think she'd approve and enjoy the fact we were using her candles.”
"Okay” Johnny said a little reluctantly and sat down
and started putting food on his plate.
There wasn't any talking going on and Johnny was almost
done eating and was starting to feel a little uncomfortable. I know I told her no questions but I don't
think that means about New York. It's
been so long since we've talked like brother and sister, I practically don't
even know her anymore, he thought Then he blurted out, "This is really
good Mar.”
"Thanks, it's one of my specialties. I
don't make it much being the only one at the apartment. I usually make it when I have friends over.”
Aha, he had an opening. "Do you have a lot of
friends?”
"I have a few friends and then there's Sadie. She's my best friend. I also work with her. We spend a lot of time together. I'm so thankful I have her for a friend. She always has my back at work.”
“Why does Sadie need to watch your back?”
"You wouldn't believe how competitive it is in hotel
management. Since I started pretty young
and moved up the ladder quickly, there's always someone trying to knock you
back down. Sadie kind of does
reconnaissance for me so I know who to look out for so I can head them off.”
Mary and Johnny looked at each other and started to
giggle and then full out laughter came.
They both tried to speak but neither could stop laughing.
Finally, Johnny cleared his throat and said "It
seems like old times, huh, Mary. You
saying something at the dinner table and then you and me start laughing so hard
we can't quit.”
"Yeah"
Mary said. "Those sure were fun
times.” Then the uncomfortable silence
came back.
"Well, I'm about done. I see you are too; I'll just clean up the
table. Why don't you go sit on the couch
and I'll bring you a glass of wine and we can talk, or watch TV.” Mary got up and started taking stuff into the
kitchen.
Johnny went and
sat on the couch and turned the TV on.
He flipped through the channels.
He found an old Laurel and Hardy movie on and decided to keep that
on. He wanted to keep things light.
Mary came back into the living room with a wine bottle
and two glasses. Over her shoulder, she
had his clothes from the dryer.
"Everything's dry, so you can change if you want.”
"I think I'll just sit and relax awhile. It was a tough day at work.”
"Did something happen at work Johnny?”
"Well, you know the economy's not great now and they
are laying people off left and right. That means everyone is doing more
work. It's been very stressful. Since I still work for my ex-father-in-law I
wouldn't be surprised if I get the heave ho pretty soon.”
"Aren't you the vice president of the bank still?”
"Yeah, but ever since Sandy and I got divorced her
dad hasn't been so friendly like he used to be and remember he is the
president.”
"I see. Would
you mind if I asked what happened with Sandy unless you think I'm butting into
your business.”
"No" Johnny said. "It was the craziest thing. After a year, I'm still trying to make sense
of it. She wanted to have children and I
did to. We tried for years and years but
it wasn't happening. We did fertility
treatments, spent tons of money until we almost went bankrupt but it didn't
work. She would get all upset because
she wanted to give me a child. I told
her I didn't care all I really needed was her.
She didn't believe me and asked for a divorce and wouldn't take no for
an answer. We still talk now and then.”
"I'm so sorry.
Maybe someday you two will find your way back to each other.”
Mary noticed that Johnny was having a hard time keeping
his eyes open and said "Why don't you stay here tonight. You really look tired and with all the wine
we've had, it's probably not safe for you to drive. Do you want to sleep in your old room or on
the couch?”
"I think I'll lie here for a while and go upstairs
later. Thanks, Sissie.” He was asleep as soon as his head the
pillow.
Mary checked the fire and it was out. She covered Johnny with her grandma's
afghan. Turned the lights and the TV off
and headed upstairs. As she crawled into
bed she thought there were some uncomfortable moments but overall it went
pretty well. Before she fell asleep she
remembered he called her Sissie and grinned.
She remembered her Ma telling her that Johnny started calling her that when her Pa told him a baby sister was coming home.
For some reason, he could only say Sissie and called her that until she
was a teenager. She decided she would
make sure she got up early and would make him breakfast.
If anyone does Saturday Centus you might somewhat
remember this story started as a centus. In June of 2010, I wrote a
few chapters on Mary and then stopped. I had so much to write about
her, writing weekly for centus wasn't enough. I then wrote and wrote
until I had over 30,000 words so far. In writing it though as I got
further and further my original premise somehow got blown out of the
water, ha, ha. I stopped writing her story in March of 2011. I still
haven't quite figured out how I'm going to work this out but I thought I
would put out what I have so far. Please remember this is a really
rough draft and when I wrote it, I had no chapters. Before I decided to
put this on the blog I had to go back and figure out where I could make
them. I would suggest this is a terrible way of doing it lol. The
first chapter started on March 23rd, 2012.
8
Mary got back to cleaning. Lulu was sitting on the couch watching
Mary.
"I just don't know what comes
over me sometimes. My mouth just works
faster than my brain. I love Jimmy, he's
my brother and what happened wasn't his fault.
I have to stop thinking he could have done something and grow up
already. It wasn't the end of the
world. I survived. I'm the manager of a big hotel in New York
City. My life is pretty darn good.”
Lulu jumped from the couch and rubbed up
against Mary's leg.
Mary went back to work, polishing all the furniture and
dusting all the knick knacks in the dining room and living room. She vacuumed the old rug that was there since
she was a child. She thought before we
sell we should really pull this rug up; I bet there are beautiful hard wood floors
under it. People love that
nowadays.
When she was done, she looked at the roses on the table
and they still looked fresh and beautiful with the white linen tablecloth.
She chuckled and said to Lulu, "I'm
really going to freak Johnny out and set the table with Ma's good china. It will be beautiful. I'm even going to get the candlestick holders
out of the buffet and put candles in them and light them. I remember Pa buying Ma those candlesticks
one Christmas. Every year we kids would
buy her candles for them but she would never light them. She was always waiting for a special occasion
that she thought worthy but one never came I guess.”
Mary looked at the time and thought she
better get going, she wanted to do the kitchen yet, get a bath and change
clothes before Johnny came.
Mary went in the kitchen and she could smell the aroma
from the crock-pot it was intoxicating.
She went and got a glass of wine or two and started cleaning. She washed the stove, refrigerator, shined
up the sink, wiped down the counters and swept the floor. She even got the old mop and scrub bucket out
and washed the floor.
When she was done in the kitchen, she surveyed all the
cleaning she had done and was happy with how clean and sparkly everything
looked. She looked at the time and it
was only 7:00. She still had time before
she needed to get in the tub so she lay down on the couch and turned the TV
on. The local news was on and she wanted
to see what they were saying about the weather.
From the sounds of it outside it was still raining hard and now there
was much more thunder and lightning. It
was pretty dark in the living room too but the glow from the still going fire
and the TV were all she needed for now.
Mary could barely keep her eyes open.
She thought I'll take a power nap and be up in about a half hour then
I'll take my bath and get ready.
Mary heard a banging on the back door. She got up groggily, went to the door and she
saw Johnny standing all wet. She opened
the door and he came in.
"Aren't you early?”
"I don't think so.
In fact, I'm my usual prompt self" as he shivered from the cold and
rain.
Mary looked at the clock it was 9 o'clock he was
right. Her power nap had turned into two
hours.
"All that cleaning I did
today had me exhausted. I was going to
take a nap and then get cleaned up. I
must have been more tired than I thought.'
"You don't have to worry about cleaning up for me
Mar. You look fine. I'm surprised you still have one of our old
high school sweatshirts. When's supper going to be ready,
I'm starving?”
"I'll just
put the biscuits in the oven and then we'll be ready" Mary said.
"I'm going to go up to my old room and see if Ma has
any of my old clothes in there so I can change.
I got soaked just from coming from the car.”
"Okay, I think I'm going to throw a salad together
too so take your time.”
So, I'm sitting on the patio minding my own business when out of the corner of my eye I see what looks like a BIG bird fly into the evergreen. I get up and look out the window to see if I could see it. Then I see a hawk on the roof and it flies away when it spots me. I go in and tell hippie and he looks out and sees the rabbit in our yard. I didn't even notice it was there.
I think that hawk was scouting out his next meal. UGH!!!
I felt like I had to stay out there and watch the rabbit. Hippie said I have to let nature take it's course. So I left grudgingly.
I went out a couple hours later afraid I would see rabbit fur all over the back yard but hippie said he had seen it in the garden. I stayed and waited for a half hour and finally I saw the rabbit on the other side of the fence. I think it was going to come back in our yard.
I have a feeling the hawk will be back. I just hope I'm not around if the hawk gets the rabbit. That would be so not cool.
If anyone does Saturday Centus you might somewhat
remember this story started as a centus. In June of 2010, I wrote a
few chapters on Mary and then stopped. I had so much to write about
her, writing weekly for centus wasn't enough. I then wrote and wrote
until I had over 30,000 words so far. In writing it though as I got
further and further my original premise somehow got blown out of the
water, ha, ha. I stopped writing her story in March of 2011. I still
haven't quite figured out how I'm going to work this out but I thought I
would put out what I have so far. Please remember this is a really
rough draft and when I wrote it, I had no chapters. Before I decided to
put this on the blog I had to go back and figure out where I could make
them. I would suggest this is a terrible way of doing it lol. The
first chapter started on March 23rd, 2012.
7
The next morning, Mary was getting out of bed and without
even opening the curtains she knew it was raining. She could hear the raindrops hitting the
bedroom window. She wanted to crawl back
under the quilt since she wasn't going to be able to do the weeding she had
planned but instead, decided to get dressed.
She could tell that it had cooled off considerably so she put on jeans
and one of her old high school sweatshirts she had brought. It was a little tattered but she still loved
it. Then she and Lulu went
downstairs.
When she looked out the kitchen window, she could see it was
really pouring outside. "It looks
like an inside kind of day Lulu. That's
okay, we've got plenty of things we can do.
I think later, I might even start a fire in the fireplace since it’s so
chilly in here. Are you hungry" as
she went to get some food for her. Mary
fed the cat and then started the coffee.
She went to the pantry and got some oatmeal. When it was done, Mary put some blueberries
in the oatmeal and sat at the kitchen table and contemplated what she would do
that day.
She could hear her phone ringing. "Lulu if that's Sadie again, I'm going
to scream. She's my best friend forever
but she can be such a worry wart about me.
Hello?”
"Mar, I was just wondering are you okay?”
“I'm fine Johnny, why shouldn't I be?”
"Have you
been watching the TV? They said with
this storm there could be a tornado.”
"It's weird at home I always have the TV on but
since I've been here I haven't turned it on once. I'm sure there's nothing to worry about.”
"Do you want me to come over and sit with you"
he asked.
Mary thought for a moment with the dreary weather she
could use someone to talk to. "I
don't need you to come now but if you'd like I could throw a pot roast in the crock-pot and you could come for supper tonight.”
"I'd like that very much. How about we eat a late supper and I'll be
over around 9?”
"That would be great" Mary said. "See you later.”
I better get hopping if I want this pot roast to be done
by the time Johnny gets here, Mary thought.
As she was getting the stuff in the crock-pot she felt excited to be
having her brother come to dinner. Once
she left home for good, she never got that much of a chance to know Johnny as
an adult and she was looking forward to getting to know him that way. When she had come home after graduating, he
was already married. She had a lot of
questions about why he and his childhood sweetheart were divorced. Hopefully, he wouldn't have too many
questions for her. She plugged the crock-pot in, went into the living room and opened the curtains on the big
picture window.
"Lulu it's just nasty out there. I can hardly see the road and it's starting
to get colder in here. I better get the
fire started.”
After starting the fire, Mary decided she would clean the
downstairs before Johnny came. She took
the rest of her luggage upstairs and put it in the closet. Then went to the cleaning cupboard in the
kitchen and got some rags and furniture cleaner. Just as she sprayed the dining room table,
her phone rang.
Mary thought, I should have kept the phone in my
luggage. This time when she answered she
heard "Hey, Sis. Are you all
right?”
"Yes, Jimmy
I'm fine. I know there's a tornado alert
out, Johnny already called and told me.”
"Yeah, I figured but I just wanted to make
sure".
"You know I'm a grown woman now and I don't need my
older brothers to watch out for me anymore, not that you ever did.”
"What? What's that supposed to mean" Jimmy
asked confusingly.
"Oh,
nothing" Mary said, realizing she put her foot in her mouth again. Hesitantly she said "Johnny's coming
over around 9 tonight for some pot roast would you like to come?” Not really wanting to face him but she
figured it would seem less suspicious.
"I would like to Mary but we've decided to leave bright and early
in the morning for Canada. We're meeting
Mitch and Elizabeth at 6 in the morning.
When I get home from work, I’ve got to load up the van and get to bed
early but thanks for including me. We'll
do it when I get back okay?”
"Okay, Jimmy. I'll see you when you get back and
don't worry about me. I'm fine. Talk to you soon, Bye.”
When Jimmy hung up the phone, he wondered what she meant
that he never watched out for her. He knew Johnny and her were always closer
but wasn't he the one that always reigned Mitch in when he would start teasing
her. She must have forgotten about that. Too bad he was leaving in the morning; he
would have liked to have had dinner with her and Johnny. It had been a long time since the three sat
together and talked. He quickly got back
to work so he could leave early.
