Short Story Saturday

Carley's day began like every other day had for the last month or so. She got dressed, reluctant, and bored with the whole thing. She went, down the rickety stairs, and through the swinging door into the dining area for breakfast. Eggs, bacon, and potatoes, as usual. Sitting down, she began to eat, and was not surprised when Cross Eyed Pete took the seat next to hers. For the last three weeks, Pete had been taking that same seat, and always had the same question.
"May I escort you to a fine dinner, this evening?" he said, trying to look at her.
"No you may not" she answered, as usual. I am a married woman."
"I don't see no husband" he leered back at her.
"David is my husband!" she answered, again. Angrily. "David who?" everyone wanted to know, because they had forgotten about the sheriff who disappeared. She sighed. They had been giving her a difficult time over the last few weeks, insisting that a girl as pretty as her needed to have a husband. Every single man in the area had been showing up at Fanny's boarding house, hoping to 'escort her to dinner'. Each one had been turned away. Cross Eyed Pete was a jealous type, and he discouraged them all from coming back. So now, mainly, she only had him to contend with. But he was proving to be very stubborn, indeed.
"I will not take No for an answer!" he told her, cheerily. "I don't see no man named David here, and I am just as good as any of them other fella's" he finished. "Be ready at sunset."
"I will do NO SUCH THING" she answered, forcefully, slamming her fork down on the table. Unfortunately, her fork still had a bite of eggs on it, and they splattered all over Cross Eyed Pete. Not caring, she got up from the table, and flounced out the door.
"She is going to pay for that" muttered Pete, wiping the egg off his face with a scowl.
"Oh, now, Pete, she didn't mean it" Fanny said, clearing up her plate.
"Yes she did, and I am tired of her stuck up, high falutin' ways" growled Pete. "She thinks that I ain't good enough for her, well, she's gonna see. She better be waitin' for me at sunset, in her prettiest dress, or I am going to learn her a lesson". With that said, he shoved himself away from the table, and stormed out the door.
Carley quickly gained entrance to her shop, and locked the doors. Making sure the blind was securely pulled down, she paced around the small building. Around all the bolts of fabric, and the sewing machine. She had been searching everywhere for a way to get back to her own time and place, to no avail. "I miss my kids, damn-it!" she shouted to the empty shop, her eyes filled with tears. "I want my life back" she whimpered to the dust. Sobbing, she sat down in front of the sewing machine and cried. After a while, she stopped, and wiped her eyes with a dusty hand. Taking a few deep breaths, she took stock of her situation. She was stuck, in the 'Wild West' in some town called Pineville. She thought, because of the gold she earned sewing clothing, that she was somewhere in Northern California. She was alone, with no family, or friends. For all intents and purposes, a single woman, since technically, neither she, nor David were even born yet. But the thought of being with someone else, especially Cross Eyed Pete, sickened her. Vowing that even if she had to run away to avoid him, she would, Carley started to work the sewing machine, losing herself again in the task. She never did raise the shade, or unlock the door. She didn't leave to eat lunch, or dinner. She stayed, locked in, even when (and especially when) Cross Eyed Pete came banging on the door, threatening to shoot his way in. She heard the new sheriff drag him away. Close to one in the morning, she finally opened the door, and snuck back to her room. Once there, she lodged the chair underneath the door knob, and fell into an uneasy sleep. She forgot, however, to bar the window...
Pete heard the soft footsteps on the stairs, and knew Carley had gone back to her room. "I'll teach that stuck up bitch" he thought, grinning menacingly. He waited one hour, two. Then, snuck out of his own room, careful to avoid the loose floor boards that would give him away. Stealthily, he tried the door, knowing she'd probably secured it well. He was right. He was also prepared. Gathering his canvas bag, he entered the dark, warm night. Quickly, he tossed a rope up to his own open window, and scaled the building, swinging his way closer and closer to Carley's. Just as he'd suspected, she'd left it open a crack. Silently, he slid it open. Before Carley knew what was happening, he had her bound, and gagged. Picking her up like she weighed nothing, he carried her out of the building, and tossed her into the travois he had strapped to his horse. Whistling, he rode away in the soft pink ribbons of dawn.
Struggling against her bonds, Carley's mind raced with fear. If she got killed, would her body return to the future? Or would she be an unmarked grave of the past? What about her children? Tears streaking her face, she snuffled against the dirty bandanna he'd used to gag her with.
"Not much longer" he promised her, hearing her struggle. Near the train tracks, a few miles outside of town, he finally stopped.
"You should have married me when you had the chance, Carley-girl" he said, shrugging. "If I caint have you, then no one can. He lifted her out of the travois and slung her over his shoulder. Ignoring her struggle, he strode over to the train tracks, spurs clicking against his boots. Matter of factly he tossed her down, then tied her, across the tracks with good, strong knots. "train will be here in 'bout ten minutes" he said, after he had her well secured. "No one in town will miss your snotty self, least of all me." Having finished what he wanted to say, he jumped up on his horse, and rode away.
Scared almost to the point of fainting, Carley struggled against her restraints. Each struggle she made seemed to make the knots tighter. Suddenly, from the distance, she heard the lone whistle of a fast moving train. In a frenzy she railed against the rope holding her, causing it to burn and strip the skin around her wrists and ankles. Tears soaked the bandanna stuck in her mouth. Able to only turn her head, she watched her doom approach her in 50 tons of screaming black metal. She fainted.
******************************************************
The night clerk of the Time Travel Inn wandered out of the office, chuckling. "Fool" he thought to himself. Some idiot had broken down a few miles up the road, leaving a smoking shell of a purple VW bug off on the side of the road. Rather than spending money to stay at the closer, cleaner Super 8, the young man had chosen to stay at the Time Travel Inn. He'd been assigned to room 1400....
Tripping over a lump in the grass, the night clerk swore. "Damn, I forgot about her!" Standing up, he helped a disheveled, wide eyed Carley to her feet, and wondered if he still had the phone number that David had left with him over three months ago. He was pretty sure he did....

Friday Mieography

Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan.
You can't really tell one story without telling the other, I think. So they will go, together. For a bit, anyhow.
Helen was born at an estate in Alabama called Ivy Green in 1880. Her father was a former Confederate officer, and her mother had the impressive lineage of being a cousin to Robert E. Lee, and the daughter of a Confederate General herself. She was born with the capabilities to see, and hear. That would all change at 13 months old, when she came down with an illness, that was eithe Scarlet Fever, or Meningitis. It was not a long illness, but it did it's damage. What many people don't know, is that there was a little girl named Martha Washington who lived in the house, and those 2 developed a sign language of their own. Helen actually used over 60 "home signs" by the time she was seven. This ability was actually crucial for her future development.
Anne Sullivan was born in 1866 in Massachusetts, the daughter of 2 impoverished Irish cooks who left Ireland during the Potato Famine. Her mother died when she was nine, of tuberculosis. She and her brother were sent to live with relatives, who later sent the two to live in an "almshouse", where her brother died. When she was 3 years old, Anne had began to have trouble with her eyesight, and later contracted an eye disease called trachoma, that often causes blindness by scarring. She had multiple surgeries trying to fix her vision. She ended up in a school for the blind, where she underwent more surgery, and regained only partial sight. She graduated from school in 1886, and, had another surgery which regained her more of her sight, and then, took a job. Working with Helen Keller.
Helen and her father, in the meantime had made a trip to Baltimore Maryland, in search of a specialist, for advice on what to do with Helen. He sent them to, of all people, Alexander Graham Bell, who was working with deaf children, at the time. Bell sent them to the Perkins Institute, and they? Assigned them one of their recent graduates, one Anne Sullivan. Here is where our stories converge.
Anne got permission from Helen's family to isolate the girl into a little garden house. Her first task with Helen was to instill discipline, of which she had been sorely lacking. Next, came the words. I am sure most of you have seen the movie, and the "water" scene. After finally grasping the concept, Helen practically exhausted Anne with her constant demands for more words. When she was ten, the pair learned of a deaf/blind Norwegian girl named Ragnhild Kata, who had learned to speak. This success inspired Helen to wish to speak, as well. So Annie taught her. Helen also learned Braille, and used it not only for English, but for French, German, Greek, and Latin.
In 1894, the pair moved to New York City to attend schools designated for the deaf. In 1896, they moved on to Massachusetts, where Helen entered the Cambridge School for Young Ladies, and then, 2 years later, Radcliffe College. Mark Twain, and admirer of Helen, had introduced her to a Standard Oil magnate and his wife, who paid for her education. At the age of 24, Helen graduated, magna cum laude, becoming the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts Degree.
Anne Sullivan remained by her side as a companion for many years to come (a total of 49 years from start to finish.) She had married a man named John Macy, who helped write Helens autobiography, but their relationship deteriorated, and they seperated, though never divorced. In 1935 Anne became completely blind, and she died, a year later. There is now a public school in Brooklyn named for her. By this time, a new companion had been with them for a few years, named Polly. Helen and Polly moved to Connecticut, and travelled world wide, raising funds for the blind. However, Polly died, and then Winnie came aboard as Helen's companion.
Helen did not just tour to raise money for the blind, however. Her entire life she was busy, speaking out for issues she was passionate about, including pacifism, the suffragist movement, radical socialism, and, in favor of birth control. She started the Helen Keller International Organization which is devoted to research in vision, health and utrition, and in 1920, she was a founding member of the ACLU. When Annie was alive, they traveled to over 39 countries. She met every president from Grover Cleveland to Lyndon B. Johnson. (Though she was very staunch in her opposition against Woodrow Wilson.)
She was also an author. She wrote her first book at Eleven years old. Her autobiography was written when she was 24, and she wrote another, "spiritual" one about her religion, in 1927. She also wrote a multitude of essays on Socialism. In total, she wrote 12 books, and numerous articles.
She also had received, as gifts from Japan, 2 Akita dogs, and she is credited with having introduced the breed to the United States.
In 1961, Helen suffered a series of strokes, and spent her last years of life, at home. She died in 1968, just before her 88th birthday.

a very young Mie story

David, over on authorblog always asks very interesting, and sometimes difficult to answer Weekend Wandering questions. Go on over, and look at some of his beautiful posts, as well.
This last Weekend Wandering question is "Has anyone ever under-estimated your ability?"
Now, this happens frequently, for whatever reason. People seem to under-estimate others on a regular basis. I usually will just prove them wrong, smirk, and flounce away, vindicated.
There was a time in my life when I did not know how to do that, though.
I joined the Navy when I was 18.
I needed to do something that was going to get me away from the small town I grew up in, and out of the rut that EVERYONE I went to high school with practically fell into. (Go to local junior college while working a menial job, living with mom and dad, stagnating). Some went on to 4 year colleges, but most of us? Not.
So I joined the Navy. Dad had been in the Navy, DK had been a Marine (I so wasn't going there) Grandpa had been Army (their recruiter told me I could be a housekeeper or secretary in the Army. Oh lovely). I did briefly consider the Air Force, but I like the Ocean better than the sky. So the Navy it was.
Boot camp was long. And arduous. I went to Orlando Florida during August, of all months. It was stale, and hot, and I was away from home for the first time. But I survived it. During boot camp, they told me that my first duty assignment was going to be in Yokosuka, Japan. I was excited. I was 18, liberated, and headed overseas! My Mom (Aunt Tuna) was less than thrilled. I'd be gone 2 years.
My first job in the navy was as a "Fireman's apprentice". I could branch out from here into being an Engineman, an Electrician, or many other things related to the mechanics of Navy Life. I actually wanted to be an Electrician. So, after a month of the basic "Fireman" training, off I went, to Yokosuka, to work on Tugboats.
I got there, and was introduced to my "boss", a first class petty officer who happened to be and Engineman. Petty is right.
Lets call him Lance, shall we? This guy announced to me, under no uncertain terms, that I was going to be an Engineman, like he was. Like he was training another young sailor on the boat to be. This guy was a LARGE, muscular man, and he was HATEFUL. I was the very first female crew member placed on the tugboat, and he DID NOT WANT ME THERE. There were 4 guys, and ME on this boat. I could never get away from him, or them. For the next 6 months, Lance went out of his way to belittle me, punish me for any error, and tear me down to tears as often as he could. He was responsible for training me, helping me. He did neither. I suffered a serious burn to my hand once because he was standing behind me while I was performing a task on a large, RUNNING engine, yelling at me and belittling me while I was trying to finish the work. I can still feel the pain, of the burn, and the constant, emotional beat down.
One day, it all came to a head. He crossed the line of emotional, into physical. I was standing next to a wall, and he took a swing at me, while he was yelling loud enough that little flecks of spit were flying. He missed my head, by millimeters. He hit the wall hard enough to leave a dent. I almost fainted.
That was it. I was so tired of him, beaten by him. He would not let me go train with the electrician, he made me hate my life. I was not enjoying Japan, or anything on the tugboat. I was young, just had finally turned 19, and I was beaten. I did not realize that I could have lodged a formal complaint, and taken him to Captains Mast. Oh, how I wish I would have known that.
Instead, I did the quickest thing I could think of. I got a book, answered a bunch of test questions, and changed my job over to Seaman on the tug boat.
Best thing I ever did. It removed me from Lance and his undermining, the Captain of the tug told him he had to stay away from me (he heard about the almost hitting me incident). Hard on a small tug with only 5 people on it. So he just ignored me. That was FINE BY ME.
I loved working out on the decks of the tugboat. Liberated from the oppressive engine room, and the oppressive Lance, I began to work hard, and shine. I really loved my job, and I was GOOD at it. Everyone was amazed that the little mouse I was turned into a sassy, take no shit tugboat girl. I started to love my life in Japan, as well. Being happy and successful at my job made a HUGE difference.
And Lance? He left the boat, eventually. I wish I could say he was eaten by a shark or something. But No. He, and many other men in the Navy like him, thrive in the atmosphere of Navy life. He simply went to his next duty station. I never had to see him again. The next Engineer that came aboard was a super nice guy. Supportive, fun. Had he been my boss, I might have been a good electrician.
So, yeah. Lance under-estimated my ability. But the problem? He got ME to under-estimate my own ability. A very young me. Thankfully, I got away from him in time....

Wordless Wednesday

colors?

Color is a language. Color is one of the most fulfilling elements in our lives. Color can attract your attention or change your mood. It speaks to who you are, how you feel and where you're going. At Sherwin-Williams, we can help you put together the perfect colors for your life.

I took this straight from the Sherwin-Williams website. Where I have been perusing what color should be our lives....
Well? What color should be our lives? It's hard to choose. Especially after reading that little blurb about how the color can change our mood and spark who we are...
They encourage me to 'explore the essence of color'.
oook, but when I go exploring, I am greeted with colors, like
'Zany Pink', or 'Radish. If you don't like those, how about Damsel? Who decided to name this strange color that almost resembles lavender to 'damsel'?
And how about 'Sashay Sand'. What kind of person can choose the color 'sashay sand'? I can just hear that conversation, now. "Oh, what a lovely wall color. What is is?"
"Why thank you, it's 'sashay sand'.
"Its what?"
um. Sashay sand...
uncomfortable silence....
Interface Tan. That one must be for the computer geeks, because it Interfaces, right? To be honest with you, that is one of the colors we are considering for our walls. That, or possibly, Malted Milk.
Yeah, that's us. The Malted Milk people.
How about 'Hopeful?' If it wasn't a hideous shade of peach-ish color.... And then there is another one called 'stolen kiss'. Um. Hey? What color are your walls...
stolen kiss
Is that right....
How about 'folksy gold'.
How high were the people naming paint? They MUST have been sniffing the paint fumes....
Want some Charisma in your life? Paint your walls. With Charisma, of course...
In the mood for a Croissant? Paint your walls croissant colored.
I could go on, and on.
But I won't, because frankly I am overwhelmed by paint color names, and I am under attach by a certain, black cat. Who is sitting right behind my head....

Tiki fun

So there they were, Mielikki and Cami. It was the morning of the annual Kaos Tiki party, and they were taking a break, and enjoying a few minutes in the sun..



Mr. Kaos (aka Dr.Normal) and Mustang Man were also out, enjoying the sun, and getting to know each other, talking about whatever it is men find to talk about (it should be noted here that these polly pockets in no way resemble either Mr. Kaos, or MM. The male polly pockets ALL look like this, though. I had no choice.)


little K Kaos and Mustang girl were also out having fun. Mustang Girl had baked some cookies and brought them all the way from California for the occasion, and K was doing her best to brush MG's hair for her...


Sybil, and Bubblewench had flown out from the East Coast to Tiki, as well, and Celtic Rose had tagged along with Mielikki, seeing as she's not ever had a tiki drink.... Miss Burrows, hearing of all the fun, joined them as well.


until, that is, she went off to steal the winning carrot card from her husband, who was off shuffling all the bunny cards...


but there was a surprise in store for CamiKaos. To get it, however, she had to be blindfolded...


hidden around the corner, were Holly and Jo, all the way from the UK! (Jo had just finished scolding Holly for not wearing shoes. But Holly maintains that anyone wearing board shorts does not need to wear shoes.)


Cami was so surprised to see her friends, she ran right over to give them a hug!


then, everyone was hugging everyone, and well, Chaos (or is it Kaos?) ensued...


when it all settled down, all the friends raised a glass of tiki goodness to each other


(note Sybil had 2 of them.... so that each person would have a glass to clink against, right, Sybil?)


and then, a group picture was taken, for posterity....


(whew! time consuming! This was my first and last attempt at Polly Pocket Posting..... and Mustang Girl was a big help! Gotta give proper kudo's to Holly and QOH who have done many many more of these... and Holly even labels her pictures!)

Happy Memorial Day, everyone!

sneak peek

tune in tomorrow to see what all of these people are up to....