I reached into the fragrant green tree and hooked a mirror ornament onto a branch. Then I stood back to see how my addition looked. It was perfect! An hour before, my brother had authoritatively deemed that since I was ALMOST ten-years-old, I could help trim our Christmas tree. My cheeks hurt from smiling, but I couldn’t stop. I felt so happy. After weeks of waiting Christmas was finally here…and this year I could enjoy it with special privileges. Continue reading
One Day Closer
The train of days slowly chugged along toward my favorite holiday…Christmas. Along the track ‘Santa anticipation’ grew inside my seven-year-old head. November’s snowy Thanksgiving meal inched toward a candy-sweetened Saint Nicholas day. Even if there hadn’t been a calendar in our house, my internal clock told me that the time was drawing closer and closer. Continue reading
Dark Tree
The food probably tasted great. But today I was too excited to notice, or even to remember what had been on my plate. I watched Mom eat the last of her buttered bread. Although it was a small slice, it seemed to take her a very long time. Eventually she licked a smear of butter off her finger and said, “Well, now that we have had our noon meal…let’s put up the Christmas tree!” Continue reading
The Night all of my Candy Bars Burned
The heavy brocade living room curtains felt cool. I pulled one panel aside and slid between it and the window. This was like being invisible because no one could see me. I was neither inside the house, nor out in our dark, snowy winter yard. Out on the road in front of our house, a car slowly passed. I watched its headlights probe the silky, slippery snow and ice covered road. It went up the hill toward our neighbor’s place where it turned in. Continue reading
Bee Nine
In the dining room one-year-old Anne sat quietly in her mother’s arms listening to the song being sung to her. The minute Niki ended with, “B-I-N-G-O…and Bingo was his name OH!” Anne slithered off my daughter’s lap to the floor. She wandered into the kitchen where I stood by the sink washing the cabbage shredder. Continue reading
Everywhere a Turkey…
Driven by the wind, several brown, crisp leaves cartwheeled across the road in front of my car. They did a dance of ecstasy on the side of the road, and then dropped lifelessly into a clump of frost-deadened grass. A few hard pellets of sleet tappity-tapped on my windshield, and then seemingly disappeared into thin air. Had I imagined them? I pulled into the hospital parking lot and got out of my car. Continue reading
Dear Hunting
Bare-branched trees lined the river like tall gray sentinels. Huddled among them were pine trees wearing dark green winter coats. As if to mock the somber landscape, a bright sun smiled down on it with a friendly, golden hue that made frost-bleached grasses seem to glow. The view from my kitchen window made me want to forget about housework. Promising myself that I’d go for a walk after doing the dishes, I quickly began loading my dishwasher. Continue reading
Working at Play
At first my playmate and I were content to trample the weeds to form the halls and rooms of our imaginary house. Pointing to a tall skinny sapling growing closest to the gray weathered boards of the machine shed, I announced with imperial grandeur, “Between that tree and the shed is the little girl’s bedroom.” Continue reading
An Alarming Sound
I turned over and stretched, enjoying my soft, warm nest. Outside my comforter, the room was cold. Gray tendrils of sleep-induced mental fog obliterated all the concerns I had gone to bed with several hours earlier. Nothing in the world needed my attention at that moment and I felt supreme peace. Then I heard the eerie sound. Turning to give Arnie a shake I hissed, “Wake up and listen. I’m hearing it again!” Continue reading
Blood of a Rabbit
A cold, wicked October wind whistled around the eves of my house. I pulled on a sweater and poured myself a cup of tea. The wind… I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It had been the first thing I heard upon waking. As I lay in the gray dawn half-awake and half-asleep, my inventive mind formed the fanciful notion that it’s high pitched moan was the collective voice of all the women that lived before me. They seemed to be calling, “Clean…clean your house…clean your house now…winter is coming!” Continue reading
Life Lines 