Tag Family

Look up! Microfiction Challenge #9 – Rainbow

freyathewriter 13 Comments

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Sky painted with an ethereal hand, if only he would care to notice. But, as always, he was too full of himself, of visualising his increasing bank balance, of mentally spending it on new furniture, an extension, a pool, a double garage.

Sky sighed. She had been trying for years, chasing him around the globe, waiting for just the right moment after the sun-infused shower to wave her paintbrush in a great arc and illuminate the heavens with her multi-faceted glory. But she always failed. He was obtuse and oblivious..

Anger roiled from the depths of her being, a white heat rose from the soles of her delicately shod feet and coursed through her veins, clothing the forbidding clouds in a brief but intense flash. She opened her mouth and a great growl spewed forth, years of pent-up frustration shaking the trees, the rivers, the houses below with its violence.

He stopped in his tracks as fat tears of sorrow lashed his face, flattened his hair to his scalp, stuck his shirt to his skin. Lightning and thunder filled his void and then, then he looked up as a great bolt split the sky and tore his house asunder. All became still, as if the world was holding its breath.

“Janice? Janice? it’s me, Mike. Oh my God, the storm! It’s all gone, our beautiful home, our car, everything destroyed!” Mike winced in anticipation, waiting for the wrath of his wife to assault his ears.

“But are you OK, Mike? You’re not hurt?”

“I’m fine, but our house -”

“It’s just bricks and mortar. You are my home, that’s all that matters.” Her voice was gentle, soft, warm. He had failed to noticed these little things for such a long time.

It was then that he saw the rainbow. Finally. Sky rested her paintbrush and allowed a few final tears to fall to the earth. Her work was done.

 

Thanks to the lovely Michael, who I have known via the internets ( :)) for some time now, I have found this Microfiction Challenge from Jane Dougherty, who this week invites to write on rainbows. Please do head on over to Jane’s blog to enjoy the writerly goodness – and why not take part too?

Ex – SoCS Aug 6/16

freyathewriter 6 Comments

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“F U N E X ?”

Those of you who are of a certain age, those of you who are British, those of you who were brought up on 1970s British comedy as a staple of the only 3 TV channels available to us back then (and sometimes, I wish it was still the case, too much choice these days!) will recognise this question, that started off a whole conversation consisting of letters and numbers only, courtesy of The Two Ronnies – Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett. And for those of you who have no idea what F U N E X means, it’s “Have you any eggs?”

As a little girl I remember laughing like a drain at some of the things The Two Ronnies got up to in their sketches. Of course, their comedy was on two levels, as some of the best comedy is, fun for children, and more risque humour for the parents. It was true family viewing.

I’ll leave a video below, so that if you want to watch the whole sketch, you can.

Ah, the 1970s… it had it’s own special flavour! Rose-tinted for me probably, because I had a great childhood. I remember playing outdoors in the garden a great deal, making up stories in my head for my Sindy doll (she was a world class gymnast in honour of Nadia Comaneci), writing (but never finishing) boarding school stories (I read so many Mallory Towers, St Clare’s and Chalet School books it probably wasn’t healthy!) and making Hallowe’en Jack o’ Lanterns with my step-dad to greet my mum from the window when she came home from her studies in the evening.

Gosh – this is a real stream of consciousness post – I hope my ramblings haven’t been too incoherent!.

Please enjoy the video of the sketch ‘Swedish Made Simple’ and find out the answer to ‘F U N E X ?”! (It’s slightly risque and of course, comedy of its time. I certainly didn’t understand at least one of the references made to a certain type of Swedish films at the beginning!).

 

It’s Saturday once more (hallelujah!), and time for the lovely Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. This week, she has asked us to write on ‘ex’. I’ve takena sideways approach to this – it was truly the first thing that came to mind!

Please head on over to Linda’s blog to see what other writes have been inspired by!

Yitgadal v’yitkadash – dVerse Haibun Monday

freyathewriter 32 Comments

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Sitting in a hospital, watching and waiting for my father to die, that was my memory of three years ago. I remember the bizarre juxtaposition of the glorious, scorching summer outside, and sitting in the shadow of partially-drawn curtains, as if the room was already preparing us for mourning, for the stopping of all the clocks. A butterfly danced in the breeze of the oscillating fan, fluttering above our heads as if attempting to lighten the atmosphere, enticing us outside with the glories of Nature dusted brilliantly on its wings. It didn’t seem right that the heady perfume of honeysuckle should still waft in through the half open window whilst life was disappearing in front of our eyes. But on the other hand…

sunlight and fragrance

haunt our days with rich hints of

renewal – the end.

 

dVerse is back to its normal post-anniversary-celebration schedule, with Haibun Monday! This week, our lovely host Toni has asked us to write on the theme of summer, heat, keeping cool and our memories of the challenges of the dog days.

As you can see from above, my dad died in the summer three years ago, and it was the oddest experience, something so sad and challenging happening in such a heatwave. It didn’t seem quite right.

Please do hop on over to dVerse and see how others have interpreted the challenge – no haibun will be the same as any other!

Oh, and by the way, the name of this pieces is inspired by the opening words of the Jewish prayer, the Mourner’s Kaddish – the words mean ‘glorified and sanctified’.