Joining the Circus – Friday Fictioneers

Good Wednesday!  It’s Hump Day and also the day where the challenge for Friday Fictioneers arrives in our in-box.  Would you look at that?  It’s my photo!  How is  girl to resist?  She cannot, I tell you.  Nope, no way.  So I didn’t.  To play along, click on my frog below and you’ll zip over to the Hollywood Squares where you can add your link to your 100-word story, easy peasy!  Not sure how to play?  Click on my photo and swirl over to Rochelle’s blog… She’s the boss of us and tells us what to do.  G’head.  Fun times are sure to be had!

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Cirque de Frog 🐸 🎪 I've been going nuts for frogs and toads lately!  Somebody stop me, haha! This one is a special homage to my first career as  a circus performer

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Screen door banging behind him, six-year-old Jimmy ran to his room, yelling, “Mommy!  The circus is in town and I am leaving and joining it!”

“That’s nice, dear,” she responded, smiling. “Want me to pack you a lunch?  Need help with your suitcase?”

“Baloney, please.  Where’s the suitcase?”

“Okay.  In the hallway closet.”

“Thank you, Mommy.”

“So you’re all packed and ready to go, Jimmy?  I’ll walk with you, if you like.”

“Yep.  Let’s go.”

***

“Mommy?  Wait.  You might miss me too much if I leave you.”

“Changed your mind?”

“Can we just visit?”

“Should we invite Daddy?”

“Good idea.”

Set me Free

Good Tuesday morning.  I had this all planned in my head yesterday but then didn’t know how to get this going.  So I used my late husband Mick’s technique and slept on it.  It works wonders!  Lisa or Li is the host of this week’s dVerse Prosery challenge.  She has asked us to use the line:  Bury me with the lies I told from Alejandro Escovedo’s song “Bury Me”  in our 144-word story.  The rules are to use the lines of this song, a form of poetry, right? in a non-poetic way.  We cannot change the order of the line, nor add any words but we can change the punctuation.  I so love this challenge and, once again, Mick was my muse.  Words are different, but the story is the same 🙂

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I remember our conversation like it was yesterday.  We were watching some TV show, and you turned to me all serious – as serious as you can be, which was rare because you brought levity to everything, and you said to me, “I don’t want you to bury me with the lies I told, my truths, my failures.  No,  I want you to take my ashes and set them free.  Set all the lies – they were the ones I told myself, you know – the pain, the sorrow, everything bad I carry inside me, free.  Let them go so they can disperse and cause none what I had had to bear.  Try to keep the happy, the good, funny. … Oh, while I am at it, have sexy waitresses serve wings and beer at my funeral.”

Sorry love, I had to draw the line.  No sexy waitresses…

Things That Make You Cry – Friday Fictioneers

Good Wednesday morning, my peeps!  The sun is not yet up, the skies are grey and spilling over with rain but hey, we’re here, right?  Well, I am fully present and taking in Jen Pendergast’s lovely image, chosen by our Fictioneer-in-Chief, Rochelle.  Now how will it inspire?  If you wish to play along, or simply desire to read how this picture inspired others, just click on my frog below and you will hop over to the “Hollywood Squares of FF”.  G’head, it’s fun!

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Cute Frog Drawing Ideas That Will Leap Off The Page - Glory of the Snow

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Louisa looked up at the ceiling, the beautiful arches and colourful stained glass windows and felt her emotions well up inside her, pushing their way to her eyes, filling them with tears that threatened to spill out.  She could fully understand the movie character Georgia, in Last Holiday, when she said to the front desk person at the hotel:  “Doesn’t that ceiling just make you want to cry?”  And like too many people, she never stopped to really look, take in, and appreciate her surroundings.  Why did we (often) need a traumatic experience to open our eyes and appreciate life?

An Engaging Smile

Monday’s dVerse challenge, hosted by De Jackson, aka WhimsyGizmo, was (is) to write a quadrille (44-word poem) using the word “smile”.  Well now… I know I can do that!

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At our high school graduation gala

We learned we’d receive a “Marque d’excellence”

for one thing that distinguishes us

Wonder what I will get?

“Athletic prowess”

Says everyone

How wrong were they (and me)?

“For her engaging smile”

Which I cherish to this day

 

*Because Miss Dale Rogerson distinguished herself by her engaging smile, the Directors and teachers are delighted to present her with this Mark of Excellence.

Weekend Writing Prompt #450 – Sweet

As you know, I love me these short ones!  Twelve!  Good golly, Miss Sammi!

Salty and sweet

a lovely treat

Sweet and spicy

Cannot be beat!

Breaking Free – Friday Fictioneers

Oh my goodness.  Friday already?  And here I am posting so very late in the date, to boot!  No matter.  Later is better than not, right?  Right.

Thank you, always, to Rochelle for hosting, and this week to Sandra for supplying our inspiration!  To read more stories or to add the link to you own, please click my frog below.

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©Sandra Crook

210+ Jumping Cartoon Frog Isolated On White Stock Illustrations, Royalty- Free Vector Graphics & Clip Art - iStock

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By grunts and groans, scrapes and snags; by pushing and pulling, heaving and huffing she freed herself.  Like the snake shedding its skin, so did she shed the doubts and fears, the constraints both real or imagined and, more importantly, that annoying inner voice trying to tell her she couldn’t, shouldn’t, daren’t.

She was ready to burst free like the water from a fountain.  But what if it froze in mid-air?  What would she do then?  She’d wait.  And when the sun came out, she would sparkle, that’s what she would do!

She refused to let anything stop her now.

The Numbers Game 106 – Number 228

Another week has gone by and my muse is still musty so why not play along to Judy Dykstra-Brown’s Numbers Challenge?  This week, the magic number was 228.  I love how I go down memory lane as I look up where these photos were used and for what posts.  Hope you enjoy!

The Numbers Game #105 – Number 227

While waiting for my bread to bake, I’ve been catching up on blogs.  Lisa reminded me that on Monday’s Judy Dykstra-Brown hosts this lovely challenge.

So… here we go!

Rocks and Splits

On Monday, Merril hosted dVerse prosery.  I knew exactly where I wanted to go with this one but felt I had to wait until today.  We were to use the following lines:

“The granites and schists
Of my dark and stubborn country.”

from Nan Shepherd’s, “The Hill Burns”
from In the Cairngorms (Edinburgh: The Moray Press, 1934)
https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/hill-burns/

We must use the lines of poetry in a non-poetic prose piece of 144 words.  This is where it let me.

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Today, this eleventh day of December, is a regular day to most, but for me?  It marks the eleventh anniversary of the day when the world I knew changed.  Forever. Where things suddenly shifted like the granites and schists of my dark and stubborn country, or, to me, my world.  No matter how much your mind can travel to thoughts you have no reason for having, you can never be prepared for the reality when it comes.  I cannot explain the why of my thoughts. Premonition, maybe?  A sense of knowing that things would not be forever, or at the very least, for another thirty years?  Maybe it’s simply self-preservation to expect (or prepare) for the worst, so there are no surprises.  So you can be strong. It worked twenty-nine years ago, to help me not lose my mind.  It could help again.  Right?

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Safety – Friday Fictioneers

It’s Wednesday evening already!  After fussing (not the real word I want to use) around forever on my hacked Instagram account (still can’t resolve it), I’ve given up there and come here and finish this trilogy in four parts (Douglas Adams, anyone?).  One, Two, Three and now thanks to Rochelle for choosing my photo which just so happened to inspire me to bring this thing to an end.  Do click on the link to see what others have come up with and/or how about you play, too!

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The Little Frog Who Wanted to Fly | Story.com

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Charlotte started gathering all the fairies in their boxes.  “Oh, I’ll never get you to safety quickly enough!”

Once again, the elves came in using their special magic, swirled them into the alley behind the store and away from prying eyes.

Now that they were safe, Queen Maeve clapped her hands to gain their attention.

“We must first thank Charlotte and the elves for coming to our rescue.”

“Hear! Hear!” the crowd chorused.

“Where do we go from here?” asked Zephyr

“Look down the alley,” said Charlotte.  “See the wooded area?  It will lead you to a new safe place.”