TUESDAY TALES - WORD PROMPT "DECENT"

 

Welcome! This week we're writing to the word prompt "decent". I have more of my young adult story, "Skit the Scout and Me." When you're done here, do check out the other stories. You'll find them HERE. 

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Grandma cooked a big lunch meal, barbecued chicken with lots of vegetables from their garden, I’m guessing. Damn. They were a whole lot better than the stuff we got in the City. My mother had talked about what a good cook Grandma was and how she couldn’t measure up.

I must say, just from that one meal alone, I had to agree. Oh, yeah. Forget the meal – the homemade strawberry rhubarb pie was amazing! I’d never eaten anything like that before. I had new reason to hope. While it would probably be my worst summer, with no friends and working my ass off, it was bound to be the best food summer of my life. Meals would be way better than decent, like Mom’s.

I laughed to myself. I’d never seen Charles eat so much food. He always said he was watching his weight when he ate at our house. Now I know better. He didn’t want to insult mom’s cooking! He had two pieces of pie, TWO!

“Maybe you could get some cooking tips from your Mother-In-Law,” he said. I almost spit up from laughing. Mom made a face and glared at him. Guess “Charles, the diplomat” wasn’t so diplomatic after all.

When it was over, Mom and Charles took way too long with goodbyes with me and the grandparents. Then they jumped into his fancy car and sped off. I stood looking after the car for a long while. Don’t really know what I felt. Sad? Yeah. Relieved? Maybe. Scared? For sure.

My grandmother came up quietly behind me. She slipped her arm around my shoulders and gave me a hug. “Come on inside. Let’s get you settled in.”

I nodded and followed her inside, not having a clue what to expect. 

That's all for this week. Thanks for stopping by.

TUESDAY TALES - WORD PROMPT "BROWN"

 

Welcoome to Tuesday Tales! This week I have another excerpt from  my new YA novel called, "Skit the Scout and Me." When you're done reading, skip over to read the other excerpts today. Find them HERE. 

                            *********************************************************

My mother had followed me upstairs.

“This is nice,” she said, uncertainly.

“Yeah.”

Since the only chair was a desk chair crammed into the small desk, she rested her hip on the bed and glanced out the window before facing me.

“Listen, they’ll expect you to help out.”

“What do you mean, ‘help out’?” I wandered over to the window.

“Do stuff. Like help cook, wash the dishes, help with the laundry. Maybe feed the chickens. Farm chores, whatever those are. Maybe housework.”  

I turned to face her, but she looked away.

“Really?” I raised my eyebrows. “Indentured servant?”

“You just learned that in school, didn’t you?” she frowned.

“Maybe I did.”

“Well knock it off. Get off your high horse. It would do you good to help out around here. You’ll learn stuff about animals. How to run a farm.”

“I see. Important stuff for my future?”

“You’re so damn snide…no. Important stuff about helping out. Pulling your weight in this world. You’ve had it easy at home. Don’t think your grandparents are going to wait on you.” She pushed to her feet.

“Is that why you arranged for me to be here this summer? To work? For free?” I stared directly at her.

“I get you don’t like this. I get it in spades, believe me. You’ve made it very clear. But you’re here and that’s that. So please try to make the best of it.”

“While you’re living it up in Europe?”

Her face colored.

There was silence. I turned my gaze to the floor. There was a braided rug there in shades of brown and pink. Not bad, actually.

“It hasn’t been easy for me. Losing your father. I’ve worked hard to keep our heads above water and provide a good home for you. Now I have a chance to take it easy for a few months. Do you really begrudge me that?” When she looked up, her eyes filled.

I’d gone too far. I knew it. I looked away.

“I know. I know. I do appreciate everything you’ve done. I do. Honestly.” My eyes filled.

“Good. Then let me have these few months with Charles. Please.”

I looked at my hands. “I will, Mom. I’m sorry.”

She rushed over and hugged me. Suddenly, I didn’t want her to leave. But I knew she had to.

“I’ll do what I can,” I said.

“That’s all I ask,” she said, wiping her cheek with her hand.

“I promise.”

“Leslie! You coming down?”

It was Charles. I had to let her go. Yes, maybe this was her time. At least for the summer. And I’d have to make the best of it. I guess. But she’s my mom, so I’ll try to make it work. 

       That's all for this week. Thanks for stopping by. 

Tuesday Tales - Simple

 

     Welcome to Tuesday Tales. We have more of Sasha's story about going to spend the summer with her grandparents. This is my first foray into YA or Midgrade or whatever you want to call it. It's also my first first person piece. It will either be a novella or a short story. Can't decide which yet. The story will tell me. 

Don't forget to read all the other wonderful pieces by the talented Tuesday Tales authors. Find them HERE. 

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I checked my watch. Five minutes until the dreaded arrival. We turned up a winding road, then again onto another road. Then I saw the sign. “Chester”. There was a white farmhouse with an old couple sitting on the front porch. Damn if it wasn’t “American Gothic”  by Grant Wood. Mrs. Appleton, my art teacher, would be pleased.

We pulled into the driveway and stopped. The old couple came down the path to the driveway.

“Sasha? Is that you? My goodness. You’re all grown up,” my grandmother said.

I got out of the car and my grandma gave me a quick hug.

“Come on in. I’ve got your favorite molasses cookies inside,” she said. “Dan, help with the bags.”

Molasses cookies rang a faint bell.

Charles unloaded my stuff from the car and my grandfather, now named “Dan”, dragged it into the house. I followed. The house wasn’t big, but it wasn’t small either and it smelled like molasses cookies. Dan dumped my stuff in a room upstairs. Way upstairs. It was the third floor and had probably been an attic at some point? Maybe?

It was decorated in faded pink and white. Boy, it had been a long time since I had been there. I’d left pink light years ago. But the view was amazing. I was right up there with the birds. Not that I knew crap about birds. Still, I liked it. Sure beat the view from our apartment, all bricks and cement.

I could see so far away, like a hundred miles. Or that’s how it felt, anyway.

“Nice,” I said, not know what to say and figuring that was expected.

“You’ll be up here with my crows,” Grandpa “Dan” said, grinning.

I had no clue what he was talking about. I liked that my room was somewhat separate from the rest of the house. My mother and Charles would spend the night downstairs in the “guest” room, all calico and homey. Not my cup of tea. Of course, the cold modern crap my mother furnished our apartment with wasn’t my style either.

I guess I didn’t have a style. I just wanted it simple: peace and privacy, and you could color it anyway you wanted – except in pink.   I flopped down on the bed. I had to admit it was comfortable. But the big, puffy down comforter – in summer? Really?

The only cold thing in New York City in the summer was too much air conditioning. Not here, though. Might be nice to be cold from something that wasn’t a blast from a freeze-you-out machine.

 

That's it for this week. Thanks for stopping by. If you have time a comment would be much appreciated.

TUESDAY TALES - LIVELY

 

   Welcome! This week the Tuesday Tales authors are writing to the word prompt "lively." We have another excerpt from my YA story, "Skit the Scout & Me".  When you're done reading my bit, please go over and read the other stories. You'll find them HERE. 

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“Lisa, that wasn’t very kind,” Charles said.

I couldn’t believe he was sticking up for me. Just sucking up so I’d like him. Well, it didn’t work. Still, let him think he scored some brownie points with me.

“That’s right, Charles,” I said.

Silence.

“Why don’t we listen to music?” my mother said.

 “What do you want to hear, Sasha?” Charles piped up.

“Classical,” I said. I knew Charles hated classical music. I didn’t say it just to get him. I really do like classical. Vivaldi’s Four Seasons is a favorite. He sucked it up and put on the classical music station.

I sat back and closed my eyes. Maybe he wasn’t such a dork after all. Just because he was being nice didn’t make him my father. The music put me to sleep. When I woke up, I overheard Charles and my mother having a lively conversation.

“It was the only option.”

“Why didn’t you tell her the truth?” Charles asked.

I kept my eyes closed. This was probably going to be something I wanted to hear.

“She’d have a meltdown if she had any idea that we were scouting around for a place to live.”

“You don’t think she’d like to live in Europe?”

“And leave her friends in the City? Not on your life.”

So they were planning to pick up and move? Damn right I didn’t want to leave my friends. I yawned, loudly. They stopped talking.

I opened my eyes and saw a ton of cows in a field.

“Where are we?” I asked. 

“Only about a half hour away from Grandma’s,” my mother said.

That's all for today. Thanks for stopping by. 

TUESDAY TALES - MORE OF "SKIT THE SCOUT"

 

Welcome! This week we are writing to the word prompt GHOST. We have another episode of my young adult story, 'Skit the Scout and Me."  Don't forget to hop on over and read all the wonderful stories. You can find them HERE.  

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“Why are you leaving me with people I don’t even know?”

“Even if you don’t remember them, they remember you,” My mother said, her tone ominous.

That’s all I need. To spend months with people who remember something bad I did upteen years ago and are still pissed. Great. Wonderful. My mother is putting me in a concentration camp with people who she hopes will “straighten me out”, as Charles always says.

“What did I do to make them remember me?” I asked.

“Just were your charming self, I guess,” she said, not without a trace of sarcasm.

Even better. I don’t even know what rule I broke or thing I broke to make them remember me.

“When Brian DeMarco found out I would be away all summer, he ghosted me,” I said, pushing the guilt lever.

“Brian DeMarco doesn’t even know you’re alive,” my mother shot back. “He’s captain of the football team. He dates the head cheerleader. He wouldn’t know you if he fell over you. Jocks don’t hang out with fifteen-year-old artists,” she said.

Okay. I’ll give her this one. But just this once. Her comment buys my silence.

I look out the window at the greenery. More trees than I ever see in the City. Nicer trees, too. All different. And greener than City trees. Must be the fresh air? I don’t even know the names of all these trees. Shame on me. I mentally put “learning tree names” on my summer to do list.

 I hate it when my mother is right. I don’t know why I do, but I do. Maybe because she’s not right about stupid Charles. Why can’t she see what a phony he is?  

None of my friends like him, either. Oh, sure, they’re polite, but that’s it. They laugh about him behind his back. He’s nothing like my father. He was a man of integrity, whatever that is. A man who knew right from wrong and lived it.  

That's all this week. Thanks for stopping by. 

TUESDAY TALES - SQUASH

 

Welcome to Tuesday Tales. I'm back with a brand new story -- young adult for me this time. It's called "Skit the Scout and Me." Find it here, then go and read the other wonderful Tuesday Tales entries. Find them HERE!

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I’m squashed in the backseat of my new stepfather’s Mercedes with my mother’s vanity case and extra suitcase. I’m Sasha Hollister, fifteen, practically an orphan since my father died. My mother roped in a rich, new husband and they are off to Europe for three months over the summer.

Why am I smashed into the backseat? Because they are dumping me upstate to live with my grandparents while they sail away on a disgusting luxury ship. While they are eating caviar, I’ll be knee-deep in cow shit, working my fingers to the bone on Grandma and Grandpa’s farm, while all my friends will be making big bucks babysitting, taking little kids to the beach, eating ice cream, and hanging out. Ugh.

I told my mother I didn’t want to go. I begged them not to go, but they didn’t care. They booked the trip without asking me.

“Charles has been counting on this. He’s been working night and day on a merger,” she said. A merger or something.

And what about me? I’ve been sweating my brains out in school all year. Daddy’s been gone – it’ll be four years next month. Charles. Pompous Charles with his oily smile and big bank account. He’ll never be the man my father was. Only a schoolteacher? So much more. He was blown away by a drunk driver on his way home from his part-time job tutoring. Here one minute and gone the next. I know Charles wants me to get over it. But he’ll never be my father-not really. I miss Daddy every day.

Mom leans over from the front seat.

“We’re almost there. Are you excited?”

I stick out my tongue.

“Grandma always said to be careful or your face will freeze like that,” she said, then faced front.

    Excited? I’m dreading it. Not that I’d nominate my mother for mother-of-the-year. But 

she’s better than nothing. My grandparents? I don’t even remember them much. Last time 

we went to visit was Thanksgiving eight years ago, I think. They got into a fight with 

mother, and they didn’t speak for a long time.  I know they can’t possibly want me there all 

summer.

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TUESDAY TALES - SOMEONE LIKE YOU - PART 4

 

  Extra long excerpt today as regular Tuesday Tales will be coming back very soon. I want you to have a good dose of this story before I take it off. If it's way too long, I apologize. Here's the next excerpt of "Someone Like You." 

                                       ****************************************

Monday morning, dressed in her overalls, Charlotte prepared scrambled eggs and bacon and sat down across from her father at their little kitchen table for breakfast.

“You painting today or working on a new table?” he asked.

“Painting. English department,” she replied before shoveling a forkful of eggs into her mouth.

“Got a new job today at The Inn in Pine Grove. The truck is loaded, so you can drop me off,” Tom said.

“Let’s stop at the hardware store. I need two more cans,” Charlotte said. “I’ll be ready in ten,” she added, picking up the last piece of bacon and hurrying out the door. Tom nodded, finished his food and loaded the dishes in the dishwasher.

He pulled the truck up in front of Larch Hardware.

“Don’t be jawin’ forever with Derek,” he said, putting the truck in park and turning off the ignition.

“I won’t,” Charlotte said.

Derek Larch, the son of the owner, flirted with Charlotte every time she entered.

“Charlie! Been a long time. What can I do for you?” he said, coming out from behind the counter and running his fingers through his blond hair.

“Hi, Derek. Need paint.”

“What color?”

Charlotte gave him the paint specs, then picked out a new roller and a roll of blue tape.

While the paint mixed, he wandered over. “Changed your mind about marrying me?” he asked.

She laughed. “You ask me that every time. The answer is still ‘no’.”

“Someday I’m gonna see you out of that baggy jumpsuit.”

“Derek!” Charlotte drew her hand up over her chest and feigned shock.

He colored. “Crap, you know what I mean. Dressed like a girl.”

“Don’t hold your breath.” She wandered through the woodworking tools section.

“How about a movie? Or dinner? Thursdays is meatloaf night at Tony’s.”

“Thanks, Derek. I don’t think so.”

“Why not?”

She shrugged. How could she tell him Professor Mark Garrett owned her heart, even though they’d never had a conversation? He didn’t even know who she was. To the professor, she was simply “the painter”. Was it a silly schoolgirl crush? Probably. But who did it hurt? Besides Derek?

“I like you, Derek. But as a friend.”

“Great.” He got the two cans of paint and rang up her purchase. “Charge to the University?”

“Yep. Thanks, and take care,” she said, patting his hand.

“You don’t know what you’re missing,” he said, handing her a receipt.

“I’m sure.”

She felt his stare on her rear end. She grinned for a second, glad the overalls were baggy enough to hide her curves well. Poor Derek, staring when there was nothing to see.

As she approached the truck, her father spoke. “It’s about time,” he said, staring at his watch.

Even though she didn’t do anything to encourage Derek, she did get a secret pleasure out of his attention. His clumsy attempt at seduction helped sand down the raw edges of her father’s gruffness.

“I’ll drive,” Charlotte said. Her father got out and went around to the passenger’s side.

She climbed behind the wheel, stepped on the gas, and made it to The Inn before ten, then helped her father unload his supplies. He gave her a peck on the cheek. As she drove away, she waved.

Charlotte took a spot in the faculty parking lot. She hauled her paint cans, brushes, rollers, blue tape, and drop cloth into her brother’s new office. Once she had everything moved away from the wall, and covered with the drop cloth, she walked down to the janitor’s closet. There she found the step ladder she needed.

She taped the top of the walls, then painted the ceiling. When she finished, she stopped to take a bathroom break. One look in the mirror confirmed her guess that her face was splattered with tiny splotches of paint. Fortunately, the cap covered her hair completely and some of her face. Getting white paint out of dark auburn hair would be a giant pain.

She wiped her cheeks off and returned to the room. She finished removing the tape, and then applied some to the ceiling. Finishing up, she heard voices in the hall. She peeked around the corner. It was her brother and Professor Garrett! And they were right outside the door.

“Oh, Mr. Anderson, I found this book in your old office. Poetry for your girlfriend? Those are favorite poets of mine, too.”

“Girlfriend? Let’s see,” there was silence for a moment, then Corey’s voice continued with a laugh. “No, that’s not my girlfriend. That’s my sister, Charlotte.”

“Oh? You have a sister?”

“Yes.”

“Does she go to school here?” the professor asked.

At this point Charlie silently snuck outside and stood behind the professor’s back. She drew Corey’s attention and made a sharp motion across her neck with her finger. Corey smiled. She glared and made the motion again, then scooted back into the room and hid behind her roller.

“No, no. She doesn’t,” Corey said. “Say, look I’m going to be late. I have a session with HR. Good to see you, Professor Garrett,” Corey said, snatching the book from the professor’s hand and darting down the hall. “Thanks for returning the book.”

When the voices stopped, Charlotte leaned back against the unpainted door and sighed.

“Close call,” she whispered to herself.

She put down the roller, stood back and surveyed the walls. They were pristine. And her paint job? Perfect, as usual. After she finished, the bigger job began – cleanup. Washing brushes and the roller, folding and discarding drop cloths, sealing up paint – not to mention getting paint off her face, hands, neck, and fingernails. She didn’t bother cleaning more than her hands, waiting to jump in the shower to get the rest. She scrubbed her hands in the ladies’ room, put her tools in a satchel and ambled down the hall.

A poster colored in bright pink and green drew her eye. She stopped. It read:

 

             The Spring Dance is Coming

             Saturday, May 25, 8pm

             The Gym, Admission: $10.

 

Charlotte made a face and said to herself, “Hah! That’s ten bucks I just saved.” When she got outside, the honking of her truck horn got her attention. Corey sat in the passenger seat.

“I need a ride to town. Figured you wouldn’t mind.”

“I don’t. Where are you going?”

“Cleaners. Gotta pick up my sports jacket,” he said.

She put the vehicle in gear. “What do you need your sports jacket for?”

“The dance. You going?”

“Me?” She gave a derisive laugh. “You kidding? No. Of course not.”

“Really? That’s too bad. I heard Professor Garrett’s going to be there,” he said, glancing out the window.

Charlotte screeched on the brakes.

“What the hell? What are you doing?” Corey said.

A driver leaned on his horn, then sped by, giving her the finger.

“Sorry. I didn’t see that car.”

“I guess not.” Sweat beaded on Corey’s forehead.

“Are you sure Professor Garrett is going?” She glanced in her rearview mirror before pulling out.

“Kitty asked him to chaperone,” Corey said.

“And he agreed? He seems too shy to want to do that.”

“Well, all the professors are required to do that kinda stuff. That’s what Kitty said.”

They drove on for a half mile in silence.

“Change your mind?” her brother asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Maybe,” she replied, pulling up to the curb.

While she waited for Corey, panic set in. What would she wear? How would she do her hair? Makeup? All her makeup was about seven years old. She sat back and pondered if she wanted to get back into that life – the “glamour girl” life as her mother would have called it. Frilly dresses, tons of makeup, fancy hairstyles – dating. She shivered.

After Bart broke her heart, she’d given it all up. No matter how much she dressed up or flirted, in the end, he had chosen someone else to propose to and she’d been left high and dry.

“I want a girly girl, Charlie. Not someone who’s better with a hammer and a paintbrush than I am,” he’d said.

Her father and brother had been outraged. Charlotte had simply been crushed. The one man she thought saw her for who she was had rejected her. He married the prettiest girl in their high school class. Charlotte called Lily the “Queen of D’s” and she didn’t mean bra size! Charlie had made the honor roll every year.

After that, she packed away her makeup and her frilly clothes and lived her own life in her own way. She’d given up on men until Derek at the Hardware store came along. His attention tempted her. He was a nice guy, maybe a little rough around the edges, but she felt no chemistry with him.

Corey knocked on the window, interrupting her reverie.

“Got it. Let’s go,” he said, opening the truck door.

She turned on the vehicle and headed back to campus.

“You’re taking me back to school? Weren’t you heading home?”

“Yeah, so?”

“Very nice of you, Sis. Thanks,” Corey said.

When they arrived at the small apartment building for professors, he got out.

“Don’t forget about the dance,” he said.

“Yeah. Sure,” she said and waved as she pulled away.

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