Silent Conversation

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His cerulean blue eyes bore into me, like he knew every secret that I had. It was so quiet that I could almost hear the beating of my own heart. Why was I so nervous? This was just old Bill, he didn’t really know all, I scoffed to myself.

My parent’s thought he would talk some sense into me, but I didn’t need anyone to do that. I was doing fine.

Old Bill stoked the fire and didn’t say a word. He hadn’t said a word since I had come and the silence was getting to me. What was keeping me there? I could just get up and leave, but…then he would look at me again and I would freeze.

“Say something, old man! Why the silence? You think I am a loser, right?” I found myself lost again in his cerulean blue eyes. He remained silent,much to my growing frustration.

“Fine, you don’t want to talk, I will. You all think you know me, but you don’t. No one knows nuthin!”

Again he stoked the fire, making the flames dance high. I wished that my soul felt free enough to dance like that. I had been through so much I didn’t know if it was possible anymore.

Bill was chewing on a long piece of licorice and he watched me as he chewed.

“What!! What do you want? You all don’t really want me. I am the hopeless one. Thats what the social worker said when she didn’t think I could hear her. My foster parent’s just took pity on me. I mean they sent me to you, so apparently they are having second thoughts. Wouldn’t be the first time someone has given up on me.”

Where did those words come from? I wasn’t planning to tell him that. I felt a lump growing in my throat. No, this wasn’t happening. I was tough!

“Do you know how many foster families I have been through? People want cute babies, not troubled 14 year olds like me.” I looked down at my shoes.

After a few minutes I raised my head and old Bill wasn’t looking at me anymore. His eyes were focused on some pictures on the wall. He kept staring, so I grew curious and got up to take a look.

It was an old black and white picture of a group of boys that first caught my eye. One boy had his head circled by pen and…Bill was written by it. That must have been Bill when he was young, a school photo probably.

My jaw dropped. I had just noticed the name of the building that they were posed in front of, The Thunder Mountain Boys Home. Bill had been a foster child too!

I looked at the other photos decorating the wall. Again a group of boys, some old faces and some new. Every photo was like that, but one thing remained the same. Bill was in every photo until he was 18.

I knew that he had gone off to war at the age of 18 and came back with the purple heart, but never knew his background. He had spent his whole life in an orphanage!

Bill was chewing on his licorice looking at the fire, paying me no mind.

I really did like the Jamesons, I didn’t want to leave and I think they liked me too. Something inside me sprung up, maybe I could make this work. If old Bill could earn the purple heart, I could try harder to let my walls come down. Just maybe the Jamesons could be my forever family, if I would give them a chance.

I smiled, and walked over to old Bill. “I am going to be leaving now. Thanks for the chat.” For the first time that day I saw his mouth crinkle into a smile, which lit up his eyes. He slowly nodded and I walked towards the door. I had a feeling I wouldn’t be forgetting our conversation for a long time.

Flight of the Bluebirds

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Poor Bert was not in a good mood. He knew it had been too soon to fly back north, but his sweet Bonnie had insisted.

Now here he sat freezing. He was supposed to be gathering stuff to build a nest but… it was a little hard to find things in the snow. Hmmph!

“Bert,Bert, where are you?”

He sighed, looked like his quiet time had come to an end.

Bonnie was soon at his side. “Working hard I see.”

“I had to let the worms digest”, he grumbled.

“Well how would you like to forget about building the nest?”

“Whats the catch? ” He eyed her suspiciously. She wasn’t upset about him slacking. Something was up.”

“Take a little longer to rest, and then we are going to head out.”

“Head out? Where? Going back down south, thats quite the trip!”

“Not that far, but headed to a magical woods that I heard about. Apparently its ruled by fairies, whatever they are. Its supposed to be real pretty with waterfalls and no snow!”

“No snow? Lets go! I am rested enough.” He shivered.

Bonnie smiled, “I didn’t think you would complain. Up, up and away!”

They were flying for awhile and Bert was getting tired but he wasn’t going to show it. He was ready for warm weather.

At last they spied the woods from the air and headed down to check it out. The orher birds were right, it was beautiful. The roaring falls and best of all, no snow!

“Paradise! This looks like the perfect place to build a nest and start our family.” There was a glow in Bonnie’s eyes. Bert wasn’t mad any longer, his Bonnie lass would be a great mama!

They were cuddled against each other as night started falling and they saw a most amazing sight. It was a silhouette of some dazzling creature, as the magical sky filled with color. These woods really were special. What was that creature? They had never seen one before.

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They could only stare in wonder! It didn’t stay long, and soon the sky was back to normal. Had they really seen what they thought or had they dozed off and dreamt it?

They may never know, but high up in their tree it didn’t really matter. Tomorrow they would start building their nest, preparing for the tweets of little ones.

Just as they started to doze off there was a commotion below. They heard voices.

“How did you lose track of the unicorn?”

“Hey, it wasn’t just me, you didn’t see where it went either!”

The two men were arguing and turned to the third one. “Did you see where it went?”

The third nameless man, for Bert and Bonnie didn’t know who they were, sheepishly said “No.” 

“Sorry but I was keeping track of my steps and busy calculating the numbers in my head.”

“So now what do we do, we were supposed to catch it and its dark…who knows where the evil…”

“Well,well,well…..what do we have here? Trespassers on my land,”

Bert and Bonnie shivered at the cackling tone in her voice. This couldn’t be good for the poor men below.

Bert prided himself on bringing happiness whenever he could, he was a bluebird after all. It was his job. He tweeted to Bonnie and she agreed.

They flew down into the evil fairy’s face squawking as loud as they could! It took her off guard and the men ran as fast as they could. There was a moment when Bert and Bonnie caught their breath, for the men tripped over their own feet, and went splat on their faces. But they got back up quickly as Bert and Bonnie flew back up, into the tree.

“Well done, my darling. We have done our good deed for the day, now lets get some sleep.”

“But the men never got that thing they were chasing. Do you think that was what we saw earlier?”

“Could be. Hmmm…guess they will be back, but maybe they will be smarter next time and not lose track of it.”

“Perhaps they will need our help again.” Bonnie tweeted.

“My dear Bonnie, they are humans, they can use all the help they can get.”

Tuesday’s Thoughts !

Happy Tuesday! Happy Spring! I am trying to convince myself that Spring really is coming … in spite of our COLD weather. Enjoy the pictures below and the quotes. As always feel free to comment on your favorite quote or quotes. Thanks for reading and for bringing smiles that I can depend on, no matter the weather.

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Yes! Sounds fair, after all the teary, burning eyes that onions have given me.

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A Rocky Road Bribe

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They walked around the room, neither one saying a word. Candice took a seat on the couch. It felt like she had sat on a rock. For such an impressive place, their couch left much to be desired.

“I do like the shade of blue on the wall.  Maybe we could paint our house that color.” Gabe said, to Candice. The look in her eyes told him what she thought of that idea.

Sitting down beside her he took her hand in his. Her hand was all sweaty. She was a bundle of nerves, as she started rambling.

“I shouldn’t be here, I should leave. Take me home. Yes, that’s it take me home.” She pleaded with her honey brown eyes.

“No, your big puppy dog eyes that I am usually a sucker for won’t work this time. I am not taking you home. You practiced too hard for this moment. You will be amazing. Trust me!” He leaned in closer and kissed her.

She started to relax, closing her eyes. Then they popped open when she heard her name being called. “You got this! Go and leave them stunned!” Gabe said, as he helped her up. Taking a deep breath, she followed the lady with the 6inch heels, down the hallway. This building was old but had some grandeur to it.

Candice gasped as she entered the concert hall and saw the Baby Grand piano. She was going to play on it! Oh, what an honor just to play on it once. Her mind was swarming with thoughts of how it would be to play on it every week!

The seats were empty, except for two, which was where the stillato heels lady sat and the older white haired gentleman. They would make the decision. What they said would be final, she only had one chance to prove to them that she was who they needed. She was their next concert pianist.

When she finished she was breathing hard. She had poured herself into the music and was sweating. The room was silent. Finally the white hatred gentleman spoke, “Thank you Mrs. Tabler, we will be in touch with our decision. Good day!”

That was it, she was dismissed. All the hours of practicing and now within minutes it was all over. She felt the adrenaline run out of her.

Gabe was waiting for her with open arms. Her biggest fan, oh how she loved him!

“Want to go grab some of your favorite kind of ice cream, Rocky Road?”

“Umm…That is your favorite icecream!”

Mischief shined in Gabe’s eyes. “Oops!”Candice shook her head with a smile and gave him a playful punch in the arm.

Her peanut butter toffee icecream tasted wonderful. They chatted and relaxed, what would be, would be, she did her best and thats what mattered.

A week later she received the phone call. Hanging up, there were tears in her eyes. She had made it! They wanted her! One of the most distinguished orchestra’s in all the world wanted her!

Candice had never been a trapeze artist but she felt like she was flying, high in the air, never wanting to come down. Her heart was soaring higher than ever!

Her dreams had come true, let the adventure begin! And somehow she would bring up the real, tiny detail that she hadn’t known about. How would she tell Gabe, that she would be traveling to Europe for three months with the orchestra? She would miss him like crazy but … this was a once in a lifetime experience, she couldn’t turn it down. Surely he would understand.

Grabbing her keys, she jumped in her car. May be a good idea to buy two half gallons of Rocky Road icecream for Gabe tonight.

Are you from Earth? … What food is stolen the most? … Perfect Vision? And more….

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Ahh! It all makes sense now about some people I know. They truly aren’t from Earth. 😉

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Talk about compassionate officers!

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And the price tag is?? My husband used to have 20/10 vision, without a special contact lens.

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Never knew this before.

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Feeling grateful that I am not a dolphin. I don’t have the “graceful” part.

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Hmm…I do love my cheese. I am guessing that it must be the most loved food as well!

Waiting for Magic

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He was walking in a circle, round and round. Buffy, his Lab was cocking her head at him as she watched. For the moment this was more entertaining than chasing her tail. Humans could be so strange.

How long was he going to have to wait? He had been out here in the middle of nowhere for almost a week now and nothing! Notbing to report at all, no big story to write. What a waste of his time!

The one good thing was that he couldn’t get cell service out here. No worries about his boss calling, asking him if he had seen anything yet.

But a knot formed in his stomach every time he thought about going back to work with no big news story to share. Frank, his co-worker, wouldn’t say a word. He wouldn’t need too, Bill knew what he would be thinking.

Frank had never believed in the story in the first place and scoffed at the idea. Rolled his eyes when Mr. Evans let Bill go away to check the story out. Mr. Evans hadn’t been thoroughly convinced that Bill knew what he was talking about, but he was curious. Told him to bring back photos.

Unfortunately his boss wasn’t talking about photos of the creek or of Bill’s cottage. Sadly that was all the photos Bill had. Nothing had appeared. No magic had happened.

Where oh where was she? Maybe it was only a tall tale, maybe his sources had been all wrong.

One more day, that was all he had left. He wished he knew some magical chant to say, besides “Abra Cadabra”

The day was long, felt like the clock was stuck as the hours crept by. By evening Bill had given up. He finished packing, would be ready to leave first thing in the morning.

Whatever made him believe in magic in the first place. He was a grown man, not a child anymore. Magic was just nonsense.

The night was warm. Bill stood outside looking at the creek, remembering when he wore the black hat. When he performed tricks to awe his family and friends.

He also remembered the day he performed in the school talent show. What a huge mistake to do the rabbit trick. It got loose and had jumped up on the principals head when she was sitting down. Chaos had erupted!

No chaos here, quite opposite. He desperately had wanted some action.

Sighing he walked back into the cottage and got ready for bed. He was ready to get back and have real food! Relying on his cooking for a week should have made him lose 10 pounds at least.

The next morning after a fitful night’s sleep he poured himself some coffee. He thought about the humble pie he would have to eat back at the office. Oh well, it could be worse. It will blow over, his boss would calm down. Frank would have his fun and then be done. At least humble pie was calorie free!

Bill walked to his car and stopped in his tracks. What an amazing bird! It was so brigbtly colored and oh, the number of feathers it had. It may have been the most captivating peahen that he had ever seen! Grabbing his camera out of his bag he started snapping photos.

This may not have been what he was planning on taking photos of, but it was so much better than nothing! The peahen kept spreading her feathers, looking like she was enjoying the camera.

After snapping a slew of pics Bill was smiling when he got in his car. Just wait til he showed his pics to Frank, he would be envious. He loved birds of all kinds.

Yes, it may not be the photo of the supposedly legendary cow with a silver magical bell around her neck. A cow who had the power to be anywhere at anytime and take people and other animals along with her. Just three shakes of the bell. Bill laughed, who would believe in such a crazy thing?

Betsy watched Lady Darcy posing for the camera. It all worked out, she was away from all the other peahens and peacocks. No more worries of her causing trouble. Bill got a story and Betsy’s powers were still a secret. She smiled, all was well, now help was needed somewhere else. POOF! She disappeared in a cloud of smoke, as Bill drove down the road, oblivious to the magic that had happened. Sometimes it is so easy to miss what is right before your eyes.

Friday’s Super Short Stories!

When you find an old box of books in your basement … and it includes a set of flip books. Who remembers those … and the Bobbsey Twins …. not a pot of gold … but … worth more than just a few dollars. 

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When you are halfway through a job application and think, do I really want this job … or do I want to retire and live in my imaginary beach house?

When you are anxiously waiting to hear potentially wonderful news … and go back and forth from being impatient to hear, to being patient … because you don’t want your bubble popped.

The Legend of the Prideful Peacock

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Lady Darcy was trouble. Everyone couldn’t help but stare when she walked by and she beamed with pride. She was turning the Village of Serenity upside down.

All the males were acting silly and ferhoodled whenever Lady Darcy was around and she made sure to be around a lot!

Noone could deny that she had the largest, most spectacular, colorful feathers of all. Bursting in every shade of pink splashed with greens and blues.

The other peacocks were green with envy and often felt blue about the lackluster of their few feathers. How they paled in comparison to Lady Darcy’s. But it was her attitude that drove them crazy. Bossy, thinking she ruled over them.

“She is so full of herself.” said Lady Tess.

“If only we could think of something to bring her down a little. Not to be mean…but to teach her a lesson about being so haughty. Her feathers will geadually fall out and fade! They may turn gray.”

“Hmmph” said Lady Gwendolyn, “I bet her feathers aren’t even their original colors. She probably had a dye job done. The others mumbled in agreement.

A few weeks passed by and the other envious peacocks had still not been able to come up with a plan to bring Lady Darcy down. But someone else had.

Legend has is that one day Lady Darcy was being particular standoffish. She had bumped into Lady Georginna, almost knocking her down. No apologies were made. Lady Darcy thought she was above that. If you were in her way she just ran over you and that was that.

What Lady Darcy wasn’t aware of was that from a distance, hidden in the shadows, someone had been watching her for quite some time.

This was someone you didn’t want to make angry and watching the way Lady Darcy was acting, was making her angry.

No one witnessed what happened that fateful day but everyone pretty much figured it out. There was a strong clue, by what was left behind.

Where Lady Darcy had last been seen there was a silver cowbell lying on the ground. Everyone knew about the legend of the one who owned the cowbell. Lady Darcy never stood a chance.

She was probably offered the shiny bell and being so proud and mighty she would have put it around her neck. Tossed her head a few times before getting ready to strut and POOF! The magical cowbell took her away.

Who knew where she was now, but after a day of celebration, the males snapped out of their ferhoodled stupor. Life, once more calm in the village of Serenity. All was well, as a cow watched from the top of the hill.

Unveiling the Truth!

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The minutes on the clock ticked by at the speed of a racing snail. Willie was trying to maintain his composure, but it was getting hard. If she soon didn’t put down tbat book he was leaving!

“Grandma!”

She peered at him over her glasses.”Did you want something?”

“Yes, something like food, perhaps? I am starving.”

She looked up at the clock on the wall. The whipporwill just started his song. There was a different birdsong every hour, on the hour.

“Oh my, I didn’t realize that it was that late.”

She immediately put the book down and walked into the kitchen. “I will have some grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup ready in a jiffy.”

True to her word they were soon sitting down at the table, with the food hot and fresh in front of tbem.

“You were so into your book when I got home from school, I wasn’t even sure if you knew that I was here.”

Grandma Eleanor was sweet like always. “So sorry dear boy! The book is just so hard to put down.” She said, and then took a long drink of milk.

“What book is it ?” Willie looked at her , happy to be talking, now that he was getting full.

“Its another book by Jennie Swisher.”

Willie dropped his last spoonfull of soup. “You read her books? Her books are so amazing. I never would have guessed that you liked adventure mysteries!”

Grandma gave a sly smile. “Never underestimate me.”

For tbe next hour they talked about Jennie’s books. Willie was astounded to find out that she had read every one. He should have known, for he always thought sbe was pretty cool!

Willie was glad he was spending some of his spring break with her. Tonight he would attempt to beat her in Chess. She didn’t give him any breaks, and she was one tough cookie to beat.

A hour latet they were playing Chess. He was about to make his move when his grandma spoke. “I been thinking about sky diving, what do you think?”

“Grandma! Thats not fair! You ruin my concentration and…’

“King me!” She cried with delight.

Willie shook his head in defeat.

Once the game was over they chit chatted some more about plans for tomorrow. She said that she had a special surprise for him.

Willie wondered what it was, with Grandma, one never knew. His parent’s were going to be there too, wherever they were going.

“Goodnight sweet boy, love you.”

“Love you too, Grandma.”

Watching him walk to his bedroom she smiled. Tomorrow would be the absolute best day!

Going into her room, she made a phone call. It was late but Eleanor had no doubt that April would be up. The phone rang 2x and April picked it up.

“Hi Eleanor, I thought you may call me. It is all ready. The bookstore is looking forward to it.”

Excitement ran through her. “Wonderful to hear! Thanks!”

“Glad to do it and bookstores always enjoy book signings, especially when they involve a special surprise. ” They both laughed.

“Special indeed! Goodnight April.”

“Goodnight Jenni!” Eleanor felt her editor smiling through the phone. Tomorrow her grandson, daughter and son in law would be the first to find out. The first to find out who Jennie Swisher really was.

Tuesday’s Thoughts!

One cannot only eat one nacho cheese Dorito! They are addicting. Haven’t had them in awhile, and I have a feeling that they won’t last long at the house. When you have 4 people in a house you don’t have to worry about eating too many chips. You just try to get the bag before its empty. 

Why mess with something when its not broken? My keyboard changed on my phone. They moved the question mark to where the comma used to be and moved the comma. So an advance warning, if you get confused by me using a question mark in a post or comment, when its not a question, now you know why. As if I really needed help in making more typos. I hope you enjoy the following quotes, and that they bring a smile. 

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