Peace

PHOTO PROMPT © Dale Rogerson

Elsa wasn’t supposed to have survived the winter. She as old. She had congestive heart failure. Frail and fading, she had endured the long dark winter. Every morning, she was disappointed when she woke up alive.

Then spring came. The air softened. The days lengthened. She wanted to feel the sun on her old bones at least one more time before Death came to call.

Her son set up her favorite outdoor chair, setting it firmly in the late-snow-slushed ground.

They found her an hour later, upright, head resting on the back of her chair. At peace.

Hung Over

PHOTO PROMPT © J Hardy Carroll

Leaia gazed upward, feeling nausea rising as she watched the utensils floating free. Why were they floating? A sifter doesn’t float.

She squeezed her eyes shut, surprised at how hard it was to open them again. Sticky, gummy, itchy. Hot. So hot. Swallowed. Pain, heat, never swallow again. Ears throbbing, head pounding, nose closed up and making her a mouth-breather.

Eyes open. Floating sifters, floating colanders, floating strainers, floating . . .

Nausea. Bitter, sour, rising, hurting her throat. Keep it down! Can’t! Throat-searing, stomach heaving. Sick, so sick.

Never again. Never ever. Just not worth it.

The Tree

(I was away last week, enjoying a vacation in Hilton Head, SC.  Came home with a horrible case of sinusitis, ear infections, laryngitis.  That’ll teach me to take a vacation!  Anyway, I’m back, and taking the week off while I recover from this ugly mess.)

PHOTO PROMPT © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

The little boy, hands stuffed like balls into his front pockets,  kicked his way through the wood, bark, and sawdust. His tree.  His friend, shelter, confidante.  It was hacked down and sliced like bologna,  because some kind of disease had made it weak. Sick. Dead.

Life just isn’t fair.

Too Much

Lollipop

Write a new post in response to today’s one-word prompt

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Two things immediately come to mind.  The song, of course:

 

 

The second isn’t quite so pleasant.  I was in fifth grade. We’d had a Christmas party in our classroom in which we exchanged inexpensive gifts.  I have been given a huge Sugar Daddy Lollipop.

A solid pound of milk caramel sugar on a stick. I couldn’t leave it alone.  Sugar is addicting for me, and I leave it alone most of the time. But this time, I was only 11, and I had the sense of a fruit fly. By bedtime, I’d eaten about 3/4 of my big lollipop.  Then supper. An hour later, I was rushing for the bathroom and didn’t quite make it. Tossed my supper and my candy on the floor in the hallway.  No one was very happy with me that night.

I’ve never eaten Sugar Babies or a Sugar Daddy since.  In fact, I really don’t much like caramel.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/lollipop/

No Awards for Me

You are receiving an award –- either one that already exists, or a new one created just for you. What would the award be, why are you being honored, and what would you say in your acceptance speech?

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https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/id-like-to-thank-my-cats

I’m sorry. I’ve been sick with this nasty whatever that’s going around this year for over a week, and now I think I have an ear infection.  I’m see my doc at 10 this morning, and I’m thinking the only person I’m going to feel like saying thank you to is she.

Maybe I’ll feel more human later.  Or not.  I have to go to work tomorrow, can’t afford to miss another  day, never mind another week. Blah.

Thank you.