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A quote: “These are the times that try men’s souls.” ~~ Thomas Paine
I’ll start with a story …
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Great-uncle Cecil never married after Ruby left. The other town girls tried to woo him, showing up at the house he had built for his erstwhile bride with covered dishes and no underwear. He turned them away, keeping a picture of Ruby in the foyer.
Packing up the house after the funeral, I lifted Ruby from the wall, meaning to put her in the trunk I discovered in the foyer closet. The inset held a locket of her hair, a yellowed blouse – I smiled at Cecil’s sentimentality.
Then I saw the pile of bones at the bottom of the trunk.
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Now, it’s your turn.
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. featured image, cropped, Adobe Stock standard license
Quentin Q Quill says: Ms. Nibtard gathered the children round for sharing time. Ms. Nibtard was looking gaunt and pale these days. Her purple stringy dreadlocks contrasted sharply with her pale pasty skin. Dealing with Sissy Sue and her mother, Mama Boo, was taking it’s toll on poor Nibtard. “Children,” Nibtard began, “I have something very important to share with you today.”
“What is it, what is it!?” the lil’ ones squealed with excitement, squirming as they sat on their little sharing time carpet squares.
“That embicile Trump finally made a statement that people should get vaccinated. So if you have people in your family that don’t want to get vaccinated, tell them Trump said they they should get vaccinated,” Nibatrd said, her voice full of righteous conviction.
Poor Sissy Sue could take it no more. She jumped to her feet in a rage and screamed at Nibatrd. “My mama says that Bill Gwates gonna put micwo chips in peopo and I don’t want nobody watchin’ me doin’ my business in the bathwoom!”
Little Scotty, Sissy’s lone supporter in a classroom full of parent and school trained trained little social justice idiot warrior students chimed in. “That’s wight you fucko! Go to hell you wibtawd bitch.” With that, Lil; sissy Sue and Scotty ran from the classroom and down the hallway screaming, “Twump fo mo ye-ows, fo mo ye-ows.”
Biracial and bisexual school principal Liberty Justice Black. a sparkling hire who reflected the school’s growing diversity, heard the commotion in the hallway and immediately recognized Sissy Boo’s screams. She sighed because she knew she would not only have to deal with Sissy Sue, but also with the inevitable visit from an unhinged and screaming Mama Boo charging into her office which would likely lead to the police begin called to restrain Mama Boo and remove her from school grounds. “Oh holy white cracker shit,” sighed Principal Black to herself. “These white trash Trumper families are going to be the death of me.”
Dupin says: It’s been a good run, but now to see how much longer it’ll last.
The bank doesn’t really want it back…they’ll lose so much money on it, but I can’t make payments since hubby died. I can make utilities, plus a little more, and that’s it.
It’s the little more keeps me in limbo. That’s worth more for them than they’ll get at auction said the bank guy. Less failure, he said. They can hide that…for now.
Until that changes, I’ll drink my sherry and read my books and life will go on.
So for now, it’s a good run.
Dust and sand and dirt and brown as far as he could see, and Casey would have withered away under the harsh sun but for the steady presence of his older brother. Jesse caught him looking and chuckled.
“You good?”
“Just fine.”
He chuckled and looked ahead again, leaving Casey with only the image of his clear blue eyes in his mind, clean and clear as a mountain spring. Miles lay before them, miles of sand and dust and dry desert, but so long as Jess was there he knew they would not go thirsty.
Navig8r says: “M’lady will receive you in the drawing room.”
The deputy breathed a sigh of relief as he signaled his partner to cancel the silver alert. When Alzheimer’s patients’ minds wander to the past, sometimes they also go to the places. Small town deputies know such things.
“Things are so untidy since she dismissed the housekeeping staff. She should be down shortly.”
“It’s getting late. Wasn’t she going to Europe for several weeks?”
“Oh, dear me. I’m getting so forgetful.”
“It’s almost time for your afternoon pills. Shall we go back to your room? They saved some lunch for you.”
“OK.”
Cameron says: To a man, the crew refused to go into that room. I looked around. Yep. Just as she left it. Empty wine glass and charming antique chair and table.
“Miss Alexander, please be reasonable.” I said. “You know the work is going on and those boys are getting hurt.”
I heard the answer and agreed to it. I turned to the project manager. “Finish the rest of the house. Don’t touch that room other than cleaning it up, restoring the floor and repainting it and you’ll be fine.”
The haunted bed and breakfast was never wanting for guests after that.
Dad called the Kitty Hawk Massacre America’s low gate.
The term comes from the old days of Apollo. The low gate was the last point during the powered descent at which the Lunar Module could still abort to orbit. Once it was passed, the astronauts were committed to land on the Moon.
In the early part of the Sharp Wars, the lunar settlements could treat it as President Flannigan’s fight with some of the state governors, not our fight. But once fifteen kids got tossed out an airlock to die of barotrauma, we were in it for keeps.
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