Three Word Wednesday - The Gravel Pits-Part 2

Three Word Wednesday - The Gravel Pits-Part 2

Farce- (noun) -a comic dramatic work using buffoonery and horseplay and typically including crude characterization and ludicrously improbable situations.

Glistening- (verb) gerund or present participle: glistening (of something wet or greasy) shine; glitter.

 Lucky- (adjective)- having, bringing, or resulting from good luck.

This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. 

The Gravel Pits-Part 2

     Riding on their bikes down the highway seemed like it would be fun but the sun beat down hard and the trucks and cars that came down the highway scared the living daylights out of Kathleen. Some of them even honked and waved like they didn't mind the bicycles on the road but the truth was it was all a farce the trucks and cars hated them on the road. After one such idiot honked too close to Kathleen, she lost her balance on the gravel ending up in the grass.

     Great now she had skinned knees that wouldn’t look good with her bikini. Kathleen picked herself up and began cycling just when she thought they were almost to the sulphur spring turn off, Kathleen turned and realized that Karl and Terri had stopped. Riding back a short distance, Kathleen found Terri eating glistening, juicy, wild raspberries while Karl urged her to hurry up. They were soon on their way past farm land and turning onto the highway towards the sulphur springs stopping in front of the Sulphur Springs fountain. Cupping their hands Karl and Terri drank their fill of the water. Kathleen tried to do the same but the water tasted and smelt like rotten eggs. How could they drink it? Kathleen wondered. She was so thirsty that she held her breath and swallowed some. Luckily the awful taste and smell didn’t linger. She decided to drink some more.

    “Don’t drink too much Kathleen, or you’ll be looking for a washroom,” Karl cautioned.

   Kathleen blushed but stopped drinking. An older man with short black cropped hair standing up against a nearby tree winked at her. He had a military stance and he appeared to be in his early twenties. Kathleen was overjoyed that an older man noticed her and she flicked her long brown hair over her shoulder, struck a pose and smiled provocatively at him. The man laughed but then smiled back and started as if to come over. Karl noticed and pulled Kathleen closer to him placing himself between the two girls protectively. The man made a motion like next time

   “You shouldn’t encourage strangers Kathleen. You're damn lucky I'm here to protect you. Even smiling at some men is an invitation. You need to safeguard yourself, Kathleen. I can’t always be here to keep you safe and your actions can affect Terri, too.

    At the moment Kathleen hated Karl. He had scared away a harmless cute guy and then treated Kathleen like a naïve fool.   Kathleen reluctantly got on her bicycle and peddled to the gravel pits. Arriving there she was gratified to see Tommy Gunderson and his friends Kyle, Paul, George and Fred. Tommy saw Kathleen and motioned her over. Kathleen stripped off her shorts and tee-shirt to reveal her yellow polka dot bikini. She expected catcalls and maybe whistles but the sound of silence deafening. Did she look that bad in her bikini? Sure she was as well-endowed as Terri but she expected some appreciation. Was that wrong?

   Tommy looked over and smiled at Kathleen and her heart turned over. He really did like her!

  “So be careful Kathleen over there. It’s really deep, stay to the edge her see,” Karl directed, “Because over there it’s dangerous, unless you’re a really good swimmer. Understand?”

  “Understood, Karl.”

  “Go play with your friend but if you get into trouble call me. Okay?” Karl insisted, “I’m responsible for you two dolts so don’t do anything stupid.”

Kathleen was just about to enter the water when there were shouts some girl had gone out to far and sunk.

  “Call for help,” Karl yelled.

  Karl then jumped in and his wide strokes flowed through the water like butter. He was soon in the area that the other people said the girl had gone down. Like a shot he dove his feet straight up in the air and repeated it searching for the girl time after time. Finally he popped up with the girl and dragged her to shore. On the shoreline he placed his ear next to the person's mouth and nose and then checked to see if her chest moved. He then checked her pulse and placed her on her back. Placing the heel of one hand on the center of the chest at the nipple line and pushing with one hand on top of the other he began compressing her chest. He varied this after not seeing the chest rising with tilting the head back and lifting the chin and beginning mouth to mouth compressions. 

   Seconds later his reward? The victim coughing up water and breathing on her own, but she was still unconscious. An ambulance had arrived by that time, but the day was marred. At this point Kathleen just wanted to go home and so did Terri.

  Karl saw the woman to the ambulance and then he agreed with them that he would escort them home.  Kathleen began to think this Delaware was not only dullsville but cursed if you wanted to have fun. Cycling home uneventful and frankly boring Kathleen was happy to arrive home. Entering the house and she went into her bedroom, quickly changing out of her clothes and into fresh ones. The phone rang then and she went to answer.  Tommy wanted to invite her to a concert in London. He had tickets to see Purple Haze at Treasure Island Gardens, Great-Aunt Frieda would never let her go. She have to lie and she would go to go a sleep over at Terri’s and when she was done she could actually stay at Terri’s.Yes, that would work. She answered quickly, yes of course she would go. Maybe this day wasn’t so bad she would go to a real live concert in London. So she had to lie what could go wrong?

To be continued next week

Three Word Wednesday - The Gravel Pits

Three Word Wednesday - The Gravel Pits

Liberal (Adjective) - open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values.  (of education) concerned mainly with broadening a person's general knowledge and experience, rather than with technical or professional training.

(Noun) -a person of liberal views.

Profane- adjective relating or devoted to that which is not sacred or biblical; secular rather than religious or a person or their behavior) not respectful of orthodox religious practice; irreverent.

(Verb)-treat (something sacred) with irreverence or disrespect.

Quarrelsome (Adjective)- given to or characterized by arguing.

This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. 

     Summer seemed long and boring in Delaware, Ontario. A small city surrounded by farms and lots of highway screamed dull, dreary and mind numbing, repetitive events at the town hall. Bingo was played by the adults four times a week. Once a week there was a teen dance; but really there was much to do in the summer unless you walked, or biked miles to swim in the abandoned Komoka gravel pits which had filled up with water. All the teens did it at least those who didn’t work on the family farms did.

     Kathleen Jones hated living there. She hated that her parents had died and she now lived with her Great- Aunt Frieda. It was nineteen seventy, Kathleen should be going to great concerts and seeing the great bands that came through London, that is if her parents were alive and she still lived in nearby London, Ontario. Instead she was stuck in Dullsville; miles and miles of pastoral land far from any of the biggest cities where all the cool bands came. She thought about hitchhiking to London, but that was fraught with danger. There had been so many horror stories about that and just last year a young girl had been kidnapped and murdered. She shivered at the thought that they still hadn’t found the killer.

     Great-Aunt Frieda had kept Kathleen close to home for months. She had even balked at Kathleen going to the gravel pit with friends. Great- Aunt Frieda had become quarrelsome and difficult. Great-Aunt Frieda had ranted about how liberal parents were becoming and how she would not succumb to such frivolity as to allow the sexes to come together at a swimming hole and how anyone could grab young girls there. She had insisted on more visits to the nearby church for prayer. When Kathleen had recoiled at so much religious instruction Great-Aunt Frieda had gone on and on about how it was a serious matter to profane a church. She hadn’t profaned a church talk about exaggeration. After Kathleen promised to study her bible, Great-Aunt Frieda allowed her to frequent the boring weekly dances. Kathleen longed to go to the gravel pits and sun in her bikini and show off to some of the boys in their classes like some of her friends. Tommy Gunderson had begged her to show up and join him and some of his buddies from a swim and a picnic. Frankly Kathleen was flattered. Tommy was a year older and all the girls wanted him to ask them out.

     Kathleen had finally convinced her that Great-Aunt Frieda would take all precautions and not get into any vehicles even of people she knew if Great-Aunt Frieda had only let her go. Great-Aunt Frieda would only allow Kathleen to go with her best friend Terri if her brother, Karl came with them to the gravel pit.

    Karl annoyed Kathleen. He was two years older than Terri and Kathleen and bossy. If there had been a choice Kathleen would never have agreed but she wanted to go she had to see Tommy. And Tommy had to see her in her teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini. So they would ride their bikes tomorrow and stop at the Sulfur Springs for a sip of water and then on to the gravel pits for a refreshing swim. She could hardly wait.

To be continued next week

©Sheilagh Lee  July 23, 2014

Three Word Wednesday - Vincent

Three Word Wednesday - Vincent

Prompts:

Eerie, adjective: Strange and frightening.

Guarded, adjective: Cautious and having possible reservations; (of a person's medical condition) serious and of uncertain outcome.

Translucent, adjective: (Of a substance) allowing light, but not detailed images, to pass through; semitransparent.

Vincent

    I escaped the yard again. Why did my mother insist I stay in it? There was a whole other world out there which screamed for me to visit it. 

  I noted the other day that the people next door were new. It wasn’t the lady who lived there before who used to yell at me and scare me, but two people who now lived there. The man I wasn’t sure of, he was a bit guarded, but the lady spoke to me softly. She seemed to like me. Despite the fact that she often told me kindly I should go home, because my mother would miss me. I knew she liked me, I could sense it.

   My older brother Brad would fetch me from when ever I chose to visit other places scolding me constantly, even as I defending him and yelled at those who came near him. He had thought the backyard next door eerie with no one living there next door but even now he still didn't wish me to visit. Sometimes I wondered why they had adopted him. He wasn't anything like me. He jumped at shadows, but he was my brother and I loved him.

   Why didn’t they understand how I enjoyed the outdoors and longed to run free?  The light was translucent in the corner of the neighbour's yard. Sunlight streamed down in the other corners and it was warm and inviting with flowers and bugs to look at.  I needed to be there in that yard not in my tiny yard! Why must they always caution that to be safe I needed to stay in mother's backyard? As a boy I needed to play and see the world.

  I ran to the yard next door and felt the green grass untainted by others, except perhaps for that couple who believed it was now theirs. That's okay I'd share it with them. 
  I ran around the yard, next door, chasing butterflies and the little singing frog that lived near a tree. I chased the mouse that ran around then watched the cat Scooby, bat it around then kill it and leave it on the patio for the owners of the house. Frankly, I thought that was gross, but cats did what cats did and no one or thing could discern why they did it.

  I ran to the front yard to greet, as I heard the man come home in his car. I waited to meet him, but he yelled for me to go home my mother looked for me. Instead I ran around the house, pretending to go home and slipped into their yard once again. I heard my brother calling for me and hid under the low lying lilac tree. He yelled again but didn’t see me hiding there.

  The lady did and spoke to me softly, “Vincent you naughty boy. You need to go home your mother will be looking for you.”

  I liked her but I was not ready to go home I tried to hide myself deeper under the lilac bush but she too came under them.

  “Come here Vincent it’s time to go home now,” she cried and then in an angry voice she said as if she were my mother, “Vincent, bad boy! Go home, now!”

   I obeyed slipping under the fence.

 “So that’s how you’ve been slipping out, you bad dog,” cried my mother then turning to Brad she said, “Fill in the hole with dirt will you? Then post a piece of wood over the bottom of the fence so Vincent can’t get out again.”

  Brad started to do as mother asked and I growled at the board, but then I realized with a little digging I could be free and be anywhere I chose again. Time was on my side not theirs I would be free to again enjoy the yard next door, very soon.      ©Sheilagh Lee  July 9, 2014


On Holiday next week so no new story for two weeks.

Happy Independence Day

To my American followers on July 4th, 2014 on the occasion of America's 238th Birthday of 

 Independence Day 

Have a great holiday and enjoy the fireworks and enjoy...

Mariah Carey singing the Star Spangled Banner

America the Beautiful