Tuesday Tales - Are Memories Hard to Swallow?

Ahoy Fellow Fathomers! It's time for Tuesday Tales. A group of writers gather together and give our interpretation of a specific word prompt each week. Once per month, we even write to an image.  You never know what you might encounter when you get inside our minds. This week our group writes to the word- swallow.  This will be an excerpt from Twister Fate, my new WIP for a new romance contemporary.

Enjoy!~

Watching daytime television was interesting for only so long. Being in the hospital limited my choices by the channels they chose to pay for. Truth be told though, I could’ve had a thousand picks and still not found anything to take my mind off the everyday. I was sleeping a little better, my dreams reduced to faded happy memories without the tremors of ugliness. It had been three weeks since the tornado ripped through my happiness.  I didn’t need a calendar to remind me.

Stirring scrambled eggs around the cafeteria-supply white plate, I’d eaten several bites, enough to quiet the growls. The decision to eat more went round and round in my brain, while the eggs cooled to room temperature. Soon, it would be even less appetizing, so, I needed to decide fast. The baby knocked just in time, giving me the cue to make a happy plate. I’d give it my best effort, taking another swallow.

He peeked inside as he knocked.  “Hey, how are you?”

My day brightened, even if I didn’t want to acknowledge it. “I’m okay, trying to eat this breakfast.”

Observing my tray, he smiled. “You’re doing a great job. I’m happy to see your appetite perking up.”

“I’m doing what I can to be a good patient.”

“It’s all we can ask.”

This wasn’t his usual schedule, hopefully he wasn’t there to deliver bad news. “It’s early in the day, what’s the morning visit about?”

“Well, I was going through some of my storage containers and found something I think you might like.”

Storage containers? What in the world was in his history I would be interested in? “You don’t say?”

Waving a little brown paper bag in my direction, he teased me with the mystery. “Yeah, I got a kick out of it.”

“Okay, I give, what’s the big surprise?” In a way, his delight brought a little happiness to my morning.

Fishing around inside for the contents, he looked between me and the sack. He held up something in his large hand, waving it around triumphantly. “Look what I found!”

Inside his long, skilled fingers he held little plastic toys. Memories of times with Cameron temporarily enveloped my sadness, folding it up neatly before tucking it away. Upon further inspection of the mysterious, I saw the unmistakable brown, molded outline of a body wide mane. “No way, is that what I think it is?”

For a moment, I was transported back to my childhood days. We spent hours playing with action of figures of different sorts. However, Star Wars was our clear favorite. Our parents influenced us with the likes of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg while our friends were hooked on Power Rangers and Ninja Turtles. I acknowledged our parents all the time for their tutelage in the classics.

“How cool is this?” Cameron clearly had a huge kick of delight upon bringing me this treasure.

“You still have Chewbacca. I’m impressed.”

“I kept these tucked away in a dresser drawer or something, so, they never made it to the donation box.” Handing the figure over to me, he also held up a couple more. “Look, I have Obi Wan and Yoda too.”

“Wow, we really did spend hours with these things, didn’t we?”

“Yeah, it was awesome. I credit those hours with building my imagination. We were never bored were we?”

“No, I can say we weren’t. Plus, I was the only girl so I didn’t have to fight with anyone else about being Princess Leia.”

“That’s right, probably the most important part. You had no competition.”


~Please visit us at our main site for more interpretations of swallow Tuesday Tales Main Page