FUN MONDAY - A Wordy Story

The Host: Nurturing and sage Mommy Wisdom.

The Assignment: Is to write a story (true or made-up), poem, song, letter... whatever strikes you ABOUT one of the three themes. You must INCLUDE all 10 words. Wild cards words may be used in addition to or in place of the main 10 words.

Themes to choose from:

A visit by your mother in law

Bedtime Stories

Raising a Teenager

The words:

Ostrich, goosebumps, magazines, soup, cats, lethargic, noodles, tequila, doorknob, biscuit

Wild card words:

prehistoric, Jedi Knight, cactus, periscope, humor

It’s kind of humorous how memories work. Now I have been told the story over and over again how as a baby I had a yellow blanket that I carried everywhere. To wash it they would take it when I was sleeping and when I woke up I would go out and hold it as it dried on the line. Now I have no true memories of the yellow blanket, I do remember a cotton youth blanket with Winnie the Poo and as my make-believe friend I had an imaginary pet Ostrich, named Porthos - My brother thought the Three Musketeers was a perfectly acceptable bed time story for a three year old.

How my brother D became in charge of my bed time stories, I haven’t a clue. He was an excellent story tell he did voices, action, to the point I would get goosebumps. Some of the books he read where: “Three Musketeers“ as noted previous, but in my version Dartagan had a drinking problem, tequila was his drink of choose but it pronounced tokillya, in The Wizard of OZ with a witch was named Gertrude and she had a pride of lethargic cats , Pilgrim Progress with Jedi Knights a swamp with a submarine for up periscope, To Kill a Mocking Bird, I had a bit part as one of Scouts class mates, and Onion John”.

As I stated before memories work very strange and as a three year old it is skewed even more. For some odd reason both parents where gone, there was always one or the other of them at home so it had to be something important, like maybe their 35 class reunion. I don’t recall why they were going out, just that they where out. The only thing I remember is helping my Mother cover the shinny buttons to match the jump suit, she must have thought the gold button where grotesque so they were cover and I thought she was glorious where her hair done and makeup on. Brothe D was in charge of me. We had chicken with noodles soup and biscuits for dinner and then it was time for bed. I was looking forward to my bedtime story we were doing Onion John, and he was sitting in a bath tub, there were a lot of bath tubs in the story and funny thing happening due to all the bath tubs. But first I had to have my own bath, and we had to arrange Porthos’ bed , a nest in the corner of my room made of magazines by what I thought was a prehistoric cactus, it was just a really large mother in law tongue plant. And most important of all, we had to find the Orbious, Porthos’ egg. Porthos was a boy but he had an egg, and that made it all that more special. In reality the Orbious was nothing more than a crystal doorknob but it was essential that it be found and put in Porthos’ nest. The world could end if the Orbious was not in the nest at night. We were on the hunt for the mystical and magical Orbious , why Porthos hid the egg everyday and D and I would have to hunt for it every night I don’t know. But that Ostrich of mine did and it had to be found. It was doing the hunt when there was a knock to the door. Now D was only in his teens and small for his age, but to me he was a grown-up anyone over ten is a grown up to a three year old. But this was serious, no one knocked, and there were no parents in the house. Something was wrong something was very very wrong. There where men in suits and they where talking mean to D at the time I didn’t understand what they were saying, just that D didn’t agree with them and had ask them more than once to leave, they could return when his parents where home. They seem to insist on something, but I didn’t understand what was going on. I had found the egg but I felt my world was still coming to an end. I was afraid to go into the room yet I want to help by brother. Now at three I still didn’t talk, I had been an early walker but didn’t talk. Still something had to be done, and something had to be done fast. As quietly and quickly as I could I slipped outside in the dark and went and got the next door neighbor, some how or other convinced him that a gun was needed and that we needed to get back to our house. You need to remember I was only three, I think my brother is in real trouble, it is pitch dark outside and the neighbor lives close to half a mile away. But there we came like the some odd rescue crew, a 80 year old man with a shot gun and a three year old with a door knob, in footy pj's. I still recall Mr P words, “The boy said to GET! and I’m here to see that you GET!. D and I stayed up sitting and holding each other in Porthos’ nest till my parents came home and the world was whole again. He telling me over and over again that I can’t tell Mon and Dad because if I do the will never go out and have fun again. Who was he kidding I still didn’t talk so I was tell no one, but it was nice having him hold and comfort me.