Day: January 30, 2016

FFftPP, Week #5 – Last Time. . .

/ BarbCT / 3 Comments

The last time, everything fit in three duffles…

That was all they could salvage from their home after Hurricane Katrina. She had grown up in that house, had loved and lost a husband while living there, and was raising her two children in it. But nature had shown no mercy.

Becca and her children were luckier than many displaced by the hurricane. They were still able to live in their beloved New Orleans. Instead of living in a FEMA tent, they had been able to move into the top floor of her grandparents’ house in the Quarter.

Now, her grandfather was gone, her grandmother was in a nursing home, and their home sold. It was time to make a new start in a house built for them by Habitat for Humanity. Thanks to the money left to her by her grandfather, they had all new furniture, too.

She shut the balcony door, picked up her purse and walked downstairs. As she locked the front door for the last time, her children started tugging on her arm. “Come on, mom, let’s go!” She laughed and swung their arms as they walked to the car.

This is my story for Flash Fiction for the Purposeful Practitioner, Week #5, hosted by Roger Shipp. Each week he provides a picture prompt and a starting line or phrase for inspiration to write a story of 200 words or less.

To read other stories created by some amazing writers, click HERE.

Anathema for SoCS and JusJoJan – 1/30/2016

/ BarbCT / 5 Comments

Aging truly is anathema to me. I hate the way my body is falling apart, the way my faculties are fading, and the fact that a large part of society in America has little to no appreciation for senior citizens and their knowledge. For example: My brother-in-law is three years older than me, my sister three younger. Both of them, especially Mike, can work circles around the younger people at the store where they work. Yet their boss – TM, himself in his mid-50s, has been overheard stating that he wanted to “get rid of the old people.” He has done everything he can to try to make them leave, including cutting their hours and Mike’s salary (from salaried to hourly and he lost more than $6/hour). TM knows he doesn’t have any legal standing to fire either or both of them.

Okay, rant over. This is a stream of consciousness post and that’s what hit my mind first.

While I know how to use the word properly, I decided for the heck of it to see what the dictionary said about it. (Any time I Google something I can get lost in the stream of information if I’m not careful because of my curiosity.) The simple definition of anathema is a person or thing detested or loathed — such as garlic is anathema to vampires. Additional definitions are: a person or thing accursed or consigned to damnation or destruction [vampires again] or a formal ecclesiastical curse involving excommunication.

I discovered that anathema is also the name of a British rock band. After listening to some of their “music” on YouTube, that is something else that is anathema to me. Give me that old-fashioned rock and roll.

This post is part of SoCS and JusJoJan.