Free Story!

The following rather long post is actually a short story.  Since the format doesn't work for traditional publication, I decided to offer it here for anyone who wants to read it.  The entire story is contained in a series of "honey do" notes.

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BLACKBERRIES

Copyright Rebecca M. Douglass

 

Dear Dana: I found these notes in Granddad's desk after he died in 1980. I think they will answer your questions about why they sold the old place in ‘72.

Yours, Jamie

May 1, 1971

Bob Dear, this weekend could you:

       Mend the garden fence

       Take down the storm windows

       The blackberries are getting awfully close to the pasture fence. Better trim them.

Thanks for the new notepad! Love, Mabel.

May 22, 1971

Honey, please:

        Finish spading the kitchen garden  (I have GOT to get things planted)

        Take down the storm windows

        Mow the lawn

        Cut the blackberries back from the pasture fence

Thanks! Mabel. (Yes, the cold weather is over. Take down the windows, Bob!)

May 29, 1971

        Put up the screens

        Mow the lawn. Borrow Joe's mower if you can't fix ours.

        Wash front windows

        Prune rhododendron by front gate

       Cut the blackberries back to the pasture fence

—Mabel

July 10, 1971

I gave you last weekend off for the Fourth, so quit your bellyaching, Bob.

        Wash the windows.

        Mow the part of the lawn that shows, okay?

        Prune the rhodie. I can't get the gate open!

        Please cut the blackberries away from the horse trough. There will still be plenty for jam.

—Mabel

July 31, 1971

       Weed the potatoes

        Pick peas and beans

        Dig the dandelions from the front lawn

        Cut the blackberries out of the horse trough

—Mabel

August 21, 1971

        Prune the rhodie on the front gate

        Weed the potatoes

        Water the lawn, Bob. I know it makes it grow. That's the idea.

        Cut the blackberries back from the pasture gate

—Mabel

August 28, 1971

       Pick blackberries, then cut them back from the gate.

       So MOW the lawn. It's your JOB!

       Weed the potatoes

       Repair the front gate

—Mabel

October 16, 1971

       Build a new front gate

       Cut the blackberries back to the pasture gate

       Put up the storm windows

—Mabel. I know it's too early for the storm windows. Nag now and avoid the rush!

October 23,1971

        Mow the lawn

        Spade under the garden

       Hack the blackberries off the bottom lawn

—Mabel. P.S. Thanks for the lovely new front gate.

November 13, 1971

       Put up the storm windows

       Tie up the rosebushes

       Cut blackberries on back lawn

—Mabel

November 27, 1971

       Hang Christmas lights

       Pick the winter squash

       Get Jim to plow the garden

       Get those blackberries now, while they're dormant!

—   Happy Thanksgiving! Mabel

 December 4, 1971

        They are so dormant.

        Hang Christmas lights

        Get decorations down from the attic

 —Mabel

December 18, 1971

        Do your Christmas shopping. I wear size 12.

        Get those Christmas decorations down from the attic.

        Oh, leave the blackberries alone for once. Merry Christmas!

 —Love, Mabel

January 29, 1972

       Take down the Christmas lights

        Organize the tax stuff

        Repair the garden fence

        Cut the blackberries away from the roses below the garden

—Mabel. P.S. It's not that cold. You will NOT get frostbite taking down the lights.

March 4,1972

        Do the taxes

        Clean the mud off the front porch

        Get the blackberries away from the garden fence

        Order seed potatoes

—Mabel

 April 8, 1972

        Start the taxes—they're due next week.

        Call Jim to come and plow the garden for me.

        Beat the blackberries away from the garden plot.

        It really is time to take the storm windows down.

        Repair the garden fence. I saw deer tracks down there already.

—Mabel

April 15, 1972

       Tax forms are on your desk, pencils in the kitchen drawer, calculator in my purse.

—Mabel

April 22, 1972

        Go down to Gibson's Hardware and pick up the seeds

       Take down the storm windows

       The blackberries will not keep the deer away. Repair the fence.

—Mabel.

        P.S. Cut the blackberries back from the garden gate.  Bet you thought I forgot!

May 13,1972

        Plant the potatoes where Jim plowed for us

        Mow the lawn down to the garden

        Cut the blackberries off the garden gate

—Mabel.

       P.S. If you had cut the blackberries, you could have repaired the fence without

a trip to Doc Wilson.

June 3,1972

        Forget the rest of the garden.  Just keep the blackberries away from the tomatoes, okay?

        Mow the front lawn

        Put up the screens

—Mabel

June 17, 1972

        Put up the screens

        Mow the front lawn

        Rescue the tomatoes from the blackberries!

—Mabel

July 1, 1972

        Mow the front lawn

        Wash the windows

        Keep those blackberries off my tomatoes!

—Mabel

July 15, 1972

        Hack the blackberries off the upper garden fence

        Water the tomatoes I transplanted to the front flowerbeds

—Mabel

        P.S. I don't think we should have taken that week's vacation over the Fourth.

July 29, 1972

        Chop the blackberries off the upper lawn

        Pick up potatoes, lettuce, and turnips at the grocery store

        Mow the front lawn

        Water the tomatoes

—Mabel

August 12, 1972

        Chop the blackberries off the back porch

        Water the front lawn and the tomatoes

        Edge the front walk

 —Mabel

 August 26, 1972

        Hack the blackberries away from the back door

        Trim the rhodies at the front gate

        Wash the front windows

        Mow the front lawn

 —Mabel. P.S. Have you noticed those nice new houses in town, over on Maple Street?

 September 2, 1972

       Repaint front porch and fence

       Pick the tomatoes from flowerbeds

       Get those blackberries out of the back hall!

       Open house at the Development Sunday afternoon. Let's just go take a look.

—Mabel

September 23, 1972

        Hack blackberries off the hall door

        Take out the trash

        Talk to Mary Pat over at the Realty

 —Mabel

 October 7, 1972

        Barricade kitchen door against blackberries

        Clean your den

        Don't forget, escrow closes Tuesday afternoon

 —Mabel

October 14, 1972

        Wash the front windows

        Mow the lawn

        Put up the storm windows

        Mail change-of-address forms

—Mabel

Seeing is. . .

We drove up to my in-laws for the weekend, up through the Central Valley late at night.  Nearing Chico, we were startled to see what appeared to be a large flock of moths fluttering in the headlights.  This being after 11 p.m., it took us an amazingly long time to process through the options.  Not moths.  Leaves, they must be leaves blowing in the wind.

No, not leaves.  In the end, we remembered that it is February and that the almond trees are in bloom.  We were driving through a shower of flower petals.

On Sunday I took my bike and rode through the orchards, admiring the trees.  I could have wished for a sunny blue-sky day, but the blossoms were beautiful in any case.

Pedaling through miles of orchards on tiny roads, sometimes the scent of the blossoms was striking.

Individual flowers are waiting for bees--I hope that the reason I didn't see any is that it was too cold, not that there aren't enough bees.

A quintessential California scene: a giant Valley Oak standing protectively over the almond orchard.  There are no leaves on the trees yet, just the see of slightly pink white flowers.

Thinking about themes

No big surprise, but I've been spending a lot of time over at Amazon making my book's page look better.  One of the things I found was a spot to enter "themes and motifs."  My original reaction was that, heck, I'd just written some fun stories, no serious matter here. 

Naturally, I thought about it some more, and realized that, of course, I'd actually had a pretty obvious theme going.  In each chapter, the Ninja Librarian, or the narrator (Big Al), is faced with some problem, and has to solve it with a combination of brains and Ninja skills.  That was pretty obvious.  What I hadn't really thought about (the truth comes out about writers--a lot of the time, stuff in books just happens, and we get to think about it later), was that the whole arch of the book has to do with changing the stereotypes that define you. 

I mean, you live in a place called Skunk Corners, a place with a reputation for sending librarians packing because who needs 'em?  So you're nobody and going nowhere.  But along comes someone who says you can be someone, and is prepared to kick you into the middle of next week if you don't do what needs doing.  (Come to think of it, maybe I need that motivator!)  So you do what needs doing, and discover that maybe you're not such a loser. 

Nothing terribly original there.  I'm pretty sure that's the underlying theme of 90% of kids' books. 

But it's nice to know that maybe I wrote a little more than I thought I did.