You know, there’s a time when you realize that you gotta focus. A realization hits like a brick to the face. Telling you, wake up, get moving.

He was there on the edge of loneliness. Everything in front of him. No stress other than the no understanding what to do with what was in front of him.

There is no doubt he was bound for greatness. His skills were perfected. His mind was clear. His body is strong. His past was washed away. The best use of his time was to let it all go and move on. But to where?

Sometimes you gotta forget what everyone was telling you. Go fast. Slow down. Hurry up. Come on man. Just say it. AAAGGGHHHH!!!!! Shut up. Give the man some quiet. Why will this person not listen? Just like everyone else. Always output, never a moment of input. Huuuusssshhhhhh.

Silence.

There we have it now. Breath deep. A moment of clarity hit him. He looked beside him and said it “I’d like a medium GoGo Basket, fries and the tartar sauce. A cola to drink with no ice, Thank you”. The window rolled back up. Peace and quiet from all the outside noise. The chaos of the outside world was a mess. A few more minutes of time to himself without any pressure to decide and yet again, someone else asking his opinion.

Looking forward to that fish basket. It’s been so long since the warm feeling of fried catfish entered his pallet. Maybe good for the hunger, not so great for the body. But that’ll be ok.

But it was more than that. The food satisfied his hunger, but not his thirst for answers.

Here’s the deal. You can give a man a fish, but you can’t make him eat it. Wait, that’s not right. He sat there in his moment of clarity and decided he now knew what needed to be done. He was going to open his own restaurant. He could serve a better fish than this. And he would teach others how to prepare the flame to perfection. A few simple rules to follow. A recipe, the right flavors and equipment. He was going to do it.

The first step was hard. Cooking out of his house and delivering food to his neighbors. Then on line to those that ordered. Needing enough to afford a mobile kitchen. A name and logo and he was off. Fish From the Basin. From my plate to yours. He could deliver the best tasting culinary anyone has tasted. And they’d be coming back for more.

“How may I help you?” He asked. Ok, that’ll be twenty-five dollars. “A number 2 with a spud stack and some liquid quenchers” he yelled to the back. He now had a staff. What a great story about growth. Going from a lackluster experience with a fish sandwich and now his own drive thru. Customers lined up around the corner. Franchises were in his future. Multiple locations. Managers at each place. Workers. Investors. Merchandise. Flamethrowers 😉

“Charlie, it’s time for dinner” he heard a voice. Who was that? Oh wait, snap out of it. “Coming mom”, he yelled back. “One minute”. He put down the shovel and bucket of sand. Jumped up, dusted his pants and ran toward the house. Another successful day.

Oct 14, 2020
Break the ice
Give a man a fish

Basin
Sulphur
Notion
Listen
Prevent

October 7, 2020
The Chase

This is it, my life was flashing before my eyes. It was coming and there was nothing I could do. This was my undoing. I was running but not going anywhere .my shoe insert was uncomfortable after running through the rain. I heard it coming that heavy breathing was not mistakable; it knew where I was and was coming to finish me off. Two down one to go I thought.
The subway station came and went. There was little else to think about other than its teeth sinking into my leg as it followed. I kept going. Fast but not fast enuff to get away from that dreadful panting beast.
Trees why were there so many trees. Threading through them took forever. It was there then gone, came and went just like the hated auction. Suddenly I stumbled blindly into a dead end. Rotating I turned to face this horror, its mouth a gaping black cavern it advanced. Struck with fear I pressed my back to the wall, nothing no way out but the way I came in and there it was standing triumphantly as if it had already taken me back to its lair.
All of the sudden there it was a ladder I had not seen before. I reached out just as it unged jaws snapping together on thin air. I raced across the rooftops trying to get away from that horror of horrors that was following me move for move. This was not it i got away it was not following any more but i had to watch out it could still get me.

Senior, insert, auction, subway, rotate, two down one to go, rain on your parade

Well here I sit. Watching. Lurking. Seeing things others have trouble seeing. I dare say, no one even sees me. I crouch and hunker down in a way that is to my advantage.

There one goes. And another. But which do I leap at? It has to be perfect. A misstep and the opportunity will be lost. Patience and calm with a hint of anxiousness. Clearly it’s a confusing thing. The heart is racing.

As I get older, these activities are harder. I can’t help it, I want to do it. There goes another. I should relocate to another location to get a better angle. I’ll rotate around hoping no one sees me.

Wow they are fast, but I must be faster. There goes another and I leap using every ounce of my existence. I reach with all extension of my body. Forearms fully extended out in front, making me bigger than I am. My back feet release from the branch also fully extended, disconnecting from the mount point only when the last push of muscle and energy uses the leverage to push.

I’m in midair. I can reach it. The world around me slows down. The breeze cools my underbelly as I drift through the air. This is not my first time. I’ve caught birds before, in flight. The capture is satisfying.

Almost to my surprise, contact is made. Front paws reach the destination. The flutter. The initial contact is smooth. Then chaos. My surprise as well as his. He clearly was not expecting me to be there, meeting him in flight. Changing his direction. Ending his glorious drift through the trees.

The chaos as we tumbled. We spun through the air, which seemed like eternity. Only a few feet above the ground seemed to take forever to reach the ground. While we fell, he was at the advantage because I had no traction, nothing to push on. No leverage. I held on to what I could grab careful not to adjust my grip until we reached the ground. At that point I’d have the advantage. The tide would turn to my favor.

Thud. Didn’t matter what landed first. I’m used to pain that comes with landing abruptly, but with the prize of the capture, it is worth it. Usually I’ll still land on at least one back foot.

Fussle. Flapping. Chaos. Rolling like a whirlwind of wrestling between advisories.Don’t let go. And we stop! A moment of silence. We have reached a pause in our struggle as we both collect ourselves. Heavy breathing. A moment with all the initial urges and anxiety catches up to the moment.

Now what? Do we continue? Will he give up the struggle and I win? Do I walk across the yard with my prize bird in possession for everyone else to envy?

I did it. All mine. Look at me. Strut. Loud noise behind me? What was that? I pause and glance. I’ve done nothing wrong. They will be proud of me. They will congratulate me. I won. I leaped and fought. Here they come. What now? Run and hide. Uh oh. They see me. I’ll hide. Let go of me. Why are you holding me down? My tail? I’m losing grip. It’s flapping wildly now. I’m gonna lose it and it’s gone.

Ugh. All that time and energy and struggle to be released in a brief moment and gone.

If only I had wings. Hmmmm.

Oct 7, 2020
Rain on your parade
senior
insert
auction
subway
rotate

October 1, 2020
The Pillagers Surprise
“Hi, I’m a pillager. What is a pillager you ask. Well we are raiders who attack our cousins, the very peaceful villagers. It takes a lot of planning to execute correctly but we can get the job done.”
“The day my friends birthday started out normal scheming here ,sneaking there, but this day was different because we were going on a raid. This was a regular plan every few weeks. Scare the villagers, get loot, make them use ‘the jaws of life’ to help each other ,then leave and let them build back.”
“My friend was the patrol leader for this raid though. It was his first time being one, we all take turns being patrol leaders and riding the ravagers which are big bull like animals. As we prepared I wanted to give him a special crossbow. The one I had that was enchanted with multi-shot.”
“We were having a great time blasting at villagers and what. Not after we finished looting we went back to base and had delicious looted cake.”

Go for broke, jaws of life, birthday, highway, painting, fix, plan, execute

Run fool! Run!

I breathe heavier and faster. Nothing was in my way but my legs felt more and more on fire. I wasn’t moving. You know that thing in dreams that happens when you feel that something is chasing you and you need to get out of there but you feel like you’re in mud? And your legs weigh a thousand pounds? That was this moment.

Run. Get away. But what was chasing me? I couldn’t see anything but I could hear it. Loud. Like a trash truck. The large metal gears whirring together to make that crunching sound when the metal can’t hold its shape anymore. It was coming after me.

But not really. It was clearly just a game. It was me at the dinner table refusing to eat my green beans. “They are good for you”, said mother. But that didn’t matter to desires for a sweet flavor. Where was the fun in boring ole vegetables? My body was young and strong and I could clearly eat all the things I wanted and nothing would hurt me. But if I didn’t eat anything what would that be like?

The hunger pain inside took control. I lay in bed refusing to eat the things that were put in front of me. The monster controlling my urges took over. There has to be a way to eat something else. I took some paper from the desk and started chewing. What was this sensation? There was nothing here. My teeth were mashing together but there was no resistance. Just a flat chalky texture. Not too much different from vegetables, so I thought. Spit that out.

I bet I could find something else to eat that tasted better, but as long as it was not prepared by my parents, then I was winning. But as soon as I crumbled to what they wanted, I lost.

Sneak out the window. Grab my bike. Go to the gas station store. Peddle all the way up there. Dodge some traffic on our quiet meager street. Nothing ever happens out here. My mind was only on quenching the hunger in my belly. But I had no money. Didn’t remember that until I got up here. Well that was a bust. Do I consider digging through the trash can? No way! I would never do that. Gross.

So I started back home. Would I beg for help? Would I let the yearning urges in my body determine my future? Could I produce something and sell it? I passed some discarded object in the tall grass that caught my eye. Why stop? What was that? Oh wait, that might be useful. How cool, why did someone throw this out? Mine now. A large collection of markers. I could use this.

What to write? Do I proclaim my innocence and point blame at the truth? “Parents abused me, refused to let me eat dinner!” That would get someone’s attention, maybe the wrong someone. No way would I chance sending my parents to real trouble, but they were not helping me bye keeping my body nourishment at stake.

Think, think. I could come up with only one thing that seemed appropriate. “I’m broke” I went for it. There you go, I’m now begging for handouts. But I’m just a kid. Clearly that combined with the desperate messaging would draw attention and I would get the cash or nice treats needed to get some fulfillment.

Lots of honks and people walking by. Nothing was happening. I know that person, this is humiliating. Why don’t they stop and give me something to eat that’s better than the gross vegetables that started this whole mess?

Footsteps, someone approaching. Someone with compassion. “Hello”. “Hi”. And that was it. My plan didn’t work. I failed. This person wasn’t here to help. This was a mistake. Someone help, where are the people that care about me? Don’t let this person take me! “Hi Mom, I think I’m ready to eat dinner now”.

My struggle was complete. I’ll go ahead and have those vegetables now. They sure did taste good. And you know what, there was a little guilt on her side through all the tears and fear of a few moments that I was gone from the house on my own begging for food. So much that she even gave me a little ice cream after I finished that plate of vegetables.

Will I do it again? Maybe. Tomorrow is a new day. But tonight, I’ll sleep with a full belly and a warm house over me and a little pride of the chance I took trying to go the distance and make it on my own.

Oct 1, 2020
Phrase: Go for broke
Nouns: birthday highway painting
Verbs: fix plan execute