Fiction Friday - in which Sandra joins the fray.









This week's challenge:

Your character finds a mysterious package on his/her doorstep. What’s inside?

My contribution:

Anita managed to stack all her purchases first on the hood of the Mercedes, then carefully lifted them off and balanced them in her arms as she walked up the flagstone path to the front porch. It wasn't too risky a move. Most of the boxes were full of shoes wrapped in tissue and well-protected, though the wide-brimmed hat sitting precariously in the top box might well lose its girlish looks if it tumbled into the garden. Anita walked carefully. She was humming, smiling, remembering her shopping spree. Nothing made her happier than shopping. It was her joust, her bullfight, her pitched battle, and it never failed to leave her feeling exhausted and triumphant.

She negotiated the flagstones without incident, walking on tiptoes so that her spike heels wouldn't sink into the soft soil around the flags. When she got to the porch, she stepped carefully up onto the first step, then the second. Left foot; right foot. She couldn't see the steps, because of the packages in her arms, but it was her porch, her house, after all, and she could climb these steps blindfolded.

The third step was her undoing. As she eased her left foot up and forward, her pointy Jimmy Choo toe encountered an obstacle. She heard a loud buzzing sound, and she jerked back. Her left foot waved about, trying to find purchase. Her arms flailed. Boxes flew everywhere. Some of them remained stubbornly closed, thanks to the diligence of those blessed Saks sales clerks. Others flew open. Shoes and lingerie littered her front garden. The hat box opened. The wide-brimmed straw hat sailed away on the afternoon breeze, trailing its flower-strewn veil, landing soggily in the next-door neighbour's goldfish pond.

Anita herself landed on her back, narrowly missing the flagstones. The air rushed from her lungs and her eyes filled with tears. Slowly, she moved her arms, then her legs, just to make sure she could. Then she sat up and looked for the first time at the author of her misfortune. It was a box - not a flimsy cardboard box like the ones that were tumbling around in the breeze, but a metal one. It looked like a toolbox. It was a toolbox. What on earth? Who would leave something like that on her front porch? She had no use for a toolbox. Toolboxes were for men. Handy men.

Ah. Handymen. She had asked her housekeeper to hire one today, to fix a few things around the house. Anita looked up at her front door. A man stood there. He was tall and muscular. He looked a little like a young Paul Newman. He was holding an electric drill in his right hand. His left hand steadied the new hinge he was installing.

"You should be more careful," he said. "There are sharp tools in that box. You could have hurt yourself."

Friday Photo Shootout - Sunrises and Sunsets

Easier said than done. I went out with good intentions yesterday morning, prepared to photograph one of our lovely island sunrises. It was dark outside, and there was a crescent moon. Time passed. I waited. Eventually, I found that I could see the world around me. That was it. It was daytime. Somehow, we went from night to day without passing through sunrise along the way. The problem is, the monsoon is upon us. If it isn't raining, it's just stopped raining, or else it is about to rain. The sun, for all its power, cannot compete with the mist. I wondered whether things might improve in time for sunset, but I didn't have much hope - so instead, I went on a hunting expedition in my holiday photos, and sure enough, I found a sunset that I photographed at one of my homes away from home. This shot is from beautiful Zihuantanejo in Guerrero, Mexico. If you click on the Wiki article, you'll see that they have posted a sunset shot too, but I like mine better. ;>)


For more Friday Photo Shootout posts, just click on the big camera on my sidebar. I'm sure the sun rose somewhere - just not here.

Theme Thursday - Climate Change

We're certainly experiencing climate change right now, here on the island. It's not an unexpected change. It is, after all, mid-October. Summer couldn't last forever. Nonetheless, it's shocking to look out the window and see this

instead of this.


I'm particularly aware of the change this year, because for the first time in several years, we will not be taking The Turtle to Mexico this winter. We have plans for an extended trip to England in the Spring, and the travel budget won't allow for both trips. We will go to Hawaii for a couple of weeks, but not until late January - so we will be here on the island for most of the winter. Considering how hard winter hit the island last year, I'm more than a little apprehensive. I don't do winter, you know. It's cold and it's slippery.

I cannot speak with any authority to the larger issue of Climate Change, except to say that the doubters should maybe have a look around them, or step outside. Therefore, I shall close with a fond memory. A friend in Ontario said - oh, it must have been twenty years ago - that she was buying a house and staying put, because sooner or later, Ontario would be the Banana Belt. It seems she was a bit of a prophet.