Prompted to Write 4/27/15

foliis intraverunt duo folia

She hated to have to use it but Avon Bug Guard worked and with no Deet, she could crash in her tent at the end of the day without worrying. The last thing Mary wanted to do was to wash off bug spray, get under mosquito netting and worry about getting eaten alive by the little flying friends that were in there with her.

The waterproof boots were indeed not waterproof. Perhaps they were water resistant but her socks were soggy every single morning. A mile in soggy socks should seem trivial but for once she just wanted one dry spot on her body. What a luxury that would be. Next time should would not skimp on her supplies.

Q'pxit motioned at pointed up without a sound. She took her binoculars and looked up the canopy. She shook her head. He understood, a little frustrated, but he looked around. He pulled several leaves together to show her:

Two short leaves
2 long leaves
attached to a stick

A stick. Maybe he meant a branch. Q'pxit pointed again to the large branch above them. There were long nets of fig vines, draped lazily above them. She wiped her sweaty hands and used the binoculars again. It took her a moment but there it was, towards the trunk, on the right, just attached to the vines. Her breath caught in her throat as she found her camera. She wiped her hands again, this time from adenalin. She aimed her camera, searching frantically for the plant, when her phone went off.

She recognized her daughter's cell phone id. She hadn't heard from her in months.

"Hello? Jenna?" There was a pause. "Yes? What? What's wrong?"

Mary listened for a few moments then hung up the phone. She took a deep breath and took up her camera again. Q'pxit touched her shoulder and urged her to come his way. She cocked her head, not knowing what he meant. When she pointed her camera back up to the canopy, the jaguar leisurely lay on the branch, near the trunk. Its tail flipped once before it lay down its head.

The team never knew what happened. The next morning she was gone. The villagers said they saw her early, near dawn. It did not make sense because she left everything. All they knew was that one of their boats was gone and that she left no note. It would be up to Burly to find the plant to cure breast cancer.

~~~~

Mary paid the cab and walked up to her back door. She knocked because she had left her key with her things in a South American jungle.

"Mom? What are you doing home?" Jenna opened the door and walked up the back steps to the kitchen. There were dirty dishes every where, the floor hadn't been cleaned in months and the dog's ribs were showing.

"You were crying. You said it was important." Mary looked down at the overflowing recycling bin. Was that paper from a month ago?

"Oh. Yeah. I'm sorry about that. But since you're here, can you give me some money? I need to go downtown to an audition."

"I haven't seen you in months. I haven't had a decent shower since I left." Mary took out her passport from her shirt and dropped it on the table.

"I know. But this is the last day of auditions."

"Jenna." Anger welled up from her the bottom of her soggy socks. "It took me hours to get out of the jungle. I waited a couple of days to get a plane to take me to Bolivia and then I flew hours to get here. And you are worried about your audition?"

"Well, yeah. It's important."

Copyright 2015

by C. Deanne

All Rights Reserved

Prompted to Write

Sunday Scribbling 2 # 75

Thirty Two Minutes to Washtenaw

2:08pm.

That meant she had forty two minutes until 3 o'clock, which meant she had thirty two minutes to get to Washtenaw Avenue across from the school. There was no time to lose because she had to go to the orthodontist, then home for dinner and some homework, then Cub Scouts.

It was nice that her youngest, a preschooler, was potty trained and now in preschool. That meant she had a whole glorious two and a half hours all to herself, which meant by herself. Today she spoiled herself. She would not dare tell her mother-in-law who looked down her nose on her messy house.

"When the kids sleep, you clean."

Today, when the kids were in school, she took a nap.

She had a few minutes before she had to strap rockets on her roller skates and plunge into the third part of her day. Normally she went to the thrift store for clothes. It was a Tuesday, which was blue ticket day, so all blue ticket items were half off. She did not have long to wade through the racks of shirt or the racks of jeans. She had already wasted five precious minutes looking down her nose at the used shoes. There were some things that were not worth it.

The store was large and the floors were dirty gray white. She wondered how hard it would be to clean them so that they looked decent. Then she looked around at the people in the check out line. Then she looked down on her well worn gym shoes. Maybe the floor was decent enough.

Not that she needed anything but something always drew her to the back of the store to the rickrack section. Once she found depression glass but suspected that it was a later piece made in the '50s. It did not matter because it was all about the hunt. She looked closely and trained herself to find the gold in the old.

Instead, she saw a lot of nothing. Coffee mugs from various businesses. Fluted champagne glasses from Prom 1984; people would have a stroke if students were given that nowadays. A Corning Ware lid. A chipped orange pyrex. Small plates of various patterns and manufacturers. Crazed, antique stoneware that had no use in her home. None of these breakable had any practical use in her home, save the Corning Ware lid, which she took. She looked at the ceramic vases, the old glass vases from the 1980s, a couple of etched drinking glasses from Eureka Plastics 1993 Anniversary, with balloons and confetti swirled around the middle.

She felt especially bad when she saw the mugs, the plates and the glass ware from businesses. How many were still around? Who was careful to pick them out and order them? Who took theirs home, had them on a shelf somewhere and then gave it to Salvation Army to repurpose? How do you repurpose something like that? It was already marked.

Maybe that was it. The purpose was clear. It was meant for a specific time or a specific place and labeled for everyone to see. She opened her purse to fish around for her cell phone. She pushed through her wallet, a receipt from the grocery store, a bag of emergency crayons, a pen cap and finally her phone. She had 15 minutes and her cell phone battery was on 10%.

There was a time when that phone was charged, the calendar was used and synced with other co-workers. There was a time when she combed her hair, took a shower every morning, wore nice clothes that looked nice on her. There was a time when she went out after work, not for drinks, but for a leisurely cup. A quiet moment all to herself before she had to rush to the train.

As she turned the corner to head to the register, she saw them. Paisley. Roses. Delicate handles with a little chip in the porcelain. Saucers mismatched. Tomorrow after school there were no appointments, no softball practice, no dance practice and no train. Tomorrow she would put on the kettle and serve a leisurely cup. A quiet moment with little hands who would see pretty teacups and no chips at all.

For more creative stories, please visit Sunday Scribblings 2.

Copyright 2015

by C. Deanne

All Rights Reserved