Suzie’s House 469 : Flash Point
“So? What’s the sitch?”
“FUBAR.” Martin’s eyes went wide and his face drained of color. “Nothing but enemy between us and the pick up five miles from here.”
“There’s a field right in front of us!” A soldier behind Walter stage-whispered. “Tell them to change pick up locations!”
Dolphins
On the thirteenth day of the trip we were told to assemble on the beach at the crack of dawn for an unscheduled treat. This was an optional side excursion. After some effort on our guide’s part’s, we were divided up into sets of three or four, and sent off in catamarans to look for dolphins.
Closed
“Are you sure?” Milton stood to the side of the ornate scrollwork around the entrance as his wife locked the door for the last time.
“Yes.” Fran turned the key decisively, sending the deadbolt home.
“Isn’t there anything you want to take? I’m sure the new owners would never notice. They didn’t even ask for an inventory before they bought the store.”
“I said ‘As Is’ and that’s how they’ll get it. Fifty years of looking at all that junk is more than long enough. Time for a fresh start. I’m thinking Borneo.”
“Sure.” He took her hand in his, and they put their backs to a lifetime.
The Challenge: Write a story in 100 words or less
The Hub: Rochelle Wisoff-Fields
The Photo Credit: Ted Strutz
Community Lunch in Tiga Wasa Village
The name of this three has escaped me. That’s a real pity because so much of this post is going to be about it. I’m going to call it a palm for convenience sake, but don’t quote me.
After we walked around in the rest of the village, we found hooked up with our host for lunch. He made much of his living off of the palm trees growing randomly on his land.
One of the main crops for him was the sap from the so-called palm. He put a slash into the bark, then attached a spigot. He covered the whole thing with plastic as protection. Every so often he would climb up to the spigot and fill a hollow gourd with the sap.
Suzie’s House 468 : Flashback #2
“Why do you put up with him?”
Walter could no longer remember the name of the soldier who said it, but he couldn’t forget the words.
School
The Boy is finally ready to go to college. I told both the kids to take a year off after high school. The idea was to let them see what life will be like if they don’t get a degree in the hopes they would be serious about it.
For my son, that was three years ago. For a while it looked like was would never go back. He’s finally come around and started the whole process.
It reminds me of how happy I was when The Girl graduated high school. When went through the ceremony with clear misgivings. I was dancing on the moon. No more parent teacher meetings. No more shoveling kids out the door in time to get to class. I felt Like I was the one to graduate.
Now it starts up again, but with a big difference. No one is going to call be up and demand that I do something about his behavior. It’s all on him now. I just hope he does well.
Last Man Standing
After the war, Timothy felt like the last man on earth. Getting home had been hard. When the army pulled out, most of the force was already infected. He spent a month in quarantine outside of Philipsburg. He probably should still be there, but when he couldn’t find anyone left alive and got hungry he broke out.
The first place he hit was a grocery store. The parking lot was full of cars, but no one manned the tills. He called out as he loaded up, but the only reply was the silent vigil of empty grocery carts.
The Challenge: Write a story in 100 words or less
The Hub: Rochelle Wisoff-Fields
The Photo Credit: Janet Webb
Tiga Wasa Village
We ambled away from the school and down the street to begin our tour of the village at the mayor’s building. Apparently Bali uses the same alarm system that Java does. The wooden alarm hung from a nice alcove on the front patio of the town hall. This patio area is built on the second floor. They mayor gave us a little demonstration of it’s use.
From the street you see this:
Suzie’s House 467 : Flashback #1
“Ewwww! Icky!” Martin threw his hands to the side and lifted a leg in retreat from a mud puddle.
“Quit fooling around,” Walter growled. “You know this area is full of landmines.”
This had to be the fifth time Martin had done it. Was he trying to give Walter the jitters? As if he needed to lavish on the jokes during recon!
Playgrounds
Somewhere along the trip to Indonesia, I started noticing playground equipment. This is a pretty good example of what I saw around. Talk about a blast from the past. Generally speaking the equipment I used as a child didn’t have much paint, but it was that same kind of metal tubes.
About the time my kids were the right age to play on it, all the equipment around me had been replaced with plastic. I’m not sure if it was considered safer, cheaper, or what – but I found the same stuff all across the nation.
Lately I’ve been seeing wooden stuff cropping up here and there, mixed in with all the plastic. Considering slivers, I don’t think it’ll take over.
In Mongolia it was mostly old tires piled up in various ways plus the occasional swing set. There I was more surprised that they had any at all when they didn’t have plumbing.
I guess kids need the same thrills world over.
Friday Plan
Last week I mentioned I was thinking about making some new plans for my Friday posts. Only two people commented, and the poll thingy isn’t working right. One said she liked my photo and saw lots of potential in it. The other that he’d love to see Fiction Friday 55 brought back, or I could post anything I wanted.
After thinking about it, I decided to simply substitute my own pictures and do a story of 100 words or less on those occasions when I just can’t think of anything to go with the pictures provided by Friday Fictioneers.
Um…. starting next week. 🙂
As to the Totally Random Photo above, it’s an extra from Ulan Danu Bratan Temple
Schools
There’s a school in Northern Bali that receives support from the travel company that ran our tour group. As part of the package we get to visit the school.
On our way there we encountered a town full of marching children. They were practicing for an upcoming competition in which each class will try to march in perfect synchronization and shout cheers.
