Breadfruit and Tea
We stopped off at the shop run by the wife of Mah Ri Jah on Mount Merapi for a quick snack. The snack consisted of breadfruit and tree bark tea. They cut the breadfruit into slices that are about a sixteenth of an inch thick then fry it up.
A sixteenth of and inch might not seem like much, but it’s more than three times as thick as your average potato chip. Except for the huge size of each chip – about four inches in diameter – they taste a lot like potato chips. Salty, oily, starchy yum.
Mr. Al is a connoisseur of potato chips. I’ve seen him go out of his way to get a hold of certain regional brands. After one taste, I knew I had to bring him some.
Buying a bag from Mah Ri Jah’s wife was the easy part. I stuffed them into by backpack and hiked them off the volcano and through the rest of the day’s activities until I got a chance to pack them in my suitcase.
Dead Batteries
“Hey, Martin. You got a minute?” Ted carried a rusted steering wheel as he walked up to Martin’s car. “Whoah, Dude! Nice battery collection. Can I have it?”
“No way. You’ll turn it into some weird art project that will only get thrown away just like your car. I’ve been collecting these for years. I’m on my way to the recycling center now. Want to come?”
”Sure!”
The clerk at the hazardous materials center tossed the jar over his shoulder into a heap of similar jars. “For these old alkaline batteries, just put them in the regular garbage.”
“I’ll take that!” Ted caught it in mid-air.
The Hub: Rochelle Wisoff-Fields
Photo credit: Sean Fallon
Suzie’s House 446 : Piercing Old Skin
Clearly the love of his life had no intention of discussing their problems. She sat in his chair, sipping coffee and reading his newspaper. Only, now that she paid for it, maybe the paper was hers. He had to give her that. But he didn’t buy into her plan of simply ignoring him until his very existence faded into nothing.
The Martian
I caught this on video recently. Loved it!
In the movie, this astronaut named Mark Watney gets left behind when a mission to Mars has to be scrapped because of a storm. The whole rest of the movie is about both him trying to survive and – once they realize he’s actually alive – NASA’s efforts to retrieve him.
The Junk Yard
“It’s junk,” Matt said to Martin. He had one foot on the wheel of his flatbed trailer. He patted the ‘junk’ strapped to it affectionately. “It hasn’t run in nearly a hundred years. My grandfather should have gotten rid of it ages ago. Instead, I inherited it.”
“To think this is one of the earliest cars. It’s a symbol of all that was wrong with the industrial revolution and our society’s descent into pollution and over population.” Martin glared at the antique car. “What are you going to do with it?”
“Sold it to the Smithsonian for enough money to keep me in anti–establishment pamphlets for years to come.”
The Challenge: Write a story of 100 words or less based in the photo.
The Hub: Rochelle Wisoff-Fields
Photo credit: Al Forbes
Phantom Volcano
We’re up to Day 6 of my trip to Indonesia. Sorry it’s taking me so long to get to everything. It was quite the packed vacation.
This morning we were supposed to go on a hike around the sloped of Mount Merapi. Supposedly we could see this volcano from our hotel in Yogjakarta. I’m sure normally it would be visible while we were on it. At the time two or three volcanoes in Indonesia were putting out tons of ash. The only time I saw Mount Merapi at all was from an airplane. It looked like an island in a sea of ash.
Suzie’s House 445 : Sophie’s Coffee and a Newspaper
Sophie carried her coffee and newspaper to the recliner with a limp. She had a blister at the back of her heel from her new shoes. Luckily she had today and tomorrow off to let it heal. It felt good to simply relax for once. Though she loved her job, she wouldn’t mind a little more time to herself.
A Home Visit
It was a very long day. After seeing the temple, going to a hidden restaurant, and dropping in on batik factory, we split up into smaller groups and went to the homes of some locals for dinner. I consider myself very, very lucky in the family that took us in.
First, we were warned that not everyone would speak English, but at least one person would. In our case, everyone did – and we are talking over a dozen people. Some were a bit more rudimentary than others, but it was more than enough to communicate comfortably.
Turning Time
“I’m telling you, it’s the real thing.” She skipped down the path into the garden.
“Can’t be. Time turners are a made up thing. It’s from a book.” He followed grudgingly.
“See?” She proudly pointed to the hour glass built into a sundial.
“Yeah, but it’s just a model. It’s not like it’s a real time turner.”
“Yes it is. Let me show you.” She ran up to the hourglass and gave it a spin. “See?”
“But nothing happened.”
“Sure it did. It’s already a minute later than when we arrived. Time turned.”
The Hub: Rochelle Wisoff-Fields
Photo credit: Sandra Crook
A Batik Factory
On the way back to the hotel from the Prambanan Temple Complex we stopped off at a batik factory. I’ve always been a fan of batik, and was looking forward to picking up a few yards of material while in Bali. I knew that even in Bali it wouldn’t be cheap, but I was hoping it would get cheap enough for me.
Suzie’s House 444 : First Things First
Ethan paced from the doorway to the kitchen to the front door and back while trying to ignore Gabriel’s phone conversation with Peter. It was a short track as the kitchen let off from the living room. Really, there wasn’t much to the house. Just the living room and kitchen in the front of the house, then a hall that let out to three bedrooms and a bathroom. He’d been so proud of himself when they bought it. It might be modest, but they actually owned it. Except for the mortgage, of course.
