Something a little different ...

Photo Source: Ooshkabaya

If this is your first time here, please bear with me as I'm breaking my own protocol. I usually write about bookish movie news and only bookish movie news; it's my passion which, incidentally keeps me writing, if not actually 'creating', every day. And I'm grateful to those of you who stop by regularly to see what's up in this world, I really am. But sometimes, sometimes I'd like to get back to writing that comes from a more personal place. To that end, I've posted the first few paragraphs of a piece that appears in full at my other hodge podge site. I think a whopping 18 people have read it.  Should you decide to be #19, I'll be grateful. If you want to leave a comment and it's a hassle because of the google+ thingey, you can email me at simcarter@prodigy.net or make it short and sweet (or whatever - be honest but gentle) on twitter @simcarter. Thanks!  


This particular piece isn't fiction, it's life. And a love story. 

The coleus under Bob and Helen’s front porch window are looking a little scraggly, nothing but tall leggy stems bending in their bed of dry cracked earth. I think how the gardener wouldn’t let them go like that if Bob hadn’t been so sick. If he’d been up and around, those plants would be standing tall, their leaves firm and perky, the ground blanketed with a soft, moist layer of mulch. Well tended, that was the best way to describe Bob’s garden, and come to think of it, Bob too. 

I try to remember if I even saw the gardener this past Wednesday, his usual day to come mow and blow. After all, who will notice if Bob’s plants die now? Not Bob while he’s sick in bed. Not Helen who uses a walker and rarely ventures outside. Bob told me once that Helen wouldn’t allow him to get her a wheel chair, she couldn’t stand the idea of looking like an invalid. That sounds like Helen, the kind of woman that old-fashioned words like proud and stubborn apply to.

Peeking through their front window I’m shocked to see a hospital bed just the other sided of the glass. Its metal rails gleaming in the shadowy front room, a remote on top of the neatly tucked-in white sheet, the bed has taken the place of the highly polished dining table with its Hummel figurine centered on the white lace doily. Read more?

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