Wednesday, November 14, 2007
3WW LXI
Hey guys. 3WW will be taking off November 21st for Thanksgiving, and will return November 28th. If you'd like, feel free to go back and grab three words from a previous week. Remember if you didn't participate that week, then they're new to you :)
I might encourage you also to take this opportunity to visit some of the 3WW participants and read some of their other blog entries. That's what I plan on doing.
Thank you all for participating and helping to make 3WW a pretty cool thing. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Welcome to Three Word Wednesday. Each week, I will post three (or more) words. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to write something using all of those words. It can be a few lines, a story, a poem, anything.
Leave a comment if you participate. Many fun and interesting people might visit your blog.
This week's words are:
Icy
Pause
Train
"Will Dean be home soon?"
The frail voice startled Donna. She had been on the verge of dozing off to the sound of mindless television droning on in the background.
"Yes, Momma," she said softly.
"I'm worried. The roads are getting icy."
It hadn't snowed there in ten years. Donna didn't know if her mother even comprehended a single word she was saying. But just in case, she thought it better to try and ease her mind.
"Don't worry, Momma. He'll be fine. He'll be here real soon."
Day after day her mother just laid there, staring blankly at the ceiling, or sleeping. But once in awhile, she would say something out of the blue. Mostly they were things that didn't make sense, but sometimes she would speak of something or someone far in her past.
It always broke Donna's heart, but it was especially hard when her mother spoke of Dean, Donna's older brother. He had gone to Vietnam and never came home. Even now as Donna thought of him, she could still see his goofy smile as he boarded a train and waved goodbye that crisp April morning.
"The snow is beautiful, isn't it Dee Dee?" It made Donna glad and broke her heart a little more that her mother still called her Dee Dee. It seemed almost cruel that she still had certain memories, but not much else.
"Yes, Momma. It's perfect."
The mention of snow gave Donna pause. She thought of a particular Christmas when she was seven and Dean was still at home. It had snowed then. Dean had pushed her on a trash can lid "sled" down the hillside. It used to snow a lot. Now the winters were warmer, but somehow left her feeling much colder inside.
Donna pulled a blanket tighter around her, barely noticing that tears had started to trickle down her face. She remembered another snow. The memory was fuzzy, but it seemed like Dean was gone. He had been out. No, on a trip. And the roads had been bad, and her mother had been so worried. That must be-
"Dean! You're home!"
Her mother's voice once again startled Donna back to the present. A haunting chill instantly covered her entire body. She turned quickly to see her mother lying completely still, eyes closed.
"Momma?"
Donna jumped to her feet and ran to the bed.
"Momma!"
Her mother was lying completely still, eyes closed. She was no longer breathing. Just smiling.
"Where've you been? I've looked for you forever and a day. Where've you been? I'm just not myself when you're away..."
I might encourage you also to take this opportunity to visit some of the 3WW participants and read some of their other blog entries. That's what I plan on doing.
Thank you all for participating and helping to make 3WW a pretty cool thing. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Welcome to Three Word Wednesday. Each week, I will post three (or more) words. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to write something using all of those words. It can be a few lines, a story, a poem, anything.
Leave a comment if you participate. Many fun and interesting people might visit your blog.
This week's words are:
Icy
Pause
Train
"Will Dean be home soon?"
The frail voice startled Donna. She had been on the verge of dozing off to the sound of mindless television droning on in the background.
"Yes, Momma," she said softly.
"I'm worried. The roads are getting icy."
It hadn't snowed there in ten years. Donna didn't know if her mother even comprehended a single word she was saying. But just in case, she thought it better to try and ease her mind.
"Don't worry, Momma. He'll be fine. He'll be here real soon."
Day after day her mother just laid there, staring blankly at the ceiling, or sleeping. But once in awhile, she would say something out of the blue. Mostly they were things that didn't make sense, but sometimes she would speak of something or someone far in her past.
It always broke Donna's heart, but it was especially hard when her mother spoke of Dean, Donna's older brother. He had gone to Vietnam and never came home. Even now as Donna thought of him, she could still see his goofy smile as he boarded a train and waved goodbye that crisp April morning.
"The snow is beautiful, isn't it Dee Dee?" It made Donna glad and broke her heart a little more that her mother still called her Dee Dee. It seemed almost cruel that she still had certain memories, but not much else.
"Yes, Momma. It's perfect."
The mention of snow gave Donna pause. She thought of a particular Christmas when she was seven and Dean was still at home. It had snowed then. Dean had pushed her on a trash can lid "sled" down the hillside. It used to snow a lot. Now the winters were warmer, but somehow left her feeling much colder inside.
Donna pulled a blanket tighter around her, barely noticing that tears had started to trickle down her face. She remembered another snow. The memory was fuzzy, but it seemed like Dean was gone. He had been out. No, on a trip. And the roads had been bad, and her mother had been so worried. That must be-
"Dean! You're home!"
Her mother's voice once again startled Donna back to the present. A haunting chill instantly covered her entire body. She turned quickly to see her mother lying completely still, eyes closed.
"Momma?"
Donna jumped to her feet and ran to the bed.
"Momma!"
Her mother was lying completely still, eyes closed. She was no longer breathing. Just smiling.
"Where've you been? I've looked for you forever and a day. Where've you been? I'm just not myself when you're away..."
75 Comments:
"If you don't expect too much from me, you might not be let down."
Name: Bone
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Because of my impending apartment sale--if I ever get it together and the holidays which start this weekend for my family, I will be commenting throughout the week
This story will be first all week.
the "train"
for 3WW.
Here is mine:
icy patch
Cuckoo-Cuckoo Train
Thanks,
UL
-charles
My haiku for 3WW.
Sandy
Icy Pause Train
For my nautical contribution please click here
Rose
xo
P.S. Good luck with the sale Pia. All my comments on your blog are spammed. :(
http://a-mus-ing.blogspot.com/2007/11/train-wreck.html
Christy
--Gay
I'll be around to read everyone else's, though I don't anticipate getting to them until later this afternoon/tonight.
:)
Here's mine for this week: The Earth Below
Tanka to the Past
haiku
~S
The Dare
Here's another, hopefully a good one.
The Dare
http://r8chel.wordpress.com/2007/11/03/three-by-three/
Sometime maybe I'll actually follow the rules. :)
Sleepless nights
3WW- November 14
Bones
Alice in Wonderland ... With a passing nod to 3WW
http://scrunchydumpling.blogspot.com/2007/11/three-word-wednesday_15.html
ThePassing
KALI YUGA TIME
I can't wait to get around and see what you all came up with this week.
Thank you all for participating and helping make 3WW a pretty cool thing.
This is wonderful:
Now the winters were warmer, but somehow left her feeling much colder inside.
Dementia is so hard. To set the story within the framework of memories of a brother/son who died in Viet Nam was wonderful
Love this: It seemed almost cruel that she still had certain memories, but not much else.
Aging and dementia was my field, and you portrayed it so gently--Bone beautiful
Hope to have a death like that when I'm old--it's the perfect one
Even now as Donna thought of him, she could still see his goofy smile as he boarded a train and waved goodbye that crisp April morning.
I don't know why, out of all the simply amazing lines in this story, that's the one that calls to me. I think it's because of the people we've loved and lost, it's not the "big" moments we miss so much, but the little things like their goofy grin.
And now that I've gone all sappy, I'll try to lighten the mood and tell you it's probably a good thing you posted on a Thursday: if you'd done it yesterday, that would have been three posts in a row, and well, I wouldn't want blogger to
a)decide someone had hacked into your system and cancel your account because of it, or
b)be overloaded by the amount of work you were posting and decide to cut you off ;-)
Your writing here is astounding. Heartbreakingly so. I was shocked and appalled at the ending. It made me miserable inside. Again, you brought tears to my eyes that threatened to turn into sobs.
:
http://raysofthoughts.blogspot.com/2007/11/wait.html
This is my first week participating. I really enjoyed it. Here: poem
TC: You know, there is a part of me that gets mad at you every week when you do this to me.
Um, you're welcome? :) Yeah, you're right, if I posted 3 or 4 days in a row, Blogger would probably shut down my account.
Avery Laine: Thank you. Though I'm not sure what to think. TC is partly mad at me. Nnow you've got some sort of a love/hate thing going on :)
Richard: Thank you. Subdued sadness is a perfect phrase for the situation.
Truefaith: Thanks for the comment.
Sunshine & Bun Bun: Welcome to 3WW! Thanks for participating.
Unfortunately I have thought about death too much--both because it was my field and I lost my parents etc
That is the dream death--passing "in sleep" and finding a loved one just before
I did give it up as a profession as I do so hate thinking about death
That was a major problem in the grief counseling, death and dying field
Rose
xo
Bone, your's had a nice home feel to it.
I'm a believer.
S.
:)
here
I'll keep trying, though!
here
I've been so busy trying to get this damn thing to work that I haven't even read the other posts yet. Tomorrow morning I'll sit with a cup of coffee (and maybe put some Bailey's in it!) and enjoy poetry for breakfast.
(And I am a blonde; redhead wannabe.)
UL: I'm not sure who it's worse on, the person lying there, or the person who has to watch it happen. Terrible either way.
Tumblewords: Thank you. That was a beautiful comment :)
Sage: Ah, looks like someone came after you. Maybe you'll be next to last.
Sandy: Thanks. I literally got chills writing it at the end.
Jujee: Thank you.
Clare: One of the best things about writing is when your story moves someone. Thank you so much.
Linda: LOL I'm so glad you finally got the link to work. I was rooting for ya :)
Christine: Thank you for the nice words.
Marcia: I can only imagine it is one of the toughest things one could go thru.
Thinking...
Gautami: You say thinking a lot after my posts. I hope that's a good thing :)
Tagster: Thanks for the comment.
Your ending to this story was heartwrenching.
Slow Train Coming.
First post ever! Love the idea of this blog, keep it up.
Bone, your story last week was very moving. It was a real gem.
Bone, your story last week was very moving. It was a real gem.
Hope your Thanksgiving was a good one.
your story was beautifully sad and touching. It was a powerful piece of writing that brought tears to my eyes. It reminded me of my grandfather's last few years. Very real.
Christy