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Wednesday, January 17, 2007

3WW XIX

Welcome to Three Word Wednesday.

Each week, I will post three (or more) random 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. This is a writing exercise. It doesn't have to be perfect. The idea is to let your mind wander and write what it will. I'll also attempt to write something using the same three words.

Be sure to leave a comment if you participate.

This week's words are:
Memory
Convertible
Dust


Colin eased his car off the pavement and onto the familiar red dirt road. Without warning, the smell of freshly fallen rain and honeysuckle combined to bring back a familiar feeling. No specific memory. Just a general, wistful feeling of home--a place he hadn't been in eighteen months.

It had been what people who lived on dirt roads considered a perfect rain. Just enough to stifle the dust, but not enough to make it muddy. It was the same kind of rain he used to hate when he drove a convertible.

Driving past cotton fields, corn fields, and pastures that he'd driven past thousdands of times before, Colin should have been comfortable. But he wasn't. He was nervous.

Rounding the last curve, the house came into view. Looking lonesome and so much older than he ever remembered. And it seemsed so tiny now. He recalled how it used to seem so much bigger.

Then he saw her.

She was almost running off the porch and into the yard to meet him. It immediately brought to mind the last time they had talked. The call had seemed more like a telegram, as he thought about it now. "Your father is getting worse. I don't know how much longer I can handle him without some help."

Colin knew his father had been slipping for sometime now. If he was honest, it was one of the reasons he hadn't come home this past Christmas. He was afraid. Afraid to see his Dad. Afraid of how he might find him.

But now, as he pulled into the gravel driveway and saw his mother thru the windshield, looking older than she should have, he felt selfish and ashamed. For not being there when she needed him. When they needed him.

He tried to smile as he got out of the car and approached her. Her arms were open.

"Welcome home, son. We've missed you." They embraced.

And this was home, Colin thought, as tears began to well in his eyes. No matter how far away he wandered. He put his arm around his mother and they walked up the porch steps.

"I took this walk you're walking now, boy, I've been in your shoes. No, you can't hold back the hands of time. It's just something you've got to do..."

21 comments:

  1. Mine's on Traveling Chicas comments...

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  2. Look at that... my best friend is driving traffic to my blog! How sweet of her! ;)

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  3. It had been what people who lived on dirt roads considered a perfect rain. Just enough to stifle the dust, but not enough to make it muddy. I love a rain like that. :)

    This was a great story... full of the important things in life.

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  4. Another good one.

    Guess what? We got snow here in Texas! Work was cancelled the last two days so I'm just now getting back into the groove.

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  5. As always, great story!

    I've got a bunny fix for you.

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  6. EofO: Thanks for participating, East.

    Caretaker: I'll be right over to check it out. Um, how's Captain Morgan? :)

    TC: Thanks. Fiction is difficult for me.

    And thanks for bringing a new participant to 3WW :)

    HotPinkSox: Snow!!! I'm assuming you took pictures?

    Renee: Thanks. I was beginning to wonder where you were.

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  7. I'd say de nada, but I'm mildly perturbed with you right now. ;)

    I don't think fiction is difficult for you. Or if it is, you write it well enough to hide it.

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  8. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  9. Well arent you so sure of youself...The Fish is fine.

    Damn its so hard to be a bitch...but Im sure I can think of something...or should I just take a cue from you? :)

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  10. No words.
    Just tears.
    An amazing story.
    I know just how he feels. I'm going through something like that myself.
    Driving away from that place so long denied, I couldn't help but feel like I was Home today.

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  11. Ouch... um... may I just say that I cannot control what other people say/write? ;)

    (And I'm glad you figured out that she's real before that was written! ;))

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  12. sorry...please see page for more...

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  13. I'm sorry, no 3WW for me this week...and I'll read yours later...

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  14. thanks for checking in on me...long weekend with the federal holiday and I still not done with the real world stuff. And we were at the Stock Show all day yesterday.

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  15. Another one sentence story:

    It's a bad memory, drving that convertible with a torn top, through a dust storm...

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  16. I love this, amazing as always! :)

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  17. TC: I have a way, don't I? :) Hope you're over your mild perturbation.

    Elizabeth: Thanks. Sorry that you're going thru a tough time. Hope that being home helped.

    Tag Along: Welcome to the blogosphere.

    Arlene: I clicked over to your blog. Sorry for your loss :(

    Renee: It's fine. Seems like several people have been out of pocket this week. I give you four or five days, then I come looking :)

    Sage: You're the master of the single sentence 3WW.

    RedNeckGirl: Thanks, RNG :)

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  18. I was over it by the time I had that typed. :) I'm an easy to please girl.

    And yes, you "have a way." 8-)

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  19. This is so appropriate for me. I just had a dream last night about my grandaddy. I haven't seen him for a while, and am afraid to because of the condition I think he'll be in. It's so sad.

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  20. TC: A way of annoying? Perturbing? Endearing myself to others? :)

    Lass: I'm not sure what to say, Lass. It's a very sad part of life. Thanks for the comment.

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  21. As if you have to ask. 8-)

    Endearing yourself to others, obviously.

    (I actually was referring to your way with words in writing stories, but since this is also true...)

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