Ricki took the afternoon off to spend Rory's birthday with him at the park, the third grader's first dadless birthday since Ron's funeral in October.
Rory came screaming "Mommmmmmmmy! Mommmmmmmy!," down the school's corridor, answered by Ricki's," Happy Birthday, baby!," finishing with the youngster's collision into a rising and twirling embrace.
The afternoon had been built for the picnic and kite-flying, where Ricki showed her little man how to send a piece of paper all the way up the kite string so it was no real surprise when Rory wanted a pen to send up a note.
It said, "I'll put cake for you dad where santas cookies go," and after the party that evening, after Ricki tucked Rory in, she could hardly stand to look at the cake-square on the living room's hutch next to the folded flag as she headed for a glass of wine and the front door.
Ricki sat on the bungalow's steps feeling more alone than ever, trying to get sips of wine commingled with salty tears past her lumped throat, her face awash in the evening's expansive silence.
She looked to the heavens, thinking, 'God, if there was a Santa Claus, Ron would have come home from Afghanistan,' and she began to sob softly as her forehead sank into the crook of her elbow, and the breeze tugged-of-war with wisps of hair against teary cheeks.
Stories & Commentary | Fiction & Nonfiction
the unpredictable pencil of
needs to tell you a thing or six...
- Joe Gensle
- Stories Commentary Humor Drama Fantasy
Ideas sprout like wildflower seeds in an undiscovered meadow.
I calculate arrangements of words, the medium of artistic expression, here, colorizing language and dialect, and with visual regard for punctuation.
I seek a voice to find your ear or heart, hyperactivate your mind, challenge or bolster your values, aim at your deepest fears to electrify their vulnerabilities.
Your reaction is my reward, defines my success.
I give no less concentration or effort than you who paint, play piccolo, plant petunias or pan-fry potatoes.
"Words have weight, sound and appearance; it is only by considering these that you can write a sentence that is good to look at and good to listen to." Somerset Maugham
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Know I'm left-handed, Roman Catholic, conservative Republican and don't apologize for it. If that's a deal-breaker, build a bridge and get over it; if you have a problem with it, you're right: You've got a problem. To invite yourself out, hit "Next Blog," above.
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