The Gift

 

She inhaled, then stopped and looked up.

The jasmine vines intermingled with the wisteria and they covered the pergola roof and leaped across to scale the neighboring pine tree.

Fifteen years ago she’d planted them with a hope and a prayer, because she had the blackest thumb there ever was, and now look at them.

Just look at them.

There was a twinge in her heart and a tear came to her eye, because this time next year she would be living somewhere else.

When she sadly looked down, there it was. A pod. The wisteria would go with her.

Security

 

Furtively, he glanced out the window. Something had set the motion sensor light off in the yard.

Holding his breath without realizing it, he scanned every inch of the illuminated lawn.

Nothing.

He had set the sensitivity so just a possum, stray cat or racoon wouldn’t set it off. No, it would have to be something bigger. At least six times bigger. What the hell could it have been?

Finally shrugging, he let the curtain fall back into place and turned back to the TV.

Outside, the six racoons crept back into the yard to practice making their pyramid again.

Safe

The bones lay scattered in the clearing, chalk white against the soft browns and greens of pine needles, leaves, and grass.

It had been a deer, and something had definitely killed and eaten it here in an undisturbed part of the forest.

This was supposed to be a safe place, a protected place, surrounded by high fences, a gate house, and an active HOA. This forest was civilized and soft, orderly and tame.

But here among the trees, was the truth of the matter.

You might can keep out the humans, but Mother Nature does not live by the HOA.

Gone Fishin'

 

The four friends had spent the day fishing and were finishing a fine dinner of hamburgers since none of them were very good at fishing.

They sat in companionable relaxation around the fire, listening to night noises and drinking beer.

The conversation flowed from their jobs to their families, and as the moon rose higher, inevitably to regrets and aspirations not attained.

It was decided that, all in all, things could be a lot worse, and life didn’t suck.

One of them wondered aloud how their husbands were doing alone with the kids, and they all had a good laugh.

Old Men

 

The old men sat in their comfortable chairs, completely disgruntled.

Through the haze of cigars and bourbon, they squinted at each other querulously.

Their fathers had started with nothing, and worked like dogs to build their businesses.

Everyone admired them and that’s the way it should be.

It was the way of the world.

These men, these sons who were now old, had never had to work. Not really.

They’d never struggled or worried about money or wanted for anything.

And no one who worked for a living admired them.

So, they set the world on fire.

Because they could.

Gift

 

Sometimes, stress or trauma can bring out a person’s “gifts”; unexplainable things they can do, or know, that most people can’t.

She was thinking of that, lately.

Certainly, there was stress and trauma in her past, but…why this?

Starting in her early teens, she knew the make, model and year of any car she saw. She was not a car buff. Her dad and brother were not car buffs. And yet, she knew.

As her life improved, her “gift” faded, and was eventually completely gone.

What an oddly specific and not very useful survival tactic, she thought.

So. Thanks, Universe?

Self-Care

 

“You look so tired. You need to work on your self-care routine” a co-worker told her.

She had no clue what that woman was talking about, so she googled it after work, while she was eating what was left on her kids’ plates and they were watching TV.

She scrolled for a few minutes through videos of women in clawfoot tubs sipping wine, at spas, reading a book on a beach somewhere.

But, then it was time for baths and bedtime before her husband got home from his job and she left for her second job as an overnight cashier.