An announcement

As you may have noticed, I haven't been much around blogs lately. I'm sorry about that but I have things in real life to take care of and they are taking too much of my time and energy at the moment. The situation should be within manageable proportions by mid-June and that's when I hope to have more time for resuming my on line activities. Meanwhile, take care, everyone, and have fun.

Three Word Thursday #16

Timmy had been recovering nicely and was soon well enough to return to his mother. She was anxious to have him back after Harry, the teacher, had passed her the news. Harry was also the one bringing Timmy home and he offered him to earn a few extra dimes as his tyro as soon as he was fit enough to return to school. His mother supported the idea and Timmy, although still having his qualms, finally agreed. His mother was a single parent and he knew it wasn't easy for her to make ends meet working as the chief editor's amanuensis at the local paper. Timmy never knew his father and mother was reluctant to talk about him. He was a niddering of a man, she would say on the rare occasion, and not worth a second thought. They had been in love and planned a life together and all seemed well until one day he simply disappeared. Nobody knew where he'd gone or why but he was never to be seen again. It was only after his disappearance she'd found out she was pregnant. She had only one person to turn to, and that was her grandmother who lived in a small house at the edge of a town many miles away and that's where she moved to give birth to Timmy.

Three Word Thursday #15

Timmy and his classmates had no more problems with the history teacher. If not exactly mellifluous, he certainly ceased to be invidious towards them, and tried to pass his knowledge with as much fun as possible. The kids aprpeciated the change but still didn't trust the man completely.

Weeks passed and nothing particular happened. When he was free from school, Timmy would explore his surroundings, trying always to discover something interesting. He would find new plants and learn their names later on, he would whistle to the birds and bring salt for the deer, and he was reasonably happy.

One day he followed the creek upstream through a dense bush when he felt a senticous sensation in his right cheek. He looked around for the possible cause but couldn't source anything unusual so he continued on with his divagations until he felt his energy draining and his face swelling. He turned around and headed home as quickly as he could, but before he could reach the town, he collapsed.

He was awakened by susurrous voices.

"How is he?"

"His skin is still rubifacient but his fever has abated. It was a close call but I think he'll be fine."

"It's a good thing Phillis found him there in the woods and called Harry right away."

"Yes, and that Harry knew immediately what to do. But let's leave him now. He..."

Harry? -- the thought pierced Timmy's mind. Wasn't that their history teacher's first name? But before he could think about it any longer he fell into deep slumber again.

Dancing in the city

Today at high noon



a few thousand secondary school (equivalent of college, I think) graduates took over the main street



to dance a quadrille

Three Word Thursday #14

In the days to come Timmy had a lot to think about. He had waited for the teacher as instructed and when the man came he took him to his cabinet. Timmy expected to find a tenebrous place filled with musty smells but the place he entered was quite different. The soft afternoon light poured in through the wide open windows onto a desk supporting a typewriter, some books and a stack of papers but what caught Timmy's eye was a photograph of an elderly glabrous man, a beautiful young woman and a boy much resembling himself in both age and stature.

"Have a seat," the teacher told Timmy, and, following his eyes still fixed on the photograph, added, "My father-in-law, my wife and my son. All dead now."

In the next hour or so Timmy learned the man's story. He had loved his wife and family and had been a uxurious husband. The in-laws had accepted him and treated him as one of their own. His wife's father even shared the family secret with him: he had shown him some parchments, just like the one he saw Timmy carrying that morning, and told him they contained powerful messages which, for the time being, should be kept from humanity as the world wasn't ready for their disclosure yet. Their life seemed perfect until fate interfered. The family was about to spend a weekend at the cottage they owned in the mountains by a small lake. The rest of them went ahead but he had some business to attend to in town and promised to follow them later that day. After finishing the business he quiddled about the town looking for this, that and the other before finally setting off. It was already dark when he approached the cottage. But instead of the peace and quiet and the people he loved he was met by police cars and firemen and frantic activity. The cottage was no more and four charred bodies lay in its burnt out remnants. He had lost everything he loved and could never forgive himself for wasting his time in the town while the tragedy took place, and wondered ever since if he could have done anything to prevent it. The police couldn't find any evidence of crime so the fire went down as an accident although he had qualms about the thoroughness of their work, and he couldn't shed the feeling that the tragedy had something to do with the parchments as not a trace of them was found anywhere. His erstwhile mellifluous nature had dissipated in face of his losses and he became the hard intransigent man the kids had got to know. In the end the man warned Timmy once again to take extra care of the parchments and not to let anyone know of their existence. He even gave him a fake Egyptian scroll containing hieroglyphs to show to his mates if they had any questions as to the thing they had seen in his schoolbag which he duly presented the following morning.

After having spoken with Timmy the teacher kept siting in the cabinet immersed in a deep rumination. He inserted in the typing machine a blank sheet of paper and started typing his resignation. But when playful voices from the yard entered the room he trudged to the window and looked out. "Look what you have become," he susurrated softly to his diffused contour barely discernible in the glass , "They hate you and fear you, and yet one of them could have been yours... Besides, Timmy will need your assistance." He tore his resignation to pieces and left the cabinet whistling, for the first time since the tragedy, resolute he would try to rectify what he had done wrong.

Random musing

Sometimes it happens that someone you care about, someone whose company you value and enjoy, goes away for a while. No matter the reason (and they can be varied), their departure falls hard but afterwards you accept the fact and go on with life, as it were. There is, of course, a certain amount of missing, but until the time of their return approaches, things are ok-ish. Then, a kind of restlessness sets in, and it gets worse the more the anticipated return draws in. And things get really bad if, based on the information you have, you think you should have heard from that person already but don't. And, finally, the relief and joy when you eventually do and all is well with the world again - for a little while at least...

Formation flight

I don't know what these birds are... could be herons but I'm not sure - haven't seen them around here in such numbers. Anyskein, there they were flying over my head across the late afternoon sky. And I just had to grab my camera and press the shutter without thinking much... and here's the result, a little contrasted, a little softened but mostly as taken