lørdag den 24. september 2022

Words for Wednesday - Aunt Jemima's Garden 5

The second set of words was:

Myriad
Quilt
Product
Lip-service
Assemble
Bask

Which takes me a little closer to Aunt Jemima's garden.

In silence they walked down the road. After a myriad of false starts they finally found number 123. It was old, decrepit. Surely nobody lived there or had lived there since Aunt Jemima and her husband moved out those many years ago. They looked at the letter box. The writing had faded, but they were still able to read Carlsen, and a long name, which could be Jemima, or almost anything else.
Carefully they opened the creaking gate and went into the garden. It looked just like they imagined the garden of the sleeping Beauty. Everything growing wild, but beautiful. The house was almost hidden in tall, flowering hollyhocks. On the clothesline laundry still hung. Most of it worn to rags by sun, rain and animals. An old quilt, bleached, but otherwise sound hung on the line.
"Do you think the rugmaking husband made that quilt?" Susan asked.
"Maybe. I saw hard, uncomfortable floor rugs in my mind, but maybe he was really making quilts," Heidi answered. Susan clasped the stone in her pocket. "Was that only a product of my imagination, or did that quilt just move?"

She froze and slowly, oh so slowly pulled the stone from her pocket and put it to her eye. Heidi saw and understood and she too froze. After a few minutes she did what Susan had done out on the road and dispelled all the bugs and critters pestering her. This was too important to spoil by being bitten by some obnoxious mosquito in a wrong moment. From now on, Heidi decided, she would pay lip-service only to her mom's rule of no magic, and do what she wanted to, just like Susan. All those small things in everyday life, cantrips and so on. But never ever big stuff. She felt stiff, felt like moving to ease a cramp in her leg, but she knew, Jon and Thora had told them often enough, that it was easier to suppress the impulse first time around, and that giving in did not lead to anything but more itches and cramps.
Susan's hand with the stone was now level with her shoulders. A new itch began in Heidi's left leg. To distract herself she began to mentally assemble a list of all the cantrips she knew which could be safely used outside of school. at the same time basking in the happy, free feeling inside her head. It was right to use your magic!

7 kommentarer:

  1. I like that image of the place looking like the garden of sleeping beauty. I think old places have their character even if everything's unruly.

    It would be nice to able to use magic on the little things. I certainly would like some magical means to stop bugs from bitting me.

    Have a lovely day.

    SvarSlet
  2. Oooh. Now I am wondering what is moving the quilt - and loving the sound of that garden. Some minor magic wouldn't go astray either.

    SvarSlet
  3. Enjoyed this.
    There is certainly something to happen in No. 123.

    SvarSlet
  4. There's some magic or magical creature still left there. Maybe they'll meet a new friend.

    SvarSlet
  5. I'm so curious about that quilt now! And happy that Heidi is going to use her magic.

    SvarSlet
  6. Too true! It IS right to use your magic! Then to tell us about it...

    SvarSlet

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