Words for Wednesday :: Aunt Jemima's Garden 7 -- & IWSG

is meme was started by Delores a long time ago.  Troubles led her to bow out, but the meme was too much fun to let go, and now Words for Wednesday is provided by a number of people and has become a movable feast with Elephant's Child as our coordinator.

  Essentially the aim of this meme is to encourage us to write.  Each week we are given some prompts. These prompts can be words, phrases, music or images.
  What we do with those prompts is up to us:  a short story, prose, a song, a poem, or treating them with ignore...
  We can use some or all of the prompts, and mixing and matching is encouraged.

  Some of us put our creation in comments on the post, and others post on their own blog. This fun meme includes cheering on the other participants.
  And the more the merrier goes here as well, so if you are posting on your own blog then please tell us in the comments, so that all other participants, can come along and applaud.

The words appear on River's blog every Wednesday in October.

I'm continuing the story of Aunt Jemima's Garden. And as usual using the words in the order they were given.
This Wednesday's words are:

1. hypnotic
2. case
3. promise
4. wild
5. ceiling fan
6. burgers and shakes
7. canvas
8. garlic


Susan could not stop putting the lucky stone to her eye to watch the faeries. Their crying songs were almost hypnotic, and she spent a long time trying to find all the meaning of the song and their dancing. It seemed they concentrated on the blanket, the hedges and on one of the windows in the house.
Heidi insisted in trying the stone too, and the two girls took turns looking.
The became hungry, and made good use of the contents of their picnic basket. Heidi just let her wrapping paper, egg shells and so on lie on the lawn. Not so Susan. As usual she put all waste back in the basket, carefully wrapped in a napkin.
"Why did you do that?" Heidi asked. "I'm sure we do not need old waste, why bring it back home?"
"My Mum always taught me to respect the nature, and not let my crap lie around. Apple cores, banana peels and so on are fine - preferably under a hedge or a bush. They turn into earth fast, but the rest ... that's just litter." Susan answered, looking through her stone. "Look at the faeries, I'm sure they agree with me on this case."
"Heidi looked and saw agitated faeries pointing at her heap of soiled papers and things. Hurriedly she too unfolded a napkin and placed her waste in it just like Susan had done. Both napkins with contents ended in the basket, and Heidi saw the faeries unwind and calm down.
"I'll never let my wast lie around like that any more. Promise!" Heidi said. "I like nature to be free and wild like this garden, not soiled and grey. I hope my dad will arrive soon."
"So do I," Susan said, The two girls got up and slowly wandered to the house. The window panes were grimy from years of not being cleaned, Heidi used another napkin to wipe off the pane, and the two girls cupped their hands around their faces to look inside the house.
Inside was a living room. Totally untouched, like it had been left only yesterday. Surprisingly almost no dust had settled on the furniture either. Susan put the stone to her eye. "Nope, no faeries inside. Even though this room looks like it would be fun for faeries, look at that old parrot cage with swings and slides! A fairy playground if ever I saw one."
"Yes," Heidi said, "and the ceiling fan, they could use that one as a merry-go-round."

A whooshing sound made them turn around. Heidi's father stood at the garden gate.
"Oh, dad!" Heidi said. "I'm happy to see you. We sure need some help here."
Kai walked up to the gate and Susan and Heidi did the same from the inside.
"STOP!" Susan yelled, "Don't open that gate, all the fairies are standing ready to escape once it's opened." She handed Kai the stone when he began babbling. "Look through this stone!" After one look at Susan's face, Kai accepted the stone, wordless for once and did as he was told.
"Wow!" he exclaimed, "This garden sure IS crammed with fairies. Let me think while I eat." He sat down outside the gate and opened a bag of burgers and shakes from the fast food shop in town. "Would you like some?" he asked. The girls had felt full a minute ago, but the smell from the burgers made them realize that they were in fact still hungry. They shared a big burger and a strawberry shake, while Kai polished off a giant burger with lots of meat, lettuce and cheese and drank a big raspberry shake as well. Then he meticulously licked his fingers and wiped fingers and moustache in several clean napkins. All the cups, straws, and napkins ended up in the bag again.

Kai rose. "OK girls, move over. I'm going to jump the gate. Here, catch!" he said and threw his bag over the gate. When Heidi and Susan had moved over, he backed off a bit, and took a running vault over the gate, landing agilely between two flower beds. Then he opened his bag and pulled out a piece of canvas and a string of Garlic. "Dear Heidi and Susan," he said. "What I am going to do now is  ... not black magic, no, but maybe a bit grey at the edges. You both have to help me, but please do not try to memorize the words or the somatics. Sandra would flay me alive."

And here I ran out of steam and words. To be continued.

- - - - -

October 5 question - What do you consider the best characteristics of your favourite genre?

My answer: My favourite genre ... well I have a few, Fantasy, Swords and Sorcery, Sci-fi, Historicals, Autobiography ... Almost anything not being Romance, Whodunnits, Stark realism or Writing with a too obvious cause.
To appeal to me is easy. A setting unlike my everyday life. A likeable hero. Correct spelling and grammar.

The first - a setting outside my ordinary life - can be fulfilled in many ways; time, place or another world entirely.
A likeable hero - I am willing to identify with almost anyone, but I have to somehow 'feel' with the hero. If I cannot feel what makes him, her, it tick, it's bye-bye.
The third is self explanatory, I think. I often read books in other languages than my native Danish, and typos can push me out of the story, hunting for a dictionary or turning to the internet for help.

The best characteristics of my favourite genre can be aptly described as the suspension of disbelief.