Wednesday June 4th, 2014

The exercise:

Write about something or someone that has been: blown away.

Spent the morning transplanting heirloom tomato plants with Genevieve, after marking out the rows where our potatoes will be going in. This evening I was supposed to help Kat's parents with the cherry nets again but it was too windy for that.

Which made me think that maybe all those tomato plants should probably be staked and tied so that they wouldn't break in the wind. So that was my after dinner job.

Maja arrived this afternoon after a sleepless night in Vancouver. Max has, of course, taken a liking to her already. We'll see if she's up for putting in potatoes tomorrow morning.

Which, I think, would be more likely if this friggin' wind would calm the hell down.

Mine:

This place is unfamiliar to me. I do not recognize anything, no matter which way I turn. No building, no street, no tree gives me the comfort of knowing that I have laid eyes on it before.

Locals give me strange looks but no welcome, no advice. Worst of all, they give me no direction.

I could start walking, but on which path? Will any of them lead me to somewhere that I am sure is closer to home than where I am now? It seems unlikely.

So I remain rooted to this spot, slowly becoming a familiar part of the scenery to those who pass by. I do not like this, but I cannot seem to force myself to move.

How did I even arrive here? I cannot remember, not exactly. I know I was walking, quickly I think, along my street. Trying to get home before the storm arrived in full force. The rain came, that is definitely true.

I must have opened my umbrella to protect myself and my new suit from getting soaked... but when I try to think of what came next, my memory is blown viciously clear...

2 comments:

Greg said...

Poor Maja, it doesn't sound like her arrival in Vancouver was the best it could have been. Unless of course it was sleepless because she was out clubbing all night!
The wind sounds impressively strong, so I hope it does die down for you, at least to get the cherry nets up and the potatoes in!
That's quite a mysterious opening you've got there, and I wonder if it was the weather or the umbrella that's responsible for the memory loss? Either way, I'd like to know more! It's certainly not what I was expecting you to do with that prompt either :)

Blown away
"I don't think we're in Arkansas any more, Dottie," said Toots. Dottie, a Japanese Tosa, barked heavily, and the bark echoed around the mountains. One minute there had been a hurricane alert and Toots had been stood at the wardrobe wondering what outfit would be best for sheltering in a storm cellar with Auntie Jeff and Auntie Clem (they both insisted on being called Auntie, and Toots hadn't yet asked whether either of them was female), and the next the whole house had been picked up and blown away, landing here in this mountain pasture.
Dottie barked again, and started hauling on something round the side of the house, so Toots went to investigate. There was a ripping sound that was horrribly suggestive, and before Toots could get round the side of the house Dottie came bounding back with someone's legs in her mouth.
"Oh my!" Toots covered her mouth, but more because she was worried she was going to vomit. The legs were still dripping at the waist end, and were clad in black and white stripey tights. On the feet were a pair of vermilion velveteen ballet shoes. They were extremely alluring.
"Oh my," said Toots again, wondering if it was theft when there was only half of a person there. Surely it was no worse than grave robbery, especially as the person clearly wasn't buried. Well, this half of them wasn't. "Where on earth did you get them from, Dottie?"

Marc said...

Greg - nah, there was a bit of trouble getting in the country (they thought she was an illegal worker or something) but it was eventually cleared up. Just not in time for her to bother paying for a hotel room for the night. So she ended up in a coffee shop all night before catching the early morning bus, which sounds like something I'd end up doing.

I was figuring the weather, but the umbrella option is very intriguing to me!

That is quite the arrival into a land that, I should think, could do with some more exploring :)