Sally Travels

“Two weeks of peace! You must be so excited!” Mrs. Ames adjusted her ever-present head scarf.

Mom and I looked at each other.

Okay, I was pretty sure she was speaking to my sister, Sally, but with Mrs. Ames, one is never really sure.

“I am!” Sally said, smiling broadly. “I’ve never done anything like this before!”

 “Whom are you going with, dear?” our neighbor asked.

“It’s my cousin, Ruth,” Mom put in. “She’s never married and spends most of her year . . . erm . . . exploring.”

“She thinks of the funnest things to do!” Sally was getting quite animated. “She’s climbed mountains and rafted rivers and dived out of planes and lived in skin huts and rode in camel trains and . . .”

She stopped for breath and I broke in. I could see that Mom was growing a little paler with the mention of each escapade. “Yes. She’s quite . . . adventurous.”

Mrs. Ames’ eyebrows had also risen higher as Sally spoke. One hand gripped the bodice of her bulky cotton house dress. “Oh,” she said at last. “Erm . . . where are you going?”

“Hawaii! We’re going to climb the volcano and go out in an outrigger and surf and . . .”

Again I cut her off. “Cousin Ruth has quite a full agenda.”

“Ah! Well, be sure to take lots of pictures,” Mrs. Ames said a trifle breathlessly.

“Oh, I will! Mom got me a new camera!” Sally dashed off.

“I take it you’re not going?” Mrs. Ames had turned her faded blue eyes on me.

“Oh. No. I really didn’t want . . . that is . . . well, Cousin Ruth and Sally have always gotten along like peas in a pod. It could be danger . . ." I glanced at Mom and bit my lip. "Anyways, I have work.”

Mom was staring at me.

“I’d better help Sally pack.” I hurried toward the stairway.

“I’ll be on my way as well,” Mrs. Ames said behind me.

Mom cleared her throat. “Thanks for stopping by,” she said. “I’m sure Sally will really appreciate the box of treats you brought for her to take along.”

“Well, I thought both girls were going. And I know these airlines don’t feed people anymore, so . . .”

“You’re so kind. Thank you!”

I heard the door close.

Sally appeared with her camera and the small red ladder that sits on her desk and holds all her necklaces. She peered at the door. “Where did she go?”

“Mrs. Ames? She left.”

“Oh. I was going to show her my camera.”

“She had to go.”

“Oh.”

“Are you packed?”

Sally turned back toward the stairs. “I am! As soon as I finish picking which jewelry to take.” She looked at her watch. “Good thing, too, because Cousin Ruth will be here any minute!”

Ten minutes later, Mom and I somehow got Sally and all her luggage out the door and into Cousin Ruth’s waiting taxi.

Sally leaned out the window, waving as it started down the street. “I’ll see you in two weeks!” she screamed. “I’ll bring you a hula lamp!”

Mom and I waved until the taxi disappeared.
"Okay, what's a hula lamp?" Mom asked.
"We'll Google it," I assured her.

"Two weeks of peace,” Mom said quietly.

“What?” I turned to look at her.

“Mrs. Ames was talking about two weeks of peace when she was here.”

“Yeah?”

“Did she mean for Sally? Or us?”

I thought of Sally’s most recent escapades and frowned. “For us, I’m sure.”
“Do you think she’ll be all right?” She looked down the street where the taxi had disappeared. “I mean . . . There are sharks and stuff . . .”
I stared at her. “Mom. Whatever could hurt her? She can out-run, out-think, out-rascal and out-bother anything on the planet! I’d give a shark one chance in 100!”

Mom smiled and nodded, then high-fived me. “Score!” she said. “So . . . What would you like to do first?”

Stay tuned for Sally’s adventures in travel-land!

Each month, Karen of Baking in a Tornado issues a challenge. “Give me your tired words, your poor phrases, my muddled lasses yearning to write free!”

Okay, maybe not like that, but she does distribute words we supply with the instructions, “Take these and do what you can!”

And we do!

The result? Use Your Words. The January Edition.

My words this month (picking ~ head scarf ~ red ladder ~ hula lamp ~ score) came via Karen from https://cognitivescript.blogspot.com/

A huge thank you!

Now go and see what the other members of our intrepid little group have wrought!  

Baking In A Tornado

Cognitive Script

Southern Belle Charm

The Bergham Chronicles

Part-time Working HockeyMom

New Blues

‘Twas dark and dreary—

The twinkling long night stretching out before,

The cold air pinched—

It prodded round the windows and the doors,

Encased in warmth,

I huddled round the often-crackling fire,

And closely watched,

The warm flames reaching ever (and more) higher.

But though they warmed

Extremities, they somehow missed the soul,

Winter Blues

Had come, they weren’t about to let me go.

Then Husby hustled

Me out through the firmly frozen door,

Resolute

We’d go places we’d not seen before,

And now I sit,

And watch the breakers lave the spark’ling sand,

The seabirds fly

Or dive and pounce on fishes near to hand,

And all about

The world, the sun with colour, it imbues

The sky and sea

Give new meaning to the Winter ‘Blues’!

 Each month, Karen and her followers publish a poem on a theme.
January's? Winter Blues.
I'm liking my 'Blues'!
See what the others have done!

Karen of Baking In A Tornado: Winter Blues

Dawn of Cognitive Script: Dark Days of Winter