The boys love spending time at Grandpa’s farm in the summer: they splash in the river, climb trees and barely even glance at a screen. But we’ve never been in the winter. The farmhouse is huge but won’t contain the boys’ pre-Christmas energy.
Grandpa cut a tree and dressed it with candles. It looks amazing and probably won’t burn the place down or ignite anyone’s polyester pajamas. I’m told they did it when Dave was young, so it’s like when the kids play in the river in summer, I just have to believe.
I am a sloth. I do everything slooowly. Talk slowly. Move slowly. I even eat so slowly that I never fart.
Fart is an F word. Other frightening F words are fast, far and falling. I do not like F words.
I do like S words. Like slow. And steady. And sleeeeep.
Sleeping is one of the things that I do best. Some of my human friends find it hard to go to sleep, so I help them with my special meditations. Friends is a special word because it is a GOOD word even though it is an F word.
***Extroduction***
Yeah, this one needs a bit of explaining! Sebastian loves sloths and collects them in stuffed form, but the original and best is Molasses. Like all my kids’ stuffies, Molasses has his own voice and personality (OK, that’s entirely my fault), in this case revolving largely around his irrational hatred of F words and his love of anything involving S’s (He also likes Ms). One of the best things he does is guided meditations to help Sebastian sleep. I’ve started writing a book of his meditations, because it feels like something that other families would love too – or at least that I’d like to record for Sebastian to look back on. This is a condensed extract from the Introduction to that collection.
Oh, and the title? Well, Molasses wouldn’t want to be part of Friday Fiction, so I thought this could be a Saturday Story. Just for him.
This morning I was asked to make Molasses a strawberry sandwich. He actually wanted sausages, but there’s limited time in the mornings.
A little later, and in haste this week. I’ve been racing around doing Christmas preparations and other Good Things this week, but I didn’t want to miss FF so here I am, still on the same theme as the last couple of weeks, where the muse seems to be stuck for the moment. Thank you to our host, Rochelle, for lending us her own picture today.
Another Life
Two women stand at a window.
Outside, wearing a coat from Goodwill so she could afford good ones for the children who pull on her arms. She wonders if more bedrooms would make for better family relations or simply more to clean.
Inside, the realtor slides a photo from a frame. This latest sale means she and her husband can fly First Class to Hawaii for Christmas. Maybe even upgrade the Tesla.
Their eyes meet, and each woman’s heart sinks a little. If she could step through that glass, how different her life would be. How much happier, more meaningful.
elmowrites 