DAVID: Part 10 of a 10 Part Romance Story

BEANERY ONLINE LITERARY MAGAZINE

DAVID Part 10 of a 10 Part Romance Story

Jane

 

This is Part 10 of a ten-part romance story, David. Each Wednesday evening a part of the story is being posted.  Writer Jane is a long-distance member of the Beanery Writers Group, participating via the Beanery Online Literary Magazine. To start at the beginning of this story click on: DAVID Part 1 of a 10 Part Romance Story  

 

     The days flew by for us, and I have to admit it was much better spending my time with David than it was at work. Most of the time I stayed the night at my “suite” at his home, rather than the long drive home. Who am I kidding! It wasn’t the drive home that kept me there.

     With “The Event of the Century” under control, and with me confident that our guests would be well taken care of there was a little more time to relax and just enjoy the approaching winter. There was also the Thanksgiving feast to prepare for. David’s mother would be coming up from Texas to prepare the meal. This was her tradition and I didn’t mind one bit not having that to contend with.

     Every morning we would take his two dogs out running, and usually go to the stables down the hill at the back of the house. He kept a black stallion named Satan in there, and we would let Satan out to walk, and later run. Sometimes David rode him. I would watch and my breath would catch in my throat. What a beautiful site it was.

     As Thanksgiving neared, his family began to arrive and the house became full of sounds. The kitchen more often than not was the meeting place in their morning, and everyone would discuss

Have I, a Caregiver, Failed??

BEANERY ONLINE LITERARY MAGAZINE

HAVE I, A CAREGIVER, FAILED??

Fran

I sit, watching him sleep,

watching his peaceful, even breaths

that include, every now and then, a long pause. 

I think I hold my breath too, when he gasps.

Then he breathes evenly once again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~

     It’s been a difficult twenty-four hours. For a caregiver this is really not a surprise, but for this household, yes, this is a surprise. 

     Most days have moments to get through, things to ignore, things to do, and things to undo. But still, they are just moments.  And then………..
     Yesterday, in a split second, he bent over, got dizzy, hit the floor. I
moved, quickly, but not quick enough to catch him. On the bright side those of you who know us know that he is 225 pounds, and I am 96 pounds. Perhaps my moving quicker might have resulted in injury to myself. Still, instinct says try, and this I did.
     The damage is not too bad. He has a pulled abdominal muscle, two pulled muscles in his chest, whip lash of his neck, a bruised left hip, deep bone bruise of right wrist, and a two inch section of missing skin on his forearm. Movement of any kind is now painful to him, and the night was a very long one. Still, we are grateful nothing is broken. I must

Fifteen Minutes of Fame: Part 1—The Real Thing

BEANERY ONLINE LITERARY MAGAZINE

FIFTEEN MINUTES OF FAME: Part 1—THE REAL THING

Kathleen Clark

     Not fifteen minutes, but fifteen seconds of celebrity!

     It had been dry and hot for at least a fortnight in my Southwestern Pennsylvania neighborhood. No rain fell until the fishtail of Hurricanes Gustav and Hannah rumbled through on an early morning in September.

     Lightening slashed across the sky while the reluctant heavens finally showered a sprinkling of rain.Some wind swiped the trees, but nothing drastic. Waking up around 9:00 a.m., I reached to flip on the bathroom light – nothing! The power was out. I’d no idea when it happened.

     I dressed, gathered the garbage and headed to the dumpster. Allegheny Power trucks were in the parking lot and a couple guys out back were attempting to find the cause of the power outage, The generator lid popped open.

     Walking across the lot, I spotted a

Sing to Me Softly

BEANERY ONLINE LITERARY MAGAZINE

SING TO ME SOFTLY

Malaika King

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~

I remember when

You used to sing me to sleep

 

The softness of your words

Bouncing off the walls

 

And cascading me

With your voice

 

I remember when

You used to

A Family Grows in Greensburg, Pennsylvania

Greensburg, PA, as seen from the top of the Courthouse

BEANERY ONLINE LITERARY MAGAZINE

 

A FAMILY GROWS IN GREENSBURG

(Southwestern Pennsylvania)

Sarah K. Byrne-Houser

       While I never quite pictured myself evolving into a minivan-maneuvering soccer mom, I spent my childhood playing on a cul-de-sac in a streetlight-free township east of Pittsburgh. Suburbia and I came to know each other well. 

     Brooklyn born and bred, my fiancé possessed no true understanding of life outside a city.  Apparently, he harbored some serious delusions upon his relocation to Greensburg in Southwestern Pennsylvania. 

     We moved from our college campus in Baltimore, Maryland to an apartment near my old high school. The apartment was a standard beige-and-white two-bedroom cheap enough for recent grads. His adjustment to Greensburg would take some time, we both knew.  After all, his new “city” operated a very limited

The Gift of Christmas

BEANERY ONLINE LITERARY MAGAZINE

THE GIFT OF CHRISTMAS

Fran

     We all know the true meaning of Christmas, different for many of us, but the same too. For us, the year, and this Christmas, was very, very different.
     We have been married for forty-five years. During that time we have rented homes, sometimes comfy ones, sometimes not so good. The time was never right to buy a home of our own—it just never worked out for us.  We’ve had wonderful landlords, and we’ve had ones that should never own property. 2009 brought for us the biggest change in our living conditions and I’d like to share it with you all.
     In April, friends of ours decided they needed to

Living with OCD

BEANERY ONLINE LITERARY MAGAZINE

LIVING WITH OCD

as told to Carolyn C. Holland by Dmitri Beljan

      I was initially going to talk to you at a local café. However when you invited me to sit down, the place I was seated was not cleaned up from the previous guest. Although tolerable to sit there, I found myself uncomfortable and distracted by concerns about the dirty table. It took away from giving you my full attention.

     Sometimes it’s not a bad thing to worry about germs. For example, how many times have you ordered a baked potato at a particular fast food place and the waitress  who handled your money then squished the potatoes with her fingers and handed it to you? I found myself several times reminding food service personnel that you don’t handle food and money both. I don’t think that’s so bad.

     However if this behavior is carried to an extreme—e. g., asking her to clean the table twice—it could be considered a symptom of OCD.

     Thus began my interview with Dmitri.

     October 12-18, 2009, is National OCD Awareness Week. Dmitri is willing to share his story of living with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, commonly called OCD. Below he tells of live with OCD.

     My genetic makeup predisposed me to OCD. This condition was aggravated by my very religious family and the paranoia of the 1950s Cold War.

     When I was a little boy the thoughts that are now called obsessive thoughts were not recognized by me as such, and with the influence of religion, I interpreted it to be that I was possessed by demons.

     This scared the hell out of me. I became more concerned about

Oh, no! Stranded in India

BEANERY ONLINE LITERARY MAGAZINE

OH, NO! STRANDED IN INDIA

Joney

     I was almost stranded at a station in a village whose name I couldn’t pronounce. I was teaching in the southern part of India, in a place called Tamil Nadu, at a small village. It was at a 7,000 foot level in the mountains. Mountains are called “ghats.” The village was Kodaikanal and the school was Kodaikanal International School.

    We had a long Christmas vacation so students could travel to their home country for their vacations. The students were all boarding students from many countries. I wanted to see as much of India as I could at this time. A young Indian piano teacher, Roger, friend of mine, said he lived in Kalimpong. Kalimpong is on the boarder of Napal.  

    “Sure, I would love to meet your family.”

     Roger already had his train ticket. I bought a train ticket. I was put in a cabin with three men!—–in a different car than my friend was in. The trip lasted four days. I had a top bunk. I climbed up and watched the men. One was an

Mother’s Day

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MOTHER’S DAY

Fran

Two toddler boys run in for hugs and kisses,
     but someone’s missing
Two little boys, bearing gifts made themselves,
     but someone’s missing
My teenage sons, now working, take mom out for lunch,
     but

Are you a Martha or a Mary? Lent Devotion #38

BEANERY ONLINE LITERARY MAGAZINE

ARE YOU A MARTHA or a MARY? Lent Devotion #38

Tom Groomes

SCRIPTURE: Luke 10: 38-40  Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.”(NKJV)
DEVOTION: I arose at 5:45 a.m. that July Sunday morning, feeling the beauty of a new day. The ground was wet with heavy dew; the sun was beginning to warm the day. The birds sang as if they too were praising our Lord for his marvelous creation of this earth.
     While other family members slept on, I decided to enter the quiet of my church to read Scripture.
     As I entered the sanctuary I noticed the dirt from