The prompt writing lies below the 🧚🏻♂️🧚🏻♂️🧚🏻♂️🧚🏻♂️🧚🏻♂️🧚🏻♂️🧚🏻♂️ and a small sorting of how I feel in advance of my children going to a new school 💖💖💖
💖💖💖
I keep having vivid dreams where I’m dealing with complicated situations. When I wake up I immediately want to go back to sleep and into the dream so I can solve them, so I can feel rested.
But the real situations are here.
Yesterday the power was out which means instead of a gentle last Sunday with my kids I drove them into the city, an hour away, so they could be at their Dad’s and shower, eat warm food, and have access to the internet. They both had a good day.
I had to drive home. I made it sort of whimsical by stopping at some of my favourite locations on the way back from the city. But after that I was so tired I had to nap until 5pm. My pup napped with me. My partner rubbed my back until I fell asleep. It was not the Sunday I envisioned but I did what I needed to, and rested.
Then I re-dyed my hair. And cut it. I had been feeling…frumpy (goes to research the origins of the word frumpy)…nope, not the right word. I was feeling…not myself. Now my hair is all sorts of pink and much shorter. I felt much better.
While my hair was processing my partner and I finished the series we were watching. It’s called Extraordinary and I loved it. It’s a sort of sassy whimsical speculative fiction set in an alternatish UK where everyone gets a power at 18, but the main character, who is 25…she hasn’t got hers. The characters are relatable, wondrously flawed, and…likeable, like I love these characters and I’m sad that I’m all caught up. It was a silly place to visit for the past few weeks, and I’ll miss it.
Then my partner and I went on a tiny adventure. We went to a fast food place where I got something I’d never had there before. I love, that at nearly 45 years only, that there are still new things to try. A woman in the fast food restaurant stopped to compliment my partner on their fabulous hair (which they designed and cut themself) and it was evident that she was going out of her way to say “I see you queer couple, and I am going to make you feel good and deliver a sense of belonging”…which in a small town fast food joint, in a new province…it was so heartening. She had a teenager with her, who might have also been gender-queer, and I was so glad that that kiddo has her. Her warmth was contagious. When she complimented my partner’s hair, the teenager lit up, and didn’t seem embarrassed at all. Which also made my heart so happy.
It was only maybe, a minute, that interaction. But it shifted the entirety of my night.
Then we went grocery shopping and picked up some necessities, but also some treats. We managed to get out of the store before it closed (I try really hard not to be the person who is keeping someone at work after a long day).
Then we went home to snuggle my pup and try to find a video game that might soothe my day before a school meeting anxiety. We didn’t find one, but we did look through the entirety of the White Thorn Games compendium (they produced two of my favourite games Spiritfarer (a cozy game about death) and Wytchwood (a narrative RPG with a great story and a kind of heartbreaking ending).
Then we booked our lodging for the first three days of our vacation that begins this Friday, while our kids accompany their Dad on a giant family trip to Florida. After that, we slept. Or I dreamt. Too much.
And now it’s Monday. And I’m writing to counteract the bubble in my chest that is telling me things can’t possibly work out and that school has never really worked for my children and maybe I’m just subjecting them to more disappointment.
But. I don’t know that. I need to spin myself up into a hopeful state. Because my kids are trying something new. They are going out of their comfort zone and into a new adventure. And today’s meeting at the school is the beginning of that adventure. And as their parent and guide on this adventure, I know how important my demeanor is.
So I’m going to write a little fictional story below to see if I can get myself into some fun magical thinking, and out of the darkness of this anxiety spell.
I hope your Monday is magical.
Heart,
Wake
🧚🏻♂️🧚🏻♂️🧚🏻♂️🧚🏻♂️🧚🏻♂️🧚🏻♂️🧚🏻♂️
The last of the fiction prompts. I’m kind of sad this week is ending!
A crone, fantasy, a magic lantern
Draba stood at the entrance of the cave. It was dark in there. She didn’t want to go in. But her crow companion, Guff, he was sitting on her shoulder. She wasn’t alone anymore. Guff squawked a request for peanuts. Draba reached into her pocket, which was now always prepared for the request and Guff took the peanut gently from her hand and flew down to the cave door. He started cracking the shell loudly.
The whole forest seemed alive with bird song and squirrel scampering. The sunshine was doing its damndest to be encouraging.
Dark caves were Draba’s least favourite things. You never knew what was going to happen in a dark cave. But the lady at the grocery store, she’d said that this, this cave, is where she’d find her answer.
Draba didn’t know what the question was.
Guff finished his peanut and looked at her.
She knew it was time.
“Another peanut first?” Draba petitioned.
Guff shook his head very deftly.
…and in she stepped. Guff flew to her shoulder, and his weight, it comforted her.
“Helloooo” Draba called into the cave. Her words echoed back in a pleasant way. She knew she was to walk forward into the darkness. She knew she was supposed to sing her favourite song.
“I can see clearly now the rain is gone” she started.
“I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me lost” (she always adjusted this line to be less ableist)
“It’s going to be a bright”
“Bright”, Guff sang
“Bright”, Draba sang
“Bright”, a voice from the back of the cave joined in and then the sound of a match lighting.
A lantern broke the darkness, and the light started coming towards them.
“Bright” three voices in harmony. Draba, Guff and…
A magnificent crone. She was illuminated by the lantern. Her mane of chaotic silver and purple hair framing her fantastic face that looked like it had seen a thousand lives. Her eyes were bright. She wore an oversized pair of glasses whose frames seemed to be iridescent in the light of the lantern.
“I’ve been waiting for you” The crone spoke, her voice rough and sweet simultaneously.
“How did you know?” Draba whispered.
“Oh. Shirley at the grocery store told me you’d me coming.” Her eyes glinted with good humour.
Guff started laughing the way crowd do. And Draba couldn’t help but laugh too.
“Come on in” the crone waved her hand towards to inner cave, “it looks like you could use a cup of tea…and some peanuts, eh” she nodded at Guff.
…and Draba felt relaxed for the first time in a long time. She was going to get some answers. And she really could use some tea too.
The Rogues, chose this prompt to write on last Friday at our meet up.