* This is a continuation of a work of fiction.
..."Twelve, thirteen, actually all those teen years are hard. It's harder to be old now, but when you're right there in the middle of them and can't see beyond the current tragedy, it is like living among a battlefield full of death. I learned all these crazy things about plants from Nellie. She was the smart one. I woulda' just settled for what I knew if had been up to just me. My, my we would stay up so late drinkin' sassafras tea and reading so many books that the library or anyone else would let us borrow. We would read and laugh and then we'd laugh and read. My William thought we'd lost it more than once till he saw us and what our trail turned out to be. It was one of the best times of my life. Oh, Nellie. She was the very best of me that William wasn't and couldn't be. I wouldn't have wanted him to be."
"I bet she was. But, I just don't know 'bout you and that sassafras tea. With all that laughin', makes me think there was somethin' in that tea 'sides sassafras. I do wish I had all those books to read. I started reading' way too late in life. Can't seem to catch up. So many books people tell me to read and no time to read them."
"Mrs. Lucy, ya' got the time. You just a young thing compared to me. I been knocking on death's door for longer than you been outta diapers. All you youngins think twenty-eight is old. Well, it ain't. Eighty is old. I'm old and I don't even remember twenty-eight, but Miss Lucy, believe me, ya' got the time. Nellie and I read at night or on Sunday afternoon after cleaning the kitchen from supper while the men slept off their fried chicken. And just for the record, we were good Methodists and didn't put nothin' in our tea. We let the men do that..."
"You a riot, Mrs Mable; a true original in every way. I sho' wish I could've been right there buildin' that trail or readin' with you and Nellie. But most of all, I sho' could've used all that laughin' and a little of that tea."
Mable didn't answer her, but only sighed. The sigh was enough for Lucy. She pushed quietly and Mable sat and both enjoyed the time away from Primwillow Place. It had trapped them both. The path around the lake seemed to be all that Priwillow wasn't. It was real and good; even though it was a paved path. Mable wished it wasn't, but was glad it was or she couldn't have gone on it. Free movement had been taken away from her like her William and seemed to hurt her about the same. It was what she and William had both loved to do the most. They had both taken great pleasure in their own movements and loved that they were slowly moving through this old world together; now only the planet was still moving and she was forced to be still and alone. The gravitational force seemed to hold her in her chair and it sickened her. She knew that she couldn't get up from that chair even if she had, had the power to do so.
Lucy began to talk about how lucky her family was to have all of the little things that she always forgot they had, had until she was around Mable....
Is everyone growing tired of these little snippets? Want me to keep going, start a new story, or what? Just me know,
David
KEEP GOING!
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