Short Fiction, short story

Cardinal Dreams – Six Sentence Story

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Photo by Adam Muise on Unsplash

Gathering up his son’s clothes, tossed about the bedroom floor, Daniel looked at his slumbering son as he lay with his ball glove secured in hand and his signed baseball had rolled off onto the blanket. Hair tousled in rings of curls, Jeffrey slumbered away with little boy dreams.

It was not long before this night, that Daniel and Jeffrey were spectators at their very first St. Louis Cardinals baseball game, a dream realized when Jeffrey’s grandparents surprised him with the tickets on his birthday, Daniel was even more excited than Jeffrey and immediately made plans for the big event.

Quietly, Daniel lay all of Jeffrey’s clothes out for the next day, before leaving his room and preparing for his own day to come, packing lunches, paying bills, making sure there was nothing left undone before embarking on their journey.

“Batter, batter,” chanted by the fans, they expected Albert Pujols to hit a homer each time he stood, ready to give it his all, having watched him play, religiously, Daniel enlisted his sidekick, Jeffrey, as part of the fan base of their home.

Falling into a deep sleep, partly from exhaustion and partly from having it all to do, Daniel drifted into a dream state, deeper than he had known in a long time, perhaps since she was by his side, before, well, before, she drifted off and didn’t wake up; Daniel dreamed that he was sitting at Busch Stadium, Tiffany by his side and Jeffrey on her lap, watching the pre-game activities, he looked in her eyes and grinned, bouncing Jeffrey on her knee, Tiffany smiled back, winking and then looked at their son as he babbled in baby talk, having a gleeful time.

Waking from his sleep, Daniel wiped the tears from his eyes, then got up to check on Jeffrey, who was still soundly sleeping; Placing his hand on his son’s warm head, he said a prayer and went back to bed, thinking about that wink and how someday he would find her again by his side.

…..

There you have it, the Six Sentence Story, thanks to the devotion of Denise as she provides the weekly prompt and makes sure we have a place to share our stories. Thanks so much to her. If you wish to participate, go to this LINK

Rules of the hop:
Write 6 Sentences. No more. No less.
Use the current week’s prompt word.
Come back here on Thursday, link your post…
Spread the word and put in a good one to your fellow writers 🙂

PROMPT WORD:  CARDINAL

Personal Essay, poetry

The Send Off

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The Send Off
a haibun

Preparing poems for a manuscript is a daunting experience. Just when you think they are all ready to send, you take that last look and there you see it. One has a stain on his shirt, she has jelly circling her mouth, an untied shoe, a shirt not tucked in and so it goes. Back to putting the kids in order and making sure they do nothing to embarrass you. There will be one who belches and is rather proud of it and another who gets gassy and lets everybody know in more ways than one. Alas… as soon as everything is in good form and functional and relatable and all the other ables you put them in the minivan and take them off to deliver them to the judges, experts, or whoever has devoted never enough time to look them over. I just hope that they behave while not under my watch. Somehow, I trust they will, but oh my I hope that chili last night didn’t stir things up. Such is the life of a poet, preparing the way for her children to have a review. Wish us all lots of luck!

taking a fat chance
life has many turns and quirks
hope Stanley behaves