Flash! Friday - the one with the time travelling tree

The Truth about Time Travel

“The tree is as old as time itself; according to folklore it has magical properties.”

She giggled at that, giving me a gentle shove as if I had made it up to fool her.  We stopped the car so we could walk around the vast circumference.

“I can’t believe the road goes right through the middle!” She visibly shuddered, as she peered through the tunnel.

“You go all the way back to the beginning of time when you pass through.”

“You really are silly,” she trilled. “Come on then, take me on an adventure!”

I broke off a piece of ancient outer bark that would keep me anchored to our own time and slipped it in my pocket.

I’d be safe from the time vortex that spiralled round the inner rings of the tree but my companion? 

Well she did ask for an adventure and I’d told her no lies!

Written for this week's Flash! Friday challenge, picture prompt as above, Dragon's Bidding - to include an element of time travel, all written in 150 words with a 10 word leeway - although I managed to get it spot on! Can I have some extra points for that Rebekah?

If I could travel back in time…

Yesterday I went to see About Time, the new Richard Curtis film. I always enjoy his writing and the way he tells a story, I’ve already watched Notting Hill this week on DVD and I was really looking forward to this film even without Hugh Grant in it!

I wasn’t disappointed; the film made me laugh out loud and inevitably made me cry. Any romantic movie stirs up my emotions but I can’t tell you about everything that made me cry because I don’t want to spoil the plot for anyone.

However it is not spoiling things too much to say that the movie is about a man who can travel in time, but only backwards and only within his own life.

To perform this feat all he has to stand in a dark room, usually a cupboard or a wardrobe, clench his fists tight and think about the exact moment he wants to go back to, usually with a view of changing things for the better.

It got me thinking … if I could stand in my wardrobe and clench my fists how far would I want to travel back in time? What would I want to change? And let’s pretend I only get one go at it so I have to pick my moment well.

I’ve done some pretty silly things in my time, and I’m certainly not listing them all on here. Some things I cringe over - how could I ever have been so daft? I could go back and change them, stop me from making a fool of myself but without those moments that I laugh about would I still be me? And often my friends get a good giggle out of them as well! It’s all part of growing up, even if I am still learning at 45!

No in the grand scheme of things those events are not worth going back for.

Would I instead choose to go back to the last time I saw Andrew? What if I had stayed with him that afternoon instead of going out? Could I have saved him?

Time travel really does throw up the most interesting of dilemmas. If Andrew had his heart attack, because I’m not sure much could have prevented it, but if he survived would he have been the same person?

His dad had his first heart attack at the same age but it affected him to the extent that he was never quite the same again. To be honest I’m not sure I would have coped well with a shadow of Andrew in our lives, always there but not quite how he should be.

No I think if I was going to go back in time it would have to be to a happy day, probably one of those days out we had as a family that last summer.

Perhaps the one where we dropped the camera – let’s rewind that – I’d hold that precious object so tightly and capture many more happy snaps.

Eliminating the broken camera would save the arguments that followed; youngest son wouldn’t have been as moody as we walked along blaming himself, when really it was just an accident passing the camera between us when it slipped from our fingers, I was just as much to blame for letting go of the strap.

However this was still mostly a happy day, I would just like to go back and smooth out the crinkly edges of it, make it almost more than perfect.

The boys would skim stones until it became second nature and it would remain forever a talent their dad had taught them one sunny day. OK so it’s not the greatest life skill but it’s something youngest son has never mastered and it makes me sad to watch him when he sort of tries and immediately gives up.

If I could live this day again I would laugh louder and longer, enjoying every second. I would forget about my aching back and the long car journey which had exacerbated the nagging pain. I would just enjoy it all over again and I would make time for more kisses and hand holding and talking about the completely unimportant trivial stuff – those little things that I truly miss.

I’m really not asking for much, I don’t want to change time or alter the future – oh if only I could step into the wardrobe and enter another world!

But all we can do is enjoy the here and now. I’m learning and trying, choosing JOY when I remember, counting my blessings and trying so hard not to worry about what the future holds.

The past is sadly gone but I can always relive that day in my memories, maybe it wasn’t totally perfect but it was pretty good nevertheless!

Mid Week Blues Buster - STAY

Well it's a week for participating in new writing prompts. I have always liked the look of Jeff Tsuruoka's Mid Week Blues Buster challenge but have never quite had the time to fit it in.

Instead of a picture or a word or even nine words his prompt is a song. Then you write a story of about 500 words, but the rules are very lenient and the story can be anything from 300 to 700.

This week’s prompt is provided by Manchester duo… Hurts.



The song is, “Stay”.  Here’s the link; http://youtu.be/1nP3XB7hrFo

And here's the story it inspired...

We say goodbye in the pouring rain, you shake my hand like the true gentleman you are.

Then you turn and leave without a single word.

But then you’ve already told me this is never going to work. Your letter so articulate and neatly written in your cursive old fashioned handwriting explaining everything.

Holding in all my raw emotions I watch you walk away, your umbrella aloft protecting you from the storm. Once you turn the corner, without so much as a backwards glance, tears run down my face mingling with raindrops. 

I can’t move yet all I want to do is run after you and beg you to stay - please. We can make this work - somehow. That’s what love is all about. Compromise, give and take, call it whatever you like.

Was it a mistake to see you one final time?

Well one last time for me but for you this is actually our very first meeting – isn’t it funny how time travel works – I’m not sure I’ll ever understand why our days together had to be so brief when you had the capacity to turn an hour into an entire lifetime.

What is the point of your gift if you can’t use it to be happy or to make those you love happy too?

In your time, the you who’s just left me standing here, oblivious to how I even feel, you’ve not even written this letter yet, this letter that is fading before my eyes. 

At first I think it is just the ink running, words smudging in the wet but as I look closer the blue script is not running but erasing line by line. I trace the disappearing words with my finger until I have nothing left of you.

I feel wobbly as if my legs will no longer hold my weight.

Time is being re-written.

And then the rain stops, at least it no longer drips on my head or runs down my face.

I look up to see the shadow of a big black umbrella and your smiling face.

“It’s all been a mistake,” you whisper softly, “I’ve decided to stay!”

360 words

Loose ends and neat edges...

I now find myself rounding up the months and saying it's almost 3 years since Andrew died. Although actually it's more like 2 years, eight months and a few days since I started blogging my story for all the world to read. 

It would be foolish to say I don’t unravel anymore, I can still get caught out unawares...

But some loose ends do get tidied up. The kitchen was finally, finally finished yesterday with the last piece of flooring laid. We had to wait for the window seat to be completed to make the edges perfect.

The kitchen saga has been a long running one and it is strange to look at it now all pristine and complete. Although actually there’s already a little chip in the granite – I think I caught the edge of the draining board with my heavy le creuset casserole dish – oops! Nothing stays perfect for long!

This morning I’ve just taken my car to the garage for its second full service. I’ve driven over 20,000 miles and had the car for almost 2 years now. Was it that long ago I wrote about the trepidation when I first got it? It’s the first car I’ve ever bought by myself there was a lot of agonising beforehand that I was making the right decision. 

However it’s no longer my shiny new car just the car that gets us from A to B every day. There’s even an odd scratch here and there.

Time inevitably rolls on and once again we find ourselves in the summer holidays, which for once are strangely warm and sunny. It’s that time of year when I’m flitting about and my writing becomes haphazard. 

I predict a few odd posts in the next month and a flurry of writing at the end of the summer when I try to settle back into a routine – hahaha!

In September all will change again as oldest son starts college and A levels. He’s having two weeks away without us this summer, things are moving on and I’m trying to find things we can all do as a family as often as I can – it’s not easy when we are all so different.

Just a week ago I was stressing about my house viewing and here I sit today staring at a pile of packing - have we got everything we need to go away on our various adventures? 

Well the garage has just rung, the car's all ready to go, I've written a shopping list and can't sit here all day!

Ending, beginnings and everything in between.

Loose ends and neat edges – life is always made up of both!

God is Stirring

It is said that God moves in mysterious ways well there have been a lot of “mysterious” things happening in my house of late. So I take that as a sign God is stirring.

I was going to write, nothing as mysterious as things that go BUMP in the night – but then I remembered the ceiling falling down at 1 a.m. and I guess that is where it really all began…

(you can catch up on that part of the story here.)

When the hot water tank was replaced there came a point where the valve connecting the Aga to the water supply needed to be turned off. I had no idea where to find it and it is only because the cupboards were being pulled out at the time that it was uncovered at all, at just the perfect moment. It was hidden from sight right at the back behind the fitted cupboard with NO access whatsoever.

I’ve been pondering ever since how we can leave a gap to get to the valve and apart from having a false back to new cupboard, which would still be awkward I’d drawn a blank. I knew there must be a solution but it wasn’t something I was going to figure out alone. I’m just not qualified.

Then last week when we had the walls plastered the Aga had to be turned off AGAIN so the plaster didn’t crack as it dried.

Not a problem, so I thought, I could use the new immersion heater for my hot water needs and I could switch the Aga back on in a couple of days and everything would be up and running by the weekend.

If you read my ups and down post the other day you’ll realise that things didn’t go quite as I had planned.

Firstly I discovered the immersion heater wasn’t working when I jumped into a freezing shower!

Then when I tried to re-light the Aga I failed miserably.

I stropped about and stamped my feet, this was all too much to bear.

The only viable option open to me was to call in an engineer to service the Aga and to ask the plumber to come back and fix whatever the problem was with the water heater.

He couldn’t believe there was something wrong with it and do you know what when he came round today it all was working fine!

Now I tried it more than once over the weekend to no avail.

I feel so stupid – except - once more the timing has been perfect.

You see the Aga engineer had already arrived and I’d asked him that all important question.

“Can we move that valve to make it more accessible?”

“Not a problem. It just has to be done by a plumber.”

So when the plumber turned up half an hour later I asked him if he could move it. He checked the size of the pipe and he’s going to give me a ring and get the job done before all the new cupboards are fitted. 

Knowing very little about plumbing or maintenance I have successfully managed to find the right people to solve my problem but I can’t take all the credit.

I think someone else has had a hand in this "mysterious" timing – you can call it co-incidence if you wish but I believe God’s hand is in all of this. 

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.” Isaiah 55 v 8

I’ve spent so long waiting for this new kitchen, so long dreaming up colour schemes and longing for the day it looks magnificent and sparkly but hidden behind the scenes are all the little details that will make things run smoothly. As I have discovered throughout this whole experience you can’t rush those.

And if God can order events in my kitchen to happen at the right time he might very well be working behind the scenes in those other areas of my life I’d like sorting out too.