The Hidden Away [flash 275]

Rory and Sue snuck surreptitiously into the upstairs study while Rose slept on the sofa downstairs.

“Do you know where it is?” Sue whispered.

“No,” Rory said, taking out his pistol. “But this is our last chance. We must find that soy turtle soup recipe. It has the secret code hidden in it.”

Sue looked confused. “You mean in a pot of slop? Do I have to slave away over a stove?”

“Never, my pet,” Rory reassured her. “Trust me. The code is buried in the recipe itself!”

“Oh good then.” Sue poked around on the desk. “Rose must be a poet. I see bits of verse but no recipes. I wish we could go out for pie, Rory. I love pie.”

Rory bent over to peer under the desk. “We can later–oof! Did you hear that rip? I tore my trousers. They’re split open.”

“Pity,” Sue said. “And those are your new ones. It’s hard to find those stripes you like.”

“This spoils my whole day,” Rory said with a pout. “I don’t even care about the treasure hunt now.”

Sue began to protest. “But we haven’t won any games tonight, honey. We’ll be known as the family losers. I thought we were doing well at this spy challenge.”

“I don’t care.” Rory flung himself in a chair. “These elaborate games are torture. Why can’t Aunt Rose throw normal parties?”

“She’s your aunt.” Sue reminded him. “So, you shouldn’t be asking me.”

There came a horrific shriek from downstairs. “Help!” screamed a man. “Aunt Rose is dead! Someone strangled her with a rope!”

Rory and Sue just looked at each other and laughed.

~*~

Written for Rory’s What’s Your Story?

Words made from surreptitiously: is, it, losers, pet, pie, pistol, pity, poet, pot, pout, protest, rip, ripe, Rory, slept, slop, so, soup, soy, split, spoils, spy, stripes, Sue, surreptitiously, to, tore, torture, trousers, trust, turtle.

Image from the Happy Color app.

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Voices Rant On! [fiction 200]

“Have a seat,” said the doctor. “Would you like a cup of tea?”

“No, thanks,” Vera told him. “I’m too upset to sit down. I was just on the train and everyone was so loud.”

“Hmm,” said the doc, stroking his vest. “I wonder if you’ve tried wearing something to block the sound from your ears.”

Vera paced back and forth, shaking her head. “Nice notion, but I still hear all the voices, yelling about the state of the nation and the cost of cat food.”

“Very interesting,” the doc murmured. “Myself, I prefer a raven for a pet. They never starve because they go out and hunt rats.”

“That’s insane,” Vera said.

“Is not,” said the doc. “You’re the patient, never more.”

“I’m leaving this conversation.” Vera headed for the door. “Cancel my next appointment too. I’d rather save the money!”

“Fine!” The doc stamped her file case closed. “Just remember all those rants you hear are coming from inside your own head, ha ha ha!”

After a few minutes the doctor told his nurse to send in his next patient.

“Very funny, Stan,” said the nurse. “It’s time for your meds then off to beddy bye with you.”

~*~

Written for Rory’s What’s Your Story Then?

Words made from conversation: case, cat, conversation, cost, ears, in, insane, is, nation, nice, no, not, notion, on, rants, rats, raven, save, seat, sit, so, Stan, starve, tea, to, train, Vera, vest, voices.

Image from Pixabay.

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

The Sprawling Legend [fiction 220]

The tale began in a secluded glade. An angel was said to have fallen from heaven and become tangled in a weeping willow, which turned its branches to gold. Centuries later, an impoverished baron named Dean was awarded the land and gated off the entire forest for hunting, yet that didn’t stop many a curious lad from sneaking in to view the golden tree.

Over tea one afternoon, a distraught young wife thought she heard that praying under the willow would help her conceive, so she snuck onto the estate late one night… and lo… nine months later that gal had a baby. No one seemed to notice the aged baron had a gleam in his eye when he went down to his favorite pub to mooch ale and eat kidney pie.

But word was out, and soon infertile couples from all over the country were flocking to the estate, knocking at the gate, and begging for a date to visit the glade. Baron Dean soon realized he could charge a fee and replenish his gambling losses from this new venture. He happily led the couples to the weeping willow after they paid and even let them stay overnight in a guest room for an exorbitant rate. Many did conceive and thus the Legend of the Golden Tree kept sprawling.

~*~

Written for Rory’s What’s Your Story Then?

Words made from tangled: aged, ale, an, and, angel, date, dean, eat, gal, gate, gated, glade, lad, land, later, led, tale, tangled, tea

Image from Pixabay.

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

One for the Road! [fiction 261]

“Are you sure this will work?” Bran said to Littlefinger.

The older man nodded. “I saw it in a movie. I think it was one a them Tom Cruise flicks.”

“Oh, he’s great!” Bran said, unlocking the door with the key he’d stolen earlier during his illness ruse.

“Keep your voice down,” Littlefinger warned. “Else we’ll have the guards over here.”

The two convicts snuck into the warden’s private office, where Littlefinger had figured out there was a back door out to the parking lot and freedom. He hadn’t known about the liquor cabinet though. “Let’s have a quick drink, Bran. A cure for what ails us, eh?”

Bran frowned. “But I wasn’t really sick. It was just a trick, remember? Don’t you think we should stick to our plan and escape quick down to the cove?”

“Mmm rice wine!” Littlefinger exclaimed. “Love this stuff. Try it, Bran. It’s midnight and we have lots of time.”

“Okay.” Bran tasted the wine. “It is good. A bit sour though. I’d rather have a slug of whiskey.”

“I can’t stand whiskey without ice,” the other man said. “Look, he has Courvoisier. Our warden sure has fancy tastes. I wonder how much he gets paid?”

“Can we try it?” Bran asked eagerly after he sampled the warden’s apricot brandy. “We might get sore heads though.”

“Just a small sip,” Littlefinger said. “One for the road!”

But one led to another and the warden found them both passed out on the floor of his office when he got to work the next day at 7am.

~*~

Written for Rory’s Word Story

Words used from Courvoisier: cove, cruise, cure, ice, is, our, over, rice, ruse, sore, sour, sure, us, voice

Image from Pexels

©️2019 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

The Chocolate Lady’s Eight Candle Book Tag ~ Day 4

To celebrate Chanukah this year and my friend the Chocolate Lady, I am accepting her challenge to participate in the Eight Candle Book Tag. This is a fun game and very easy to play ~ just visit her link for the options. I am of course doing the most complicated version. 😀

This time I’m going with a non-fiction book: On Writing by Stephen King. I knew I’d enjoy reading how the master does it, and I’d already seen a few snippets plus read rave reviews before I began. I was more than pleased. Excellent book!

Happy Chanukah!

~*~

Images from The Chocolate Lady’s blog

©️2019 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

The Little Drummer Boy Challenge [dating story]

Oops, I did it again! 😀 Won the Little Drummer Boy Challenge, that is. It’s this fun game where you try to avoid hearing any version of LDB between 12:01AM Black Friday until midnight December 23. I first found out about it on ye olde book of face, but the host has a blog and a twitter, so I am able to stay connected, yay! I think I’ve been playing for 5 years and have lost once or twice.

I know I lost once for sure because it was at a Barnes & Noble, where I ended up after meeting one of the strangest dating site men. And that’s saying something, trust me. It was 2016, when I was totally broken-hearted and trying to recover, as was my way, by immediately flinging myself into something new. This guy and I hit it off online because he was funny. I like the funny. Funny is good. He was a bit mean though, which I don’t like, but often you have to take the mean with the funny. That’s how it works. I have heard, which I know you will find absurd, that I also am mean. I KNOW RIGHT? 😱

Anyway, this guy, let’s call him Mitty, was a total extrovert online and in text. He even called me in the mornings on the way to work and just jabbered away, all upbeat and flirty. I thought maybe he was gonna be too talkative and pushy for me, IYKWIM (AITYD). But I really wanted to meet him (or anyone above-ground) to get my mind off that other guy, so I proceeded.

We decided to meet at a Bed, Bath & Beyond because Mitty needed new drapes. We had these fun ideas like we’d pretend to be married as soon as we saw each other and try out the beds because ours had “worn out,” etc. I was definitely excited about experiencing his sense of humor in person, though a lil worried I might not be able to keep up. 😬

I needn’t have stressed. In person, Mitty was a mouse. 🐭 He could barely mumble hello. Where was the funny, flirty man on the phone? Idk! He was the same guy as in his photos, but he did not have the same personality… so weird! Maybe he didn’t like me in person, but I had sent accurate pics, so I don’t think that was it. In any case, we spent about 15 minutes looking at drapes, then Mitty said he didn’t like any and was going to try other stores. That’s it. The pre-date was over. Never heard from him again.

But the point of the story is that I had like an extra hour to kill before meeting my friends, since the Mitty meeting was so short, and that’s when I waltzed into B&N, only to get blasted with a version of LDB! Oh noooooooo! Not only had Mitty failed to lift me out of my sea of heartbreak, but now I’d lost the LDBC too. Life was so unfair. 😢

But I haven’t lost since, not even last week when I was at a real live Christmas carol singalong. 🎶 They didn’t do LDB, whew! The funny thing is that I actually love the song and there are so many fantastic versions. On the way home from work today, I heard Josh Groban’s for the first time, and it was so good!

I’ll leave you with Joan Jett’s take on the tune, one of my faves. Have a wonderful night! 🎄🎁❤️

~*~

Image from Bitmoji.

©️2019 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

The Chocolate Lady’s Eight Candle Book Tag ~ Day 2

To celebrate Chanukah this year and my friend the Chocolate Lady, I am accepting her challenge to participate in the Eight Candle Book Tag. This is a fun game and very easy to play ~ just visit her link for the options. I am of course doing the most complicated version. 😀

My daughter and I loved The Cat Who Went to Paris by Peter Gethers. This is an utterly charming tale of a writer who becomes completely devoted to his quirky new Scottish Fold kitten. There’s a lot more to it than just a “cat story.” The writing is infused with love and humor throughout, and it’s also tale of romance and travel. There are two sequels; I read the final one.

Happy Chanukah!

~*~

Images from The Chocolate Lady’s blog

©️2019 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

The Furry One! [flash 138]

Splat! Hail hit the covered pot that someone had left by the bus stop. But sure enough in it sat yet another lost kitten that someone had left anonymously for Pat to adopt. The poor little thing hissed and spat, but only due to fear. Pat would take it to the cat hospital and then foster it until a spot in a forever home was found. From past experience, Pat could tell that with love and care, this baby would have a good shot at turning into a healthy, furry beauty. Already its tail was big and fluffy for such a tiny critter. Pat picked up the pot and put it in her Honda Pilot, tucking a towel around the kitten. “We’ll get you in top shape in no time, pal,” Pat said. “You just hang in there.”

~*~

Written for Rory’s Word Story

Words used from hospital: hail, hit, hospital, it, lost, pal, past, pat, pilot, pot, sat, shot, spat, spot, splat, stop, tail, this, to, top

Image from Pexels

©️2019 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

The Chocolate Lady’s Eight Candle Book Tag ~ Day 1

To celebrate Chanukah this year and my friend the Chocolate Lady, I am accepting her challenge to participate in the Eight Candle Book Tag. This is a fun game and very easy to play ~ just visit her link for the options. I am of course doing the most complicated version. 😀

I’m going to say Shopgirl by Steve Martin. People know about the movie but not so many realize that it is a book (novella) written by Steve, and while the movie is charming, the book is much better. Steve is a wonderful writer and this is a sad but also lovely romance, perfect for a lonely holiday.

Happy Chanukah!

~*~

Images from the Chocolate Lady’s blog

©️2019 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Ringlets and Winglets [socs]

I’m closing out 2019 as a single person with no romantic prospects on the horizon. Lately, I’ve been happy to mingle at many social events with no ulterior motive and that’s been nice. In the past, between 2011 and 2016, whenever I went to an event, my nerves were all jingle-jangle with the idea that there could be “someone new” there waiting for me. But slowly I’ve given up on that idea and view these events now strictly on their own merits, such as… how far do I have to drive, will parking be a pain, are peeps going to be playing board games, etc.

For 2020, the things that make my brain go all a-tingle are: healthier habits as far as eating and exercise, finishing some of my WIPs and putting them on my Kindle bookshelf for sale, enjoying my lovely new apartment and surrounding area, spending time with loved ones, reading more books.

If you’re wondering what the title of this post means… I haven’t a clue. Something to do with pigs (tails… curly… ringlets) and chickens (wings… winglets) that I was going to attempt to mash into the part where I talk about healthier habits and not eating fried food except I don’t anyway except for donuts and french fries which are neither pork nor fowl, but idek what I had in mind now so bye.

~*~

Image credit to Shelley Krupa

©️2019 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.