Tiny Tuesday
Find a Conversation
Tiny Tuesday
| Tue, 02-26-2002 - 8:46am |
Tiny Tuesday
Hi everybody. Since we had so much fun with the alphabet exercise of planting three words into our piece a few weeks ago, let's continue that with the letters D, E, and F. Try to place these into your Tiny Tuesday in any order you wish: dandelion, Emmeline, and funky. Remember, have fun, and happy writing! Sammi

Pages
Wonderful, Tank...(m)
I'm in awe of this. And envious. You did a great job with this, Sammi
Very Nice...(m)
You did a good job with this. And I like that she found something positive out of all the sorrow. Thanks for sharing, Sammi
More, more...(m)
..writing lady, I want more. You got me hooked, Maria. Do you plan to expand this? You did great with these three words, Sammi
My TT: Emmeline...(m)
I sat in the dark and sipped from my glass, wrinkling my nose at the funky taste of the dandelion wine as I contemplated the ragged edges of my so called life. Duwayne was gone, dead and buried, nye on a month now.
"Emmeline..."
The whisper in the dark was nothing new to me, not in this past month. I sipped again and sat alone.
"Emmeline..."
I didn't bother to wipe the tears from my cheeks as I waited for the silence to be broken again.
"Emmeline..."
"What?" I whispered back. "What tonight?"
"Dance with me, Emmeline..."
"To what?" I asked, and then I heard the soft strains of Mozart. I sipped again as I watched Duwayne materialize in front of me.
"Dance with me through the dandelion fields and then we'll dance some more..."
I sat my glass down on the end table and stood, stretching out my hand to his. "And then after we dance?"
His laughter hauntingly filled the room as he swung me around. "Then we make love in the dandelions..."
I followed him out the door, hand in hand, towards the dandelions on the hillside....
The End.
Touching (m)
A true romance, what a heart warming scene.Great job!!
Maria
Sammi...
How touching... how heartwarming. Thank you for share this with us.
Very beautifully put.
Jade
Have a mystical day,
Jade
Please Pray and Support O
Very nice! Thanks for sharing. :-) (n/t)
Michelle, co-cl for The Writing Life
Life is short. Buy the shoes.
Visit
TT: Two Months To Go...
Two months to go.
My father hasn’t spoken to me for four years. I’m not missing out on any great conversation. He used to yell at me for smoking, yell at me for drinking his Jack Daniels, and yell at me for steaming up the mirror in the bathroom.
When I told him who I truly was, he froze me out.
I don’t expect him ever to accept me. Mother tries to talk to him, to warm him up to the idea that his youngest son is not a complete waste of a life. She doesn’t completely understand why I am the way I am, but she loves me with the best she can muster. She supports me in my decisions; she even plans to come with me to the surgery.
You see, I’m a woman trapped inside a man’s body.
I have identified as a woman since I was fourteen, since I first got the nerve to stuff a bra and pull on a snug sweater. When I was seventeen I had lip implants and cheekbone surgery. I take estrogen pills I buy off the Internet because we can’t buy those here in Canada. I shave my legs, and swim six days a week to keep slim and supple. I use women’s washrooms in public places.
I have to live like a woman for two years before they will perform the surgery on me. I’ve done so since I was fourteen but the doctors only started counting twenty-two months ago.
My niece calls me Uncle Emmeline; she paints me pictures of daffodils and dandelions. We put makeup on each other and paint each other’s nails. We slip on her mother’s high-heeled shoes when we dress up for pretend glamour pageants in her living room. Her dad, my brother, says I dress like a freak, but she says I dress funky. I love her to bits.
I live in a town of 500 “friendly peopleâ€. I get teased, harassed, chased down by teens in rusty pickup trucks. I get strange looks in Zellers and the swimming pool. I’ve never had a date. The women in the hair salon hush when I come in to have my roots touched up or my nails sculpted; I haven’t had the nerve to have a bikini wax yet.
Two months to go until I can truly be me. Until I can be free.
Loved it!!! (m)
I definitely expected words other than a marriage proposal to come out of Frank's mouth. This was so sweet and very touching.
Mac
TT - Voyage of the Odyssey part II (m)
Here's a link to the first part.
http://boards1.ivillage.com/messages/get/bcbasics17/16.html
It was hard working in that dang dandelion! This is a really rough draft. If I was going to submit it somewhere, I'd have to do some serious research or I'd have NASA folks all over my case. lol ~Heather
~~~~~~~
“Can you hear that?†said Thom, overcome with her singing yet again. His entire body vibrated with the sweet sound of it. How could they not hear it? Or feel it? Or whatever was happening. It couldn’t just be him. They seemed to be seeing her after all.
“Hear what?†said Joe, staring out the window like the rest of them.
“No,†Ginnie shook her head and went back to her laptop, “Sorry.â€
“She reminds me of my ex-wife,†sighed Louis, “Emmeline. But I don’t hear anything. What’s she saying?â€
“I’m not sure,†said Thom, trying to understand again. Why had she picked him?
“Mass hallucination,†said Joe, “There’s nothing there! Nothing real! We’ve got to land this thing before we all go nuts.†Louis glanced at him.
“Take it easy, Joe,†he said gently, “We know you don’t want to be here. Hell, none of us wanted to come on this mission. But I think there is something out there. Don’t know what. And yeah, maybe we are losing our minds. But let’s give Thom the benefit, ok?â€
“You all want to go crazy, fine, but I won’t be a part of it.†Joe pushed himself out the cockpit portal angrily.
“I hate to say this,†said Ginnie, “But I can’t connect anymore.†She stared at her screen and sighed heavily. “I’m with Joe, I just want to get home.†She ripped the bungie off and let the laptop float. She reached over to try the radio again.
“Houston, come in. Houston. If anyone’s listening, if anyone can hear us, come in.†she said desperately. She and Louis waited, hoping, holding their breath. Nothing. She switched to a different frequency, tried again. Still nothing.
She switched one more time, to the emergency back up channel. “Kennedy, come in, if anyone can here me, come in. Houston’s not responding. We’ve lost all communications. Please, if anyone, can hear me, respond.†She and Louis stared at the radio as if their staring would make a voice crackle on the other end.
Thom was near the control panel, listening to the woman, or whatever she was. She was telling him things would be fine. Or rather, that strange song made him feel that things would work out. He didn’t know how that could be, but he was willing to believe. She hovered in the air outside the window and he hung onto the control panel, waiting raptly for whatever was coming next. Suddenly she was gone, leaving him with the feeling that if they were to get back to earth, it was up to him to find a way.
His mind raced, trying to figure out a way. He didn’t know much about space travel. He’d had six weeks of training as a payload specialist before lift-off, that was it. But he had to come up with something. He would. Hadn’t his father always told him he was in the wrong business? That with an IQ like his he ought to be a rocket scientist or something? In his head he heard his father’s voice, haranguing him for choosing a job at some po-dunk satellite company, wasting his talents.
“Nothing,†said Louis, interrupting Thom’s spinning thoughts. “Nothing, dammit.†Ginnie reached for the radio control again. “Forget it,†Louis told her. He glanced out the window. In the spot where the strange woman had been the earth hung peacefully in space, giving no sign of the terrors that might be going on down at its surface.
“We’re all gonna die,†said Ginnie. “What if they’ve bombed the space center? What if nothing’s left down there? We’ll never get back.â€
“Go see how Joe’s doing, Gin.†Louis waved her out of the cabin. “I’ll think of something, promise. We will get back.†Ginnie disappeared out the portal.
“All right Thom,†said Louis, “This better be good. Do you have any idea what’s going on? And don’t give me any of your funky tech talk, use English.â€
“Sir, I have no idea what’s going on.†Shrugged Thom, “But,†he added as Louis’ face darkened, “I think we’re going to be all right.â€
“And what makes you think that? You think she’s some kind of angel or something?â€
“Well, why not?†said Thom. “I don’t know what she is, but she’s trying to help.â€
“Did she give you any ideas about what we can do to get the hell back to earth?â€
“Well, no, but I’m working on it. I think there might be a way we can get communications back. Permission to play around with the radio?â€
“What’ve you got in mind?â€
“There’s a guy I know from work, he’s into short-wave radio, I might be able to get to him.â€
“What the - †Louis snapped, “Ham radio?â€
“Yeah, there was something about it in my training, they said some of the astronauts have it as a hobby and bring equipment up here,†Thom defended himself, “So? Permission to rummage around for parts?â€
“I don’t know what you think you’ll find,†said Louis, “But go for it. Maybe it’s our only chance. Just don’t take anything apart before you ask me. What exactly are you looking for?â€
Thom explained what he was going to do. Louis didn’t understand all of it, which was fine. He wasn’t the captain because of his technical expertise, but because he knew how to fly. So Thom tried to spell it out plainly. The two of them rummaged around, asking the others if Thom could look a the various gadgets they’d brought with them. Joe objected heavily but finally gave in. The crew was in a terrible mood for the most part, each of them feeling as though they were doomed and resigning themselves to it. Their supplies wouldn’t last forever, Thom realized. They didn’t have a way to propel the shuttle, but then the space station was closed anyway. He tried to buoy them up with his conversation but it didn’t seem to work. He finally strapped himself into a cockpit seat and started fiddling around with what he’d gathered.
“Yes!†he shouted a couple hours later, causing everyone to come tumbling down the cockpit portal. “Yes! Yes! I *knew* it would work!â€
Louis was the first to make it in. “Tell me what you’ve got.â€
“My friend, Gary, I’ve got him on the radio,†said Thom triumphantly.
“And how the hell is he supposed to help us?†said Joe, coming up behind the captain. Louis motioned for him to shut up.
“Well, that I don’t really know. Captain?â€
“Can he contact NASA? I’ve got a friend down there who was supposed to be at work at Johnson today but when I emailed him last night he was sick,†Louis rattled off his friend’s home phone number and name. Thom relayed the message to Gary and they heard Gary’s voice through the static.
“It’s ringing,†he said across millions of miles. What followed was the most amazing conversation Thom had witnessed, with himself and Gary as the go-betweens, relaying information back and forth from Louis and his friend who worked in Mission Control. Everyone squeezed into the tiny cabin and listened as Louis’ friend told them about the situation on the surface. The terrorists had let everyone outside the main Mission Control center out of the space center, but everyone else was being held hostage and the terrorists had hacked into all the computer systems. The news had said they were making demands but he didn’t know what. He said the others who’d been freed had been trying frantically to find a way to contact them. Finally they had to let him go but he promised he’d get them back safely, one way or another.
“All right everyone,†said Louis, as they finished the conversation. “Thom and I will stay up. But I want everyone else to go get some rest. There’s no use hanging around up here waiting. We’ll keep on top of it and if I need one you I’ll send Thom to get you.â€
The rest of the crew reluctantly pulled themselves, one after the other, back down to the middeck. Louis hoped they’d rest but he doubted it.
A couple more hours passed as Louis and Thom waited for word. The strange woman appeared again at the window and Thom as filled with that blissful feeling again as she sang again in that strange way.
“I can’t believe you can’t hear that,†he told Louis, “She’s singing the most beautiful song, she’s saying again that things will be fine.†he paused, “That things are fine.†He glanced out the window at her, questioning. Had something changed below?
Just then Gary’s crackly voice came back on. “Oh my God! Thom!â€
“What? What’s going on down there?â€
“Mission Control’s being cleared out. You’ll never guess what happened.â€
“What? Come on, what’s going on!†said Thom, trying not to yell.
“The team the government sent for the terrorists got through. The guy in charge - the terrorist in charge - had a heart attack or something. All hell broke loose, but I just got a call from Mission Control, they’re trying to come back online. I’m headed there now.â€
Thom glanced up at the window. The woman was still there. She smiled at him and Louis, then disappeared.
“Do you think she had anything to do with that?†said Louis.
Thom shrugged. “Try Houston again.â€
This time they got through. Thom swished out the portal to spread the good news as Louis took over, then went to hook up his equipment again. He glanced down at the rolls of paper that the printer had spit out. He thought he understood, finally; at least partially. It had been a warning, like he suspected. But it had been a reassurance too - that they wouldn’t be alone, that things would work out. Not to be afraid. Whoever had sent the message had been trying to tell them that they were there to help.
He stuffed the papers in a duffel bag and went back to middeck to prepare for re-entry. They’d be home soon.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next day as the shuttle made it through the atmosphere, everyone aboard cheered. Somehow Thom had this picture of them walking off the shuttle as heroes in slow motion, like in some movie. And they did, more or less. At least Thom felt he was moving in slow motion with the sudden grip of gravity making him feel like he was moving through mud. He had to be braced up by the others as they trudged along to cheers and the glare of flashbulbs.
They were led back into the space station where doctors were waiting to look them over. After a few minutes, one of the doctors handed Louis a bag. He opened it and handed something to Thom.
“New, uh, Jennifer Lopez cd,†Louis said. “I asked someone to find you a copy while we were still up there.â€
“Wahoo!†said Thom, taking it from him. “You gotta love J-Lo. Thanks, Captain.â€
“Thanks for keeping your head when everyone else was losing theirs,†replied Louis gruffly.
They were all kept busy in the following days, catching up on what had happened, telling their stories, reuniting with families and friends. The media were having another field day; someone on the crew had leaked the story of the silver-haired woman and the reporters wanted details. Everyone assumed it was Thom but he hadn’t said a word, afraid of causing trouble, and figuring no one would believe him anyway. But they apparently did, and drilled him with all kinds of questions.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A couple weeks later, Thom walked into the Admissions Office at the university, thinking how much fun he’d had recently. He was all over the newspapers. Well, they all were. They’d even made an appearance on TV and were scheduled for more. He had job offers from all over the place; NASA, the federal government, the military.
He strolled over to the line in front of the window to ask about applying for the graduate program, lost in the reverie of his fifteen minutes of fame and wondering how things would sort themselves out. He’d never had much sense of direction until this code incident had come along and suddenly he’d found himself involved with genuine passion.
Someone tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around and saw a woman standing behind him in line.
“I saw you on TV,†she said, “You’re one of those astronauts, aren’t you?†She smiled. Her hair was so blonde it looked white. Thom blinked. She looked vaguely familiar. Did she really have a dandelion tucked behind one ear?
“Not really, I was just a payload specialist.†He pulled his hand out of his pocket and extended it to her. “Thom Wozowski,†he grinned, peering at her ear.
“Celia,†she replied, shaking his hand. She must have realized he was staring at her head. “My daughter picked it for me this morning,†she said, “I’m lucky I don’t have a whole ring of them around my head.â€
They laughed and started chatting as they waited in line. Thom was glad to be home.
Pages