Saturday, July 2, 2011

A Fourth of July Saturday Centus!!!

The weather is under discussion again. Now it is so hot as to be dangerous. Heat index reaching 105 and 106 makes being outside miserable! Why, it might as well be winter; we are pushed inside to books, movies and looking out the windows while the electric meter races.

Speaking of weather, there are only 12 more days for submitting to the Storm Country anthology to benefit Joplin. (Seehttp://stormcountry.wordpress.com/ for details.) We are running short of fiction dealing with Midwestern weather issues. Anyone thought of writing a story about HEAT?

Today Jenny tosses out a prompt with words from our national anthem. Just right for the Fourth of July weekend since we are thinking patriotism and flags right now. Her prompt is Oh, say can you see. My offering is below and well, you won't be surprised to see me influenced by the Joplin tale...it is still very much with us here in southwestern Missouri. For full writing details, please visit Jenny at:http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/2011/07/saturday-centus-oh-say-can-you-see.html.

Happy Fourth of July to everyone!



                                                       Let It Wave!
Dennison stood in a daze after the killer tornado. As far as his eye could see, trees were stripped, houses gone; new vistas shimmered in drizzling rain. Parents stood on crushed debris clasping their children in a vise-like grip. Neighbor hugged neighbor in relief, celebrating being alive. Somewhere a tiny voice drifted over eerie silence.



In front of a flagpole that amazingly still stood erect as a ship’s mast, stood a petite child in ragged dress. She stared up at the unfurled flag singing “Oh say can you see…” Dennison stepped up beside her, his tears streaming, and joined with “and the home of the brave.”




13 comments:

Susan Anderson said...

Glad you kept trying to post it, Claudia. Sweet Centus!

=)

cj Schlottman said...

Three time's the charm! This post is so sweet and gentle. To see hope in the middle of all that devastation is something a child would do, and you illustrated it well.

Unknown said...

Great write, love that ending. The weather has been strange lately. Here in Mn there is no happy medium, it's either rainy & cool or humid or it's sunny & humid although last night it did storm & it wasn't so bad today... so I guess we get 1 happy medium day every now & then... LOL

jeff campbell said...

Well done...moving and patriotic...Peace and blessings

Dazee Dreamer said...

Beautiful job. And a little child shall lead them.

Jo said...

oh so sad, so sweet and patriotic and brave ...

Ames said...

Just stopping by to say Happy 4th of July!

This was very good!~Ames

Lisa Ricard Claro said...

Lovely. . .

Enjoy a safe and happy July 4th!

Jenny said...

I'm sorry you had all those problems Claudia. I cleared out the bad links and retitled this one for you!

I liked the direction you took this. You made me think of what so many families are still recovering from. Thanks for that reminder. I need to make a donation!

Bargain Decorating with Laurie said...

This brought tears to my eyes. Beautiful! laurie

Unknown said...

Dear Claudia,
This was a very sweet story! And I think it could even be true. Catastrophes bring out the best and worst in people. Well done.

You are asking about stories about heat. There must be a lot of ways of writing about all kinds of weather. My SC-post is about the weather. Rain. I could expand it and make the rain even more important. I am going to write more about just rainy weather in upcoming posts.
I have no stories about heat right now, but I'm sure that I could come up with one. How many words do you need?

Best wishes,
Anna
A Rainy Day in July-Anna's SC wk 61

BECKY said...

How did I miss this?? With all my blog hop-scotching, I guess I can't keep track of who I visit and who I don't. So sorry, dear Claudia! Great Sat Centus!!

Nonna said...

Excellent Claudia ! This one really touched me and teared me up...very well written and topical !