Author’s note: This is from a series based on my journal. Unconventional and idiosyncratic punctuation and formatting are intentional.
Last night I had a dream where I met the queen at a party involving presents on a sailboat cruising on water the color of sapphires. It may have come from Polly’s gift show-and-tell the other night. I spent my whole paycheck! she said when she got home from shopping. She unloaded everything to show me what she’d bought. She went to a skate store, the bookstore, and Walgreens. She was getting into wrapping when I went to bed. This morning I had an email from the editor of Gone Lawn accepting some flash I submitted a few weeks ago. It was the first flash I wrote after discovering the genre from a prompt Meg posted to write about two characters who have a pact. I shared the news with Meg and thanked her for her inspiration and guidance. 😊, she responded.
At the shelter today Ella and Justin were working. I took over from Lillie at the front desk. We’ve had a boatload of food, she said, and one incident but that guy’s gone now and everyone else has been chill. Extra sack lunches and cases of water sat in a box under the counter. Another group came by and set up some tables out front. We got lasagna, said a man with the group when he came inside, hot food and clothes. A volunteer named Bruce came in to do his Saturday afternoon Bible study. He totes his books and other materials in a wheeled forest-green carry-on and sets up in a room next to Ella’s office. A woman named Rhonda answered the phone and handed out supplies. She works with staff on housing on Mondays and the rest of the week she helps with outreach meeting people wherever they live. If they’re in a tent, a house, a room, street corner, I go there, she said. Justin mentioned that his mother died the day before he turned 14. He learned of her death on his birthday. I am not sure how the subject came up. I did not ask about the circumstances, of her death or how Justin learned about it. Life happens, he said. Enough said, I thought, and left it at that.
On my way home at the grocery Michael the singing cashier whistled along to the Bangles’ Walk Like an Egyptian. At home I took care of some maintenance, including unclogging the kitchen sink drain. After plugging and filling the sink with water I became concerned when I was unable to remove the stopper. Its gasket had sealed so tight. I was finally able to wedge it out with a screwdriver and then used the small plunger to add some force to the water draining. I loved seeing that steady clockwise swirl. I received an email from Court and her review of the first few installments of my journal series. I realized I had been dreading it. I am not sure why. Confirmation of incompetence? Irrelevance? I procrastinated by reading stupid stories in the news such as one on insanely expensive Caribbean resorts and another on tax-evasion strategies of the rich. At one point I felt like crying. Finally I committed to reading her email and looked over her suggestions. It wasn’t so bad. She said she enjoyed what she read. Maybe others will too.
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And, we do enjoy reading your journal series!
Not having submitted writings for publication, I can’t imagine how soul sucking that must be to read others comments. I am unsure I would have the stomach for it, but I suppose you get used to it.