On Wednesday’s, Delores, from Under The Porch Light, has a meme which she calls
“Words for Wednesday”.
She puts up a selection of six words which we then use in a short story, or a poem.
I’m hopeless at poetry so I always do a story.
It’s a fun challenge…why not join in?
This week's words are:
1. nefarious
2. boa
3. streamlined
4. seltzer
5. lackadaisical
6. classic
we also have this....."in draperies of darkest night, a sliver moon, an owl's flight"
I left a sentence using this phrase at Delores' site, hop on over and have a look....
Here is my story:
Lisa was exasperated with her parents lackadaisical attitude, to life in general and parenting in particular. She drank the seltzer water, hoping it would help unravel the tight knot her stomach had become.
Why couldn't they see what their lack of discipline was doing to Bobby?
It was a classic case of overkill.
Both parents had come from families where discipline had meant harsh punishments, physical punishments.
Dad had scars across his back and buttocks from the many beatings with his father's heavy leather belt. Mum was afraid to eat cake, because only "good" little girls were allowed to eat cake. Bad girls were locked into an empty room.....each had vowed to never treat their own children like that.
They'd made the mistake of going too far in the opposite direction; neither Lisa or Bobby had boundaries or ground rules apart from attending school.
In vain, Lisa had tried to explain that discipline didn't mean punishment, that proper discipline meant training and teaching your children to do the right thing, to think for themselves, to learn self-control instead of wilfully giving in to selfish impulses. She'd come to realise they had no idea how to do this, having never been taught themselves.
Lisa briefly wondered how she herself knew these things.......she glanced at her watch, seeing she had an hour still until presenting her case once more in the Principal's office.
She'd taken the day off school and made a mental note to drop in on Cathy later to get the homework assignments.
Bobby and that nefarious gang of thrill-seekers had been caught again last week, this time at the zoo, throwing rocks at the boa constrictor enclosure in an attempt to wake the large snake from his slumber. Jungle Jim, as the snake was known, had recently been fed and showed no inclination to do anything but doze. Luckily none of the rocks had been large or heavy enough to crack the thick glass of the enclosure.
Principal Jones had wanted to suspend all five boys, but Lisa had bargained until he agreed to modify his decision. The boys would stay in school, but further class excursions would be denied them until the end of term. Lisa didn't care about the rest of the gang as long as Bobby was allowed in school.
Today, Lisa wanted to plead with the Principal to have Bobby removed from that class and placed in another, with recess and lunchtimes being spent in scheduled activities that didn't include Fred and that crazy Marvin who insisted on dressing only in green and calling himself Marvin the Martian. The other two, Will and Terry, might also be persuaded to move away from Fred's influence if Bobby was no longer there, but Lisa's main concern right now was Bobby.
At twelve, he was in his final year at Kingston Primary, next year he would be attending Kingston High School. If Lisa could get him separated from the gang now, perhaps he would begin to take more notice of the school counsellor, maybe even start High School with a different mindset, on the right track instead of the highway to hell he was currently on.
Her own future plans were streamlined, Lisa would be a school counsellor herself and work with kids who'd got in with the wrong crowd, help them onto the right path. She'd work with the wrong crowd too, helping to set them straight. Or at least trying to. Some kids just wouldn't be helped.......that Fred was a bad egg for sure.
Lisa thought ahead to her eighteenth birthday, two and a half years away.
As legal adult, she hoped to petition for guardianship of Bobby, but he'd be close to fifteen by then. If she didn't get him away from those boys now, it might be too late.
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