markwildyr.com,
Post #70
Turnabout is fair play, they say. I guest posted on his blog last week; therefore, I asked Don
Travis to re-post one of his blog posts. He came up with something called “Piquant,”
which was featured on dontravis.com on September 20 of this year. (See, Don, I’m
kind enough to reference your blog address. You didn’t bother with mine.)
At any rate, here’s his offering for this week. Enjoy.
*****
 |
| Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons |
PIQUANT
By
Don Travis
Sometimes vocabulary—you know,
words—can get you into trouble.
Let me tell you what I mean.
My name is Wylie, and I’m about as different from the other kids in my class as
my name is from Robert or John. I guess you could say, I’m confused. Sometimes
I see Helen Hagen practicing with the other cheerleaders and I get all steamy
from looking at her curves and long blonde hair. You know, feeling weird down
there and ashamed someone will see and hoping she does. Okay, that’s the way
it’s supposed to be, so what’s the problem?
The problem is Robby Belson,
who’s the team quarterback and as pretty as Helen is… except in a different
way. And he’s as curvy as she is, too… but still in a different sort of way.
But my insides treat them the same. I get syrupy and weak-kneed and stutter and
embarrassed around either one of them.
I’m not on the team, but I run
the snack bar at the school’s field, so I’m around both the team and the
cheerleaders a lot. Worse, I have classes with the two of them. And to top
things off, I do better in the classes than either one. Especially, in the
English class. That’s where I got in trouble.
Miss Hardesty was talking to
us about vocabulary. How everyone needs a better one. How to build one. As
usual, she picked on me to make her point.
“Wylie, describe Helen in one
word.”
“Beautiful.” I’m sure I
blushed a little, but she merely smiled.
“Come now, you can do better
than that. You have a great vocabulary. Use it.”
“Lovely, alluring, glamorous.”
My mouth got started, and I couldn’t stop. “Exquisite, radiant—”
“Excellent,” she interrupted.
“Now describe Robby in one word.”
“Piquant,” I blurted without
thinking.
Someone from the back of the
room spoke into the sudden hush. “Doesn’t that mean hot and spicy?”
Ears flaming, cheeks scarlet,
I nodded my head. “Y-yes.”
Thank goodness, Miss Hardesty moved
on to others to make her points. I sat for the rest of the class with my head
down, not daring to look at anyone.
I walked home alone feeling as
low as a wad of gum on a shoe sole. Everyone stared at my back as I passed by,
or at least I was convinced of that.
I followed my usual pattern of
grabbing a glass of milk and a cookie to settle down at the kitchen table to do
my homework. I always finished it before my folks got home. Dad was a carpenter
and mom worked at a day care center.
Finished my lessons, I was considering splurging on another cookie when the phone rang. When I answered
it, my spirits soared through the roof.
“Wanna go for a Coke?”
Then Don asks you to take a guess at who’s calling… Helen,
Robby, or the teacher. You can end it like you want. Hope you enjoyed the
reading.
Amazon permits you to read a short passage of my novels, Cut Hand and Johnny Two-Guns. I also believe the STARbooks-published River Otter, Echoes of the Flute, and Medicine Hair are still up. I sure would
like to get the final book in the Cut Hand Series, Wastelakapi… Beloved, published, but it’ll take some help from
readers to get Dreamspinner interested.
My contact
information is provided below in case anyone wants to drop me a line:
Website and blog: markwildyr.com
Email: markwildyr@aol.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/mark.wildyr
Twitter: @markwildyr
The
following are buy links for CUT HAND:
And now my mantra (yes, it’s mine, even if I borrowed it
from Don Travis): Keep on reading. Keep
on writing. You have something to say, so say it!
Until next time.
Mark
New posts at 6:00
a.m. on the first and third Thursdays of each month.
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