Saturday Wordzzle Challenge: Week 32

This is week 32 of the Saturday Wordzzle challenge. Anyone new to the process can refer back here to find out how it works. Many thanks to Maggie-Beth R. (aka Chatty) for next week's words. Linda at These Are the Days has created yet another category of wordzzle in which she combines the mini, the regular and the ten words from the vanity wordzzle into one paragraph. I'm not ready to try it yet, but anyone else who wishes to can do so. I think maybe we can call it the Mega-Max unless someone has a better idea. I look forward to reading everyone's stories this week. Thanks again to MommyWizdom for this week's words.

The words for this week's ten word challenge were: exacerbate, leotard, path, tomato, Jungle Book, vagabond, parade, limber, storage, Maharajah
And for the mini challenge: crocodile, special, sleep, droll, turn around

Here's my ten-word offering for this week.

Looking through the old storage trunk that held the memories of her vagabond life, Miranda’s mind paraded down a path of memory that was a mix of brambles and rose gardens. First she found the old pink leotards that reminded her of days when she was agile and limber and danced the part of everything from a giant tomato in grade school to the Maharajah’s wife from the Jungle Book ballet when she was part of the New York City Ballet Company. Memories washed over her and she felt her broken body try to rouse itself and as that inner joy awakened it also exacerbated the grief and pain she was seeking to escape. She had thought this journey down memory lane might lift her spirits, but lifting another costume when she came across the photo of John, the deep grief she had been holding since the accident which had shattered her body and taken his life spewed forth. It was not the healing she had come looking for, but it was the healing she needed.

And here's my mini challenge:

He lay in bed tossing restlessly in his sleep. In his dream he kept yelling at Samantha to turn around, turn around. But instead she stood there looking at him with that special droll expression he loved so much, oblivious to the crocodile that was moving towards her from behind in the water. Waking up, he looked at his sleeping wife with apprehension and love, hoping the dream was indigestion and not a warning of an unknown peril to come.

And the mega challenge:

Harry Mortenson lifted the worn and treasured copy of The Jungle Book from the arms of his sleeping daughter and slipped it onto the shelf across the room. He treasured the joy of every moment with his only child. Her presence made each second seem special. The shelf held a unique collection of treasured books such as The Vagabond King, Constance Crocodile’s Crooked Cottage, Lucinda’s Lilac Leotard, and the tomato red copy of his own first book, Rumblebottom the Droll Troll. It was clear he was going to have to come up with additional storage space for Miranda’s growing collection of books. It made him almost dizzily happy that his daughter shared his love of words and that he now had sole custody and could make up for the painful lost time. He could hardly believe how his life had turned around since the divorce. It was as though his wife’s departure had lifted some kind of curse from every aspect of his life. Her mere presence in his life seemed to have exacerbated everything negative in his being. The physical pains that had haunted his every move for years had magically evaporated almost as she walked out the door and he felt mentally and physically limber and creative for the first time in years. Within days of Molly’s departure the story of the Droll Troll had begun flowing forth and submission of his work this time had been quickly followed by calls from a veritable parade of publishers. Kissing his daughter lightly on the forehead he tip-toed out of the room and headed off to his office. The Maharajah and Path, Princess of the Petunia People would not write itself.

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This week's vanity wordzzle used the words: swashbuckler, brassiere, Wedding Bell Blues, summer nights, uno momento, lavishly, wanna buy a balloon

She sat in the diner drinking her second cup of coffee, deep in a sea of daydreams. Even the painful pinch of her new brassiere - elastic not yet stretched and broken in - had ceased to bother her. Wedding Bell Blues, of all songs -- was this a time warp? -- played tinnily on the juke box and dragged her back to a time when there was still hope in her lavishly constructed fantasies, when the swashbuckler hero, be he cowboy, sailor, prince, or poet, charged into her life, saw her unrecognized beauty, and gazing at her adoringly, asked for her hand, a time when summer nights held magic and not just heat.

She took a sip of coffee and tried to shake away the sense of gloom. What had set her off, she wondered? Probably the funny little man outside who had called out, "Una momento, senora, wanna buy a balloon?" had thrown her back, somehow, to childhood pain and adolescent escape, to times when she still believed in rescuers and hopes and dreams, to a time before all that she believed in was defeat and realism.

Sighing, she finished her coffee, paid the check and walked out into the spring sunshine, wondering who was really wiser, the dreamer or the realist. It suddenly struck her that maybe somewhere along the way she had gotten the answer backward.

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Many thanks to Maggie-beth R. aka Chatty for next week’s words.

Next Week's Ten Word Challenge will be: tattletale, homogeneous, flighty, cornucopia, plethora, militant, lovelorn, myopic, digitalized, mute

And for the Mini Challenge: washing machine, cholesterol, blatantly, Birdman of Alcatraz, poltergeist

Thanks for playing. For those who are new, here are some guidelines to make the process more fun.

Enjoy! See you next week.

DON'T FORGET TO ADD YOUR NAME TO MR. LINKY!!!!!