Saturday Wordzzle Challenge: Week 45

Yippee! Wordzzles are back! This is week 45 of the Saturday Wordzzle challenge. Anyone new to the process can refer back here to find out how it works.

The words for this week's ten word challenge were: We were born on the same day in the same hospital, Weeping willow, two for one sale, Highway robbery, Burial ground, roll of paper towels, gospel singer, gallows, weirdo, volcano Mini Challenge: Symbiosis, Sagging breasts, Navaho blanket, Frogmen, Who says I got no heart?

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

Strange but true. We met standing on line at Macy’s which was running an incredible two for one sale on everything from rolls of paper towels to flat screen TVs of all things. As it turned out, prices were still highway robbery. At first I thought he was some kind of weirdo, but somehow we started talking anyway and I discovered that we were almost twins – well, sort of… We were born on the same day in the same hospital. Really. I kid you not. I had just gotten the leading role in a play called Weeping Willow. I was playing the part of a white woman raised by Indians. Our campground was at the foot of a volcano for some reason – I think the volcano was supposed to be symbolic of the social and emotional turmoil or something like that. Much of the story was set at the tribe’s burial grounds where I was burying my native father who had been wrongly hanged on the gallows for allegedly murdering a white man. The real killer had turned out to be my birth father. It was a strange play. Turns out Zach – that was his name – was a gospel singer – and really good, too. Weeping Willow had one uncast role – for a singing shaman. He got the part and – unlike me – got rave reviews. It was the start of his career and the end of mine – at least my acting career. Lucky for me we fell in love and I got the role of a life-time. Mother to sweet baby Louie and his sister Samanatha. The TVs may have been overpriced, but that day at Macy’s was the best shopping day of my life.

And here's my mini challenge:

Who says I got no heart? My ancient and sadly sagging breasts have no sex appeal left in them. Nor do I. Now that I don’t have to worry about sex any more, I have achieved a kind of uneasy truce – a symbiosis of sorts – with my body. I know it seems odd to call it a symbiosis since that implies that my body is an other and not me – but that is how it always felt – like my enemy or something. I was raised to be ashamed if it and it took old age and isolation to get me past that. Maybe I’m not past it and only pretending. Works out just the same. I wrap myself in my big floaty Navaho blanket with the frog-men woven into it and am reasonably at peace. Still, I cry a sometimes for all that I have missed in this life. I don’t know if my heart is broken, but it is surely there.

And for the mega challenge:

Marty and I, we were born on the same day in the same hospital, and we were friends for our whole lives. We were like brothers and our parents used to joke that we were like getting a two for one sale on kids. We considered ourselves really lucky because it was like we each had two families. We both loved music, though our tastes were a bit different. Marty was a gospel singer and I was more into folk and rock and roll. Because we were so close we couldn’t think of not performing together and our friendship created a kind of symbiosis of our different styles that turned out to be magical. You may have heard of us – we called ourselves Eagle and the Frogman. We never told anybody who was which. We were both weirdos so maybe we were both each role depending on the day, if you know what I mean. Our first album was called Burial Ground and it even had a hit single called Weeping Willow. We made two hit albums – Voice of the Volcano and Highway Robbery – after that and we stayed friends until he met Veronica. I admit it. I was jealous. She took my place and I didn’t understand it... well not until I met my wife, Mary, and then we all got close again and THEY joked about how they had gotten a two for one sale on husbands and friends. So here I am waking up from my heart transplant and my wife and two best friends are there with flowers and gifts and lots of laughter. Mary, is there with her obligatory roll of paper towels cleaning and polishing. It’s how she copes with emotion. She cleans. They’ve all brought flowers and music and my favorite Navaho blanket that I got when Marty and I were on the road. My favorite thing, though, was this gallows humor t-shirt, which they had also made into a poster. It’s got this little old man with sort of sagging breasts and big scar between them and in big letters it says WHO SAYS I GOT NO HEART? That just cracks me up every time I see it. They say humor is the best medicine and it must be true because my new heart is just bursting with love and joy. I’m a lucky man.

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This week’s vanity wordzzle: tiger, false, camera, obsolete, velvet, novelty, timeless, contract, mellifluous, sandalwood, perfection, xylophone, topography

I don't know whether I fell in love with it's mellifluous, velvety sound, or with the novelty of finding a tiger-shaped xylophone carved out of rich smelling sandalwood, but I was a woman obsessed. It was perfection, not one false line or curve to be found! It spoke to all my senses at once - touch, smell, sound, sight. It was so rich, so timeless in its artistry that I had to have it. The shop was a bit like walking into a fairy tale. Know what I mean? The owner was this weird little man named Sven Zen - or that's what he told me. I kind of think he must have made that name up, because Sven Zen had quite an imagination. I always thought he looked a bit like a gnome, you know, being so short like he was and wearing those funny clothes. I mean his outfits weren't just out of style, they were obsolete. Besides the xylophone, his shop was just filled with the most wonderful and unusual items. There was this funny camera that Sven Zen said took pictures of people's true nature. He took my picture and then showed me what he claimed were photos of other customers. They were really strange. This one woman's face came out all sickly green and twisted. Ugh. And then he showed me one of a man who looked all glowy, sort of like you'd imagine an angel would look. Mine was all pink and green and golden light and there were flowers in my hair and I kind of looked like I was singing. It was really cool. I asked him if I could have it, but he said no, he liked to keep a record of his customers. Then there was the topography book that when you opened it up, the maps seemed to really have mountains and valleys and you could almost see the grass and trees and flowers and hear the birds singing. You looked at those maps and you actually felt like you'd been to the places they depicted. The book must have been pretty old, because I never even heard of some of the places that book had maps of. It was just a wonderful shop. I could go on and on, because everything there seemed to be one of a kind and there was a sort of enchantment about the place. I couldn't stay away. There were half a dozen items that I wouldn't have minded taking home, but the xylophone just had my heart. I knew I had to have it. Once Sven Zen took my picture and called me a customer, I kind of knew he was gonna let me have the xylophone. I guess he knew I couldn't really afford it, because he offered to draw up a contract in which I would barter some services for the xylophone. I was a little nervous at first. 'Cause he was kind of strange, you know, and for some reason I kept thinking of Rumplestiltskin, but it turned out ok, I think. The deal is I have to take my Tiger-phone, as I like to call it, and make music for children and old people. And I have to write a book of poems and, if it's published, share the profits with Sven Zen. At least he didn't want my first-born child.

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Next Week's Ten Word Challenge will be: tuna on rye, ghost hunters, I'm as corny as Kansas in August, sympathetic ear, science fiction, muffler, cavernous, giraffes, prospecting, paraphenalia

Mini Challenge: Key Lime Pie, porcupine, Library of Congress, fingernails, spell-bound

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

Enjoy! See you next week.

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