Weekly Wordzzle Challenge # 154

Got involved at the back door again this afternoon. Since I seem to be a solo wordzzler these days, I'll post my exercises either this evening or in the morning. Still, I'll put Mr. Linky up in case anyone is joining me this week.

Saturday afternoon and I have finally posted all three entries. Always interesting to me where the words take me. Sometimes - as this week - there's one (cadaver) that controls the stories for me.

Words for this week's 10-word challenge: frequent, dawn, robin's egg blue, glacial, operation, implications, parking meter, remote control, cadaver, courteous  And for the mini: talented, chatter box, championship, mustard, blank slate

 My mega: 

Delores Mustard looked at her father's body in the elaborate coffin with the robin's egg blue lining and thought how odd it was that he looked less like a cadaver in death than he had in life, where he had spent his angry, bitter days with a glacial expression, ignoring and rejecting any love or kindness his daughter offered him.  The most frequent words he had ever spoken to her were "where's the remote control" and  "Please pass the potatoes (he had always been courteous, she would give him that).  For all his inability to love his useless "chatter box" (he considered sentences longer than 5 words to be wasted breath) of a daughter, she had loved him, as children are prone to do no matter how badly their parents treat them. A parent is, after all, a parent. Still, leaning now for a moment on the parking meter outside the funeral home, the implications of her father's passing were beginning to dawn on her. The future was a blank slate on which she could now write her own story. She was free. She needed to think of some kind of strategy for how to move on from here. I'll call it "Operation Get a Life", she mused. Long ago, teachers had told her she was talented at a variety of things. One had even tried to persuade her to enter a writing championship contest, but her father had forbidden it. Maybe she would write a book. Maybe she would travel. Suddenly the world seemed bigger and more beautiful and she felt her heart open to hope and possibility. She was free. 


My 10-word:


Dawn Williamson looked at the glacial stare of cadaver she was preparing for the robin's egg blue coffin and as frequently happened, wondered what this man's life had been like. Had he been kind, courteous, sad, happy? To her eyes, he didn't seem like the robin's egg blue type, but his daughter had said he specifically requested that color. Life was strange, she thought. The implications of the difference between how people lived their lives and how they wished to be represented in death had always been one of the most fascinating aspects of the operation of running a funeral home. It was amazing how much you could learn about the dead, just by watching those they left behind. The daughter - a sweet young woman -  had seemed rather lost at their first, as though her father - who Dawn guessed had been something of a tyrant - was still operating her by some kind of remote control from the grave. Dawn always tried to take these young fledglings under her wings and did so with young Delores to the best of her abilities. Planting seeds, she liked to call it. Two days later, after the funeral, she spotted the young woman standing near a parking meter and watched what a subtle transformation start to take hold. It was nothing like dancing in the street, just a shift in posture, an almost visible lightening of the energy... She's going to be alright, she thought. Sometimes, death was a blessing.




The mini: 


Delores Mustard had chosen to make her singing debut at the Chatter Box (she loved the irony) Bar and Grill. The blank slate her father's death had opened up for her had proven so rich in possibilities that Delores felt she had been truly reborn. Turns out she was not only not useless, she was talented on multiple fronts - writing, singing, painting...  She had even won a bowling championship, for heaven's sake. The world was hers and she was reveling in it's wonders. For all his coldness to her in life, her father had left her with a surprisingly massive inheritance and she was discovering depths in herself that she had never imagined existed. Best of all, she had found love. Taking voice lessons of all things. Life was strange and wondrous and she was truly happy. She knew her father had not meant her harm and she was grateful that he had left her an inheritance that allowed her to find healing for the damage he had caused to her. Rest in Peace, Dad, she thought to herself, and stepping out on the stage, silenced the room with the beauty not only of her voice but of her soul.

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Words for next week's 10-word challenge: waffle, shampoo, Oprah, chapter and verse, mouse, bumble bees, aspirations, the bloom is off the rose, make-up, frothy

And for the mini: treasure trove, potency, salamander, choice, cheddar cheese

Thanks you for playing.  Newcomers can check here for some guidelines to make the game more fun. There are no rules, just some general guidelines and tricks.