[stylist] Winter writing prompt

[Barbara Hammel]

I really like that story.  The uncles were hilarious!  I also like the 
surreal blue snow.  I thought blue snow only fell when Paul Bunyan was 
alive.  LOL!
Barbara




Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance. -- Carl Sandburg
-----Original Message----- 
From: Jacobson, Shawn D
Sent: Friday, February 03, 2012 2:12 PM
To: 'Writer's Division Mailing List'
Subject: [stylist] Winter writing prompt

Writer's division,

I don't really have anything new for a winter's writing prompt, but I will 
share a story I wrote a couple of years ago for the writing contest with a 
winter theme.

I hope you like it.

Shawn

Blue Christmas
By Shawn Jacobson

I looked out the window at the Blue snow.  It wasn't royal blue or 
cornflower blue, but it was a light blue, baby blue or robin's egg blue.  It 
was just blue enough to be really strange.
"Wow!" exclaimed Timmy; "I've never seen that before."
"So it worked, we were hoping it would" proclaimed Uncle Bob.  We've been 
working at the lab for a long time on this new additive.  Now, we can have 
snow even when it's 50 degrees out.  You know what they say, better living 
through chemistry".
"ah!  So we have doctor Bobinstein to thank for this.  I should have known" 
sneered Uncle Fred.  "Did you test this in the lab first, or are we your 
helpless guinea pigs?  But wait, don't answer, the inexorable march of 
science is too important to be held up by anything as old fashion as 
caution."
"Yep, you're the kind of guinea pigs who like all the good things our lab 
comes up with but likes to gripe about us all the time, or would you not 
like to have the heart meds that keep you from keeling over with a heart 
attack" Bob asked?  "I guess you forget, our lab did the original work on 
your heart pills.  Maybe if you were as helpless as who whine about being we 
would have cured cancer by now."
"He Joe" Timmy asked "can you take me around the block?  I brought the ski 
attachments for my wheelchair."
"You know what" Mom said "That would be a good thing.  It would get you out 
of the house so you could play in show.  You get Timmy out of the chair and 
Dad and I will put the skis on.  It's a good thing your dad ordered your 
chair from a Swedish company; they still have winter up there."
"Sure Mom" I said.  I can't wait to see how this stuff feels".
"Enjoy it Joe." Uncle Bob said jovially, "it's the snow of the future".
"Brought to you by the same people who brought you global warming, the ozone 
hole, and mutant corn rot" snorted Uncle Fred.
Outside the blue snow fell in big fluffy flakes.  It felt a bit strange, a 
little to slick and it tasted funny when it melted on the tongue, but it was 
fun to play in and it made awesome snowballs.  "How do you like your ride 
Teddy Bear" I asked?  And yes, I was teasing him.
"Don't call me that" yelled Timmy "I don't mooch rides from truckers like 
that brat in that dino country song your dad has.  And I don't act whiny 
like that kid either."
"What the dickens do you want me to call you then, Tiny Tim?" I retorted. 
It would be the right time of year for that."
"Ah man" sighed Timmy, "all I want to be is Timmy your friend, not the 
little crippled boy who inspires people every time he goes to school or 
something, not the kid who seems so happy in his wheelchair all the time, 
just an ordinary kid who gets in trouble some times and does good things 
sometimes and has adventures, just like normal kids.  That's all I want to 
be, a kid, like you are".  After a while, Timmy cooled down some and said 
"OK, the CB thing was about dodging cops so you could break the speed limit, 
so that was cool in a dino sort of way.  But, really, that song was just too 
Barney to be believed".
No one was sure just why Timmy was small and crippled.  His mom said it was 
a birth defect caused by chemicals where she worked.  His dad said it was 
caused by a botched delivery at the hospital.  Lawyers for the hospital 
claimed it was due to drugs that his mom had taken.  As I said, nobody knew 
for sure and doctors and lawyers had been fighting it out for years.  Dad 
said that it just proved that if you laid all the doctors and lawyers in the 
world up end to end you still wouldn't reach a conclusion; but then dad said 
a lot of things like that.
I pushed the ski chair past the houses with the Christmas lights.  Past the 
elaborately decorated house of the old guy on the corner, past the house 
with the refugee family from New Orleans, past Mayor Kenneth's house with 
the new holographic Christmas tree outside.  Finally, we got back home and 
scraped the blue snow off our boots.  "Ug!" I complained.  "Look at the 
grungy stuff that snow leaves behind when it melts."  Uncle Fred was too 
busy going at it with Uncle Bob about politics to pick up on the comment.
In the house, Mom was almost ready with Christmas supper.  In the living 
room, Dad was putting the Timmy's gifts under the Christmas tree.  Meanwhile 
Uncle Bob and Uncle Fred were going at it like two roosters in a chicken 
coop that was too small.
"That's right, I remember your friend Bill.  He was the one who said Obama 
was going to save the world from global warming.  He sure was right, wasn't 
he" said Uncle Bob.
"Well you said that Obama was a closet terrorist, so you weren't that smart 
either" rejoined Uncle Fred.  "He would have been an excellent president if 
you write-wing loonies hadn't fought him every step of the way".
"That's right" Uncle Bob growled.  "Us right wing loonies kept Obama from 
getting us so far in debt that we wouldn't have any money for environmental 
research at all."
"Dinner's on" Mom shouted.
"What are we having" asked Timmy?
"Probably that mutant squirrel variant that's supposed to taste like turkey" 
Fred groaned.
"If you eco freaks had let us treat the mutant bird flue instead of raising 
a big old stink about it, maybe the turkeys would not have died off" said 
Uncle Bob with exasperation.  "Of course, if you don't want any you can go 
out in the yard and eat bark off the trees".
"I survived the dorm food at Friley Hall" snorted Uncle Fred.  "I'm sure I 
can handle anything you mad scientist types can dish out".  I had the 
feeling that dinner would require lots of intestinal fortitude.
Then the food was served and everyone set in to eating, the squirrel was 
kind of strange and the meat had a definite aftertaste but it was good in 
its way and the uncles declared a tacit cease-fire in their argument.
"Gee!" exclaimed Mom, "its really coming down out there.  Has anyone heard 
the weather forecast?"
Dad turned on the internet browser in his wrist watch; after a while he said 
"The weatherman says we're supposed to get two feet out of this storm, more 
cold air is moving down from Canada than was expected and the storm coming 
up from Oklahoma is stronger than was anticipated.  Oh. And they've just 
closed the highway to Ames and told everyone to stay off the streets unless 
you absolutely have to be out."
"Better blizzards through chemistry" jeered Uncle Fred.
"Ah! Wouldn't have happened if we hadn't gotten a weather forecast from Al 
Gore" replied Uncle Bob.  "Maybe we aren't as globally warm as left-wing 
tree hugger pals tell us we are".  The argument was back with a vengeance, 
but why they wanted vengeance on us I had no idea.
We were just getting the dishes to the sink when Aunt Helen asked "Has 
anyone seen Fred's pills?  He really can't go more than twelve hours without 
his dose".  Everyone looked all over the house but no one could find them. 
Then Fred said "I know, I felt them at home.  I was going to get them, but I 
forgot".
"How are we going to get them back!" asked Aunt Helen frantically "We just 
heard that all the roads are closed!"
Then Dad came up with an idea.  "Timmy, does your wheelchair still have its 
skies on?"
"Sure!" said Timmy.  "Do you want Joe here to push me to Uncle Fred's house 
to get the pills?"
"Could you son?" Dad asked?
"All right" I heard myself say as I put on my coat "I'll do it".
So we went out the door into the deepening snow.  Now it was coming down 
hard and the wind was starting to blow it around.
"Let's go down F street and through the park, it's shorter that way" I said.
"Sure good buddy" Timmy said; that's a big ten four."
"You asking for it" I said as we pushed our way down the street toward the 
playground.
Then Timmy asked "Who was Al Gore anyway?"
"I don't know, I said, "Just some dead guy my uncles like to argue about. 
It's always the same thing whenever they get together."
"Hey" asked Timmy "Why is it that when us kids argue and call each other 
names our parents spank us or send us to bed without our suppers but when 
adults argue and call each other names they get told how smart they are?"
"Well" I said "No one spanks you because you're a cripple".
"You know what I mean" Timmy replied.  "They say nasty things about each 
other and no one does anything about it like it's OK or something."
I have absolutely no idea" I replied with a shrug "maybe itss because no one 
is big enough to spank them."
We continued through the play ground.  The marry-go-round was almost totally 
buried in snow.  Swings, monkey bars, and a slide loomed as ghostly shapes 
in the bluish gloom.  We almost stumbled over a set of obstacle course tires 
hidden by the drifting snow, but avoided them just in time.  Then, as we 
were leaving the park, I bumped in to something.
"Ouch!" I yelped.  "That hurt!  What was that?"
I looked down at my hand and exclaimed "That's barbed wire".
"Oh now I remember" said Timmy.  "My dad was telling me the other day that 
some of the paint on the playground equipment would give us cancer if we ate 
pain chips, so the town council voted to fence off the playground until to 
could be re-painted.  I guess they got the fencing half done before the snow 
fell.  I guess getting your hands ripped up with barbed wire was not as bad 
as cancer.  Go figure."
I tried to lift his wheelchair over the fence, but it was no use.  Besides, 
I wasn't going to be able to get over the fence either.
"Oh nuts! I guess we'll just have to go around" Timmy said.  "It's sure 
going to be a long trip".
"What are you complaining about?" I asked?  "All you have to do is sit 
there.  I'm the one who has to slog through this stuff."
Just then a big voice boomed "Is there anything my robot can help you with"?
"Hey Ben" shouted Timmy "Do you think you can left my chair and me over the 
fence?  We seem to be kind of snagged up here."
"I'm sure Herk here can handle that" said Ben lowering a large robotic hand 
over the fence.  "Wheel her on in" he said.
So I shoved his wheelchair onto the hand and Herk lifted him over the fence. 
"It's you turn Joe, climb on board".
I got on and road over the fence.  It was not a smooth ride and my stomach 
started to act squirrely as supper started to show an urge to escape, but I 
finally got to the other side of the fence and back onto the snow.  Ben said 
"I'd give you a ride but I'm still teaching Herk to walk and carry at the 
same time."
"That's fine" I said with relief.  "We can make it from here."
"Ben is the president of the Hawkeye alumni robotics club." said Timmy.  I 
guessed that explained the absurd black and yellow bird's head on top of the 
contraption.  "Ben doesn't get that its cyclone country" explained Timmy 
"otherwise he's a really smart gut."
After a while we got to Uncle Fred's house and I opened the door.  I also 
turned on the pill finder.  I'm told that the new ones actually talk, but 
Fred's older model merely beeped.
"I guess we'll have to use the old hot or cold method" I told Timmy.  "You 
wait here while I go up the stairs to see if Fred left the pills in the 
bedroom".
I climbed up, but after three steps I could tell that the pills were not 
upstairs.  "I came back down and we started looking through the house.  We 
tried the lining room, cold.  We tried the den, cold.  We tried the 
downstairs bathroom, stone cold.  Finally, we tried the kitchen and the 
sound got louder.    I finally got to one of the cabinets and the pill 
finder beeped so loud it hurt my ears.
"Hey Timmy", I asked, "If I lifted you up could you look in the cabinet 
here?"
"Sure" replied Timmy "Lets go find some pills."
So I lifted him up and he started to rummage in the cabinet.  "How about 
this bottle" he asked "It looks like a pill bottle and it says xylophone or 
something on it".  He brought the pill bottle down from the cabinet.
"Sounds right" I affirmed as the pill finder went nuts.  "Let's get back 
home.  I think Mom should have pie ready for us by the time we get back 
there".
So we headed back home, only this time we took the long way north to H 
street and around the park.  I was hard going and cold.  We realized about 
two blocks from Fred's house that we were not dressed for the cold, but by 
then it was too late to do anything about it.
The real problem though was that I kept breaking through the crust and 
sinking up to my knees in the stuff.  About halfway home, I stopped and 
said.  "I need a rest, this is just too hard."
Timmy then reach around to the back of the chair and pulled out two flat 
disks.
"What are these?" I asked?
Timmy said "They're racing wheels that came with the chair.  You're supposed 
to use them for wheelchair races, but mom is afraid I'll get hurt, so I 
never get to use them.  I probably never will, but they may help us now".
"How" I asked?
"Snow shoes" he said proudly.  "To you have anything you can use to tie them 
on?"
I rummaged in my coat pocket and found some cords I was going to use for 
something.  We tied the wheels on to my feet and I was able to stand on the 
snow reasonably well.  Finally, cold wet and exhausted, we got back to the 
house.
Just as we came through the door, Dad put some of his really old music into 
the universal entertainment system.  It was some sort of primitive rock or 
blues stuff, I'm really not sure what.
"What is that!" asked Timmy "Do you have any music that isn't totally dino?"
"That" said Dad "is Blue Christmas by Elvis.  It's a classic; and 
appropriate too don't you think.  Thanks to Bob and his lab, it may be the 
one Elvis song people remember down through the ages."
"I guess" I replied "This Christmas has been bluer than I would have 
wanted".
"Come on" said Timmy "That was fun!  We got to go in the snow, ride a giant 
robot, search an empty house for treasure, figure out how to make snow shoes 
in a blizzard, it was an adventure."  While he was talking, I realized that 
this was probably the first adventure that Timmy had been allowed to have. 
I guess you never appreciate what you have.
Meanwhile, the uncles were down to debating the virtues of creation science, 
so I know the ritual argument was about over.  "I agree that your friend Jeb 
didn't evolve from the apes" Uncle Fred opined "I just wish he wouldn't not 
say that about the rest of us".  On that note of brilliance, the argument 
pretty much ended.
Mom then said "Who wants pumpkin pie?"
"Get it while it's still real" Uncle Fred shouted.  Apparently he was on a 
roll.
"So Timmy" I said "Will you be ready to open presents after we're done with 
the pie"?
"Thanks" said Timmy "That will be the perfect end to a perfect day".
"It was a nice day" I said "But I hope next Christmas is white."


Shawn Jacobson
Mathematical Statistician
Phone# (202)-475-8759
Fax# (202)-485-0275

_______________________________________________
Writers Division web site:
http://www.nfb-writers-division.net <http://www.nfb-writers-division.org/>

stylist mailing list
stylist at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/stylist_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
stylist:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/stylist_nfbnet.org/poetlori8%40msn.com