Saturday, February 28, 2009

A Wordzzle in the Woods

I was going to try and combine my Wordzzle with KAY’S new meme about the 7 Deadly Sins but it just didn't work. This week's sin is Lust and I could not make these words work with Lust. I will be posting a Lust entry during the week so stay tuned for what I hope is a good (and true) story.

And now we return you to our reguarly scheduled Wordzzle.

Netflix, mortgage, skunk, flagrant, the New York Times, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, perpendicular, geometry, crabby, shoveling snow
pragmatic, crystal ball, laundry, safflower oil, Gregorian chants

Penelope Perpendicular and her cousin Prudence Pragmatic were spending a cold wintry day together. The original plan had been to have an exciting day in the city but an overnight snow storm left them stranded at their uncle’s cabin in the woods.

After doing chores like laundry and dusting the cousins were tired and crabby. Penelope had already read every section of the New York Times and Prudence had watched all the movies she had ordered from Netflix.

“Let’s explore Uncle Greg’s study” Penelope suggested slyly. Prudence, being the more responsible cousin, resisted. “No one has been in there since Aunt Greta died, I don’t think we should.” Penelope was already at the door to the study. “I’m going in with or without you Pru.” As always Prudence followed.

With windows on all sides the study was bathed in the light from the sun shining on the snow. Penelope went to the giant desk that sat by the largest window while Prudence began to rummage through the book shelves. “Did you know the cabin was paid off this year?” Prudence asked. “There’s a framed copy of the mortgage here. Remember when Uncle Greg was worried about losing it? Aunt Greta’s medical bills cleared out all his savings.” “I remember how much he hated tutoring those dolts from the middle school in algebra and geometry for extra money.” Penelope said as she open and closed desk drawers. “He would sit in here late at night listening to those dreadful Gregorian chants and staring into this paperweight. I asked him once if that helped, he told me he was hoping the paperweight would become a crystal ball, a crystal ball that could tell him how things would turn out.” Prudence was glancing through copies of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series “It was a dark time for him.”

“There is nothing interesting in here” Penelope said. “It’s getting depressing. Let’s go outside. The sun seems very warm.”

Penelope and Prudence spent an hour shoveling snow. They had cleared a path between the cabin and the shed when Penelope’s shovel hit something hard. “It’s probably the grave marker we made for that silly skunk” Prudence said. “The one we called Flagrant Foul. Remember him? We treated him like a cat. Aunt Greta said she had to stop making safflower oil since he used the flower bed as a bathroom.” Penelope was barely listening as she dug deeper through the cold earth. Her actions were becoming more and more frantic. Prudence became alarmed. “What is it? Why do you look so horrified?”

Penelope stared down into the deep hole she had made. In a very quiet voice she said “It’s Aunt Greta.”

Stop by RAVEN’S for more Wordzzle.

And go to KAY’S and check out the 7 Deadly Sins. I think it's OK to post any time during the week. A new sin is posted each Friday. Since the meme just started there's plenty of time to get in on the sin.

27 comments:

Richard said...

Great ending, poor Aunt Greta, I think.

P.S. That's what happens when you keep a pet skunk

Happy Elf Mom (Christine) said...

LOL if you could make that story work with "lust," you'd be one sick skunk. I was afraid of how you'd use the word "perpendicular" in the story. Do you say it "POY-pen-dic-you-LA?" One of my friends in Chappaqua had a cousin from Brooklyn and we'd tease her about saying POYple and POYpendicula and stuff like that. She thought we spoke strangely ourselves. Boy, she was tough. She could go out at night alone in the city, is how tough she was.

I think she's right, though, that we did tawk a little funny. Now that I live in the Midwest my speech has slowed down considerably so that others can understand what I am saying. And the word "oil" has somewhere between two and three syllables, ok? :p

Jeff B said...

You may have inadvertently incorporated one of the deadly sins in here after all. . . Murder!

Great story with a fun twist.

Dianne said...

rich - poor aunt greta indeed!! she's sleepin' with the skunks now ;)

mrs c - I am a lone Brooklyn-ite who actually recognizes the letter R
I do talk very fast though - I have clients in the south who constantly ask me to slow it down
I'll go anywhere, anytime - always have, always will
I was mugged once - in the middle of Bloomingdales among all the rich folk. there's a lesson in there somewhere :)

jeff - hey I did do that!! thanks :)

Shelly said...

Ewwww! When is the next chapter???
Glad you told the story about the principal...I tried to comment but my poor little laptop is crashing and dumping ;(

Raven said...

That was fun... And I didn't see the ending coming. Looking forward to hearing what you have to say about Lust.

Travis Cody said...

Oh! You caught me by surprise with that ending. Nicely done.

One of the things I enjoy about your writing is that your grab my interest very quickly.

Dianne said...

shelly - after not finishing Finola I don't know that another serial Wordzzle is in me - plus I'm now occupied with writing down childhood stories. hope the laptop gets better soon

raven - this is the 2nd week where you said my story was fun - thanks!! I was beginning to think I couldn't write fun :)

travis - I was thinking of akelamalu when I wrote the last line - she is the queen of unseen endings
I know how busy you are so I really appreciate the visit and the kind words :)

Happy Elf Mom (Christine) said...

Bloomingdales??? Oh, my. It probably happens where you least expect it.

My father used to work in the city and would carry "mad money." I don't know if he ever got mugged or not but I think the idea is to give the mugger enough money to be happy but not SO much that they realize you would be a good kidnapping victim.

Yikes.

bobbie said...

aw, come on. You have to do a sequel to this next time.

I'll be looking for "Lust".

Dr.John said...

Very well written story and I certainly didn't expect the ending. Poor Aunt Greta leaves so many questions for uncle to answer.

OldLady Of The Hills said...

LOL, LOL...I love that ending! You have such a wonderful imagination, Dianne....Again, this Wordzzle just AMAZES me! BRAVO....And thanks for the laugh!

Chatty said...

LOVE their names! And very realistic dialogue between cousins. But WHOA! I was NOT expecting that ending! Well done.

gabrielle said...

Dial M for murder. Pure magic all the way!

bettygram said...

I also liked the name choice. The ending was a surprise, and I wanted an explanation.

Cloudia said...

Akelamalu-like; a compliment! LOL
Aloha-

Akelamalu said...

Oh you know how I love a twist at the end - that was a great one! I love the names you came up with too Dianne. :)

tt said...

As always I LOVED your story. It's funny...I sometimes picture the top of your heard spilling out with a mass of words and you trying to collect them....lol
Love your stories of the 'early years'....It's amazing to learn how people overcome obsticles that are shoved at them..
Lovins to ya!! :)

Deb said...

You pulled me in as always! Great words, and excellent twist at the end - although I didn't want it to end. Keep on writing!

Ivanhoe said...

Oh no! Poor Greta :o)

Stay warm, Di. I heard the snow storm is crazy on the East coast. I hope we won't have to come and dig you up :o)

Bobkat said...

Poor Aunt Greta - fancy being mistaken for a dead skunk! LoL! I must admit that you had me laughing with the names from the start! You have such a great imagination :)

With the promise of mid week lust, I'm just going to have to come back. It'll certainly brighten up the working week! LoL!

Anonymous said...

Eagerly awaiting "lust".
*wink

Vinny "Bond" Marini said...

WAVES...HI Dianne!

San said...

You have a way with wordzzle. Always.

I agree with you. Lust doesn't seem to go with laundry and geometry and Gregorian chants.

But what about "crabby"? Sorry. Couldn't resist.

Lu' said...

Oh dianne I know how they feel, it is such a bother shoveling up a loved one when all you are truing to do is clear a path :)

Carletta said...

So, an unproper buriel for Aunt Greta and money saved helped pay the mortagage?
Great ending. I'd like to hear more of this too.
I didn't make it here last week so I wanted to catch up before tomorrow.
I don't see a lust story as of yet. :)

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