2005 Winter - Wisconsin Writers Association

Page 23Flying Flowers by Susan Mae Peterson“I can catch the flower,” he shouts. Bare toes sprintacross garden dirt. A yellow butterfly lands on a broccolileaf. A squeal of delight tickles the air. The young explorercloses in on the flying flower. Yellow wings aretoo quick for tiny hands. With graceful ease the butterflyrises, does a dizzy dance above the pursuer’s head. Thebrief encounter is over. His two-year-old mind moves onto question the wonder of how tiny white flowers turninto blueberries.Grandma tucks the lesson presented to her into a quietcorner of her heart. She collects lessons like some peoplecollect coins. This Grandma is a writer. She is foreverchasing words. Grandma looks at a blank computerscreen, much like Grandpa looks at his garden soil inspring. She sees a promise of things to be. Grandmaopens packages of words and with care plants them inneat rows on the fertile blank screen.Words that grow into sweet-smelling blossoms orbear nourishing fruit are most enjoyable, but then comethe weeds. Adverbs, tautology, and redundancy multiplyacross the page. They sneer at Grandma Writer, dare herto pluck them from the garden and toss them aside. Participialphrases, gerunds, infinitives, and dreaded ellipticaladverb clauses dangle like spider webs. Theythreaten to confuse and ensnare Grandma, make herwriting ramble without sense.Grandma Writer does her best to use quotation marks,commas, periods, and paragraphs to keep the words inneat rows, but sometimes the process becomes too muchfor her. To comma, or not to comma, that is the question.Throw in hyphens, colons and semi-colons andGrandma runs from the clean screen with the suddenHomecoming by Boyd Sutton, SirenFlash Fiction Winner, Summer Contest"I should never have gotten out of bed that morning,"Max said bitterly to his wife. It was how he expressed theanger he felt at Jillian—and for his son, Mike. "Thatmorning" had been Friday the 13th of June, 1979, whenhe and Jillian had married. Calculated to hurt, it did, butJillian didn't let it show. If she hadn't made a habit of deflectingMax's angry comments, their marriage wouldhave dissolved long ago."Come on, Max," Jillian said. "Kyra and Mike will bearriving with Michelle this afternoon. We have a lot to do.I want the place looking nice. You can give up one Saturdayof golf." (Continued on page 24)onset of a migraine.Grandma has become so tangled in the process thatshe’s forgotten why she writes. It’s time to pull a memoryfrom a hidden corner of her heart. Grandma mustturn the wheel of time backwards and look at the worldthrough the eyes of a child. She smiles, then whips offher shoes to run barefoot across the blank screen garden.The screen welcomes her. “Thanks grandson,” she sayswith a laugh.Words, those flying flowers, dance above her head.Like magic, some of them turn into ripe raspberries andblueberries kissed by shimmering sunlight. The world isalive with life. Brilliant colors explode like fireworks asGrandma plants a bare foot on the fertile soil of theblank page. She’s become a barefoot gypsy dressed inbright billowing skirts. Adverbs and adjectives swirlaround her as she spins in circles of joy.“I’ll edit later,” she exclaims. “But for now there’smuch to discover. Remember my loved ones, THIS iswhy I write.” With a pop and a fizz, Grandma disappearsdeep into her imagination. #Deracinationby H. B. HuisingaISBN# 1-4137-5626-3$19.95www.hbhuisinga.comAlso available throughAmazon.com and Barnesandnoble.comH.B. Huisinga's debut novel is a tightly-woven,fast paced mystery thriller that showcases her naturaltalent as an author. In Deracination she has createdcharacters you'll love, and some you'll love tohate. Fans of forensic science, computer hacking,and Egyptian mythology will all find something tosink their teeth into in this page-turner.An important theme of the novel involves the maincharacter Monet's journey of self-realization andrecovery from sexual abuse. The reader will findHuisinga's approach to the subject challenging andthought-provoking; those with an interest in survivorissues will find themselves alternately cryingwith Monet—and cheering for her successes—asthe plot unfolds. Eva Sweeney, Madison, WI #