Barb Rees

Started Aug.16 at Art in the Park in Powell River, finished at Sassyscribes meeting Sept.11.
Lines were added as people stopped by the booth, ending up with 39 young and old contributors.

Started with:
Sweat trickled down my chest as I marched up and down…..

Panic began to choke me and my chest tightened as many terrorizing thoughts, along with flash-back scenes tore around in my mind’s eye! As the world began to spin I stumbled back to consciousness of the presence of life …I could hear the birds singing!
I woke the next morning and the terror still gripped me. I couldn’t understand. Were the soap opera’s that horrible? “Yes Virginia they are.” “But why?” The small voice asked. My eyes rested on the innocent face of my granddaughter …well, at least she hadn’t asked where Mommy went. How could I tell her …Mommy ran off to join the carnival!
I guess that’s what you do when you’re 6’8”woman married to a hairy man of only 3’6”. Mommy needed to search her soul and her needs were being unmet. At the carnival she thought she might find herself and have the time to seek it in an eccentric world. She was still upset about the painting of the hallway. At 3’6” her husband wasn’t the best man for the job. Could she ever go back? Her life would never be the same.
No, never, it’s much more fun and interesting going forward, with so many surprises. Then the tree toppled! Two twins twisted and turned. Three twirling tops tumbled in a trivial  throaty tongue. And they all fell down.
Four-year-old Jason immediately got to his feet and demanded, “What now?”
“I don’t know! Why should I? I’ve been here as long as you!” Genevieve snapped at her brother. Jason looked at her in disdain! “You are the one with all the imagination. Help us out of this dilemma. It’s very hard to get out of a broken tree top and what do I do with this macramé turtle?”
Suddenly someone said, “What are you doing up there with that macramé turtle?”
“Can we borrow your ladder?” said Genevieve.
“I’ll give you this hand carved ladder I made with my grandfather. There is a carving on each rung representing the elders of my family. They will send their love to help you with your quest. Each rung that you touch will carry your spirit to that ancestor and he will take you back in time to when and where he lived.”
Eyes wide, they were transported instantly back 200 years. They were face to face with Genevieve’s great-great grandfather overlooking a fishing village busy with a tribe that none but Genevieve could recognize. But they couldn’t meet because there was a time warp. She was in front eating a tornado cone and he was in the back with the dog Rascal, all minus cell-phones or watches.
When their eyes met, Genevieve knew that her grandfather had a secret that he wanted to pass onto to her. Because of the time warp he could. He mouthed the words, “Look under the stone by the big Arbutus tree on the point.” “Oh my gawd!” I couldn’t believe what I saw!” It was a purple crab with tiny blue dots! “I haven’t seen a seagull since I’ve been to the ocean.”
Under the Arbutus tree there was a little cave almost hidden by the trees roots. An other-worldly glow …white with every colour known to woman. In the cave was a blue stone on a pedestal surrounded by vibrating mushroom caps. The blue stone seemed lit by an ethereal blue fire. Out popped a frog and the mushroom caps stopped vibrating. Out he hopped and hopped until he found the pond where he found his mate. He told her the story of the cave, vowing to never go there again. However, what the frog didn’t know was that he had been forever changed during his visit to the cave.
The phenomenon of the vibration had altered his mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual self in ways that would reveal themselves unexpectedly in the future. But which future? There are so many to choose from …the frog’s, the mate’s maybe? Or any others that those mushrooms might make. Remember the mushrooms? He thought of Alice, the maid in Wonderland. What had she discovered when partaking of the mushrooms in that world? Did he dare eat a bite of the vibrating mushroom caps to his left or the ones on his right? Ah – choices!
In the end he decided to have one of Moe’s hemp power bars. Then the earthquake shook the town because the “blue bag” lady dropped her  heavy bag on Herbie the elephant’s toe. Suddenly, out of the clear blue sky a B29 bomber released a bomb that devastated the city below. A mushroom cloud spread upwards and was carried away by the prevailing wind. I cautiously approached the giant floating mushroom cloud? Slowly it drifted over me, showing colourful glitter dust everywhere turning everything into candy, sweet candy and rainbows of gummy bears.
The glitter dust slowly wafted down landing in my hair. Unknown to me, it shone in the dark. Why it landed on me and only me, I know not. The glitter dust only landed on people with magnets installed in their hair. The hairdressers glued the miniscule magnets on the ends of people’s hair to help prevent split ends.
The town was well known for frizzy hairdos. In fact, they’d had a contest for the best frizzy couple, and the gym teacher and her husband won. If they had magnets surreptitiously placed on their hair, they would be very upset and feared they would lose the gold medal.