Have your read part 1? Her hands were warm holding mine which always feel cool and dry and slightly dusty to me. Warm heart, warm hands. And when she took mine in hers, I felt a shiver of fear scurry across my wrist and up my arm. You never know what a palm reader will say and there is something scary about someone who might have insight into your future whatever it might be. If I were a palm reader, I think I would take great pleasure in playing off people's darkest fears. "I'm sorry. You have a very short lifeline. Looks like tomorrow is the day. Live it up while you can!" But, no, this is a room full of kind people and good juju. She took one hand and said, "This indicates you have a big event coming up in your life. Oh! Maybe your book launch!" (We had talked earlier about the novel I was working on.) Then she took the other and said, “This hand shows your life rather than your current state. The lines are broad and heavy here. You have strong true bonds. This one is your lifeline. Look how long it is. Why, it even wraps around and keeps going right to the knuckle. You are going to grow to be very old.” I told her that was perfect because I wanted to live forever. I invite all vampires to come and have their way with me today, right now. Just take me with you into forever because I want to see what is coming next. And next. And next. Anne Rice said in The Queen of the Damned, “I don't think you can hold in your mind the full conception of what the world is.” I agree. And I want forever to explore it and discover all the flavors and nuance of this thing we called life. Electric word, life, that means forever. And that’s a might long time. But I’m here to tell you. There’s something else. Hold up. I hit the button on my phone and the screen lit up. The teenager beside me muttered, "Oh, that's great. Come on mom.” I turned over my husband's hand and held the light to it. What good is a long lifeline if the one on the hand of the person held between mine isn't a twin? Or at least really, really close? Who wants to be here if he’s in the afterlife, in a world of never-ending happiness where he can always see the sun? That doesn’t seem fair. The comedian behind me was hissing to turn off the phone but the only one embarrassed by it was my son next to me. He scooted lower in his seat. “Oh. My. God. Mom. Your phone.” My husband was pulling at his hand, but I'm a determined person and after a moment, my infatuation had piqued his curiosity and he was leaning in with me to stare at his palm. "What is it?" Curses behind us. Now my two little boys further down the row had caught the vibe that something was going on. They have laser-like focus too. Until they hear swearing. They think swearing is the funniest thing ever created by man. My husband can get them to giggling until they have to pee by throwing out random swear words. The youngest got out of his seat and came to stand in front of us. I guess the comic should have just shut up and let it go. My husband shielded the phone with his hand and whispered over my shoulder, "Sorry. Hold on a sec." "Turn the f**** phone off." The boy standing in front of me started laughing, but my husband's patience runs rather thin on a good day and he felt compelled to reply. "F**** off." Meanwhile, I'm still staring at his hand trying to determine whether I should start planning a wake. Truthfully, I don’t even know what a wake is. Or what my husband would like done with his body when he dies. I made a mental note to ask him when we get in the car. Nothing like freaking out the kids… I can already here them, “Dad’s dying? Can I have his phone?” His lifeline is definitely shorter than mine. But what does that mean? His hand is bigger. Should I measure each of our lines? Maybe it’s a percentage thing. You know, a line that goes 80% across your palm means you will live to be 80? I turned off my phone. I can research it after we leave. "About time, B****," I heard from behind me and I wondered if that comment would be why my husband’s lifeline was shorter than mine.
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Despite the exorbitant price of going to the movies and having a big family, we still all go once in a great while. Even the 16-year old, which means we really should be celebrating since those days are numbered. I know this because I already lost one to his need to stretch his wings. I once jokingly said to a man (while I was a bit drunk) who told me his children had all moved to different parts of the country, that his children must not love him very much to move so far away. Really, it's pretty amazing that children can be raised so well that they have no fear in spreading their wings to fly off and start their own families. Biting comments are a big reason why I've limited my intake. I become a toxic stranger with no filter. And now, my comeuppance... Karma at its finest. The commercials come on and I put my phone in my pocket, then get it back out and set it to Silent. I'd like to say I hate hearing phones during the movie, but in reality, I never hear anyone else's. I tend to get laser-like focus during a movie (and my husband is fond of saying it is a million times worse when I'm reading a book). Only a completely obnoxious ring tone during a sensitive scene is obvious to me. Or my own tones screaming out. I cringe if I forget to turn my phone off and it makes any noise. The movie comes on ten minutes later and we’ve already demolished our popcorn. Someone needs to go get refills on our two buckets being shared between the whole family. Give me a break. We get small drinks for everyone and a couple of buckets of popcorn and drop fifty bucks. I’m not going to feel back about sharing. My husband volunteers after everyone else whispers, “Not it.” Including the guy sitting behind us. He must be a comic. The opening scene is exactly what you’d expect from a super hero exploding carnage loud action-packed fast-paced typical same as every other one comic book trans theatre experience. From its characters with perfect bodies and even more perfect timing of slap-dashery antics to its out of this world never before seen super technology, there is nothing in this movie that I can relate to. Nothing that resembles my life of 8 – 5 desk job, practice-shuffling taxi service, and evening head chef/waitress/bottle washer position. But I guess that's why we're here. I take my husband’s hand and sit back. Holding hands is one of the many "little" things we still do as a couple to make that connection. You know, the one that says, "I still like you and I still want to be with you after all these years. I still want to touch you and be in love like a teenager." We also cook together on the weekends, snuggle during the holidays on the couch in front of our families despite their delicious discomfort, and kiss on the lips every chance we get while our children pretend to vomit. It doesn’t take me long to tune out all the action noise chaos action shooting explosion action explosion chaos action explosion and get lost in my own thoughts. I had spent the previous day at my cousin’s for her wedding shower. She’s one of those wholesome earthy people full of love and compassion. All the time. Literally. I’ve never seen her unhappy. Somehow she has transcended this life of must do’s and must have’s and must be’s and just is. She has a beautiful dog, is about to marry an amazing man who cherishes the ground she walks on, and is completely satisfied. She should write a book. And tell the rest of us how to accomplish it. I hope her secret, when she finally shares it, isn’t, “Don’t have children.” That would be a tragedy. I’ve become quite attached to mine. They’d be hard to give up at this point. I’ve found that people such as my cousin collect like-minded people around them in the same way heavier pebbles rise to the top in a bucket of sand when you softly shake it, and my cousin is no exception. Her shower was filled with lovely women with extraordinarily kind hearts. They talked about the good energy in the room and I swear, I know what they were talking about. It was a beautiful sunny day outside and we were in a gorgeous home with floor to ceiling windows and pieces of art that accentuated the sun and made everything feel cozy and warm. It was…lovely. When my cousin introduced everyone, she not only provided names, she provided key pieces of information. I was her cousin on her mom’s side, we grew up together and spent hours and hours playing together at our grandparents’ home. Another woman was her best friend. Another the woman who’s beautiful home we were in. Two others were palm readers. That’s right, I said palm readers. And the first chance I got, I asked one of them if she would be willing to look at mine and tell me what she saw. I had never had my palm read, or been to a fortuneteller, or even played with a Ouija board. Well, I take that back. I did play with a Ouija board once with another cousin. It seemed like a bunch of hooey and that was that. Great concept, failure to produce. Not unlike this movie. The palm reader immediately complied with a sparkle in her eye, delighted that I had asked. I can tell you, I was relieved because I don’t really have any idea what the protocol is for having a palm read. She didn’t ask for money afterwards and she seemed genuinely pleased to accept the challenge so I held out my hand. Read Part 2. 7/1/2016 0 Comments Camp Nano Starts TodayI signed up for my second Camp Nano. I did NanoWriMo last year in November and wrote most of my novel, ARGENT GLASS, during that time, finishing the first very rough draft by Christmas. I started editing in January and continued on through my first Camp Nano, tweaking my story and fixing major plot holes. In this month's Camp, I have committed to 30,000 words. My goal is to work on my blogging and build followers. So, I have no idea what I will be blogging, with the exception of my first post.
For my first post, I picked one of my writing prompts and just started writing: "Show me your hands." So many things come to mind when I read this prompt... catching my three year old after he finished eating a whole bag of potato chips, being caught stealing gum from the local party store growing up, and more recently, meeting a palm reader. The story that had the biggest pull was meeting the palm reader. I took a moment to think about what she told me and then started typing, letting the words come as they would. My next post is the roughed-out unedited text. Maybe I will use it later is a short story or as a scene for a longer novel. We'll just have to see what happens next! |