parenting story

With Kids in the Middle

“Billy! Welcome home! How did you enjoy your birthday weekend with your dad?”

“Hi Mom. It sucked.”

“Hey. Billy just ran upstairs saying your weekend sucked. Did the two of you get into it?”

“You know how it is. He wanted to go fishing, and then he didn’t. Kid can’t make up his mind.”

“Huh. You going to take the twins with you next time?”

“Winnie, you know I don’t have room at my place for all three kids.”

“So why did you buy such a small place?”

“It was all I could afford. The support payments are killing me!”

“Well maybe you shouldn’t have fu… fooled around on me!”

“Mom?”

“Oh, Billy. I didn’t see you there.”

“Can I finish the cake in the fridge?”

“Sure you can, Honey. Dad was just leaving. I’ll come and join you.”

***

Today, we were to write a story all in dialogue as our prompt at a Story A Day. Julie suggested we use the two characters we wrote from the last two days, so that’s what I did. It worked out well.

The previous two posts here on my blog introduce you to the characters in this story. They are “Cake” and “Stones”.

Stones

Plop

“Billy, would you please stop dropping stones in the water.”

“Why?” Billy asked his dad.

“I’ve told you. You’ll scare away the fish.”

“Oh.”

…

Plop

“Billy?”

“Yes, Daddy?”

“What did I tell you about dropping stones in the water?”

“I forget.”

“You’ll scare away the fish.”

“Oh, right.”

…

Plop

“Billy, I’m starting to get angry.”

“Why?”

“Because you keep dropping stones in the water and I don’t want to spend hours sitting here for nothing when I could be at home watching TV.”

“We’re not catching anything, anyways,” Billy mumbled.

“What was that?”

“I said, we’re not catching anything. And I’m bored.”

“Are you telling me we came all the way out here because YOU wanted to go fishing and twenty minutes in, you’re bored?”

“Sorry.”

“I’ll give you sorry, you little…”

“Dad no! You promised you wouldn’t slap me on my birthday!”

“You’re lucky. Let’s go home.”

“Wait! Look at all the fish!”

“How the hell… Hang on. Did you have any stones in the boat, Billy?”

“No.”

“What have you been dropping overboard?”

“The little fish we brought.”

“Billy?”

“Yeah, Dad?”

“You’re spending your next birthday with your mother.”

Our prompt for today on a Story A Day is “When your character is not like you.” The character (the dad) is not like me because he’s a guy, he’d hit his kid for being bored, and he’s fishing. I’ve never been, nor have I had any desire to go, fishing.

Cake

Baking a cake for the twins’ bake sale at school should have been easy. Thousands of moms did it every year. At least that’s what Winnifred told herself as she threw the cake mix into the grocery basket along with orange juice, yogurt, and the cookies she suddenly had a craving for. Cravings were a stress thing she was very familiar with.

Her first clue that things weren’t going to go as planned should have been the fact that there was no money in her account when she tried to cash out with her debit card. The money should have been there – she’d just been to the bank to make a deposit. So she dug in her purse for cash to pay for her groceries and then went straight back to the bank. As it turned out, someone had stolen her PIN number. She filled out a bunch of forms and got a new bank card, and the bank reassured Winnifred that she would get her money back within the next few days. So off she went home.

Winnifred read the instructions carefully. She preheated the oven and added the exact amount of water and eggs to the mix that the recipe on the side of the box called for. But when it came time to pour the batter into the pan, she realized she had no pan. Of course she didn’t – she wasn’t the sort of mom who baked. So off she went to the store again. This time, she had to really scrape the bottom of her purse for change, since she forgot that she had no money in her bank account.

Finally, Winnifred got home and managed to bake the cake. The kids got off the bus and came clamoring through the door just as she was finishing off the icing.

“There!” she said to her twin girls. She turned the cake for them to admire her work. “You can take this to school tomorrow.”

“But Mom,” one of the twins said, “the bake sale was today.”

That night, Winnifred enjoyed cake with her cookies.

***
This story was prompted by a Story A Day, where our prompt for today was “when your character is like you.” I hate baking!! 😀