“Wake up, Tumbles!” Mom called, gently nudging my shoulder with her broad, soft foot pad. “It’s time to get up. Have you forgotten that we’re going fishing today? Boomer has been up since dawn and is eager to go.” “Fishing!” Suddenly my eyes flew wide. No sooner had I stretched and rolled out of our warm den and onto my feet than Boomer leap-frogged onto my shoulders, playfully biting the thick ruff at the back of my neck. With a…
A wanderlust bug crawled out from the pages of my seventh grade social studies textbook and bit me. It happened at the beginning of the school year when my class was learning the history of Ancient Greece. A picture of the Parthenon captured both my eye and imagination. All year my textbook fell open to that page as if by magic. “I will see it for myself one day,” I decided. I traveled to many places since that time, some more…
“Get me out of here!” I screamed. My cries were futile. I had been crammed into a dark, stuffy backpack for days, sometimes with lumpy shoes pressing painfully against me. How I longed for the comfort of the store where I had been stacked flat on a shelf with my fellow tablecloths. But I hadn’t been happy there either and prayed that someone would buy me and take me on picnics. When finally a lady and man bought me, I…
Fact: “Violent Earthquake Strikes Northern California… Even Bigger Quake Predicted Along San Andreas Fault.” That was a newspaper headline following the Loma Prieta earthquake on October 18, 1989. It was a day like any other in Northern California until 5:04 p.m. Then the most powerful earthquake since 1906 hit the area. It registered 7.1 on the Richter scale, causing a span of the Bay Bridge to collapse and a section of the 880 Freeway to crumble. It killed 63 people….
It sometimes seems to take an eternity for things to happen, especially when we are waiting on tenterhooks. “A watched pot never boils,” they say. I thought about that proverb and its meaning after our creative writing class last Monday. I was waiting to merge with other traffic funneling toward the Lions Gate Bridge. There was no need to press my foot to the gas peddle; releasing the brake every few seconds was enough to keep up with the traffic….
For two glorious weeks, no buzzing alarm clock would jolt me awake. My wrist watch was tucked deep in a drawer, since I wanted no reminders that it was time to do this or that. Instead, I would eat when hungry, sleep when tired, and get up when the spirit moved me. I would be on Mexican time and “manjana” would be the rule of the day if I so wished. Sometimes, though, knowing what time it is can be…
I snuggled deeper into the warmth of my sleeping bag and listened to the waves slapping on the sandy shore and the squeals of distant gulls. A new day was dawning and soon I would have to struggle within the confines of our little pup tent into the clothes I’d shoved into a corner, probably now cold and damp from the night air. I didn’t relish the idea. As I lay there, my mind drifted back to yesterday morning. It…
Christmas tree lights, diffused with angel hair and backed with silver reflectors, cast a rosy glow over our little living room. The curtains remain open and a yellow street light shines in from Dunbar Street. The smell of wood smoke that had puffed out of the fireplace when the fire was lit lingers, but the front door, which had been open to clear the air and to help get the fire going, is now closed. The fire is crackling and…
It was past midnight and no one was in sight. An unseen walker’s footsteps echoed off stone buildings. A burst of students’ voices, laughing and singing, faded away. Then, except for water gently slapping against wooden pilings, all was silent. We were lost and alone in the dark except for ghosts of Venetians who had lived and died here since it sprang from the lagoon 1500 years ago. It wouldn’t have surprised us to see a masked Venetian aristocrat in…
“If you are quiet, you might hear something,” I reminded myself as I tried to avoid stepping on the crisp, curled leaves littering the trail. During Costa Rica’s dry season from December to April, deciduous trees lose their leaves in order to conserve moisture. Dry leaves crunch loudly underfoot even in a tropical wet forest and serve to warn animals away from predators, so I would often stop and listen quietly and patiently for an animal to reveal itself. How…