Creative Writing Thursday Part1
Over teh next 3-4 weeks I will be writing more than just a poem, I have this story I am trying to get on paper.... so follow along, and enjoy. (And as always add your own writings).
Forgotten Never Be
It was an unusually hot day, late July. One of those days that would make you wish for the coming of fall, or long for what now was those past day of spring, but a hot day nonetheless. On a day like this most people would never be in deep thought, especially when there wasn’t even a breeze to push the stagnate air through the house. But for Elbert he paid it no attention. He was used to the heat, in fact this “heat” that people talked about was truly nothing. “You should live down in the bayous if you want to see what heat is” He’d often think to himself, when others complained. But people were just weak in these days. He often recounted how when he was a child his dad always mentioned “You always know a man’s strength by his ability to do a hard days work. Hard days work, people didn’t even know it anymore. They just sat in there offices with there typewriters. Drones of this ever changing world, making it change ever more. “All the change in this world, its been fine the way it was for years, why do they keep need making change?” Elbert found himself muttering those words out loud as he sat watching the infomercial on his recently installed color Television.
It was getting late in the day, Elbert had let most the day slip away, which was a common occurrence these days but never was true say even five years ago. Five years ago that’s when she passed away, his lovely wife Eloise. He thought of those days gone, on those hottest summer days they would get all the neighborhood kids along with little Tom and drive up to the swim holes, the creek coming out of the mountains. The echoing of those laughing kids, the smile of little Tom; his laughs, he could feel his little hand holding on to his now. His lovely wife, his dear boy Tom, he glanced at their picture sitting on the table next to the house keys.
“Well I’m not getting anything done sitting here. I’ve got to get to the store before it gets dark out” Elbert spoke those words aloud as if someone was there to listen. Grasping his cane he struggled out of the large chair in the living room and began to walk toward the keys. Picking them up he walked towards the door, and in a cumbersome manner opened the door, the screen, and turned locking the door, dropping the keys into his coat pocket.
Any other person couldn’t wear a coat on a hot day in July, but Elbert could. He wasn’t weak like this generation. “This isn’t even heat” he thought. “If people just knew how hot weather I could handle, they would think something of me then”. He grabbed the railing as he stammered down the steps to the street. “This street used to be so quiet.” Not any more though, the hustle and bustle of a street which once was considered a fine part of town now was just crowded out as a thoroughfare to a ever new part of town. The houses people lived in now would have been mansions back in Elbert’s younger days.
He turned up the sidewalk walking in the direction of traffic headed to the corner market. After about 10 minutes of walking he passed Ms. Ellesis place. That one summer many years ago, he had helped her through the whole season with her garden. At that time she was getting up in years. All the other boys his age was off playing ball, taking the best of the summers first fruits as it were. But Elbert’s strong desire to help people had been there since he was younger. She was appreciative for what he had done. But what was on the cover of the paper that fall? Was it what he had done to help her? No it was those boys and there quest to become county champions of football. “Justice is never served!” Elbert shook his cane upward, looking a bit off in the distance, scarring a younger boy on his bicycle. “Sorry son”, shouted out Elbert. The moment had captured him, reminiscing days gone past. But that wasn’t an unusual thing for him. Some times in reality he felt as if he were that age again. But there was always the fact that cane, which had been a part of him for the last fifteen years, always reminded him that he was in no way young anymore.
Just a few more blocks and he arrived at the intersection that took him 3 years of petitions to get this crosswalk put in. The funny thing he couldn’t even use it anymore. The stairs were so steep. Instead he would have to cross over 54th, head down to another older crosswalk at 60th street. He headed down the street to get just across the way. A 5 minute journey turned 15 minutes because of those cursed legs.
“If the old store was here still on this corner that Mr. Wilcox ran was still open, then I wouldn’t have to go through this hassle every week”. It didn’t matter though, Mr. Wilcox had been dead for 20 some years. He would put Elberts paintings up above the produce section when he was younger, in his twenties. The people in town used to even comment about “Elbert Eesse’s produce paintings". He actually had painted a lot of those old paintings in town in various stores. Half the time he just did it because he loved to paint. He had dreamed of being a famous painter one day. That mural he had painted on the building over on 26th was beautiful. Of course that building was destroyed a good thirty years ago.
“Finally this light changes so I can get across this street”, Elbert muttered as he step down from the sidewalk to the hot pavement. It was so hot out that he could feel the heat from street through his leather soled loafers. But this heat wasn’t nothing, down in the bayou… that was heat. Two girls walked by in string bikini tops and cut jean shorts. "My how times had changed. Mother used to always wear that long dark dress working in the fields, with the long sleeves and her boots. And that was even on those hot July days. Those days were so much hotter than this day is, and here this generation feal it's so hot they can’t wear any clothes". Normal thoughts for Elbert on a summer day. As Elbert reached the other side of the street, he looked down and grabbed his vest and buttoned it shut. “This isn’t hot. I’m pretty much better than anyone at standing heat”. He picked up his cane which he had leaned against the old Smitty building and kept walking north toward the shopping center to get his groceries.
As he crossed the street, he entered the shopping center parking lot. The cars whirled around him as he walked toward the front sliding doors. This used to be an open lot where his boy would come play ball. Every Saturday afternoon they would come. Elbert had even built a backstop for them, and an outfield fence. It was a real hit with the kids. They would spend all there summer days there.
As Elbert entered the store the inrush of air conditioned air chilled him to his core, he grabbed the top button and began to button his jacket together. That second button had been missing for the last three years. Used to, Eloise always fixed those missing buttons. But since she had been gone for the last five years, there was basically no one to help at all. For at least the last 10 years of her life, there was actually no one to help them except each other. Neighbors weren't neighbors. There friends and family were all gone. “These people need this frigid air because they are weak. That’s what it is! I should start a school and teach these people how to deal with heat. That would save them all a lot of money!” Elbert finished closing his jacket by buttoning the bottom button.
Come back next week for the next part....
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