Short Story

Tall Ships

The Sicilian Storyteller

This is The Unicorn Challenge.
Our objective: to be creative in
250 words or less, prompted by
the photo below. This is my story.

© Ayr/Gray

Battery Park. The glittering lights of tall ships parading up the Hudson River. New York at its brightest. The Big Apple – excitement and energy down to its core.

So how the hell did I end up in Pennsylvania Dutch Country, hopelessly in love with my Amish husband Abel, married for four years with three kids and twins on the way?

Good old revenge. I wouldn’t play ball with my boss so instead of being assigned to photograph the tall ships in New York Harbor, I was banished for a month to cover the â€œPlain People’s” Summer County Fair.

What I thought was going to be a nightmare was a delicious surprise. When the handsome, lusty Abel Jansen and I locked eyes, it was “Goed gevoel”  â€“ a â€œgood feeling” from head to toe and all parts in between.

Being accepted into the Amish community, let alone marrying, is difficult but we had a few things going for us. I was a city girl, not afraid of getting my hands dirty. We were mature. Most Amish were married before age 20; Abel and I were both 26.

But the clincher was the serendipity attached to my name …. Menno Jakob.

The most revered men among the Amish were Menno Simons and Jakob Ammann. The elders were convinced I was descended from them when I was actually an Italian Jew from Canarsie! Who was I to argue?

Abel was my tall ship and I was his splash of Manhattan sparkle. Nothing else mattered.

NAR©2024
250 Words

The Unicorn Challenge-22/03/24

This is “Sailing” by Christopher Cross

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and is not for use by anyone without permission. NAR©2017-present.

















		


			
		
	




	



			

			49 thoughts on “Tall Ships”		


		
		
    
					
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        Absolutely not.  I am sure they are good people.  My beau lives close to them and has had regular dealings with them.  To each theiir own, I say 🙂
        

        My pleasure!
        

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    There you are – a satisfying love story.
    A vengeful beginning that led to a bigger adventure, love and lust, differences overcome, and that beautiful sentence: ‘Abel was my tall ship and I was his splash of Manhattan sparkle’ – everybody happy.
    I nearly had to go and lie down at the thought of ‘3 kids in 4 years and twins on the way…’ on your MC’s behalf though – she must have been exhausted.
    But all part of the happiness package – and probably welcomed by all religious variations mentioned?
    

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      Thank you, Jenne. I had to laugh at your comment about needing to lie down. My mother-in-law had 4 kids in 3 years; one birth was twins. When I asked her how she coped with it all, she shrugged and said “What you do for one, you do for the other”. Like water off a duck’s back. 
      

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    We all have a story about the how, where and when of meeting our mate. I’m glad this one worked out. There is IMO nothing more divisive than religion in families. I thought I’d heard it all when I switched from my mother’s church to another brand. She would switch positions in her grave if she knew I switched to the “nothing” brand.
    

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      To paraphrase Jerry Lee Lewis “There’s a whole lotta switchin’ goin’ on!”
      

      My husband and I certainly disappointed our parents over this “religious thing”. (Parents playing the disappointment card is highly effective). 
      

      Funny, though …. as I was writing this, religion was never at the crux; still isn’t.
      

      Thanks for your thoughts, Sighs.
      

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    How odd is this writing appreciation* thing?
    

    My ‘smile-of-cool‘!  moment came from a simple** phrase:
    

    “…I was his splash of Manhattan sparkle.“
    

    

    *including, but not limited to reading to improve one’s own craft
    

    ** yeah, as if! (well, in terms of execution, not readation***)
    

    *** not a ‘real’ word
    

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    The character’s refusal to ‘play ball’ with her boss landed her another great adventure elsewhere, meeting her soulmate and the desire of her (flesh or heart? hahah). Short and interesting is my description for it. I hope they didn’t just get dirty but actually married, huh. So lovely, Nancy.
    

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