Mini Story, Musing

RDP Monday: hullabaloo

Today at RDP, sgeoil asks us to get creative
with the word โ€˜hullabalooโ€™. Thanks, Heather!
Hereโ€™s where the prompt word took me.

Continue reading “RDP Monday: hullabaloo”
Motown Melodies, Music Blog

Death and Taxes

Written for Song Lyric Sunday  
where the challenge is to write
about a song dealing with taxes
and/or money. Hereโ€™s my response.

Continue reading “Death and Taxes”
Flash, Very Short Story

911

Written for Sammiโ€™s Weekend Writing Prompt #406
using the word โ€œdecisiveโ€. In 39 words, this is my flash.

Continue reading “911”
Movie Blog

Want To Watch A Movie?

Bill and I watched this beautifully bittersweet movie last night. We knew nothing about this 2023 film except for the brief description below; we were sold after watching the trailer. Paul Giamatti is an excellent actor and his performance was impeccable. There were some award-winning insults and one-liners delivered with great aplomb. If youโ€™re looking for a lighthearted romcom, this is not for you. We enjoyed this one a lot and highly recommend it.

The Holdovers follows a curmudgeonly instructor (Paul Giamatti) at a New England prep school who is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go. Eventually he forms an unlikely bond with one of them …. a damaged, brainy troublemaker (newcomer Dominic Sessa) …. and with the school’s head cook (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), who has just lost a son in Vietnam.

Letโ€™s watch the trailer.

Iโ€™ll save you a seat. Enjoy the movie! ๐ŸŽฅ  ๐Ÿฟ ๐Ÿฅค

NARยฉ2024

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for Nancy ~ The Sicilian Storyteller, Nancy (The Sicilian Storyteller), The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephantโ€™s Trunk, and The Rhythm Section and are not to be used without permission. NARยฉ2017-present.

Dectina Refrain

My Baby’s Baby: A Dectina Refrain

My granddaughter Mckenna ยฉNAR

Itโ€™s
really
amazing
how time flies by.
People say โ€˜donโ€™t blinkโ€™;
where did fifteen years go?
She is my babyโ€™s baby,
his first child and my first grandchild;
our world changed the instant she was born.                               
It’s really amazing how time flies by.

This is my beautiful granddaughter Mckenna; sheโ€™s funny and fun to be with. At one time she wanted to be a writer; now sheโ€™s hoping to become a professional musician in an orchestra. Her instrument of choice is the baritone sax โ€ฆ a powerhouse! She just finished her freshman year of high school and was accepted into the National Honor Society. Sheโ€™s been a member of her schoolโ€™s swim team for the last couple of years and today she will start her first job as a lifeguard for her townโ€™s public pool. She really wanted that job and is psyched she passed the test. So are we! Congratulations, Mckenna! Weโ€™re so proud of you!

Me and Mckenna, 15 years ago ยฉNAR

NARยฉ2024

This is โ€œDonโ€™t Blinkโ€ by Kenny Chesney

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephantโ€™s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and are not to be used without permission. NARยฉ2017-present.

Flash

Inquiring Minds

Written for Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge
and Weekend Writing Prompt #368 where we are
asked to be creative in exactly 100 words incorporating
the prompt words “sleep” and “quaint”. This is my story.

Poe Cottage Photo @ Pinterest

We visited the Poe Cottage this week, former home of the poet Edgar Allan Poe. Itโ€™s about a 30 minute drive from my house and I thought my two teenage grandchildren would enjoy the walk-around since theyโ€™re both reading the works of Poe in school.

Itโ€™s a quaint old place with small bedrooms, a common kitchen-parlor-dining room downstairs and an upstairs loft. My 6โ€™ tall grandson questioned how a grown man could sleep in the tiny bed.

At one point I realized my grandson had gone missing. Imagine my embarrassment when he was found napping in Poeโ€™s bed!

Inquiring minds.

Poe Cottage Bedroom Photo @ Pinterest

NARยฉ2024
100 Words

This is โ€œIโ€™m So Tiredโ€ by the Beatles

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephantโ€™s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and are not to be used without permission. NARยฉ2017-present.

Short Story

Fiasco In Florence

When my sister Rosemarie had her 16th birthday, our parents decided it was the perfect time for our first family vacation in Italy. Plans were made for the summer โ€ฆ. three weeks traveling around Italy and another three weeks visiting family in Sicily.

One of our stops was Florence where we stayed in a breathtaking guesthouse called Pensione Mona Lisa. Our accommodations were similar to an apartment but without a kitchen; all meals were served in the communal dining room. Our parents took the master bedroom on the first floor while Rosemarie and I shared a loft bedroom which also had its own bathroom.

All the rooms were exquisitely decorated with beautiful furnishings and expensive rugs. In our bathroom there was a claw-foot tub, separate shower, a pedestal sink and an enclosed area with the toilet. Next to the toilet was an odd-looking fixture neither of us had ever seen before. It was the same size as the toilet but with extra faucets and handles and a strange sprinkler contraption in the center of the bowl. When we turned the faucets on, water shot out straight from theย sprinkler; we immediately turned off the water, then sat there trying to figure out just what the hell the damn thing was.ย 

After considerable thought, we came to the conclusion it was for foot-washing. Happily kicking off our sandals, we turned on the water and bathed our hot, tired feet. We dried off with the small paper guest towels in the bathroom and tossed them into the bowl, then pulled one of the levers expecting the towels to flush away. Well, they didnโ€™t. In fact the โ€˜footwasherโ€™ very quickly filled with water and overflowed as Rosemarie and I tried desperately to stop it.

Before we knew it, the bathroom floor was covered with water which leaked out into the bedroom, soaking the rug. We watched helplessly as the water trickled down the stairs into the main living section, drenching the gorgeous rugs. Our mother saw what was happening and rang the front desk for help but it was pretty much a lost cause.

The pensione staff arrived and started yelling and screaming at us in Italian as other guests hurried over to see what all the commotion was about. The rugs were ruined and we were responsible for the damages. The rooms became uninhabitable and when we inquired about other lodgings, the pensione manager told us they were all booked and we had to find another place to say for the remainder of our time in Florence. After paying off the front desk clerk, he begrudgingly made a few calls for us; we were told there was a small hotel in Pisa that could accommodate us.

Despite all the angry hotel personnel, the name-calling, the expense for damages, the inconvenience of relocating and our parents general frustration, nothing could have prepared them for the embarrassment and mortification they felt explaining to their sixteen year old daughter and her tween sister the purpose of a bidet.

NARยฉ2024

This is “Only Sixteen” by Sam Cooke

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephantโ€™s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and is not for use by anyone without permission. NARยฉ2017-present.

Flash

Park Avenue

Our delightful host Rochelle at Friday Fictioneers
has offered this challenge: to write creatively in
100 words or less in response to this photo.
Here is my story in 100 words.

Photo Prompt ยฉ Roger Bultot

Each morning they would incline their respective hospital beds, draw back their curtains an inch and raise binoculars to their eyes. They would wave, smile radiantly and lift a hand-written note which read โ€œWanna blow this joint?โ€

A different note followed at noon and 9PM. And theyโ€™d laugh!

They found each other by accident, two teenage girls occupying apartments diagonally across Park Avenue. Each was bedridden with the ubiquitous daily flow of boring people in and out of their rooms โ€ฆ. parents, nurses, doctors.

It was indescribably joyful to have a secret friend.

These were the highlights of their days.

NARยฉ2024
100 Words

This is Bette Midler with โ€œFriendsโ€

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephantโ€™s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and is not for use by anyone without permission. NARยฉ2017-present.

Short Story

Driving Lessons

โ€œDanielle wants to learn how to drive, Bobโ€

โ€œDonโ€™t look at me, Helen. Last year’s lessons with Vanessa nearly put me over the edge.โ€

โ€œWell, I canโ€™t do it! Ever since Marcia Morelli snatched that promotion for Real Estate Agent of the Year away from me, Iโ€™m spending all my time at work playing catch up.โ€

โ€œThatโ€™s not my problem, Helen. Anyway, I signed on to coach Brandonโ€™s baseball team this season, remember?โ€

โ€œOh, cry me a river, Bob! Youโ€™re the one who took an early retirement; your schedule is much more flexible than mine.โ€

โ€œThatโ€™s right, I retired so I could do things I enjoy like playing golf  and going fishing. Itโ€™s important to stay mobile after retirement so we donโ€™t become dust in the wind.โ€

โ€œWell, if you canโ€™t do it and I canโ€™t do it, why donโ€™t we get Vanessa to teach Danielle how to drive?โ€

โ€œAre you out of your mind, woman! Vanessaโ€™s been driving less than a year. She canโ€™t take Danielle out driving! Can you imagine the mayhem when those two hit the streets?โ€

โ€œAt least Iโ€™m making suggestions, Bob. All youโ€™re doing is justifying why you canโ€™t do it.โ€

โ€œOh, Helen, save your breath and donโ€™t look at me with such contempt. Iโ€™m right and you know it. I wonโ€™t idly sit by and watch both our daughters driving without an adult in the car. Itโ€™s out of the question.โ€

โ€œYou wonโ€™t? Oh, thatโ€™s wonderful, Bob! I knew youโ€™d come around!โ€

โ€œNow hold on there, Helen. I didnโ€™t agree to anything.โ€

โ€œWhy, sure you did, Bob. You said you wouldnโ€™t sit idly by while the girls are driving around without an adult in the car.โ€

โ€œBut I didnโ€™t meanโ€ฆ..โ€

โ€œLook at it this way, Bob. Danielle is used to being driven everywhere she goes. If you donโ€™t teach her how to drive, youโ€™ll just have to drive here wherever she wants to go. Iโ€™d say this is a win/win situation.โ€

โ€œAnd how do you figure that, Helen?โ€

โ€œSimple! By giving Danielle driving lessons, youโ€™ll be doing your part to keep our insurance rates down, youโ€™ll be able to coach Brandon’s baseball team and still have time to do the things you enjoy and you wonโ€™t turn into dust in the wind. And all it takes is just one daily one-hour driving lesson! Youโ€™re a genius, Bob!โ€

โ€œI am? Yeah, I guess I am. Hey! Wait just a gosh darn minute, Helen!โ€

NARยฉ2024

This is Kansas with โ€œDust In The Windโ€

This portfolio (including text, graphics and videos) is copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephantโ€™s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and is not for use by anyone without permission. NAR ยฉ 2017-present.