Wednesday Night at the Inn

A drawing I made for a story I wrote... the link to find it is at the bottom of the page.

Well it's Wednesday night at the Inn. Went for a walk after I got home from work.  I  made a delicious green smoothie filled with good things like spinach, sprouts, a clementine, flaxseed, coconut milk and a energizing mix of protein powder that I got at the health food store. Eventually I am hoping that all of this effort will pay off and I will get stronger again. I have a lot of shovelling ahead of me this winter. I  can just see myself trying to shovel my way out of the yard at 5 a.m. Oh well such is life and I will just have to trust life.

So back to the Annie Wright story.  If you have found this blog by chance, I am writing a story  one entry at at time, so you will have to go back and  catch up on the story.

*********

From her handwritten manuscript.... 1956

So  what was I doing  inviting a stranger into my parents house and into my well planned life.  Bobby was expecting  me to be his wife and my  father was expecting to increase his business profits and  settle down his daughter. My mother was expecting more grandbabies and my sisters were going along with it all because they never had a choice in their lives either. My sister Janet had ran away with Peter Richards. She was so in love with him but my parents told her  that  they had no intention of letting her ruin her life with the likes of someone like him. See he was a drifter, or so that's what father called him. He had joined the army and quit so of course his life was ruined ...according to my father. He was a no good for nothing character without any plans for a decent future. Father wanted what was best for his girls and that meant them marrying a rich well respected son of one of the town's respectable families.  So he found her, brought her back and threatened  poor Peter  enough to send him on his way. I  have always thought that he paid him off as well.

And so Janet settled down with a man that I know she did not love, in a life she still lives to please my parents.  They lived  in a beautiful house and had three children.  She spent her days baking brownies and going to school meetings. Of course she went to the beauty salon twice a week because she had to look good for her perfect husband, who  spent very little time at home. He was a nice guy  to have at  family gatherings but I suspect that he is a cold man at home. Janet never says anything but I have known her all my life and I can see her sadness.  Poor mother, I wonder if that was how she ended up with Father. Was hers an arranged marriage? Did she ever love her husband or was it  just what was expected of her as well.   Maybe she never knew what it was to fall in love and therefore could not understand her daughters.

So there I was falling in love with a stranger who I knew  very little about, yet he was more familiar than anyone I had ever met. In the few days that we had spent together, I told him everything about my life.  We laughed  together and I cried from the sheer overwhelming happiness that I felt being near him. His kindness, his tenderness and deep dark eyes made me weak and strong at the same time. For the first time I felt  the courage to want something enough to go against my parents.     In that short amount of time, I  knew I was in love. I was ready to give up everything to spend more time with him. I wanted to walk away from all the responsibilites of being Annie Wright. I knew for sure that I could not marry Bobby. I could not settle down in this small town and live my sisters' lives. I could not live my life just to make my father proud of me and give my mother more grand children to talk about to her friends.  

Yet at that time in my life, I had nothing of my own and was totally dependent on my parents. The little money I had saved was spent on a typewriter. The delivery of what I had so desired and saved for had brought me something totally unexpected.... my first taste of love and soon to be sorrow.

Okay folks that is all for tonight.  I wish I could write for hours but it is time for bed. These early 4:30  mornings means I have to get to bed early or else I will struggle through my days in a fog.  I promise to write on a more regular basis  as I have a hundred more stories to tell. Unfortunately like everyone else, I know I have an expiry date so I must not leave this earth with the stories untold, therefore I have to spend more time here writing.

Thanks Teresa, I appreciate your kindness!!!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/100727989/the-fisherman-and-the-salmon-a-fabled