Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness around the world.

September 26, 2006

Today’s announcements

Please for give me. I am crying my eyes and heart out for my cousin. She has two really bad years now. Now last week she lost her only son to ling cancer. He had never smoked a day in his life.  I have a bother in law given 9 months for the same thing. I have lost several family member and friends to cancer as I am sure everyone has.

Please, please pray with me that God leads the way for someone to find the cure. To many people and families have to suffer.

So please pray hard with me. I do believe in the power of prayer. We need to all pull together and see if someone can find all the cures to all the sicknesses we get.

Thank you for listening.

Love to all, And I do prayer for you all.  Peggy: daine1945@aol.com or cowtrains@yahoo.com

Now onto the good stuff!

Today’s Queue Stories

~**~**~

The Law & Noise. 

Mike Firesmith

If you do something often enough, let's say that you wanted to throw a basketball into a pool in your backyard, sooner or later something will go wrong. After fifteen years of throwing the basketball into the pool one day you will miss. That's the Law Of Averages, and a law it is, too. Sooner or later, no matter how far you run, or how fast, the law will catch up to you.


The Law caught up with me in the grocery store. The store is right next to the gym and I went in to get something for supper. The AC in the building wasn't working well and I already felt like dying. I had a brutal workout and felt like lying down somewhere. The shower didn't take and I was sweating like a bank robbery watching himself on one of those most wanted television programs. This is a store I frequent often and the service is never great, but always reasonable. That is, until The Law arrived.


For some reason people from all over the world arrived at this grocery store at one time. They all, each and every one of them, filled their carts to the very brim, and they all headed to the check-out counters, both of them, at the same time. I was trapped in a very long line of people with the prospect of either bailing out and going to another store ( would The Law be there? Wouldn't that be a great story!)or staying put and enduring ever may come.


I decided to stay put. I would regret it.



I got two or three people away from the check out counter when it happened. The woman two people behind me was holding a small child, maybe two years old, and the child began to cry. It began as a whimper that built into a wail. Then it was an all out scream that was only broken by the child's need to breathe. For a few seconds the child sounded like a motor bogging down under water before kicking into high gear again. Waa! Waa! Waa! WAAAAAAAAAA! Waa! Waa! Waa! WAAAAAAAAA! I was seven feet away and it sounded like I was seven inches away. It sounded like the kid had some sort of alien device that allowed it to teleport sound directly into my brain, by passing distance and ears.


A few things before we go on: If there is a job out there tougher than being a parent I'm unaware of it. Raising kids is a lose- lose situation. If your kid is screaming its damn fool head off in the store then you're a bad parent for letting it happen. If you've got a quiet kid then people thing you've got a good kid and you get no credit for it at all. If you discipline your kid in public then there are those who think that you're a monster. If you don't then you're letting the kid walk all over you. If you leave your kid at home then people wonder what sort of parent you are for doing that, if you take the kid with you people wonder why you you're so stupid as to bring a child to such a public place. Parents get all sorts of great advice from people who have never spent more than a few minutes around their kid, if any at all. Before you get to the point where you can run your mouth about how kids are behaving and what you'd do about it, raise a few yourself. You might be a little less aggressive in advice giving after that.


I just could not believe such a small person had such a large sound. It was incredible. The screams echoed across the universe with ever increasing decibels. WAAAAAA! WAAAAAA! WAAAAA! I peered over at the woman to see if there was someone prodding the child with a red hot iron, or if a swarm if wasps had attached the child. WAAAA! WAAAA! WAAAA! The child took great gulps of air then expelled them back into the air as pure sound energy.

The guy behind me looked like he wanted to kill someone. I couldn't blame him. He was about twenty five or so and every time the kid scream I could tell he was about to bust. He was even closer than was to Ground Zero. Mom, meanwhile, was doing everything she could to keep the kid quiet, it just wasn't working. She rocked. She cooed. She tried talking to the kid. Nothing would help.

The entire store willed with the sound. Is there something genetic about the sound of a baby's cry that reaches deep within a human being and just grates against every nerve in the body? It's like that sound could be recorded and played back at riots and the rioters would run for cover. They could take that sound to torture chambers and prisoners would talk, say anything, just make it stop. Please, for the love of god, no more!


" Let her through, please." I said to the guy. He looked like he wanted to take a swing at me.
" Come on, back up and let the lady through." I pushed closer to him and now he had a choice of standing there sandwiched between me and she or backing up.
" Come on man, let's get that kid out of here." I hissed. That got him moving. He moved and she came through with her buggy and her kid. She thanked us and looked embarrassed. The woman ahead of me checked out and the Screamer was next. In less than a minute Screamer was gone but we could hear the kid wailing as they left the store.
I offered to let the guy go ahead of me but he wouldn't. With the kid gone, the noise gone, I think he was beginning to regain his humanity.
" Thank you." The cashier told me when I got up to her. " Thank you. Thank you."
As I walked to my truck I saw the woman pulling away in a car, her kid strapped in the backseat, nodding off to sleep.

Take Care,
Mike Firesmith

~**~**~

 The Sun Has Risen

Michael T. Smith

            Stars twinkled, as the first cars pulled into the parking lot. Headlights beamed

over the ocean, competing with the circling light of the towering lighthouse behind us.

Children yawned, as their parents lifted them from their safety seats. A light breeze

chilled the congregation gathering on the rocks of Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia. People

shivered beneath heavy coats, which did little to block the pre-dawn cold.

Our pastor climbed to the highest rock. We waited patiently for her to speak. The

sky grew light in the east. The ocean turned pink, reflecting dawn’s birth. “Every day the

sun sets.” She began. “Every morning it rises again. We’re disappointed to see it leave us

each evening, but we’re not sad. We have faith in our sun. We know it will rise again.”

She spoke for many minutes, touching our hearts and souls with her words of faith and

love.

            The sky grew brighter. The choir assembled on the cliffs in front of us. They

lead us in song. As the last words echoed out of the ocean, the sun appeared over the

horizon.

            It was Easter morning.

            The Son had risen.

Michael T. Smith

mtsmith@qwestonline.com

To read my stories or to sign up
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http://archives.zinester.com/86758/

~**~**~

Poetry Section

~**~**~

'BROKEN PUZZLES'

C.J. Wylie

In an unforgiving

train of thought

I lay my head

to weep

upon my pillow

which comforts me

on the horizens

of my mind

I put together

puzzles

of broken pieces

and never realize

how many of them

are missing.

C.J.Wylie  2006

artjwca@yahoo.ca

~**~**~

'PLAY'

C. J. Wylie

I came upon a stranger once

while at play

Only for a moment or two

You see, I had to go

and be one of the many

to not cause disruption

in their illusioned way

I remember now

since I am of a many year

It returns to me

and I go out to play.

C.J.Wylie  2006

artjwca@yahoo.ca

~**~**~

 'LOOKING GLASS'

C. J. Wylie

I mirror you

You mirror me

For what is it you see

through the looking glass

Could it be a reflection

of you or me

or

what is meant to be

Is it a reminder

or a guide

Perhaps it reflects

all that is

or is not

What is it that you see

through the looking glass.

C.J.Wylie  2006

artjwca@yahoo.ca

Readers Feedback

Hart: In Puerto Rico this fruit (pomegranate) grows wild and its delicious. As a child, I placed it in the fridge and ate it cold in a hot summer day....! They leave a funny feelins on your teeths for which you have to wash them

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