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Journeys of a Lifetime
INTRODUCTION “The first and simplest emotion which we discover in the human mind, is curiosity.” —Edmund Burke, British Statesman and Philosopher
Who amongst us possesses so little curiosity that they have not dreamed of exploring a far off, exotic place? Or wondered how events unfolded decades or, perhaps, centuries past—or might occur tomorrow, next year, or hundreds of years hence. Or fantasized about the worlds, the people—the others—lurking in the farthest reaches of our universe—or, perhaps, in a different dimension. Who amongst us would decline the chance to slip unseen into the shadows to witness the very best and absolute worst of human potential? To cheer our heroes and curse the villains who challenge them, as they play out their parts in the ageless struggle between good and evil. The same curiosity that binds us together as humans binds us together as readers. For between the covers of our books, our imaginations take flight. Without airfare, a hotel bill, gasoline for the car, or a passport, our books transport us thousands—or millions—of miles away. They provide us with a hiding place that holds us safe as bullets fly, planes crash and ships flail upon the seas. They invite us to feel the tender touch of true love, the torrid passion of lust, the heartbreak of betrayal. Emotions we share with our heroes for a fleeting moment dance in our hearts long after the final page has been read and the volume stored on the shelf. We dedicate this collection of stories and essays to our readers. Readers give our words purpose. Without them, our work would languish unshared, like a songbird that chirps unheard in an empty forest. Grace Bridges is one such reader. We met her at the Readers Station message group on Yahoo and owe her a debt of gratitude for the title that adorns the cover of this volume. Chosen by our readers from a list of title suggestions, Grace’s entry embodies the spirit of Readers Station and our goals for the Readers Station anthology. In her poetry books, Emily Dickinson wrote: “There is no frigate like a book To take us lands away...” In the spirit of Ms. Dickinson’s words, we have compiled a collection of short stories and poems that incorporate a travel theme and a smattering of essays that share our experiences and expertise on nonfiction topics. Following the prose and poetry, you will find a brief biography for each author, a complete list of her published books and her contact information, as well. What’s that? Listen closely and you, too, will hear the conductor’s final boarding call. “All ‘board, the Readers Station Express.” My pulse quickens as I turn toward the boarding platform, a book tucked securely under my arm. I wave to my waiting friends, who motion for me to step quickly. Our adventure beckons. Will you join us? Travel well! Crew: Elena Dorothy Bowman Bryn Colvin Nikki Leigh Dorice Nelson Nora Peterson Ginger Simpson Donna Sundblad Angela Verdenius Anne Whitfield www.readersstation.com h t t p : / / g r o u p s . y a h o o . c o m / g r o u p / WelcometoReadersStation www.myspace.com/readersstation Many thanks to Grace Bridges, Winner of Name the Anthology Contest www.gracebridges.com http://myspace.com/grace1979
Members of The Readers’ Station Welcome You to Take Your Journey All Aboard! Tour Guide: Elena Dorothy Bowman Destination: Dorchester, Massachusetts, Malibu Beach at Dorchester Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. What should I see along the way?’ Maple, Elm, Apple and Pear trees, unpaved dirt roads, working farms, triple-decker houses, bridges, tree-lined streets with beautiful homes and plush lawns. What should I pack? Bathing suits, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, water, shorts, t-shirts and towels. Sneakers were on feet. Local Customs: Windows with cards signaling the ice man to come and fill up the ice box, women hanging laundry— postmen, policemen, and ministers, rabbis and priests, knew every kids’s name. Listening to the radio, playing stickball in the street and sitting on the front porches were the main types of entertainment for most families.
ONE SUMMER’S DAY Elena Dorothy Bowman This is a story of an earlier era when times were hard and a dime, a nickel and pennies counted; a man’s family meant more to him than life itself; the poor didn’t know they were poor, and when Boston’s Dorchester Section had its own sense of dignity. Tom, Katie’s Father, used to say he was the richest man in the world. She couldn’t grasp his meaning since she knew they didn’t have much money. But he explained his reason for saying so…because he had four sons. Katie didn’t know where she fit in all of this since she was his only daughter. Yet, she knew instinctively, her Father loved her as much as he did his boys. There were periods before she was sixteen when her actions caused him to wonder if he had five boys instead of four. Tom worked in the garment industry in Boston as one of their top designers. He walked the distance from Boston to Dorchester and back to save the cost of the carfare, a dime, in order to put a bottle of milk on the table for his family. She remembered him trudging through the snow covered, harsh, winter mornings and pushing himself on the hot, steamy, summer ones to put more food on their table. * * * On one particular hot summer day when Tom was getting ready for work, squeals of laughing, giggling, children, and strange noises reverberated throughout the house. “I’m almost afraid to look in their rooms, afraid of what I might see,” Tina, Katie’s Mom, said. “Then don’t,” Tom answered, laughing.” “Don’t get up, Tee!” he said, “It’s too early and too hot.” She nodded as she watched him walk through their bedroom door, her heart going out to him. “Don’t forget your lunch,” she said hurriedly. “It’s in the icebox.” “Don’t worry, love, I couldn’t do that. See you at dinner tonight,” he called back. He pushed his way through the front door of his Dorchester home and set out on his long trek to the woolen sportswear factory in Boston. * * * By now it was seven-thirty and Tina’s healthy, active children were demanding their breakfast. She would need more ice, she thought. She put the card in the window and hoped the iceman would come before everything in her icebox spoiled. The chatter around the kitchen table increased incessantly. The obvious boundless energy displayed by her offspring did not diminish in any significant magnitude while they ate. It drove Tina crazy. “Go out and play,” she said. “It’s too hot outside,” was the reply. “Then find something to do.” “What?” “Go down to the basement. It’s cooler.” “What can we do down there?” Ryan, her eldest, asked. “Good grief. Do I have to think of everything?” Ryan smiled brightly, shrugging his shoulders answered; “Guess so, Mom,” as he watched his mother struggling with her thoughts. The children were running around the house, playing tag in and out of the bedrooms, getting underfoot and interfering with Tina’s efforts to create order out of chaos. “Look at this place. It’s a mess,” she said, her eyes filling with tears. “I’ll never get this house cooled off before your father gets home.” “Don’t cry, Mom,” Ryan said as he, too, surveyed the mess he and his siblings created. “You kids put your things away and I’ll start in the bedrooms. That shouldn’t present too much of a problem,” Tina said, mentally making the beds and straightening out the rooms. “I wouldn’t go in there just yet, Mom,” Ryan warned. “Why not?” she asked as she pushed open the bedroom door. “That’s why,” Ryan answered. Tina stood dumbfounded in the doorway, shocked at the total whiteout that greeted her. Small wispy feathers floated every which way throughout the room. Torn and limp pillowcases were strewn carelessly on the floor and on disheveled beds. Lampshades hung drunkenly on their stands, curtains were at half-mast and the shades seemed to have disappeared from the windows. The heat and humidity affected Tina more than it did other members of her family. But she took a certain amount of pride in her rented four-bedroom flat. She kept it so spotless you could eat off her floors if you had a mind to. But this was too much. The oppressive humidity had already taken its toll. She felt miserable. She didn’t feel she could cope with any of it. “It’ll take me forever to pick up all these feathers,” she cried. In a sudden panic, she gasped, and rushed towards her younger son’s bedroom, her heart pounding wildly. “No. Please, oh no,” she prayed as she pushed the door open. She screamed. She leaned against the door, slid down to the floor and cried, laughing hysterically, as tears streamed down her face. Ryan watched his mother. Concern expressed openly on his young face. “Mom?” his voice faltered. “Are you all right?” Tina didn’t answer. She couldn’t stop laughing. Katie, her middle child, pushed forward. “We’ll pick them up, Mom, don’t worry. Won’t we?” she said, her eyes pleading with her brothers. “Mom,” she said, softly patting her mother’s head, “we’ll put the feathers back in the cases, and you could make them like new again. It will be okay, Mom…you’ll see.” “Maybe,” Tina answered. Her laughter subsiding as she watched the worried faces of her children. Tina’s head shot up, “Katie?” Grinning widely, Katie answered, “Don’t worry, Mom, we didn’t get there.” “Thank you,” she said looking up, “at least someone up there is thinking of me.” “Up where, Mom,” Lucas, her youngest, asked as he, too, looked up, trying to see who Tina was talking to. “Never mind, son,” Tina said, as she rose from the floor. “Look,” she said slowly. “You kids put your things away. Pick up as many of these feathers as you can and put them in clean pillowcases. I’ll take care of them later. Then if you all promise to behave, Ryan will take you to Malibu Beach. Just be home before dinner. Understood?” “What are you going to do, Mom?” Adam, her number two son, asked, smiling now. “Enjoy some peace and quiet.” By nine-thirty the kids were ready to go. The two youngest boys, Brady and Lucas already in their suits waited impatiently. “Let’s go,” Ryan said running out the door. “Wait for your sister,” Tina called after them. “Hurry up, Sis,” Brady said. “Or we’ll leave you behind,” piped in Adam. “You do and no one goes,” Tina scolded. With a quick kiss on her Mother’s cheek, Katie ran out the door after her brothers carrying a big paper bag in her hand. “What have you got there?” Tina asked. “Sandwiches…,” she called back. With a wave, Tina watched her five children, trooping off to the beach. It was a long walk, but at least it was a safe one. Tina sighed and turned to the tasks at hand. Her young children wended their way toward the lifeguarded beach they often referred to as their old swimming hole, anticipating a glorious day. * * * Earlier in their young lives, Tom had taught his sons how to swim, but always seemed to be busy when it was Katie’s turn. So she struggled to learn on her own. Her brothers were off to the diving board on the raft about thirty feet from shore. If only she could swim out to them, she could dive off the board, too. But she was afraid to try and she felt left out. Even her youngest brothers could do what she could not do. They always seemed to have so much fun. More than she did staying close to shore. She remembered the time she was going to jump off the bridge into the channel the way her brothers always did, until Ryan stopped her. He scared her enough so she never tried it again. Now there was the raft. Today was going to be different, she promised herself. She would swim out to the raft no one was going to stop her. She felt exhilarated. She made it to the raft to be with her brothers. Now all she had to do was dive off the board, and they wouldn’t be leaving her behind any more. She’d really be one of the gang now. But when she walked to the edge of the board, she couldn’t bring herself to take that final step. It seemed so far away, such a long way down. She heard her brothers cheering her on, urging her to jump if she didn’t want to dive in. She stared down at their laughing cheering faces motioning her on. She looked at her brothers, then off the end of the diving board and shook her head. She turned and started to back down off the board, then just as suddenly turned again and ran to the end of the board and jumped off. Adam knew Katie was in trouble as soon as she disappeared beneath the waters. He yelled to Ryan then went down under after his sister. Ryan went under and swam toward his sister. Brady and Lucas screamed for help drawing attention to the scenario being played out around them. The lifeguard, and older boys, rushed to help Ryan and Adam; others tried consoling Brady and Lucas. Adam reached Katie first. Her foot was caught in the ropes holding the raft in place. The top of her head was barely visible above water. She could breathe only when she turned her face upward. She struggled to pull herself free. But every time she reached down to the ropes she couldn’t hold her breath long enough and she was reduced to gasping for air. Adam and Ryan took turns surfacing for air and submerging to try and release Katie’s foot. Finally, the older boys, having reached the scene, along with the lifeguard, held the ropes apart long enough for Ryan and Adam to untangle her. When her upper body hit the air, she panicked. She grabbed for Adam’s neck, pushing his head under as she tried desperately to climb out of the water. He struggled to gain control, to keep them both from drowning. Ryan dove underwater hoping to come up and grab Katie from behind before she took Adam down with her. Brady and Lucas were on shore screaming for their sister. The lifeguard reached her before Ryan could. He grabbed her from behind and held her tight, trying to pry loose her death grip on Adam.
“It’s okay,” he said. “I’ve got you. Let go. Katie, let go.” he said forcing her hands open so as to release Adam. Kathleen, I’ve got you, come on, let go of Adam. It’s okay.” With his charge secured, the lifeguard propelled her toward shore, as Adam and Ryan swam alongside. Katie tried to speak. “Don’t talk. Just relax,” the lifeguard said. “I’ll have you on dry land in a few minutes.” “Brady, Lucas?” “They’re all right. They’re waiting for you on shore.” As she thanked her rescuers, praise was being heaped upon her older brothers. Ryan acknowledged the applause, but couldn’t help wondering what would have happened if he went home without Katie. “We wouldn’t go home,” Adam said, matter-of-factly, when Ryan asked him. “What about Brady and Lucas?” “They could. But we couldn’t.” “What would we have done?” Adam laughed. “It’s a good thing we’ll never have to find out isn’t it?” “Yeah,” Ryan answered. “Yeah! We’d better be going. It’s getting late and Mom will be worried.” “We all have to swear we won’t tell.” “Forget it, Brady and Lucas will blurt it out before we get through the door.” “Guess we won’t be coming back here for a long time now, will we?” “Guess not,” Adam said, and sighed. “C’mon guys, we’ve got to go,” Ryan said as he gathered up his siblings and headed them on home. * * * Their path took them along dirt roads where groves of fruit trees thrived unmolested. It was a challenge they could not refuse. “Katie, you climb up the tree and toss the pears down to us.” “Why me? What if I get caught?” “Yeah, why her?” Ryan wanted to know. “If we get caught, there’s no telling what kind of trouble we’ll be in. If she gets caught, they’ll only let her go. After all, she’s a girl.” “Sounds good to me,” Ryan said. “Okay,” she happily replied, “I’ll do it. I love climbing trees.” “Yes, we know,” Ryan laughed. Moments later she was at the highest point of the pear tree, tossing pears down to her brothers until their shirts could hold no more. “C’mon Katie, get down. We’ve got enough,” Ryan demanded. “But I don’t have any. I want some too.” “We’ll give you some of ours, come down,” Ryan said. The farmhouse door opened. “Run,” Katie yelled, “the farmer’s coming!” Katie’s brothers, their shirts loaded with stolen pears, ran down the dirt road and out of sight. She hid between the upper branches, hoping the owner didn’t see her. “Little girl,” the man called out in a panic. “Don’t move. I’ll get you down. Wait!” She wanted to laugh but didn’t. “No,” she said, crossing her fingers behind her, “I’m afraid.” “Don’t move I’ll get you.” The man held up his hand. “Don’t worry, I won’t let you fall. Stay there.” He ran into his barn and came out with a ladder and ran toward the tree. “What are you doing up there? How did you get up there?” Katie answered in a small voice. “I wanted some pears. But I climbed up too far.” “Don’t move,” the man commanded. He scrambled up the ladder and branches to reach Katie. He held her tightly as he brought her down through the tree branches to the ladder. Once on the ground he admonished her. “Little girl, don’t ever do that again. If you want some pears, just ring the bell and ask. Okay? You can have as much as you want, only don’t climb the tree again.” Katie could only nod her head. She didn’t dare speak. The farmer was so serious she was afraid to say anything. “Promise?” Again she nodded. He gave her a small bag of pears, and sent her on her way. She thanked him and said good-bye. She walked away, looked back once, waved when he did and watched him disappear into his house. Then she ran as fast as she could until she reached her brothers hiding in the bushes. “You okay?” Ryan asked. “Yes,” she said. “What have you got in the bag?” “Pears.” “Pears?” “Uh-huh. The farmer gave them to me. He said I could have them anytime I wanted, all I have to do is ask.” “He did?” “Yeah.” “Bet he wouldn’t say that to us?” Adam said wistfully. “Bet he wouldn’t. Anyway we’ve got all we want now.” “Yeah. And the man said we could have more anytime,” Adam smiled. * * * “What have you got there?” Tina asked as she watched her children’s chests bobbing up and down when they arrived home. “Pears,” was the enthusiastic reply. “Where did you get them?” “The farmer who owns the trees said we could have them.” “Did he really?” “Yes Mom. Didn’t he Katie.” “He said I could have all I wanted,” Katie answered. “Well that was very nice of him. I think your father would appreciate a nice juicy pear after dinner, don’t you?” She asked as she picked the best of the lot her children had emptied from their shirts into the kitchen sink. “Mom, Mom, guess what happened to Katie, today,” Brady and Lucas exploded breathlessly, as Ryan and Adam nodded “see” to one another. “What?” Tina asked turning away from the sink. “Nothing, Mom…,” Ryan started to say. “Yes, it did,” both youngsters chorused. “What are you trying to tell me?” “She drowned. She drowned,” Lucas blurted out. “But she’s okay now,” Brady added. “Ryan and Adam untangled her legs so she could breathe again.” “Brady and I cried.” “Yes, we did.” “Okay, you three…,” Tina demanded. “What happened out there? Now!” After explaining what happened, Ryan and Adam apologized for not coming forward first. “It wasn’t their fault,” Katie said. “I knew I shouldn’t have jumped, but I did anyway. I won’t do it again, promise!” Tina looked at her brood, said a silent prayer, and made a mental note to Tom to take Katie out and teach her how to swim before something else happened. “C’mon, dinner’s ready. I want you kids through with your dinners, washed up and in bed before your father gets home.” * * * Tina smiled as she sat silently by watching her children eat. They were home, safe and unhurt. Again, she thanked God. She had managed to make the feather pillows look like new again. Her house was in order and seemed cooler. Soon the children would be fast asleep. Her husband’s dinner was warming on the kitchen stove and a nice juicy pear was sitting on the block of ice in the icebox for him. All she needed now was for Tom to come home. She knew he’d be late. It was a long walk from Boston to Dorchester. She knew he wouldn’t take the trolley. He would save the dime, the cost of the fare, to buy another bottle of milk for his family. In spite of what might have been, Tina sighed, her children were tucked securely in their beds and all was well. After dinner, in the cool and hush of the evening, when their children were in a deep tranquil sleep, Tom and Tina sat out on their front porch, quietly listening to the sound of the crickets. They watched fireflies blinking off and on, and as they stared at the stars shining in the heavens, gave thanks that another summer’s day ended safely for all of them.
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