The Story of Ginni and Three On A Pilgrimage Quest: Part Two - Continued

THE STORY OF GINNI AND THREE ON A PILGRIMAGE QUEST: PART TWO - Sylvia's Clue, continued
Ginni, Shadow, and Ginni' pond turtle Gypsy had late afternoon supper at Ginni's apartment. Ginni pulled back her cafe curtains a litte. There was no sign of the Three who had approached her at the transit center. But she had remembered the incident of the sled.

Victorian First Night had been fun. As Ginni and Shadow made their way back to the Doll Museum, they came across a Drastically Reduced Clearance Sale, holiday decor reduced by ninety percent. But slightly apart from the piles of glittery gew-gaws was a wonderful sled, which was marked, FREE.

Ginni imagined a wonderful winter for her and Shadow, and what an impression they would make as soon as the snow began to fall. So she was delighted when it was true that if both of them pulled on the sled rope, they could move the sled.

They pulled the sled back to the doll museum. But the sled did not belong to her anymore. The Doll Museum did not allow wrought iron sleds on the slope behind the Doll Museum. They told Ginni they were sorry. Ginni let the Doll Museum keep the sled with other new acquisitions. There might be a Currier and Ives display the following holiday season.

Unnoticed by Ginni and Shadow, a security camera, in place above the drastically reduced sale's area way, captured a blurred record of their acquisition. And when three on a pilgrimage quest made enquiries at the store, this evidence was allowed them. It became a very solid clue.

The Story of Ginni and Three On A Pilgrimage Quest: Part Two - Sylvia's Clue

THE STORY OF GINNI AND THREE ON A PILGRIMAGE QUEST: PART TWO - Sylvia's Clue

Yesterday: Ginni was approached by three individuals on a pilgrimage quest who asked her about a sled.

Ginni had been taught to tell anybody who approached her that there was a church nearby that offered meals to people who were hungry. So she directed their attention to the steeple, visible from the bus stop. She told them it was only two or three blocks. And then she and Shadow turned resolutely and firmly and continued on their way to The Doll Museum.

At the meal site Porter, Rudyard, and Sylvia had the macaroni, vegetables, salad, and cherry crisp and discussed their quest with a director. Sylvia brought out the photographs. "These are from a security camera at a drastically reduced clearance sale," she explained. It was a blurred record of a person acquiring an item marked FREE.
"Contacts in Security allowed us these copies when we inquired at their store about a sled. Do you recognize this person?"

"Why, it's Ginni. Ginni is an entertainment favorite, she works at the Doll Museum nearby."

The Story of Ginni and Three On A Quest: Part One, Continued

THE STORY OF GINNI AND THREE ON A QUEST: PART ONE, Continued:

That day Ginni and Shadow had searched diligently for a pet bed for Shadow, one with a rim to keep any draft from making him cold. At last they found one, and the pet supply company would deliver the bed the next day. And they had caught their bus back from the stores. The afternoon winter sky was turning darker, evening was approaching. Ginni and Shadow's bus reached the stop near the Doll Museum.

Ginni thought someone was watching her. Then she heard, "Ma'am! Ma'am!"

From among bus ridership along the street a person appeared. "May I have a moment of your time?"

Ginni was quite startled to be called "Ma'am" by anyone.

"Dog, blond hair. We - Porter, and Rudyard and Sylvia - have pilgrimaged far on this continent. Our recent lead directs us to you."

Ginni had no idea what - Porter, had he said? - could mean.

Another of their group stepped forward. "I am Sylvia. Our source said, you were seen - with a sled."

Tomorrow, more of the story – PART TWO: Slyvia's Clue

The Story of Ginni And Three On A Quest - Part One

THE STORY OF GINNI AND THREE ON A QUEST - PART ONE

Porter At The Bus Stop

Porter was not terribly tired. For they had stopped for a good rest twenty minutes before, when they had some cheese crackers. They had shared some of the crackers with pigeons near the bus stop, who had been friendly and encouraging.

Porter, Rudyard and Sylvia had traveled far on their pilgrimage quest. For weeks they had searched through towns on the North American Continent. And Porter sometimes was anxious about their hopes of success.

Porter looked beyond the bus stop to the winter sky as it darkened a little toward the later afternoon. The pigeons' wings clattered in the air above as they circled away. And then two figures appeared.

"Sylvia, Rudyard –look. Getting off that bus. The pretty lady and the dog."

Story About Ginni - I Hope to Post a Part One on Monday

Last April I happy to post a short story about Ginni and her dog on Spice Drawer Mouse. Again, I hope to post a story about Ginni. Tomorrow, perhaps others may see Part One of Ginni and Three on a Pilgrimage Quest. These stories have been inspired by a polaroid Swinger photo taken by my mom of her dolls in 1970.

Made of Wire Dog Made In Japan

My made of wire dog made in Japan - was a gift when I was a child, I think. I do not think I bought the made of wire dog myself. I almost never bent it I liked to have it on the shelf and to look at it. It was interesting to include it in a story inspired by a photograph my mother took in about 1970 of a few dolls from her collection having a tea party.

Robert Frost's poem, Tree At My Window

During the storm the tree near my unit was weighted down by the ice storm and fell. I am reminded of an earlier tree at a window, a pine, that was destroyed by a neighbor during an episode of change for the parking at the building he owned next door. I remember telling him the tree had been on the side of the grass where I rented, and that cutting it had been a mistake. I was not as unhappy as I have been at other events similar. I found a descriptive word for this - a "righteous tantrum", in an article in Seattle Weekly.

At a certain point a ruby crowned kinglet briefly lit on a branch of a different small tree near another window.

Tree At My Window by Robert Frost

Tree at my window, window tree,
/My sash is lowered when night comes on;
/But let there never be curtain drawn
/Between you and me.
/Vague dream-head lifted out of the ground,
/And thing next most diffuse to cloud,
/Not all your light tongues talking aloud
/Could be profound.
/But tree, I have seen you taken and tossed,
/And if you have seen me when I slept,
/You have seen me when I was taken and swept
/And all but lost.
/That day she put our heads together,
/Fate had her imagination about her,
/Your head so much concerned with outer,
/Mine with inner, weather.

Photo of a Bus Wrapped In Almond Roca Pink

I wanted to include this photo of a bus wrapped in Almond Roca Pink in my blog today.

Saw Pussy Willows On A Branch

On a walk to Wheelock Library I saw pussy willows on a branch.

Happy Holidays - Library Fines During Snow Erased

Everything regifting was the holiday this year. I gifted two regifts - and two years in a row a friend gave me wine, but because I do not drink I did not use any. So this year she could not find that kind of wine for her spouse and had me get up on a chair to get the wine off the shelf so she could give it to him.

But after the deep snow Wednesday morning the library was closed until Saturday. By then I owed three dollars, which was thank goodness erased. A yet another kind of re-gift, since we had the books out. I had out Above New York, aeriel photographs, and a lot of their New York travel and restoration and historic architecture books. Found Carnegie Hall, and other places. An enjoyable holiday.

One Week Ago A Snow Morning

One week ago we woke to snow on the ground. It was lovely. Followed by freezing rain. A number of trees with branches broken - lovely while it lasted.

Books At Twelve Ten January 10th

Louise's War by Sarah R. Shaber. - discussed by Books at Twelve Ten volunteers. (After our discussion we chose David Guterson's Snow Falling on Cedars for February 14th.)

1. A New Year, Rain

Only one other book club volunteer attended the January Books At Twelve Ten. Presently we meet in an area of the curved far wall of the Olympic Room, open a couple of windowshades to a small view of historic outer stairwell, time-worn steps with a restored pipe metal hand rail. The room is at the upper side of a hill, at the back of the first floor of the Carnegie Library, a hundred years old in 2005.

Earlier in January there was rain. I raced through a downpour in my yellow poncho from the transit center to the mall entrance the day I replaced my wristwatch battery. That purchase question converged with thoughts of telephones - lots of people get the time off their cel phones now. One store employee explained that senior cel phones started at age 65. So many senior opportunities start as early as 55. Just inside the mall I blotted rain off my shoes with a bandana.

2. A New Year, A New Book

At the Olympic Room Tuesday the weather forecast was for a day of clouds, colder temperatures without rain. Our weather view at the outer stairwell was permeated damp.

Louise's War was published in 2011and is narrated in the first person by character Louise Pearlie, a World War Two era office worker with the OSS, the precurser to the CIA. In a preface the author Sarah R. Shaber asks the reader to accept the use of language used years ago before the Civil Rights Movement. The OSS office, in a refitted apartment building, and Louise Pearlie's boarding house residence are two major settings.

The other volunteer and I worked through the questions. At #3 (How does race and class play a role in the lives of the characters?) I mentioned that, at Louise's boarding house in Washington, D.C., at times only the "negro" or "domestic" workers were in the kitchen. (The term "negro" is mentioned in the preface, language that was correct in the 1940s). Louise breaks this barrier and helps clean up after everyone at the boarding house has a small celebration.

Seventy years have passed. The focus for Louise on race involves "Negroes", but also the fact that a college classmate from years earlier is held in France, her husband in the underground, and they are Jewish.

The other volunteer said that new opportunity for women led Louise to follow up on her college friendship and become a detective. I agreed and said activities were within the job definition, but that she was taking responsibilities that were new. We follow Louise's thoughts within this evolution. Both of us volunteers liked this theme very much.

3. Setting and Earlier Series Theme - Person of Size

The boarding house and office settings were convincing to me. At one point Louise ventures much farther away in the city to a castle-like embassy building. When Louise must crawl out a window and scramble down a wall with a grip on ivy, the author has not prepared me for her circus performer action.

However, I reflect that this physical challenge may compare to the barrier Lousie breaks in the kitchen, and compare to the office behavior evolution. But because I have read the Simon Shaw series I wonder if the physical capability question is affected by the question of personal size. The murder victim in Louise's War happened to be a person of size, an overweight man.

Person of Size identity was a previous theme. In the earlier series, the detective was a rather small man, a marginal Person of Size. Shaber's earlier series of mysteries explored questions of small minority groups in North Carolina. That point of view was an historic one, Simon Shaw was a detective of long-ago cases - his true profession was History Professor at a North Carolina university

Plastic Cookie Press for A Dollar and a Half

Soon it will be noon, time for the first Books at Twelve Ten for 2012.

The year has been lots of shopping so far. My wristwatch battery had to be replaced. The list went on rather long. Shopping the day New Years was officially observed, was complicated by the convergence of the public schools in session and the transit people on Sundays and Holidays schedule. Our bus in the rain was more overloaded than I have been on for a long time, and I had along a small ceramic thing from the Goodwill super after Christmas sale at the Holiday Shop. Got back with no real difficulties, and had located a bicycle mirror I could get when I had along a checkbook. During the drastically reduced clearance sales I bought a plastic cookie press for a dollar and a half. So I can make spritz.

But about an hour and it will be time to discuss Louise's War, by Sarah R. Shaber. 2012 starting up -