Potluck

This seventh short story in part two of my book Welsh Cakes: Book of Short Stories, has snow and winter as its setting once again. Tom and Joyce had been in love ever since they first met at the Sunday School picnic many years before this snowy winter's day. Their joining together in marital bliss was thwarted when Joyce's widowed mother was in need of care at home. Joyce's brothers deemed her to be the logical choice to fulfill this necessity. Tom, meanwhile, married another woman as he couldn't see any end in sight of Joyce's commitment to her mother. His marriage was not a happy one, however, as he really was still in love with Joyce and couldn't forget her. The seed for this story grew out of an old run down house on the street where I lived in Toronto a number of years ago. "Tom now observed the brittle curls of green paint clinging to the wooden siding as if in a desperate attempt to cover the mottled purple-blue-grey of earlier paint jobs lying beneath; this house has seen better days, he thought. The metal eaves trough looked like an elongated colander and was no longer able to channel water to the downspout. Icicles had formed at the roof's edge and dripped in the morning sun." Tom's wife had divorce him and left him free to pursue Joyce when her mother departed this world. Tom's opportunity to approach Joyce came when a snow storm provided him an excuse to shovel her driveway. Whether Joyce would be intereste in his advancements or not remains to be seen.

The Snow Globe

The Snow Globe is today's story, and is the sixth story in Part Two of Welsh Cakes: Book of Short Stories. This is a Christmas wishes granted story. Amanda, an eight year old, wishes that her parents would stop drinking and stop fighting but there seems to be no hope of this happening anytime soon. Amanda is happiest when she is with her grandmother. Today, they are to spend time together at the shopping mall where Amanda will have a visit with Santa Claus despite her father's express instructions to the contrary. It is his position that she is too old for Santa Claus now and, in any case, there is no money for presents. Are we ever too old for the magic of Santa Claus? Are we ever too old to expect miracles to happen? Through the gift to Amanda of a snow globe from Santa Claus on the occasion of her visit to him, and through a circuitous route, Amanda's hope for a happy family and a happy Christmas may still become a reality.

Christmas Gift

In this fifth short story in part two of Welsh Cakes: Book of Short Stories, we find Amy Johnson hurrying to get to Muskoka on Christmas Eve to join her husband Michael and daughter Joan at their cottage. A few years previously, Amy had insisted on going back to work after feeling trapped in a family situation that required her to stay at home and look after Joan following a tragic illness. When Joan went into remission, Amy saw her opportunity to escape from the drudgery and endless sacrifice she felt at home by searching for a job in the work-a-day world. Michael had difficulty in understanding Amy's need to get away from home and the marriage was in danger of falling apart. To make matters worse, an office relationship was building up and tempting Amy into a fantasy world. Her trip to the cottage that Christmas Eve became a near tragedy when dreaming of another life that might be hers, Amy became distracted on snowy remote country roads and her car careened into a snow bank. With no possibility of getting the car back on the road and the cold and snow increasing, Amy now saw her family as her anchor and didn't know whether she would have the chance to put things right with them. When a light appeared in the sky she thought her end had come. "Amy had read about the light and the tunnel that was part of the experience of dying and she yielded to its radiance, giving herself up to the angel who was guiding her to God. She said a brief prayer, asking God for forgiveness for her past and that he would take her directly to himself. She closed her eyes and relaxed into the Christmas light..."

Guitar Lullaby

The seed idea of this fourth short story, Guitar Lullaby, in Part Two of Welsh Cakes: Book of Short Stories came from my own memory of falling to sleep listening to my father playing the classical guitar as I fell asleep. My father taught himself to play the banjo and later the classical guitar--he even composed at least one piece for the guitar. The rest of the story is complete fiction and takes place in Muskoka and Toronto, Canada, as well as in Africa. This is a bitter-sweet love story between two young people that ends in sadness. It begins and ends with a child falling to sleep to the music of the classical guitar, "like a child in love's arms."

Chance of Parole

The third short story in Part 2 of Welsh Cakes is titled Chance of Parole and has a male protagonist called Benjamin Holly. His marriage and his job are less than satisfactory and, though he tries to better himself on the job front, he makes no attempt to improve his marriage situation. His new life as a sewing machine repair man gives him more challenges in his work, which he enjoys, as well as a lot more freedom to meet women who are sometimes very lonely. His philandering lifestyle leads him into a bad situation for which he gets blamed. Whether he was directly responsible for a woman's death or not, sooner or later it is certain that something bad would happen and he would get blamed.

Kodak Image

Kodak Image is my second short story in Part 2 of Welsh Cakes: Book of Short Stories. As the title indicates, there is a photo at the heart of this story. It is in the genre of romance, with our protagonist living on the west coast of Canada where she meets the man of her dreams. When he leaves the area, our main character follows him, first to Ottawa, the capital of Canada, and then venturing to the rugged mining north of Ontario where she loses the love of her life. She returns to Ottawa where she leaves the world for convent life--she leaves the world but takes the photograph of Pierre with her. She cannot forget him and eventually leaves the convent, returning to the world and to the Province of British Columbia where her romance first began. She marries the doctor in whose office she worked as a nurse all those years ago. She marries the doctor, works for him, but still holds on to the Kodak Image of the one she cannot let go from her heart.

Blueberry Wine

Blueberry Wine is the first of the short stories in Part 2 of Welsh Cakes: Book of Short Stories. Part 2 consists of eight short stories with differing genres and protagonists of varying ages and dispositions.

Blueberry Wine is about a husband and wife of senior years who are less than tolerant of one another. The husband's hobby is making home-made wine while his wife, who is wheel-chair bound, enjoys drinking it.

Harry, the husband, longs to be free of the restraints of his unhappy marriage and devises a plan to do just that through his wine making hobby.

Writers store up many incidents in their memories over the years, incidents that can be pulled out from the grab bag and inserted in the story for a little colour. In this story the protagonist's name of Harry begged me to have a canary as Mona's pet bird. This from a friend's work-place tale of a co-worker named Harry whose wife phoned him in great distress crying, "Harry, Harry! I just sucked up the canary in the vacuum cleaner!"