TheBanyanTree: Want Me to Pray for Your Leg?

[Margaret R. Kramer]

“Want me to pray for your leg?”  That’s what a woman said to me as I was
limping around outside the shopping center yesterday.  Every once in a while
my leg gets really sore and I can’t walk on it right, so I hobble around
like a gimpy old football player.

“No,” I said as I gimped on by her as fast I as could.  I could pray for my
own darn leg.  And give it some ibuprofen or something.  That’s prayer
enough for me.

“Do you want me to give you something to read?”  Oh, please no, then I’d
never get rid of her.

“No.”  I couldn’t limp to my car fast enough.  Thank goodness, she didn’t
try to follow me.  She was probably to find someone else’s leg to pray for.

I had just been in the grocery store where thousands of people just like me
were buying food for Thanksgiving.  I had to elbow my way to the turkey
section in order to get the prized frozen bird for dinner.  Heck, I suppose
I could find a shotgun and shoot one of the wild turkeys that live in the
woods across the street.  Ray said he saw a whole gaggle of female turkeys
in our neighbor’s backyard the other morning.

I grabbed rolls (one of which Ray already ate, he just couldn’t wait!),
pumpkin pie, whipped cream, and eggs.  Now I have all the fixings for
dinner.  I’m having just a small group for dinner.  I saw some people fill
their carts with cans and cans of cranberries, two turkeys, several pies,
and lots of sweet potatoes, so obviously they’re going to be serving the
masses.

Prior to entering the pre-Thanksgiving frenzy at the grocery store, I had
spent a nice quiet afternoon at a coffee house.  I had promised myself I
would spend at least one Saturday during this NaNoWriMo period writing at a
coffeehouse, which is something I always wanted to do.

I keep my novel on a thumb drive, so it’s very portable from desktop to
laptop to work laptop.  I just have a couple of pink stickies with notes.  I
packed my ipod and had my cell phone with me.  What more do I need?

A nice hot cup of coffee, a quiet corner where I could plug myself in, and
my fingers to move across the keys.  I wanted to see what my characters were
going to do that afternoon.  And off I went.

I had a blast.  I was playing jazzy Christmas songs on my ipod.  I could
hear the quiet conversations going on around me.  The sun was coming in
through the windows and the reflections of the moving traffic outside were
brought inside on the walls.  I enjoyed a nice hot cup of joe while my
characters came to life.  I spent two hours at the coffeehouse and loved
every second of it.

Today will be a little more hectic.  I’m making vegetable soup, so I got to
start chopping vegetables.  I’ll squeeze in some writing this afternoon
before everyone comes here for dinner  this evening.

Susan and I have our run scheduled for this morning.  I’ll see if that woman
did pray for my leg after all when I hit the pavement later on.

NaNoWriMo word count = 36,332

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at comcast.net
margaret.kramer at polarispublications.com

Thanksgiving is the holiday of peace, the celebration of work and the simple
life... a true folk-festival that speaks the poetry of the turn of the
seasons, the beauty of seedtime and harvest, the ripe product of the year.
~Ray Stannard Baker