Haunted Blog Hop, Part I

Last year, my friend Gina invited me to join her for a haunted blog hop. It was so cool. None of us knew what we were to write until we got the piece before us. It's was a very cool event! This year, I didn't hesitate one moment to join in again. And, I'm starting! snuggle in, dim the lights and enjoy!

Ruby limped. The fact that both of her halluxes were half the size of her second toes was to blame for this awkward movement. It was also the reason she never took off her socks in gym class. Her feet stank. They truly did, but she couldn't bear to have her classmates laugh at her deformity when they didn't even talk to her under normal circumstances.

On any given day, she was content being the limping girl that no one talked to. It wasn't that she was happy with having so few friends, it was that she would rather be ignored than teased and mocked. So, it was with great concern as well as excitement that she accepted Eli's offer of a clandestine meeting on Saturday night. She stared incredulously at his beautiful penmanship on the parchment paper, which had been carefully folded and handed to her as she left school for walk home on Friday afternoon.

Eli was the smartest boy in their class. She was certain that he'd be named most likely to succeed, and he was quite possibly the most handsome boy in Douglas County. And now, he had asked her to meet him at the County-Line creek. In the back of her mind, she knew that this could easily be a set-up. But, her heart, the one that had never held a love for another, told her that this may be her one and only chance to have a boy ask her out.

She didn't tell her mama where she was going. She was certain that her mama would never approve of her meeting a boy after dark by herself. And since her papa had left and never returned several years before, mama rarely let her out of the house except to go to school. And she only let her go to school because Pastor Timothy encouraged her to let Ruby get as much schooling as possible.

Ruby waited until mama was asleep on the couch in the parlor and was snoring loud enough for Ruby to hear in her room before she tiptoed down the stair, painstakingly skipping the third from the bottom step. It always squeaked. She held tight to the rail but found herself falling to the floor when her left food wouldn't cooperate. She pulled off the finial from the bottom of the rail. Mama snored on, and Ruby blessed the fact that mama often sampled a little Vanilla Elixir before going to sleep.

It was mama's sound slumber that allowed Ruby to leave the house and walk as quick as her deformed feet would let her travel to her meeting with Eli.

To be continued tomorrow with Gina...

My Favorite Things: Gina Knuppenburg

I know I talk about Arkansas Women Bloggers a lot, but I really have met some of the most wonderful people from my neighboring state, and today's Favorite Thing comes from Arkansas, but not originally. I met Gina a year ago at Arkansas Women Bloggers Unplugged, summer conference. It turned out to be a big sorta weekend for Gina and her now-fiance Thom. (Go read about it, you'll be so glad you did!) In the meantime, Gina and I have kept up with each other through social media. I read all about her wedding-planning posts and she pre-reads and reviews my books. She was even so sweet as to provide the virtual appetizers for my book launch! She's just as sweet and real and sweeter-still as pie. 

I've never been super girly.  There.  I said it. Maybe it's because I grew up with brothers and been roughhoused enough to make me try to act tough.  Or, maybe it's because I've always been, oh, how do I say it delicately?  Not dainty size-wise?  Okay, plus sized.  I'm a big girl; therefore I've never felt girly.

Luckily for me that's changed in the last few years. I think it's the feeling of being more secure with my being, older and wiser, settled in a relationship and all that yada yada.

The whole point of this diatribe?  I've never liked gold and glitter but since I've gotten engaged and am in the throes of wedding planning-I can't get enough of glittery golden goodness. So in light of everyone sharing their faves here on Minivan Momma, I present to you my faves this holiday season!

Happy Holidays!

Haunted Bloghop, Part II

Continued from desperately seeking gina …  (http://www.isogina.blogspot.com/)

Until that precise moment, Gillian had never known exactly what the phrase frozen with fear meant but that’s exactly what she was. Her gut told her to get behind the safety of a locked door, but her heart told her to run for her life. Holding her breath, she had to make a decision.

“I’m sorry, Daddy,” she muttered as she dashed quickly into the dark cottage, slamming the door behind her, leaning with her back against the door. She knew her father would be furious with her and the pickle she’d gotten herself into by coming to the property.

In that split second between the door opening in front of her on its own and the movement behind her in the woods, she had rationalized that while the snapping branches indicated a very real threat, the opened door could could easily be justified by the old age of the cottage.

As she stood in the dark entryway, the only sound was her heavy breathing and pounding heart which Gillian was certain was audible outside of her own body.  She took a step away from the door to her left, her hands following along the wall searching for a light.

Every step that she took seemed to awaken the wind. The cottage moaned in protest of the ever-increasing gales and the roof sounded as though a jackhammer were beating down upon it as acorns and branches and--could it be?--hail pounded above Gillian’s head.

She did not halt her movements, instead she became more determined to find light or help or anything that would give her peace of mind. She came to a corner and tripped over a canister that contained one umbrella, its covering long having disintegrated leaving it as nothing more than a baton. She held it tight in her right hand, ready to swing, as her left hand continued to use the wall as a guide leading Gillian further and further into the cottage.

As suddenly as the wind and rain and barrage of  sounds upon the roof had begun, it stopped.  She paused letting the silence fill the sudden void surrounding her in the dark hallways of the cottage.

Straight ahead of her, a shimmer appeared, eventually evolving into a glow and then becoming the soft light of a candle or perhaps an oil lamp.

tap tap tap tap tap

She walked toward both the light and sound, holding her breath.

tap tap tap tap tap

Gillian was suddenly aware of the distinct smell of Prince Albert tobacco before it was stuffed into a pipe.

tap tap tap tap tap

The light source could not be found, yet the room glowed. The tap tap tapping was coming from the Underwood typewriter, yet no one was sitting at the desk chair. The smell of Prince Albert became stronger, as did the smell of sulfer from a lit match.

tap tap tap tap tap

Gillian hesitantly inched toward the desk and nearly lost her balance along with her breath as she read the words being pecked out …

What did it say? WHAT DID IT SAY?!?! Check out the continuation tomorrow on All That and Some Other Stuff. 
Dun, dun, dun …