short stories...book excerpts...other writings...upon occasion or as prompted...
The tiger in the water? A representation of my life -- spirit and environment!

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Saturday, April 17, 2010

The Empty Chair

One of the details that Mommy used to miss a lot was supper. We hated it when Mommy tried to put us to bed and had forgotten to feed us supper. We always reminded her, and she always made it for us. We wanted her to remember, though, without us telling her.

One time she did remember to make supper. She made a very nice supper for us. We were so happy.

We were all seated around the table, but there was an empty chair. It belonged to Daddy. He was not home from work yet.

Mommy looked at her watch. She thought it was very strange that he was not home yet since it was already 9:00 at night. He usually got off work at 5:00 and was home shortly after that.

“Well, let’s go ahead and eat,” Mommy said. “Your father will show up some time. He must be working late or maybe he ran into some bad traffic. He is working in a new place, and it is at least half an hour from here.”

Mommy could not call Daddy, and Daddy could not call Mommy. We had just moved into a new house, and we would not have a phone for a couple more days while we were waiting for the phone company to install it. So, all Mommy could do was wait for Daddy to show up. She sat down to eat with us.

We were all in the middle of eating our dinner quietly when Mommy jumped up. She seemed very agitated.

“Oh, my goodness; oh, my goodness,” she repeated several times. “I know why he isn’t here! I was supposed to pick him up!”

Mommy ran out the door. We all wondered how mad Daddy would be when Mommy arrived. He wasn’t mad, though. He was very sad. He thought he was going to have to spend the night on the bench outside his office. Boy, was he happy to see Mommy! (Well, and maybe a little bit mad, too.)

Conclusion: Don't ignore empty chairs at your table.

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This story is excerpted from a collection of vignettes that I helped Doah, my severely mentally challenged youngest son, to write and publish several years ago (copyright 2003). It was my attempt to help him understand literacy and the purpose of writing and reading.

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About Me

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I am the mother of 4 birth children (plus 3 others who lived with us) and grandmother of 2, all of them exceptional children. Married for 42 years, I grew up in Maine, live in California, and work in many places in education, linguistics, and program management. In my spare time, I rescue and tame feral cats and have the scars to prove it. A long-time ignorantly blissful atheist converted by a theophanic experience to Catholicism, I am now a joyful catechist. Oh, I also authored a dozen books, two under my pen name of Mahlou (Blest Atheist and A Believer-in-Waiting's First Encounters with God).

My Other Blogs

100th Lamb. This is my main blog, the one I keep most updated.

The Clan of Mahlou
. This is background information about various members of the extended Mahlou family. It is very much a work still in progress. Soon I will begin posting excerpts from a new book I am writing, Raising God's Rainbow Makers.

Modern Mysticism. This blog discusses the mystical in our pragmatic, practical, realistic, and rational 21st century world and is to those who spend some or much of their time in an irrational/mystical relationship with God. If such things do not strain your credulity, you are welcome to follow the blog and participate in it.

Recommended Reading List

Because I am blog inept, I don't quite know how to get a reading list to stay at the end of the page and not disappear from sight. Therefore, I entered it as my first post. I suppose that is not all that bad because readers started commenting about the books, even suggesting additional readings. So, you can participate with others in my reading list by clicking here.
I do post additional books as I read them and find them to be meaningful to me, and therefore, hopefully, meaningful to you. One advantage of all the plane traveling I do is that I acquire reading time that I might not otherwise take.
   

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