101 Words

His path followed a towering hawthorn hedge, speckled with plump, creamy buds.

Unexpectedly, the open pasture came to an abrupt full stop. A gate blocked his way, dissecting meadowland one side from the grassy bank behind him.

Patrick retrieved his Father’s letter and a tattered map from the rucksack, spreading them flat on the grass.

It looked different. He’d doubted his memory briefly, but there it was.

It was his tenth birthday, the day they saw lightning strike the great oak tree.

Now, fifty years later he was reaching into that same splintered tree, for a gift from beyond the grave.

Once in every lifetime a body ought to travel.

Fortune greatly smiled upon me. I’ve slogged through soupy rain forests, swam the English Channel, jostled on camel back across arid desert dunes, and tripped through barren outer space. I’ve sailed upon oceans, my favorite pastime, and kissed the faces of Queens. I’ve touched Pyramids and met with Pharaohs.

While awake, alive, I travel as often as I can. I spare no seconds on moments that do not enrich. I travel ceaselessly while others busy themselves. Though I’ve never left my bed—born with no limbs—I travel, reading books to live.

Myfanwy had been warned many times, Her father, the Apothecary had repeated ad nauseam, ‘You must never touch, Myfanwy. Once blouted, cannot be unblouted.’

By moonlight, the flask shone lustrous and shimmering and opalescent amongst the dull and dark shelves of beakers and jars of potions and herbs. It drew her to itself like a tide to a moon. She transported it from shelf to table as if it were some fragile beautiful bird and observed it in wonder as her father’s voice within her implored her to stop.

Like a bee to a flower her fingers hovered over the cork.

As the team moved towards their destiny of winning the American League West division, Josh and I drove west on very little sleep. Deep in the land of Utah, too far out there to second guess yourself and too late to turn back now and go home, in between trying to find a radio station that would come in, we calculated how many miles we had already driven, at what rate we were making time, and dividing and subtracting to reassure one another we would make it there in time to park, stand in line, check-in, and go to the ATM.