Alone - Part 1

Good Morning FFFs,
Did you get any rain this morning? We got about two minutes of rain, but it is still cloudy, so I'm hoping and praying for more! It's been dry and HOT here! Yesterday it was 112 degrees and I don't know what the heat index was.


What have I been doing? Politics. I don't remember what I did Friday and Saturday, so it must not have been very interesting. :)
Sunday there were no babies at church and the group was rather small.
Monday was the start of the race to help get 25,000 postcards hand addressed to get in the mail by Friday! That's a lot of writing! They were for Ed Emery who is running for State Senate in another county, so if he is running in your county, PLEASE vote for him! We've known him and his family for many years and my brother is his campaign manager. But the opposition (I think it's another RIO) is awful! He's telling lies and I don't know what all. Anyway, we were helping address postcards.
And as a side note here (I told you I was political this week) if you live in MO, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE vote for Todd Akin for U.S. Senate! He's a wonderful man and I just had to promote him here. :)
Tuesday we wrote postcards in the morning and then after lunch Dad and I headed off to our last election training since we are both working as supervisors at polling places next week.
On Wednesday, Mom, S and I and two neighbor boys went to the Republican HQ to help stuff lit in "door bags." We got it done before we left much to the astonishment of the few older people who were working there. :) Then after lunch we worked on writing some more, but we ran out of addresses and had to wait to get them from someone else.
Yesterday we had to wait for the addresses to come. When they did come after lunch, we found out we had about 500 still to write! So we called on another family who were going to come over for library. Then another friend came by with her finished postcards and several more pages of addresses that she couldn't get finished. Anyway, to make a long story short, we had help and finally got all the ones we had done! We are guessing we have about 4,000 finished at our house now.
And today my brother is coming down with the stamps and our friends are coming back over and we are going to put stamps on all those hand addressed postcards so they can go out in the mail today. Anyone want to come help? :) Okay, it won't be nearly as difficult to put on stamps as it was to address. Even the little guys can help. It should be rather fun.


You may have guessed that I haven't gotten much writing done this week. I've done some, but not a whole lot. However, I counted all the parts of the stories that I have written and I realized that if I were to post one each Friday as I usually do, I'd have enough to last through the end of the year! I know I'll keep writing and the list of things to post will get longer and longer. Therefore, I was thinking of starting to post twice a week. I thought you all might enjoy a "Triple Creek Tuesday," like the "Western Wednesday" I did last year. Then on Fridays I'll post my short or not so short stories and "Dr. Morgan." Of course if I run out of Triple Creek, you'll have to wait until I get more written.
BUT . . . I have to know if you want "Triple Creek Tuesday." And I have to know by Monday morning because I'll be gone from about 5:00 AM to about 9:00 PM I'm guessing on Tuesday. So LET ME KNOW. 


This story that I'm starting today was one I enjoyed writing. I laughed quite a bit through it and I hope you do too. :) Enjoy!

Alone

Part 1

    There was something hot against my back. It was my first sensation. The second came a moment later; something hard and rough was pressing against my face. I could hear what sounded like water rolling up on a beach and then receding from it. From somewhere wild bird calls came loud and clear into the strange stillness. Where was I? What had happened? Slowly I turned my head but the light was so bright that it was some minutes before I could open my eyes.
    What a strange scene met me when I did at last open them. I shut them quickly, rubbed them and then rolled over. However, the light was so blinding then that it wasn’t until I forced myself to sit up that I could open my eyes at all. Even then I was forced to squint until I became adjusted to the brightness. Strange, what was I doing lying on a beach? Tall palm trees of some sort towered in lush coolness just to my right while before me a long, sandy beach stretched out to meet some rocky cliffs. To my left was the water; blue-green depths changing to dark blue stretched out until it seemed to bump into the light blue sky.
    This was odd. It sure seemed as though I was on a tropical or at least a semi-tropical land. Was it an island or just a strip of beach? That was my first thought and my second was, “How did I get here?” These were followed quickly by “Who am I, anyway?” I know it probably sounds really crazy, believe me, it felt crazy, but I could not remember my name, where I was from, or recall anything happening that could possibly lead to finding myself on a beach. In fact, I couldn’t remember anything.
    “Well, I guess I should look about,” I spoke the words aloud and they sounded strange, as though the place where I was had never heard the sound of a human voice before.
    “This is really odd,” I mused again into the quiet.
    Standing up, I brushed the sand off my clothes noticing that in some places they were a bit damp. “Hmm,” I murmured, “a clue perhaps.” Next I checked my pockets for any identification. Nothing. No driver’s license, no passport, no letters, nothing. I did find a small Swiss army pocket knife in one pocket that felt familiar in some way though why it did, I had no idea. And that was it.
    My stomach rumbled. “Before I explore much,” I murmured, “I should see if I can’t find something to eat.”
    Standing up I felt the squish of water in my shoes. There is almost nothing worse than wet, squishing shoes. I figured I didn’t really need to wear them since I was on a sandy beach. Pulling them off and peeling the socks off afterwards, I noticed my toes had that “been in the water too long” look, and they were cold. The warm sand sure felt nice.
    After tying my shoes together and slinging them over my shoulder, and with my socks tucked in the belt of my pants to dry, I set forth.
    I wasn’t sure what I would discover. I thought, “There could be a hot dog stand farther down on the beach.”
    “Why a hot dog stand?” I asked myself. “Why did I think of that in connection with a beach?”
    I shook my head. I must be crazy. “Perhaps I’ll find a life guard or a coast guard or even a dock and some boats.”
    Across the warm, sandy beach I strolled. I wasn’t in too much of a hurry even if I was hungry. I was thinking about how strange it would be to find someone who knew me when I didn’t even know myself!
    “Well, if I don’t know my name, I guess I could just name myself. Hmm, I wonder what I’ve always wished I’d been named?” Pausing for a few minutes, I tried out several different names with myself and at last decided that I’d always wanted to be Tyrone. Come to think of it, I believe the only reason I picked that name was so that I could talk with myself; part of me could be Ty and the other could be Rone.
    Once that momentous decision was made, I continued on in my quest for lunch. Or was it supper? I had a watch on, but a lot of good it did me. It must have been in water. As best I could figure from squinting at the sun, it must have been about two o’clock. No wonder I was hungry! I didn’t remember eating lunch. Or breakfast either for that matter.
    “Well, Rone, whatcha hungry for?” I asked myself, squinting up into the tops of the palm trees trying to locate something that might be eatable.
    “Got any coconuts handy?” Ty was talking now. “Or bananas?”
    “Over there, Ty,” I told myself, pointing to a short tree. “See those bananas? Look mighty good to me. What do you think?”
    “Let’s get them, Rone.”
    I’ll admit I did rather laugh at myself for trying to be two different people. I hoped no one could hear me or they might think I was a lunatic escaped from some place.
    After pulling about half a dozen bananas from the large cluster on the tree, I sat down in the shade to enjoy them. The first three were delicious. The next two were still good, but when I started on my sixth one, I began to wonder if I really liked bananas anymore.
    “This might be all we have to eat, Rone.”
    “Yep, Ty. Let’s take a few with us just in case we get hungry before we find more to eat.” So saying, I picked a couple more of the yellow fruit, though the thought of eating more of them didn’t sound appetizing any longer, and stuck them in my pockets.
    “Ah ha! Now I’m armed and ready. I have Banana Guns!” I practiced my quick draws and pretended to fire them. Then I glanced around quickly. I really must be crazy! There I was alone on a strange and deserted beach and I was talking to myself and pretending I had Banana Guns of all things. “Grow up a little Tyrone,” I muttered with a scowl, shoving the fruit back into my pockets.
    Now what? For several minutes I stood looking about me. Nothing looked familiar. I figured I should explore at least a little and see what I could discover.
    “Come on now, Rone,” I directed. “We’ll never get anywhere by standing still.”
    “That’s true enough, Ty. You know, a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.” Suddenly I was puzzled. I had heard that quote before, I could almost hear the tones of the voice which said it, but try as I might, I could not recall who it was or where I had been when I heard it.

What would you do if you couldn't remember anything?

What would you name yourself?

Continued next week.