By Bus with Vicki - Part 2

Hello FFFs,
I hope your June has started out well. Mine has. I'm getting a lot done on things which is always nice. Our cooler weather seems to have abated leaving us with heat. The humidity isn't nearly as bad as it sometimes is, but that's okay. :)

Quick question for you,
What happens when you mix 2 seconds of an add, a picture from pinterest, and my brain?
Answer: A new story.

Yep, I've started writing another book. I know, I know, I'm supposed to be working on TCR-6. And I was. I've made good progress on it and I think I can pick it up and write it soon. And Dylan's Story is waiting for me to correct parts 16-21, so there has been progress with that book. And Hymns in the Hills, well, I'm a little over half way done with the next hymn. So, you can see there is still hope for the other stories. :)

This new story was an accident. I was NOT going to write it. I just got a vague idea from seeing 2 seconds of an add (didn't even know what the add was for), saw this picture and the idea grew. But I still wasn't going to write it. I jotted the idea down on a file card for some later date. Little did I know that the "later date" would be the very next day. As much as I tried to forget the story idea, it continued to grow. By that night I had a working title for it. (That Never happens!) And the next morning my characters were having conversations in my head! Yikes! I had to do something. So . . . I decided I'd just start writing and maybe it would help. It did. Only it didn't help make the story pause. Nope. I wrote 2,000 words that first night, 1,000 the next night and 2,100 last night. And I can't wait to get back to it tonight. It's really moving and I'm loving it! :) So, if you want to see the three pictures I've found for this story, visit my pinterest board.

That's what's I've been doing. What about you? Have you been reading any new books this summer? Or are you going to travel? If so, will it be by bus like Vicki? :)

By Bus with Vicki

Part 2

    The two ladies exchanged glances again which Vicki didn’t see, for she was gazing out the window.
    “Was that your family who came to the bus station to see you off, Child?” asked the lady with the knitting.
    Pulling her eyes from the field of cows outside the window, Vicki nodded. “Yes, that was my family. Only not all of it.”
    “Not all? How many are there?”
    “Well . . .” Vicki scooted back in her seat and prepared to talk. “There are ten of us all together, if you don’t count Candy and Greg and Lizzy, who are just cousins but live with us, Grandma Mary, who is really Daddy’s grandma, or Mom and Dad. My oldest sister, Amber, is married and lives in San Jose, that’s in California, and I’m on my way to visit her! And then my oldest brother, Thomas, is away at collage. That leaves Mom and Dad, and me, and seven other brothers and sisters at home,” she finished, counting on her fingers. “It’s rather crowded at home sometimes, so it will be nice for everyone while I’m away.”
    Upon reaching a stopping point, Vicki drew a breath, swung her legs, and twisted her head to look at the other passengers until a voice beside her asked, “Are you the third born, Dear?”
    Whirling her head around so quickly that her hair flipped in her face and her headband slid back, Vicki laughed. “Me? No, I’m almost in the middle and am only twelve, though being twelve is practically grown up, you know. First is Amber, then Thomas, Henry, David, Susie, and then me. After me are Chrissy, Roxie, Hannah and Johnny. And you have to fit in Candy, Greg and Lizzy too.” A momentary pause followed as Vicki waited to see if another question would be asked. When it wasn’t she went on of her own accord.
    “I have a pet canary. His name is Suzuki and he loves to sing. We also have some fish. Greg wants a dog, but we don’t have room for one until Henry goes to college. Boys take up an awful lot of room, don’t you think?
    “But Mom said I wasn’t supposed to talk non-stop to anyone. And I don’t suppose it is very polite to tell everyone everything about yourself if they don’t ask, is it? I don’t mean to be a bother. Where are you going?”
    Mrs. Bookreader smiled. “We are going to visit a dear friend of ours who is ill. And you aren’t a bother, Child.”
    Vicki’s face, ever changing with her emotions, sobered, and she placed her warm, young hand over the wrinkled one beside her. “I will pray for your friend,” she promised.
    “Thank you.”
    “Do you have families?” Vickie looked from one to the other of the ladies. And so, for the next hour, Vicki talked with her new friends, asking questions and answering others with the same bubbly manner as had characterized her actions since she got on the bus.

    When the bus pulled up before another station, the two older ladies gathered their things and said good-bye to Vicki, wishing her a pleasant journey. Vicki was sad to see them go, but waved to them with a smile from the bus window until they disappeared inside the station.
    No new passengers got on and Vicki returned to her own seat. Picking up her bag, which had remained where she had dumped it in her first excitement of being on the bus, she settled it on the seat beside her and gazed out the windows thinking about her ‘old ladies’. After a full five minutes of silence, Vicki, who never was content with silence unless she was asleep, began to look around for someone else to talk to.
    A warm smile from across the aisle reminded her of her earlier thought of the couple being newly married. Giving a sigh of delight, Vicki scooted to the extreme edge of her seat and leaned across the armrest to ask in a stage whisper, for Mr. Newspaper was still buried behind the large paper, “Hello, what’s your name? Are you just married?”
    A silvery laugh escaped the young woman and she shook her head. “No, this is my brother, Clyde, and I’m Kayla.”
    The young man looked around and gave Vicki a friendly greeting.
    “Where are you going?” Vicki couldn’t help asking.
    “Home now. Clyde and I were visiting some relatives and are on our way home again.”
    “Oh, do you live in California? Because that’s where I’m going, and it would be such fun if I could have you traveling with me the whole time! I could pretend you were my older siblings. Except, of course, that Susie is only a little older than me and Amber is married. She’s the one I’m going to visit. But I could pretend you were my brother and sister. I do have three older brothers. Are you going to California?”
    Kayla shook her head. “No, I’m afraid we aren’t. We’ll be getting off in Colorado.”
    “In the mountains?” The dreamy tones brought another smile to Kayla’s face, and Clyde turned to the window clearing his throat.
    “Yes, we live in the mountains.”
    “That must be so exciting with all the blizzards and grizzly bears. Do trappers or Indians ever come to your house?”
    There seemed to be something wrong with Kayla’s voice, for she coughed and cleared her throat before she replied. “No, we live in Denver. We do get a lot of snow though.”
    “I told Henry, he’s my next-to-oldest brother, that some day I was going to go to the mountains and stay in an old cabin. Don’t you think that would be fun? Have you ever done that?”
    “No, I can’t say that I have.” Kayla turned to her brother and nudged him. “Clyde, when you and your friends went hiking in the mountains, did you stay in an old cabin?”
    “Well, we stayed in a cabin, but it really wasn’t that old.”

When you think of mountains, do you think bears and blizzards?

Have you ever stayed in a rustic cabin?

Where is your favorite place to travel to?