Through an Author's Eyes - Part 10

 Happy Black Friday!

I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving. I did. I got to spend most of it at my brother's house with his family. We hung out and ate, played a little ping-pong, and some other games. Then we came back to out crazy, full, messy house. Since we'd gotten help from my two oldest nephews on Wednesday, we have all the boxes that were in storage back at our house. Along with other things we'd forgotten we had sent down there. Now we don't really have places for everything yet, and so we have boxes stacked all over!

But, my parents are back to sleeping in their own room again! After 4 months of living in the living room, they are glad to have a room again. And my sister is back in the sewing room. Not all the shelves are here and up yet, but she can at least keep sewing in her newly redone room. But I still can't write. Our room is a disaster. And did I mention that our washing machine went out last week? We got a new one, but it's not hooked up yet. That makes things a bit interesting. Hopefully it will get hooked up today.

Anyway, that's that.

This morning my mom and I are going to tackle the back room where we usually put all the Christmas stuff we don't use during December. Then this afternoon the youngest 3-4 nieces and nephews will be coming over while my brother and older nephews work on their new addition, and my sis-in-law and oldest niece help decorate the church. Then tomorrow my oldest niece is coming over to help us decorate.

And today is Black Friday. It's the first time in a few years that I don't have books in Perry's Indie Author Sale, but I just didn't have time to set anything up. But I do have one Thanksgiving story that is Free today if you haven't gotten and read it already. You can find it HERE.

And now enjoy this next part of this author story.

 

 Through an Author's Eyes

Part 10

    Picking up her purse and Bible, she carefully made her way to the stairs. She knew it would take her longer than usual to get down the stairs. Somehow going down was worse than going up and half way down she stopped, turned around and proceeded to take the steps backwards.
    “Are you going up or down?” laughed Aunt Yvonne from the foot of the stairs.
    “Down. It’s less painful to do it this way.”
    “A niece who thinks,” Uncle Cleveland remarked. “It must be because she’s a writer. We come up with all sorts of situations for our characters and then have to figure out a way to get them out, don’t we?”
    Taking the last step down, Annette turned around and nodded. “Only this time I know what my poor MC is feeling. I never did before.” Shaking her head, Annette gave a slight chuckle and then stopped with a frown. “Why do I hurt all over?” she moaned. “I hope I don’t regret saying I want to climb a mountain.”
    “Well, as long as you don’t climb in cowboy boots I reckon you’ll do fine. You said you are used to climbing the Appalachians.”
    “True. And I’ve never ridden a horse before. Levi should have warned me I wouldn’t be able to move.” And she pretended to glare at her oldest cousin as he came into the room.
    He looked like a cowboy even with his church clothes on for he wore a western style shirt, dark denim jeans, cowboy boots that weren’t filthy, and a shiny buckle was on his belt. His hat was in one hand and his Bible in the other. “You wouldn’t have believed me if I had, would you?” he asked.
    “I don’t know. But you didn’t even warn me! I don’t know if I’ll get on a horse tomorrow or not.” She nodded her head once for emphasis.
    “You will. Are the others already outside?”
    “Here they come.” The rest of the family hurried into the room and together they walked out to the suburban.
    It was a forty-five minute ride to church, but Annette didn’t mind. The scenery was lovely and she scarcely took her eyes from the windows. “Oh!” her exclamation came suddenly. “I didn’t know we were going to Cats Claw!”
    “Yep,” Savanna said. “On Sunday the population more than doubles. There’s the church.”
    Annette followed the pointing finger and saw with delight a white church looking like it was taken straight from an old catalogue or magazine. It even had a tall white steeple and she wondered if a bell still hung from the tower. As she gingerly climbed from the vehicle, she watched the people going up the steps and into the church. Most of the men had on cowboy hats and boots, only the women seemed out of place for not one was wearing a hat with flowers or even a bonnet. “So much for going back in time,” she whispered to Savanna who had joined her. Ava slipped her hand into Annette’s and together the three girls crossed the grassy yard.
    Each step was painful for Annette, but she decided to grin and bear it, as her mother would say and when Bethany came up, she returned her hug without wincing too badly.
    “Sore from the ride yesterday?” Bethany asked in low tones.
    “What do you think?” Annette grimaced. “And Levi says I have to ride again tomorrow.”
    “It’s the best way to work out the soreness,” Bethany assured. “But come on.”
    Inside the church, Annette was thankful to see cushioned chairs instead of the hard pews she had expected.

    By the time the Vogel suburban pulled into the home ranch, Annette was tired. Not only had she heard a really good sermon, but she had been introduced to so many people that she couldn’t keep names and faces in her mind. All she wanted was lunch and a long nap. Climbing out of the suburban, a groan escaped her lips without her permission. She had hoped the sore muscles would ease as the day wore on.
    “You need to take a long leisurely walk this afternoon down the lane and back to loosen you up,” Aunt Yvonne remarked.
    Annette raised her eyebrows. A walk? She didn’t even think she could walk to the house let alone make it down the lane! She looked down at the ground. There was grass just a few steps away. If it weren’t so hard to sit down . . .
    “Should I carry you?” Levi questioned.
    “Don’t let him!” Savanna hurried over to say; Annette shook her head. “I’m afraid that would hurt worse than trying to walk.”
    Somehow Annette hobbled or staggered to the porch, moaned her way up the stairs and sagged against the wall inside. She didn’t want to go upstairs until she had to. And she certainly didn’t want to go up and then come right back down for lunch! Nope, she was going to remain downstairs and would eat lunch in her church clothes. Slowly making her way into the kitchen, she asked, “Can I help get lunch ready?”
    “There’s not much to do, but you can get paper plates from that cabinet if you want. We like to keep lunch simple and the dishes even simpler,” Aunt Yvonne replied. “We’re just having sandwiches, fruit, carrots and chips.”
    Annette managed to get the plates out without too much difficulty, but carrying them to the counter was hard and required silent groans with each stiff step she took. Her arms weren’t too sore and she was thankful for that.
    Ava did most of the talking during lunch, then everyone pitched in to clean up and Annette was soon free to make her slow, painful way up the stairs and to her room. “I can do this,” she muttered to herself, pausing on the seventh step and eyeing the rest of them. “I never knew riding a horse was so–well, painful and used so many muscles! Won’t Dad get a laugh when I tell him how sore and stiff I am.” A rueful smile crossed her face as she started upward again. “He’d tell me the same thing Levi is: Get up and ride again. That’s what he always told me when I was stiff and sore from hiking. He’d say, ‘Annette, we’re going to hike again tomorrow. And the next day until you get over being stiff and sore.’”

Did you have a good Thanksgiving?

Have you started decorating for Christmas?

Are you planning on shopping some book sales?