Wishing for Sherbet - Part 1

Good Morning FFFs,
I hope you all had a wonderful week. Mine was a bit overwhelming, a faster pace, busier than it has been but I did have some fun. :) What do you do when you are feeling overwhelmed, discouraged and tired? Me? I go and buy a hat. Yep, I did. It was delightful. Of course I'll probably only wear it a few times, but I still like it. It is a "5th Avenue" hat. :) But that was that.
Last night Grandpa came down again and he and I went to a wonderful concert! It was a string quartet with a guest pianist. Wow! They were good and you could tell they enjoyed it. The first and second violinists were very enthusiastic. They would sort of stomp their feet (quietly) and then at times they would look at and lean towards each other as though they were saying "I can play this part better than you can!" "Not a chance!" And other times their look was, "Can you hold this note as long as I can?" "Longer, just watch." :) Everyone was on their feet within 30 seconds after they finished the last song. They had to play an encore.
I did get some writing done this week in spite of the busyness. I can certainly tell it is not January any longer. Our life became full of this meeting, that meeting, doing this, helping with that, babysitting now, babysitting again. Next week I am losing three of my nights to write, but I'll tell you about that next week. :) This week I lost last night and tonight. I'm babysitting the kids tonight.


This story was written for a friend. Christah gave me these instructions:
Characters: 4 main
Words: 5 pages or so
Special Instructions: Really Happy and with a beach in it. She also wanted "raspberry coated clouds" in the story. :)
Sound interesting? Well, here is part one. What do you think of it?

Wishing for Sherbet

by

Rebekah M.

“I guess I should be getting back home,” Twelve-year-old Lila Mattison thought, reluctantly moving away from the little store on the island where she lived with her family. Giving one last longing look at the cartons of sherbet for sale in the ice chest, she sighed and, shoving her hands in her pockets, trudged out of the store into the blazing, hot afternoon sun. All day long she had wanted some sherbet, but there wasn’t any at home and she didn’t have any money to buy some. Her favorites were raspberry and pineapple.

At a slow pace, Lila started homeward wondering what she would do with herself the rest of the day. Her parents had left the day before for a conference on another island leaving Lila home with her older brother Perrin and two older sisters Sil and Cami. They weren’t expected back until Friday which meant it would be no use waiting and asking Dad for some money to buy sherbet. Her thoughts were interrupted just then.

“Lila!”

Turning her head, Lila caught sight of her friend Dottie Henricks waving from a hammock stretched between two palm trees.

“Hi!” Lila waved back, going over to chat.

“Can’t you stay and visit for a little while?” Dottie wondered. “I’m tired of reading.”

Lila shrugged. “Cami and Sil are both gone and I don’t know where Perrin is. I’m sure I can stay as long as I get home before it is too dark. Mom and Dad don’t like me to be out alone after dark.”

“Mine don’t either,” admitted Dottie, clambering out of her swing.

Soon both girls were busy organizing Dottie’s collection of sea shells while they chattered gaily together as girls will.

Thirty minutes later, Dottie’s sister, Lou, came upstairs to say that Lila could stay for supper as Perrin was at the Davidson’s and Cami and Sil were already at the Boatrights getting ready for the quilting bee. Both girls were delighted.

Having enjoyed their supper to the fullest extent, they went back to sorting. At last Lila looked up and noticed the sun was setting.

“Oh, Dottie, I have to go. Maybe I can come over tomorrow and we can finish.”

“Do, Lila, that would be fun!”

“Tell Lou thanks for letting me eat here. I probably would have been stuck eating a peanut butter and banana sandwich,” and with a final wave Lila skipped down the path and started for home glad the sun wasn’t so hot.

Her path lay along the bay which reflected the glory of the sky. Near the edge of the beach grew a row of palm trees. Etched in black, silhouette against the pineapple, tangerine and raspberry coated clouds which floated in a sky of strawberry milk, they stood, silent, slender sentinels, guarding the bay; guards with spiked feathers for hair. Lila always felt like passing on tiptoe when they looked like that. Their leaves made no noise though they waved slightly in the light breeze coming off the water. Giving a shiver, though it wasn’t the least bit chilly, she ran lightly, her feet making hardly a sound as she flew across the sandy beach, rounding the bay, not stopping until she reached home.

All was quiet when she arrived. The sherbet colored clouds were reflected in the windows, causing the white curtains to appear colored and causing her to wish again for her favorite dessert. Pressing one hand to her side, Lila gasped for breath, shivered and gave a nervous giggle.

“I don’t like the looks of the palm trees when they are so black,” she muttered, reaching for the doorknob. “Especially when the sky is so pretty.”

To her surprise, the door refused to open.

“Why in the world is it locked?” Lila snorted. “We hardly ever lock the doors here. And if they do get locked, the key should be here under the door mat.” As she was talking to herself, she had lifted the doormat and discovered no key.

“Maybe it fell,” she continued her one sided conversation. “But if it did, why can’t I find it? It isn’t on the porch and there is no crack it could have slid into, and it’s not caught on the rug,” as she carefully inspected it by the fast fading evening light.

For several minutes she silently searched in every conceivable place where the key might have disappeared to, but nothing came of it. The key was just not there. It was gone, had vanished, poof, into thin air leaving not a trace of it behind.

Sighing, Lila sank down onto the porch step, propping her chin in her hands and gazing gloomily into the dusk about her. She wasn’t scared, for she knew all the neighbors and any strangers coming to the island would have to come by way of the bay, which she could see from where she sat.

“I guess I’ll just have to wait until Cami and Sil get finished quilting at the Boatright’s. That could be a while,” she muttered. “But,” and she sat up and looked about her, “I wonder where Perrin is? I thought he was going to be home?”

“So I was,” a voice startled her, and there before her was her brother.

“You scared me!” she scolded, standing up.

“Sorry,” Perrin replied, “didn’t mean to, but you know sitting outside on the step talking to yourself is bound to make the neighbors think you’re crazy.”

Lila wrinkled her nose at her brother’s teasing. “You can open the door then,” she offered, stepping aside.

Perrin tried, but found, as his younger sister had, that it was locked. “Where’s the key?”

“Don’t know. I couldn’t find it anywhere.”

“W--e--ll,” Perrin dragged out the word as he turned to look at Lila. “I guess we’re stuck here till the girls get back.”

Lila groaned, “We could be here all night!” and then the two of them laughed. They both knew their older sisters well enough to know that they reallly might stay quilting at their friend’s house all night.

“I suppose we could go over there and wait,” Perrin suggested.

Lila sat back down on the step while Perrin perched on the porch railing. “I suppose we could . . .” she sighed and looked about at the darkened sky. The sherbet had disappeared from above, along with the strawberry milk, as though eaten by some giant, leaving only a dark bowl behind.

Suddenly Perrin jumped up, “I know,” he exclaimed, “let’s go serenade them.”

“Just us two?”

“No, we’ll get the Henricks and maybe the Davidsons. You know their parents went to the same conference with Mom and Dad.”

“And the older girls are probably all quilting,” Lila put in eagerly. “Let’s go!”

Knowing their way around the darkened island as though it were daylight, for they had grown up on it, the brother and sister hurried over to the neighbors’ houses and soon the nine friends, with much giggling from the girls, were making their way among the palm trees to the Boatright’s house where the quilting bee was in full swing.

Halting everyone before they reached the house, Perrin gave a few whispered instructions before gliding softly across the sand to stand under an open window where the muslin curtain blew in the soft evening breeze coming off the bay.

Lila could see the silhouettes of the quilters gathered around the large quilt frame and caught snatches of conversation and laughter from the girls inside.

Silently Parrin gave the signal and nine voices, slightly off key, began to sing:

“In the sky the bright stars glittered,

On the bank the pale moon shone

And ‘twas from Aunt Dinah’s quilting party

I was see-ing Nellie home.

I was seeing Nellie ho--me,

I was see--ing Nellie home.

And ‘twas from Aunt Dinah’s quilting party

I was seeing Nellie home.”

Come back next week to read what happens.

Will you be back?