Fate and the Fisherman

 Joseph Manning bent his head back so far, he could have passed as a yawning sea lion. People wandered around him like a flock of seagulls, constantly moving but without real purpose. If it wasn’t for these walls of steel and glass rising above him like tidal waves, Joseph wouldn’t be standing there, waiting for them to start crumbling down.

“Do you happen to know where Jefferson Street is?” Joseph asked a woman passing by, but she barely paid him any attention. Joseph snorted. “Why Gabe gave up the sea to live in this city, I’ll never know.” 

Joseph attempted four other times to ask strangers for directions, with the same amount of luck.

“What on earth could there possibly be to keep an entire city on it’s feet that someone can’t stop five seconds to help a stranger? Had this place been anything like St. Veronica Harbor I could have been there by now.” A few people gave him funny looks before swooping past him.

“Serves them right.” He muttered. He decided that he might as well start moving in some direction, he’d probably get lucky and just stumble upon the right street eventually. Straight. Right. Left. Dead end. He cursed, and a few people who were watching him scattered away when his eyes met theirs. One of them dropped something and with a huff he went to retrieve it before they got too far away. He picked up the little white ball of string that fit perfectly in the palm of his hand.

“Hey! Sorry, but you dropped something!” He shouted, several people stopped to look at him, waving the ball of string in the air. But the woman who he believed dropped it didn’t look back. Joseph slumped up against a wall, too tired at this point to run after her. He looked back up into the blue sky, where ships of white clouds passed by. He looked back down at the ball of string in his hand. He found the fraying end and fiddled with it in his fingers. Now that he noticed, this string felt soft between his calloused hands. He looked back up at the sky as he contemplated what to do next.

“Hi there mister,” a small voice said. Joseph looked down. Big green eyes stared up at him.

“Hello little one,” Joseph said.

“You look lost.”

“As a matter of fact I am. Does a little tyke like you happen to know where Jefferson street is?” Joseph asked.

The little boy blinked at him with a raised eyebrow. “It’s just right there.” He pointed to the sign directly across from where they were standing.

Joseph couldn’t help but smile. “Thanks little one.”

“What’s that?” The boy asked, motioning to the string. Joseph looked at his hands, and noticed that the string was now woven between his fingers and thumb.

“Just some string. Would you like it?” Joseph said, untangling it from his hand. The boy nodded and offered his hands out to take it. His fat little fingers found the frayed end and in a flash the boy took off running. Joseph let the boy run, waiting for the string to unravel in his hands till it was gone, but the boy had already run all the way down the large block and turned a corner and the ball in his hands didn’t shrink. He pinched the fast moving string and tugged. The thin line of string broke off and instantly turned to dust. Joseph looked back at the ball of string, but it looked just as it had before. He crossed himself before tossing the ball of string into a nearby trash can. He waited to safely cross the street.

He stepped out onto the street but his leg got caught, he looked down to see the white string wrapped around his fingers, his waist, and his leg. Suddenly a black car came swerving crazily down the street. The car whooshed past him and almost missed the left turn at the light. The air was soon filled with the sound of car horns and angry shouts.  

Joseph crossed himself again as he backed up onto the sidewalk. There it was again, the soft white string. Muttering a prayer, he double checked the street before attempting to cross the street again. Before he did a woman ran in front of him. She grabbed his wrist. Joseph noticed the tears streaming down her face.

“Please, sir, have you seen him. I told him to wait right there for me. I was only gone two minutes. Please, tell me have you seen my little boy. He’s this tall,” she said holding a hand out to her waist, “he’s got the sweetest big green eyes. He has blonde hair and he was wearing a train t-shirt. He’s not hard to miss. Please tell me you’ve seen him.”

Joseph’s stomach plummeted. What had happened to the boy after the string broke?

“Ma’am, take a deep breath. It’s all going to be okay. Your son was just here just a minute ago. I’m sure he hasn’t gotten far.”   

The woman nodded and gave a small smile. She breathed in deeply. “I’m sorry. I’m not the kind of mom who just leaves her son somewhere. I really don’t. I just was trying to hurry so we could get home. I should have known better. But he’s normally so good and stays put. I don’t know what could have made him run off like that.”

Joseph swallowed down the hard lump in his throat.

“Don’t blame yourself. I’m sure you’re a wonderful mother. I saw him go this way.”  He breathed in shakily as she let go of his wrist. She kept up a brisk walk as she walked down the sidewalk. When they turned the corner, the woman stopped walking. Cars were still honking their horns and a large crowd was gathered around what appeared to be an accident. Joseph couldn’t help but notice a black car, similar to the one that had almost ran him over smashed up against another car. An ambulance barreled past, sirens blaring.

Joseph put a comforting hand on the woman’s shoulder.

“Maybe he’s watching with the rest of the crowd. You know how little boys are interested in danger.”

The woman nodded in reply, but Joseph could see the worry in her eyes. She walked stiffly beside him. As they got closer, Joseph saw paramedics rolling out a stretcher. A police man was yelling at people to back off.

“I’ll look over here,” the woman said as she walked past him. Joseph nodded in agreement. He started to look through the crowd. Though there were many boys watching the scene, none of them looked at all like the little boy who had talked to him earlier. He clenched the ball of string hard in his fist. Though no matter how hard he squeezed, it still felt as fresh and soft as ever.

Somehow he made it through the crowd and was now up close to the scene. The familiar black car was smoking, the windows were all smashed. It looked more like a beat up dingy than a car. With the front end all mushed up. There were two other cars smashed and wrecked, but it was obvious the black one had taken the most damage. On the black road there was evidence of some kind of liquid, but it could have been anything.

Then he saw something that made his knees wobble. Lying on the ground was little hand with fat fingers clutching a broken white string.

“That’s my son! That’s my son!” the woman screamed, she tore past him and ran to the paramedics. A police man stopped her and began talking to her. Joseph wanted to move, wanted to run. He wanted to shout to the world that somehow this whole mess was his fault. But all he could do was stand there and watch. Moving with the crowd like a buoy.  

Then somehow the scene was gone. The ambulance had driven off with mother and son in tow. Tow trucks had cleared away the wreckage. All that was left now was a large red stain on the ground and Joseph watching the street return back to its normal quick paced and unfeeling current.

“Similar to the sea…”  Joseph thought. His hand felt heavy. Though he wanted to chuck the string again, he felt like it wasn’t going to leave him alone. So he put it in his pocket. He back tracked the way he had come, he could see the faint white line of dust still and he followed it back to the spot where he had met the boy. He stood there for a moment wondering how to make sense of it all. The more he thought about it, the heavier the ball in his pocket felt.

He looked back across the street. There it hung in green for all to see, “Jefferson Street”. Joseph looked both ways, then calmly crossed the street. Nothing stopped him. He continued on his way, ready to tell Gabe about his interesting adventure to the city. He never noticed the ball of string fall out of his pocket. And there the string sat, waiting for another hand to hold it.  

Writing prompts are fun! :)

So I made my own random list for writing prompts for my weekly short story challenge.

Three seperate lists Genre, A Random Object that must be included, and Occupation of my main character. There are fifteen items (currently) on each list. So today I asked my cute seven year old cousin for 3 random numbers from 1 to 15. She gave me 10, 5, and 15.

So my short story that i get to post next Friday shall be an Urban Fantasy, must include a ball of string, and my main character is fisherman.

I've got some cool ideas already bubbling in my head and I'm excited to get to work. 1500 words, here I come. :)

My challenge for the year

We've all been there. That day when we realize we aren't challenging ourselves enough. For me, I love to write... though of course you wouldn't know that. I don't like to share everything that pops in my head on the internet. That would just be silly. 

Last November I participated in NaNoWriMo and won. Yes I wrote 50,000 words. Thank you for all the applause. I do my humble Princess Diaries wave to you all. Next month, I am participating in Camp NaNoWriMo, where I again set my sights on writing a new 50000 word novel. Wish me luck.

But wait! I'm going to be even more crazy and give myself even more to chew. 

Starting next week, I am going to write a 1500 word short story once a week. I will post it here, every Friday for all the world to see. So now that I've posted it on the internet, I gotta stick to it. :0) How's that for motivation? 

Of course, I'll keep doing book reviews and sharing whatever is on my mind because that's what blogs are for! :0) 

Yep. I'm just cool like that. 

Thoughts on Tough Stuff

I wanted to write my thoughts about bullying for a while now. Not too long ago I was having a conversation with a woman I babysit for. She confessed that if her children were ever bullied, she'd probably home school them.

I in turn confessed to her that when I was growing up I hated school, mostly because I was bullied there. It made me think about what I went through as a kid. 

I have a unique name that I was taught to be proud of. I wasn't a Sarah or a Katherine. I was the one and only Daria. But no matter how awesome you think your name is, kids are crafty and mean and will eventually turn something beautiful into something ugly. So I was teased. I was called horrible things. And I cried and I hated my name for a while. 

But I was bullied for years, no matter where I moved there was always a boy or two who would find a  way to make me cry. It didn't stop after elementary school. When I went to a Jr. high where I didn't know anyone, I was always the victim of one joke or another. 

The only way I broke free from the bullying atmosphere that had followed me everywhere I went, was that I learned to stick up for myself. When I got hate letters, I simply threw them away. When boys called me names or told me I was stupid, I laughed. I learned to simply stop caring about what they thought. What do two random guys I only see for maybe an hour a day, know about me? That's right, absolutely nothing! 

What I learned from my experience of being a victim of bullying, was that the only person who really was going to stop it was myself. Because kids are going to be kids when there isn't adult supervision close by. Parents, Teachers, and Counselors can only do so much, but in the end it really is going to be between the victim and the bully. I as a victim had to learn that the bully only had power, if I gave it to them. 

I think what's wrong with our society today, is that we take everything at face value. Doesn't matter where, when a victim begins to believe the words they hear, that is when they are letting the bullies win. We see it everywhere, on facebook, twitter, forums, chatrooms, playgrounds and neighborhood parks. When another person tells us something negative, we are inclined to believe that they are right. We give way too much power to other peoples opinions. Today, I see so many people who are basing their worth on the random comment a complete stranger said years ago. 

I suggest to all, that you need to learn to fight for YOU. I'm not saying that if you're being bullied you need to learn how to throw a punch or take revenge. That just makes you a bully too. But learn to have your opinion of yourself. Not what the world expects you to think. 

As a wise person once said "What Sue says about Sally, describes more about who Sue is, than Sally."

So there you have it, some food for thought. I'm interested on what you think. 

Fantasy is exciting :)

I am a huge fantasy fan. Anything that is fairy tale based is right up my alley. I'm always in for a good retelling.

So today I finished The Sisters Grimm- The Fairy Tale Detectives by Michael Buckley and i give it a 4.5 out of 5.

Two sisters, Sabrina and Daphne Grimm, who have been pushed through the foster care system for the past year since the disappearance of their parents.Then out of the blue they are given into the care of a grandmother they thought was dead.

What ends up happening is that they realize that they are the blood descendants of Wilhelm Grimm who with his brother wrote fairytales- which were true accounts of what happened. So in this little town of Ferryharbor Landing all the Everafter's (fairy tale creatures/characters) reside and the Grimm's are to keep them in line.
 
First thing that comes to mind is the T.V show, Grimm, but haha, this book was published in 2005, meaning Buckley had this fun concept long before the screen writers for the show ever did.

For a children's book (target audience 9-12 years old), it's pretty fun. You've got adventure, fun characters and an interesting mystery to solve.

What I like about this book was that Sabrina thinks that all of this from the very beginning is crap. She doesn't just "magically" believe all of it.

I also enjoy the way the lore, legends, myths all play out and work together. The author doesn't tell you which character is which outright, you get to learn and figure it out yourself.

It's a fun concept and I look forward to reading the following books.

My own personal problem with this book was that I wanted to know what happened to Sabrina's parents. We know they aren't dead, but it's one of those questions I like answers to.

Anyway... there you go. Another book that is worth a read if you're in a Grimm fairy tale mood.

Books that give me headaches...

For all you wonderful people out there who don't know me in real life, I am your average book worm. As in if given the choice between going to go see a movie or getting to read a new book, I'll take the book thank you very much. 

For reasons unknown to me, a good friend (a.k.a My mother) has told me on multiple occasions to blog about the books I read so here I go. I don't expect people to feel about these novels as I do. We all have different opinions and that's what makes social life exciting. Anyway... back on subject. 

So here we go with some books that make my head hurt over the years: 

As You Wish by Jackson Pearce. I rate this book at a 3 out of 5. 

First two thirds of the book were AMAZING! Just exactly what I was wanting with this story. Two unlikely people falling in love- A jinn and regular girl, Viola. Viola is fun, she knows what she wants in life, but doesn't know what to wish for. Making Jinn's work harder than he would like, but he sees what it's like to be human, and what Viola does to him that his own kind doesn't. It's just a fun ride with the first two wishes. 

And then it all goes down hill from there. The story could have had a fabulous ending, seriously. I would have totally loved this book had it not been for the author taking control over events, rather than the characters. 

*Spoilers Here*

You've got the first wish, which was a mistake on Viola's part. But she was a big girl and lived with it. Then she saw how her wish effected the girl she was most jealous of, Ollie. And she spends her second wish, making Ollie's life better. 

So last wish that could have make this story fabulous would have been Viola granting Jinn's wish- to be human. 

But nope. Miss Pearce decided that was too easy of a story and so instead she just had to screw it all up. One key thing that is important about the third wish is that after it's granted, Jinn leaves and Viola's memories of him get wiped. Viola was written to be a smart enough character and a sympathetic enough one to have let Jinn grant his own wish. 

What bothered me was that she has to wish that her friend stops acting crazy, thanks to an ifrit who is trying to smooth the wishing process along. Everything goes back to normal, and no one is happy. Even when Jinn becomes and ifrit himself, just so he can be on earth more, it still doesn't fix the problem, not really. 

I felt the ending was a sad and cheap way to finish the story. No loose ends are really tied. The whole magic from the first two thirds is just ruined. 

This is one of those books that make me want to write my own version, but show that my characters could have come up with a happy solution instead of the author trying to prove a point. 

The Returning by Christine Hinwood  1 out of 5 

One of those books that have a really interesting world that I want to explore, even though it takes place after a horrible war has ended. What made my head ache with this book was the way the characters told the story. One was homosexual and thus painted the main character in a light I rather wouldn't have liked to picture. Another was a girl who just gave up on life... kinda. And our main character's sister who begins this book, only get's three chapters to tell her story- the last of which was a great disappointment. She is acting completely against what you know and have learned about her from her previous chapters- as if the author thought that she wasn't acting the way she wanted her to so she just found some other character, gave her the same name and situation, and let her act out the way the author wanted. 

The Magicians by Lev Grossman 1 out of 5

Magic- check. Interesting story line- missing. If all you care about is the world, than maybe this book would be rated a 3. If you care about the magic system and the complexity of it all, I would give it a 5. But overall mood of the story is depressing. It's like reading Camus' The Stranger set in a magical world. I didn't even make it all the way through this book because my mind began to feel like it was turning to mush. 

Since As You Wish was the most recent novel I've read, that's all I've got on my mind, books that make my head hurt. But hopefully the next book I finish will be much better. :) 

There you go.

As always, this Krazny is Crazy.