Tuesday, December 28, 2021

The unexpected can turn your world upside down. It can leave your life in disarray.

 

Coping with the turmoil can be impossible, as you will see in . . .

 

 

Mommy And Daddy Dearest

 

This is a story that begs to be told, but to date has been shrouded in mystery. It is a tale about two different people, with divergent lifestyles, who end up together.

 

Mommy’s birth baffled both friends and family. Her father, who came from money, always dressed in a pinstriped, three-piece suit and shirt decorated with a colored tie, and never disrobed. A gambler, who bet on the horses and played in weekly poker games, he did not come home until late most nights and never seemed to be intimate with his wife. Could this man have produced a child?

 

As she grew up, Mommy was very bright and challenged her teachers in a way they could not understand. She looked at them with disgust in her eyes. She was a queen and they were the peasants in her kingdom.

 

Daddy’s parents were poor and struggled to survive. He let the system dictate his every move. He knew no other way.

 

In his day, all children of good breeding were right-handed, but not Daddy. This, however, was not acceptable. With head bowed, his teachers brandished a ruler across his knuckles to dissuade him from being a deviant. He tried, but he could not change.

                      

Mommy and Daddy went to two different high schools at opposite ends of the city. However, as fate would have it, their paths crossed one day in early October, as Daddy road his rusted, silver bike down the street through Mommy’s neighborhood.

 

Daddy was sixteen and Mommy fourteen, at the time. As she sat on the front stoop of her two-story brick house, with two other girls by her side, Daddy sped down the middle of the street. As he waved his hand trying to get her attention, he did not look where he was going and crashed into a parked Cadillac. He was quite banged up, but he seemed to have succeeded in getting Mommy’s attention and winning her admiration, as she ran toward him to help. Some believed it was love at first sight.

 

Seven years later, these two lives became forever entwined as they walked down the aisle, with “Here Comes the Bride,” providing the musical backdrop. People applauded as the couple recited their vows and kissed with a passion that all believed would provide the foundation for a long and happy future together. The smiles on their faces made an unforgettable impression on those in attendance. A union made in heaven, they thought.

 

But life does not always work out the way it should. Mommy and Daddy had two children, a boy first and a girl two years later. But these births did not turn out to be a blessing. For blackened skies seemed to place dark shadows on the lives of these children. Adrian, the boy, kept to himself, as distrust welled up inside his head and anger twisted his gut. He had a distorted picture of life and how to deal with the demons that tortured his soul. Evelyn, the girl, flaunted her body in a way that made boys salivate and lust after her. A temptress, she drove them wild.

 

Mommy cringed at the way Evelyn dressed, leaving nothing to the imagination. Time and again the school principal called to tell her that Evelyn’s behavior could no longer be tolerated, but Mommy was powerless to do anything about it. Evelyn frightened her in a way she did not understand. And Daddy ignored the misbehavior of his daughter. He wanted nothing to do with it. In so doing, he alienated Mommy.

 

However, he did try to speak with Adrian, but the door to Adrian’s mind remained closed to Daddy’s efforts. Adrian’s eyes were empty and his heart cold. He did not speak much. And when he did, his anguish frightened Daddy in a way that caused him to tremble. Mommy, too, could not find a way to enter Adrian’s world. The doors remained shut, as he slipped deeper and deeper into himself.

 

The wall between Mommy and Daddy grew larger, forcing them further away from one another. They said little, as they struggled to keep from drowning in an ocean filled with waves of discontent. This family of four drifted into nothingness. Could anything be done to save them? They stayed within themselves and none of them knew how to call for help. A wretched present and the notion of a bleak future haunted them.

 

Then one day, something strange occurred. A vision appeared—one all members of the family could see. A window opened to a sunlit garden filled with beautiful flowers and singing birds. Warmth flooded in touching them in a way they had never experienced before. A rush of hope ran through their tortured minds. They had a chance to escape the living hell that had befallen them. A portal to freedom from the ghosts of their past opened . . . but did they have the strength and courage to travel through it?

 

 

Copyright © 2021 Alan Lowe. All rights reserved.

Wednesday, December 15, 2021

During the holiday season, we often take the time to reflect on how we celebrated past Christmases.

 

It’s been twenty-five years since the first Christmas I spent with the lovely woman who would become my wife. I’d like to share the poem I wrote for the occasion, titled . . .

 

 

Our First Christmas

 

It is hard to believe

we are celebrating

our first Christmas together—

the first of many to come.

It is a joy

to decorate

our home,

to create

our Christmas spirit,

and to celebrate

the meaning

of the holiday.

 

I see the pleasure

in your eyes

and the warmth

in your heart.

You make the season

come alive.

You, my lovely redhead,

ignite the spirit

in my soul

and bring joy

to my life.

 

I admire your desire

to include others,

who might otherwise

have spent

the holiday alone,

in the splender

of Christmas day

and the happiness

we have found.

You are a wonderful person

and I am blessed

by your presence

in my life.

 

I wish for us,

years of blissfulness

together,

and for you,

the fulfillment

of all your dreams.

 

Merry Christmas, my darling.

May our love deepen

as the years go by.

 

 

Copyright © 1996 Alan Lowe. All rights reserved.

Sunday, December 12, 2021

Finding solutions to problems can be difficult. Even the simplest ones can become complicated.

 

However, the search may make our sometimes-boring lives more interesting, as we seek an answer to the question . . .

 

 

What’s Inside?

 

I removed my black suitcase from the top shelf of the closet in the bedroom, so I could pack for my holiday trip to Las Vegas. As I placed it on the bed, I could hear something rolling around in it. But I thought I’d emptied it before putting it away after my last trip. I don’t know why I just didn’t open it to see what caused the mysterious rattling I heard, but I didn’t.

 

Strange things ran through my mind. Could I have left my missing six-inch, high-powered flashlight in it—the one that saved me from being lost on the dark road in the mountains I walked down last summer? Or might it be the open bag of pistachios I thought I left at my daughter’s home? I sniffed it to see if an odor permeated the case, but I couldn’t smell anything.

 

My mind jumped from one possibility to the next. The challenge of the guessing game seemed to stimulate my otherwise lethargic brain. “Oh, I know what it is,” I screeched. It’s the locket I bought for Jane. Before I could give it to her, she broke off our relationship. I had to bury the past. And the suitcase was as good a place as any to entomb it.

 

No, it couldn’t be the locket. I found it three weeks after the breakup, under the bedroom dresser where I’d thrown it, after I’d hung up the phone on her. If not the locket, then what? Wait, it’s coming to me. It must be my sunglasses. They went missing after my drive up the coast. I searched the car for hours, but couldn’t find them. I must have put them in the suitcase.

 

By now you must think I’m going crazy . . . that I’ve lost my marbles. Yes, I’ll look in the case. My marbles could be in there. No, I’m not nuts. Just bored. My run of the mill job as manager of the Nature’s Way Grocery Store doesn’t turn me on anymore. I need some excitement in my life. Maybe I’ll rob a bank. That’s it! The thing bouncing around in the case is my gun. I knew I hid it somewhere.

 

However, I don’t even own a gun. But you knew that. Well, time to get packed, so I can get a good night’s sleep. The plane for Vegas leaves at 10:00 am tomorrow. I took hold of “my black bag of mystery’s” zipper. The moment of truth awaited me. A bit nervous, I pulled it around the top of the case and took a deep breath.

 

I began to lift the top up, but then the doorbell rang. It dropped back into place, as I spun around and ran to the door. I turned the handle and pulled it open. Standing before me was a smiling Joe, my travelling companion. He held a black suitcase, identical to mine, in his left hand. “Hey, Gary,” he sputtered. “I started to pack for our trip tomorrow and realized I had your suitcase. We must’ve switched them when we were packing up to come home from our Florida trip. And, by the way, I heard something rattling around inside.”

 

Oh, my God! I’ll be damned, if I have to go down that path again. I took the suitcase from him and placed it next to the door. “Let’s go into the kitchen and have a drink.” We sat at the table and chatted about what we would do in Vegas. After shooting the breeze for about twenty minutes, I excused myself, grabbed “my” suitcase, from where it sat next to the door, and hustled back to the bedroom to make the exchange. Upon returning to the kitchen, I walked Joe, with “his” suitcase in hand, to the door. “See you in the morning,” I chanted.

 

After Joe left, I went back into the bedroom, unzipped my suitcase, and, without hesitation, lifted the top. There to my amazement, I found a small package wrapped in bright yellow and red striped paper. I picked it up with my right hand, moved it to my left, and back to my right again. What the hell is this? I muttered. Then I placed it on the bed and stared at it. Well, it’s not going to open itself, I thought. I started to unwrap it, but feared what I might find. Finally, with the paper removed, I took the top off the box.

 

Inside was a silver medallion engraved with the words, “Your future is in my hands.” What's this all about? Then I saw a piece of notepaper that had fallen out of the package onto the floor. I picked it up and read, “Someone’s got to breathe life back into your mundane existence, so it might as well be me. See you tomorrow for our next journey. And, by the way, Merry Christmas.”

 

Wow! I didn’t see that coming. Nice gesture. But it didn’t clear anything up. How did the suitcases become switched in the first place? My nametag was affixed to the handle of mine. And what was rolling around in the other one? This left me more confused than ever—but certainly not bored.

 

 

Copyright © 2021 Alan Lowe. All rights reserved.