A Conclusion. (Flash fiction) #RDP

Photo from https://www.coolgenerator.com/random-image-generator

(c) Pamela Schloesser Canepa

The doctor unplugged his equipment. “It is apparent to me, that our search is fruitless.”

The immaculately dressed gentleman sitting across the room crossed his legs, exuding patience that would soon run out. “Why do you think that?”

“Her heart is steady. Her eyes are glazed. Those two things don’t gel. I’d assume she’s half-baked, except that she’s been under our supervision for 72 hours. Every blot she sees is a tree, every picture she draws is a tree. All I can see in her mind, are trees. There is no substance doing this to her; it is her mind. Either her mind is gone, or she is that powerful.”

The unkempt woman began humming.

“No, that’s not possible. She is very willful but not as powerful as that. ” He sighed. “So, in your opinion, she is no longer useful?”

“That is correct,” the doctor replied.

“Turn her loose on the streets then. Leave her in the gown, barefoot. If she starts talking, no one will take her seriously.” Just in case, he thought. He stood, laying down several big bills, and left with disdain in his footsteps.

***Written in response to the RagTag Daily prompt presented at https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2022/06/06/rdp-monday-apparent/

**I am thankful for these writing prompts, as they are helping me generate ideas to reach my goal this summer for my book, Ellie the Time Traveler, in the Detours in Time series. She has been on hold for too long!

I am finally letting Ellie breathe again! #amwriting Learn more: https://www.amazon.com/Pamela-Schloesser-Canepa/e/B01E0KV716

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Weekend Coffee Share. “What a Long, Great Trip it’s Been!”

Welcome to my Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Allison at Eclectic Alli every Saturday morning! I love this coffee photo from Pixabay, as it is very reminiscent of Kerouac, although now I can add Ginsburg to that thought; I’m making my way through Allen Ginsburg’s poetry book, “Television Crawled Like a Baby toward that Death Chamber,” and what an appropriate title! I read maybe two poems a week, as I don’t want to speed through it. I also have another book on the side, I must confess. Poetry books work better for me when I keep a certain poem with me for a week. I’m going to perhaps surprise you and exude total positivity today. 🙂 Maybe I feel like I have my job and work well under control, or I just feel I can focus on me this weekend? At any rate, I’m celebrating a few things today.

I received this notice yesterday from WordPress about my third anniversary with WP blogging. It has been the best experience and has fueled my writing and my author platform! I’ve also become part of a community of bloggers from Africa, Ireland, Britain, Dubai, and many other far away places who share unique perspectives and yet, have a lot in common with me. I had blogged with Google Blogspot for about 5-6 years and never got the feel of community as much as I do now. Besides discussing the writing journey or creating short fiction here, some of my posts have been very personal and based on some struggles I had in my family in the last 4-5 years; all I have received is supportive responses, and I never regretted sharing. I’m truly thankful I started that first post, which was either about seeing NIkki Giovanni speak in 2015 or a cool fact I’d learned about our galaxy while at home sick. I may re-post it soon in memory!

Thank you, WordPress!

Really, it’s fun to think back on the things I have discovered. I’ve also discovered authors I would not have otherwise and read books I might not have heard of had I not read my WordPress post feed, books like “Echo” (dystopian sci-fi) or “Damp Dogs and Rabbit Wee,” a humorous memoir written by a dog-walker in Scotland. I truly hope their writing keeps flourishing. I’ve found a way to tell others about my writing as well, and I’m thankful to those who have read about my book(s) and got their own copy to read and some who left a review for it! Now for the next celebratory item:

Bixby and me.

Sorry for the tired eyes. It was a cold Friday night, end of work-week unwind.

This dog of mine is the best friend a girl could ask for. He loves my whole family. We’ve had him for four years now, after adopting him from the shelter.  Wed finally decided to spend the money and time on a dog-training course. Let me tell you, it does pay off! Half of the goal is training us humans to be consistent in our requests and rewarding behaviors and not to be negative in our responses to behavior. He will now sit for a treat, wait for a treat, leave it when asked, and lie down for a treat when asked. He is getting better at walking on a leash with us as well. My mom and I are his main walkers, and we can’t have an over-enthusiastic dog yanking our arms our pulling a shoulder out of socket. He has gotten so much better, what a canine angel! Today was class six, and he graduated. Hooray for Bixby!

Anything for a treat, but the hat only stayed on for a few seconds! 🙂

Thank you for having coffee with me and listening to my wonderful news!  Thanks also to those of you who stop by even on the weekends when I am feeling overwhelmed and sharing when you can empathize.  Have a great week, everyone!

Watch RWISA Write Showcase, Linda Mims, an Author Discovered

Please join me in welcoming author Linda Mims to my blog today for a sample of her writing!  Linda is a supportive, fellow member of Rave Reviews Book Club, and is also a member of Rave Writers International Society of Authors.  If you like futuristic sci-fi, check out her novel, The Neon Houses!

 Linda Mims

You Take the Blue Pill, the Story Ends. You Take the Red Pill …

By Linda Mims

 I was sixteen when I first suspected that I might be the one. I’d seen people in my family striving for excellence all my life. My parents’ friends were creative types who often took time to quiz me about my goals and what I was doing to achieve them. I had been persistently pleading with a leader at my church who had the power to make one of my goals a reality.

 

This woman headed the Womens’ Ministry. Everything from church announcements to annual celebrations fell under her domain. I wanted to be the youth announcer on the weekly, hour-long radio broadcast that emanated from our church, but she was speaking a language that I didn’t understand.

 

“Take some speech lessons and come back to me.”

 

Where in the world was I going to get speech lessons and how would I pay for them? My family knew some people, and the house did overflow from Friday to Sunday with weekend guests, but that didn’t mean we had money. A party costs maybe $25 back then—especially if everybody brought food and drinks.

 

Bottom line, we didn’t have money for speech lessons. Still, I wasn’t going to give up. I was a spiritual youngster, even before I knew what spiritual meant. I told the Lord what I wanted and then forgot about it. While I was waiting, strange, but wonderful things were happening to me. I was voted vice president of my choir and I was chosen to deliver the Youth Day Address. Go figure!

 

One Friday evening, my mother received a phone call. The church maven and her assistant had gone on strike. I was too young to understand everything a strike entailed. I just knew that I was being asked to fill in as the main radio announcer for the broadcast; the very thing I’d wanted in the first place.  That broadcast went out to hundreds, maybe thousands in the Chicago listening area.

 

When she returned from her strike, Ms. Maven kept me on as a junior announcer and she became one of my most revered mentors. That was the year I discovered that I was tight with God. I could get a prayer through! Was I the one?

 

I’m every woman. It’s all in me

 

While in college a few years later, I watched a bold, beautiful young woman, with a voice as big as a brass saxophone, sing on a makeshift stage. It was an impromptu concert behind one of the lecture halls on my university campus. The day was balmy and the sun was bright. We shaded our eyes as we stared straight into the golden orb that bathed her in its light.

 

She looked like a woman and a child at the same time. She wore very few clothes. Just a band around her breasts, a pair of short shorts, ankle boots, and a tall feather stuck in the crown of one of the biggest afros I’d ever seen.

 

We were fascinated, and her voice held us captivated. After the performance, members of the group handed out bills that said their name was Rufus, featuring Chaka Khan. They would be performing at a local club that night.

 

We showed up to the club, but a multi-ethnic crowd had filled the place to capacity. You don’t need to ask for racial diversity once everybody realizes you have something we all desire. Anyway, we couldn’t get in. That day would be the first and only time I’d hear Chaka Khan sing for free. At the time, I wondered if she was also the one!

 

In 1978, Chaka Khan recorded her first solo album, Chaka. One song from that album would define the rest of my life. In it, she sang my truth! I’d always felt that I could do anything, but it wasn’t until Ms. Khan sang the words, that I knew how to describe what I’d always known.

 

“I’m every woman. It’s all in me. Anything you want done, baby, I do it naturally. I ain’t bragging, but I’m the one. Just ask me and it shall be done.”

 

I had a theme song!

 

You may not know the purpose, but know that there is a purpose

 

In The Matrix, one of my favorite movies of all time, there’s the scene where Morpheus gives Neo a choice between the red pill or the blue pill. Neo has been searching for information about the matrix. Morpheus has to convince Neo that he isn’t looking for the matrix, but what he’s really looking for is more. Morpheus believes that once Neo has answers to his questions, he will come to accept what Morpheus already knows. Neo is the one.

 

Being the one is about knowing that you want more. You want to change things. You may not know what your ultimate purpose is, but you know that there is a purpose. You’re so absolutely self-motivated and focused, that God himself delights in your purpose. I told you I’ve always been spiritual, so, I’ll say that I believe when God and the universe delight in your purpose, there’s no stopping you.

 

The Matrix is fiction, so let’s take a look at real-life people who wanted more. One such person was the late author, Janet Dailey. A prolific writer, Dailey thought she could write better than most of the romance writers she was reading. She knew she was the one. When people referred to her as “just a secretary” who writes romance novels, Dailey said the following, and I quote:

 

 “One of the things that to me is the biggest compliment any writer can get is hearing from the ones who say, ‘I used to think reading was boring until I picked up one of your books.’ ” 

 

Between 1974 and 2007, Janet Dailey sold over 300 million copies of more than 100 titles. Not bad for “just a secretary”.

 

Then, there was Steve Jobs. Steve dropped out of Reed College in Portland, Oregon after six months, but he stayed there and audited creative classes over the next 18 months. A course in calligraphy developed his love of typography. Apple and Macintosh computers would be the first to offer creative fonts, including calligraphy, for the consumer’s use.

 

Steve Jobs partnered with his friend, Steve Wozniak, to start Apple Computer, in the Jobs’ family garage. Steve Jobs said, “I want to put a ding in the universe”.

 

I guess he knew that he was the one!

 

Being the one comes with certain responsibilities

 

Many of you have already realized that you are the one; you just haven’t taken the red pill yet. When you’re ready, there are some responsibilities:

 

1. Toot your own horn
2. Don’t give up
3. Throw away false humility

 

First, toot your own horn! You can’t be afraid of appearing to be too much of a showoff. Waiting patiently for others to give you the rewards you so richly deserve, may yield nothing but hurt and disappointment. Individuals will slink away with your destiny in their greedy little hands without so much as a backwards glance for you.

 

A few times, I spoke too quietly in meetings or waited until it was too late to claim my own ideas that I’d shared with others in private. I watched, stunned, as another, bolder individual stole my idea, shouted it out, and received my praise. I had to wise up quickly and realize that there are differences in the way that leaders and achievers talk and present. First, leaders declare that they have something to say. Then, when everyone is focused, they speak. They make sure their ideas are credited.

 

Don’t give up, opportunity does knock more than once.

 

I’ve learned that opportunity knocks more than once. Heck, when you’re the one, you create opportunities. When one door closes, another door really does open. If you weren’t ready the first time, the truth is, you can keep reinventing yourself until your moment comes or until you’re tired of trying.

 

“Sometimes life is going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith.” —Steve Jobs

 

Throw away that false humility! It’s okay to hang back while you formulate your plan. Go ahead! Get the lay of the land. If you are confident in the knowledge that you can do anything, take as much time as you need. Just don’t overdo humble. That’s almost as bad as having too much pride.

 

It’s permissible to show pride in yourself and your accomplishments. The 21st Century is begging for your stories, calling for your experiences, and expecting you to step up and lead, in every way imaginable. Women like Oprah Winfrey—women like Taylor Swift—they are leading change with their out-of-the-box ideas and sweeping changes to the status quo.

 

Men like Barack Obama are stepping out of obscurity and into the Senate and the office of the President of the United States. Have the audacity to dream! Wear your mantle of distinction with pride. Step-up, speak-out! You are the one!

 

*Thank you for supporting this member along the WATCH “RWISA” WRITE Showcase Tour today!  We ask that if you have enjoyed this member’s writing, to please visit their Author Page on the RWISA site, where you can find more of their writing, along with their contact and social media links, if they’ve turned you into a fan.  WE ask that you also check out their books in the RWISA or RRBC catalogs.  Thanks, again for your support and we hope that you will follow each member along this amazing tour of talent!  Don’t forget to click the link below to learn more about this author:

Linda Mims RWISA Author Page