I blame zombies, again - Raven's Saturday Wordzzle Challenge

So many of the bloggers I visit have participated in this fun challenge hosted by Raven. I've been impressed at the caliber of writing my friends have exhibited, and honestly, I've been intimidated. But, I figure since I've been a bit zombified this week I could always blame my poor writing skills on my weakened state. So here goes... I can't promise to participate every week, but who knows?

Please visit Raven (click here) and other inspired bloggers who consistently rock my world with their outstanding contributions to Raven's Saturday Wordzzle Challenge.

I'm sticking to the ten-word and the mini this week... just getting my little toe wet so to speak (do you like the red polish? it's new...)

The ten words or phrases she has pulled out of her hat for us this week are: invincible, falling leaves, two-year-old, fusion, grizzly bear, Jamaica, delivery, popsicle stick, caviar, lap-top. We are instructed to use them in one short (I tried, really!) paragraph.

My ten-word wordzzle:

“Little sister”, sighs Laura, as she runs her finger across the picture she uses as a screen-saver on her laptop. It's her favourite picture, taken when she was five and Meghan was a spunky red-haired two-year-old. In this picture, they're standing in front of the old lake house where their family spent every summer vacation and Thanksgiving dating back to when their father had been a toddler himself. In autumn, it's the perfect place to walk among the falling leaves. Laura still has the log cabin they made together out of popsicle sticks during one of their weekends by the lake. She got to keep it because Meghan had chickened out of a bet and backed out of eating the caviar their father had double-dog dared them to try. She remembered Meghan’s meltdown and grizzly bear growls, and smiled. The then 8 year-old Meghan had vowed, through tears of rage that she would never let anything stop her from getting what she wanted ever again. Who would have guessed that someday that very same girl would backpack through the Andes, survive a hurricane while on vacation in Jamaica and grow up to be one of the preeminent experts in a field as complicated as nuclear fusion. Laura thought her sister was invincible. And now, she found herself sitting on the porch of the lake house waiting to take delivery of Meghan’s ashes so she could sprinkle them in this place that had been so dear to both of them. Meghan the fearless finally did try caviar you see, but she died of a violent allergic reaction.



She also gives us a mini-challenge. Here are the words (seriously, how does she come up with this stuff?): toad stool, liquid lunch, counting sheep, manacles, Jurassic Park. Oy!

12:41PM text from me: You're off to what promises to be a very long liquid lunch at The Manacles Inn with Bob, that advertising rep that looks like the first victim in "Jurassic Park", and Tim from sales. If you wake up with your tongue feeling like you've eaten a basket full of toadstools, you should know your car is parked in front of the little art gallery on Fifth Street that has a painting of counting sheep in the front window. Good luck.

You know... that was fun!

Thanks Raven.. hope you won't hold this against me. Zombies are quite persuasive you know.

"A word is not the same with one writer as with another. One tears it from his guts. The other pulls it out of his overcoat pocket."

~Charles Peguy