Grandpa's Notebooks

The following short story was inspired by a swap at swap-bot.com. I had to incorporate the words "grandpa," "airplane," and "notebook" into a microfiction piece.

Grandpa's Notebooks

By Candace Shultz

My grandpa carries a notebook with him everywhere: to the store, to the doctor's office, even to the bathroom. He goes through one every few months, but he always gets the same exact kind: a red Mead five-star spiral notebook with 100 pages. And he never lets me see what he writes! If I peek over his shoulder, he quickly closes the notebook and won't open it again until I leave the room.

Today I am determined to see why he's so secretive about his notebook. Grandpa and I are flying from New York where we visited Uncle John and Aunt Tracy and their first baby, Leighanne, to our home in Denver. As the airplane takes off from New York, I watch the city get smaller from the window seat. Grandpa sits in the aisle seat with his red notebook open, though he has it angled away from my sight.

An hour into our flight, Grandpa swirls his pen on the paper with flourish and closes the notebook with a happy sigh. He places the book in the mesh covering on the back of the seat in front of him, leans his head back against his seat, and closes his eyes. I wait another half hour before I hear him snoring. I reach for the notebook. My pulse jumps quickly as I open the front cover to the first page; then my heart stops. I look at a picture of my smiling parents holding a newborn baby: me. My eyes water as I gaze at my mom and dad who died when I was four. I feel a hand on my shoulder, so I turn to my grandpa as he looks at me with love and concern in his eyes.

“It's time I share my notebooks with you,” he says. For the rest of the flight, we look at the book together, one of dozens of notebooks he had written in over the years. I gaze at pictures and drawings of my parents and read about my parents past, what they were like, how they met, how much they loved me, and everything my grandpa could think to write about them. As the airplane touches down in Denver, I try to give the notebook back to my grandpa, but he presses his hands to mine and says, “I wrote these for you so you can remember them the way I do.”

Blackout Poetry - The Truth is Coming

Since I had so much fun with my blackout poem "Unsung Songs," I decided to try another one. I used  the same page (250) of the same book Memnoch the Devil by Anne Rice that I used for "Unsong Songs." I wanted to see if I could get a completely different poem using the same material. However, I didn't realize I'd have a more difficult time creating my poem "The Truth is Coming." Also, since I couldn't get punctuation where I needed it, the poem may not read well based off just the page of blackout, so I again will rewrite the poem after the picture to show how I saw it in my mind.

The Truth is Coming

By Candace Shultz

The Devil can blind or dazzle,

So never get far from the light of Heaven

And God will appear to you and fill you with virtue.

The truth is coming.

To the devoted,

As you rise to Heaven, fall silent,

For when you're dead you'll hear the song.

Blackout Poetry - Unsung Songs

Inspired by a swap at swap-bot.com, I decided to try blackout poetry for the first time. In this type of poetry, you black out words in a newspaper article (or more than one article on a page) or on the page of a book (best to photocopy the page so the book doesn't get ruined), leaving behind only the words you chose to form a poem. I selected the book Memnoch the Devil by Anne Rice (the fifth novel in her Vampire Chronicles series) for my first blackout poem. I opened the book to page 250, scanned it into my computer, and began my journey into a new realm of poetry (at least for myself).

As a quick side note before I share my poem, I found it best to black out the words on the computer using an image editor (since it scanned as a jpeg) rather than print the page out and black out words with a permanent marker or pen. My headache can attest to the mistake of using marker.

Unsung Songs

By Candace Shultz

When I am angry, I will say nothing.

They do not ask my point of view.

These men are not so clever.

I see much.

I understand.

But they rise continuously.

My songs fall silent

For my kind are dead.

Chloe's Christmas Wish - Advent Calendar (Day 25)

http://www.elainenybeck.com/DayTwentyFive.html

“Let's go outside and take pictures in the snow!” Megan squeals in delight as she watches the cats roll around in the wrapping paper. “We can send pictures to Mom of Baby Bean and Chloe playing together in the snow.” Megan grabs the camera from the living room table; then she and John each pick up a cat and take them outside. As soon as they put the cats down on the snow in the backyard, Chloe runs around the snowman, then plops down in the snow beside Baby Bean. Baby Bean, meanwhile, is staring curiously around her. She lifts her paw up and shakes the snow off of it, only to get snow on it again as she trudges through the snow to sniff the snowman. Then she runs around and tackles Chloe, playfully biting her ear. While they play, Megan excitedly takes photographs of the cats, occasionally putting herself or John in the picture.

After a while, Baby Bean and Chloe tire from playing and running around in the snow. So Megan places them next to the snowman to take a picture. Baby Bean stares at the camera curiously while Chloe looks around and up at the sky. Suddenly, she sees reindeer in the air pulling Santa in a sleigh. Dakotah sits next to Santa with her tongue hanging out. She winks at Chloe, then the sleigh flies out of her sight. A little bit of snow falls from the sleigh and lands close to a nearby tree. Baby Bean waddles past the snowman over to the tree to inspect the mysterious fallen snow. As she peers at the little pile of snow, a large clump of snow falls from the tree and plops on top of her head, some of which splatters onto her nose. She startles and her tail fluffs up in surprise. She shakes off the snow, looks around her, and then stares up at the tree while Megan and John laugh and Chloe purrs.

Chloe's Christmas Wish - Advent Calendar (Day 24)

http://www.elainenybeck.com/DayTwentyFour.html

“Chloe, meet Baby Bean. Baby Bean, this is Chloe.” Megan pets them both on their heads, then turns to the Christmas tree.

“Now she won't have to sneak outside to play,” John says to Megan.

Megan winks at John; then she says “time to open up presents!” as she picks up a gift wrapped in red paper. As Megan and John open their presents to each other, Chloe and Baby Bean paw through their stockings. Chloe decides she likes Baby Bean, so she bats one of her toy mice at her. Baby Bean bats the ball and chases after it, and she skids onto the wrapping paper strewn on the floor from opened presents. She jumps up from the unexpected noise, then starts patting the paper with her paws. Chloe joins Baby Bean in playing with the noisy paper. 

Chloe's Christmas Wish - Advent Calendar (Day 23)

http://www.elainenybeck.com/DayTwentyThree.html


She glances around the room quickly, but when she doesn't see John or Megan, she walks quietly to the box and peers over the edge. Inside the box lies a tiny gray and white kitten with a big red bow around her neck. Chloe stretches her neck and sniffs the kitten's head. The kitten startles and jerks her head up, staring up at Chloe with huge brown eyes. Chloe stares at the kitten for a few more seconds, then licks her nose. The kitten then meows and begins to purr.

“So you found your Christmas present already!” Megan walks into the room and scoops the kitten out of the box. She then picks up Chloe and takes both cats to the living room where John sits on the couch with a present wrapped in silver paper on his lap. Megan places them on the ground next to two stockings filled with toys and cat treats. Now Chloe understands why there's an extra stocking.

Chloe's Christmas Wish - Advent Calendar (Day 22)

http://www.elainenybeck.com/DayTwentyTwo.html

Soon Chloe hears Christmas music coming from the living room. Megan dances into the kitchen, still in her pajamas, holding a tiny Christmas hat in her hand. Chloe turns from her bowl and sees the hat; then she darts away into the living room, but Megan catches Chloe and laughs as she puts the Santa hat on Chloe's head, securing its band under Chloe's chin.

“You're so cute!” Megan exclaims as she hugs Chloe to her chest. Every year, Megan either buys or makes a Christmas hat or reindeer ears for Chloe to wear, but Chloe doesn't like to wear them, so she hides them under the bed or behind the refrigerator. So when Megan lets Chloe down, Chloe dashes into their bedroom and knocks the hat off her head, and then she hides it under the bed. As Chloe crawls out from underneath the bed, she again sees the large box.