I came across another post from the archives. I believe this was the very first Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge!
So this is my response to a new picture prompt from the great Fandango! And I am chuffed with myself because it a genuine bit of flash-fiction, not a story from my life (although I did used to go walking all day in the countryside – I never played the flute and my parents were not anxious about me!)
https://fivedotoh.com/2019/02/18/fandangos-flash-fiction-challenge-1/
Fandango’s picture prompt is directly under the title, and the other little pictures I have just thrown in to brighten the post up!
She Is Such An Odd Girl
“I don’t know what to do with Angela. I never had this trouble with her older sisters. It’s beyond me to understand why she is so different. I don’t know what else to try.”
“I must admit, I do feel sorry for you. She doesn’t want to hang around with my Jenny or any of the other girls at school. I know they have invited her to go shopping with them or to parties. She always declines. It’s not as if the other girls are not trying to get her involved!”
“She is just shut off in her own little world. She doesn’t seem to want friends. I always thought she was shy. But she is so stubborn and determined at times, I don’t think it is shyness at all.”
“Where does she go when she takes herself off with her flute-case Maud? Is she having lessons outside of school?”
“I don’t know Christine. When I ask her where she has been, she gives me such strange answers. I used to ask her sisters where they had been when they came home late. They replied like normal teenagers and said “nowhere“. Angela leaves the house as soon as the sun starts to rise and is always back before it sets. I ask Angela where she has been and she looks at me straight into my eyes and says “everywhere”.
“What does she mean?”
“I have no idea. I ask her who she has been with, and she claims to have been with her friends. But it’s all in her head. She doesn’t have any friends! Nobody ever calls at the house for her or rings asking to speak to her. I do wonder if she has some kind of imaginary friends.”
“How odd!”
“That’s exactly it Christine. She is such an odd girl. George wants her to see a specialist doctor or a psychiatrist to try to get to the bottom of why she is acting so strangely. But Angela is refusing to cooperate. I am so worried about her, I am at my wits end!”
“I am so sorry for you Maud. You are clearly under so much stress. Angela is putting you and George through misery. She clearly needs some kind of help. I remember my cousin telling me about a counsellor who helped her son Charles when he wanted to run away from home. Perhaps I could ask her for the counsellor’s phone number.”
“Oh would you Christine? I am desperate to try anything or anyone who could help. I just want a normal teenage daughter and not one that keeps always on the edge of a nervous breakdown!”
I am a vegetarian. You may have noticed that I have mentioned that occasionally in other posts. I am not a vegan. I do not eat meat or fish, however I do eat animal products such as honey, dairy products and eggs. I have some friends who are vegan and I think some of them disapprove of me eating some animal products. But I have never had strong feelings about being vegetarian, I just lost the desire to eat anything that used to be alive and is now dead.
I stopped eating meat at the age of six. I can’t remember exactly why. I think there were were two major influences. The first was my little best friend at school who became a vegetarian. It was something I had never heard of, she introduced the idea to me. But there was also a school trip to a farm, Tatton Farm in Cheshire. I distinctly remember being horrified when I saw a pig. I had been reading story books with tiny little pink pigs. But seeing a enormous hairy pig was terrifying. I went home and told mum I no longer wanted to eat what had previously been my favourite food, sandwich ham. Not long after that I lost the desire to eat any meat or fish.
I don’t have a problem with other people eating meat. I just don’t have any desire myself. I cook meat for other people, family, friends and while I was working as a cook I cooked meat for clients of course. I don’t mind cooking pieces of meat that I can’t really identify. But if I have to cook a bird, I find it really hard, because I can see where it’s head and feet where. It makes me feel really sick. When I was six years old I had no idea what gelatin was, or rennet or the ingredients that might be hidden in soups and stocks and gravy. So for years I ate all of those in ignorance. Many years later I learnt about them and realized I had been eating them. It did not really upset me..jpg)
I have done pretty well on a vegetarian diet. I remember at school the teachers saying that vegetarians are weaker or they don’t develop properly, or become sick more often. I don’t know if that was the general opinion back then. But I was a competitive swimmer with a lot of strength and stamina. I was on all the school sports teams. I did not seem to be lacking in strength. In more recent years I have been more conscious of making sure I eat more vegetarian sources of protein and a huge variety of vegetables. I love my veggies, I always have.
The only difficulty I have had is that I seem to have become sensitive to dairy. For that reason I have been eating a mostly vegan diet for some years. I am not sure, but I wonder if I ate too much dairy for many years. I cut it out completely for around five years, during which time I did not have a single cold. Before then I seemed to be chronically congested and snuffly. Since then I have been able to introduce a little dairy into my diet. I don’t drink milk or eat ice-cream, yoghurt or cream But I will have a little cheese every now and then (I love cheese!) and I seem to get away with it if I have a little. I know if I overdo it because I suffer!
So that is me. I am a vegetarian, not for religious reasons, not for ethical reasons, not for health reasons. I know some people do have some very strong feelings about being vegetarian or vegan, and I respect that. But in my case, I just lost the desire to eat meat and fish when I was six years old and thirty years later, I still have no desire.
But the real fun is with a family who own toys. We might move toys and unbreakable items and set up a comedy scene – as I am doing at one house I clean in the boy’s bedrooms (I have such fun re-arranging their toys. Last time I cleaned their room, I had one of the teddies reading an encyclopaedia, and a “my little pony” is chasing “Darth Vader”.) The boys come home from school and they love to see what I have done to their toys.
she wanted to wear, while I tried to hide the horrified dismay on my face. I asked her if she meant the spice girls shoes. She didn’t know what I meant.
on the third floor. I still had not cleaned the kitchen after breakfast. All the washing needed to be sorted out. I was not sure when, or if, today was ever going to end!