Take Seven – Tessa Dean

Take Seven 15th October

October 16, 2021 Tessa

It’s Friday!

Welcome to my Take Seven compilation which incorporates all 21 words (or derivatives) from the Three Things Challenge for the past week.
You are most welcome to join in using as many or all of the words too. Just pingback to this post and then leave a link to your post in the comments so that I can see it and respond directly.
As always, have fun, and I hope you enjoy this week’s effort.

Our words were:
duty, event, exchanged, hefty, hole, missing, particular, piece, quality, quizzical, riot, roast, secret, see, segment, sixty, spend, tapped, terrific, traditional, wire

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Holiday Hi Jinx

By Tessa Dean October 2021

It was always my duty to make sure the holiday event meals were always traditional for whatever country we chose that year. I really just wanted a plain meal for once with a nice roast, but I hadn’t gotten the memo which was always kept secret to just before the holiday leaving each person time to shop and prepare their part of the meal. I made sure all the foods were represented and no exchanges were allowed. The meals were sometimes weird, but they were always enjoyed and rarely were there any leftovers.

A different person was chosen each year to choose the particular meal and then I did the research as to what was needed to make it truly traditional. Then whoever was in charge chose who would prepare what. I always hated this family tradition, but I always participated rather than causing a riot by refusing. I am not a cook so I always prefaced my presentation with you know I don’t cook so if the quality of the dish is poor please forgive me. Many years I thought of missing the dinner, but I knew that would not go over well and so I persevered with whatever I got.

I am sixty now and cooking large meals isn’t an option so just having to prepare a single dish is easier although sometimes the cost I had to spend for the exotic dishes could be quite daunting. Most of the foods I got I wouldn’t eat so there was no taste testing ahead of time. Sometimes it was terrific, but some of them were horrible.

As the food was passed around the table I took a small segment. I didn’t like what I saw when it was done cooking and doubted I would like it. I looked at the plate quizzically before putting a spoonful in my mouth. Everyone else was digging in and there was a huge hole missing from the serving plate so either everyone knew something I didn’t or they were braver than me.

I heard a tapping at the window and looked over to see a small wire tapping on the glass. I got up and looked outside and saw my youngest grandson standing outside trying to get our attention. I opened the window and asked him what he was doing and he said I was left home alone and walked down here myself. I can’t reach the window and you all didn’t hear me knocking with all the laughter. I laughed out loud and told him to come around to the door and I would let him in. He leaned over and picked up a cake holder and drug it around with him. He brought dessert and I hoped it was one of his mom’s great cakes although I needed to scold her for leaving her young son behind.

When I presented him to her she grabbed the cake holder and looked inside, not in the least bit worried that he had been left home alone. Her dessert survived and arrived thanks to her young son. Suddenly it dawned on her what she had done. She picked him up and hugged him, apologizing for leaving him behind and thanking him for bringing the cake with him.

Now we were all there and ready to eat. Although I did a quick head count before settling down to eat.

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Tessa –

Advocate for mental health and invisible illnesses

New Author’s Website – http://www.tessadeanauthor.com

Author – Old Writing – http://www.finallyawriter.wordpress.com

About my life – http://www.tessacandoit.wordpress.com

Author of a book published on the blog, https://tessacandoit.com/government-property-a-memoir-as-a-military-wife/

I am also a youtuber in the authortube section on writing. See my videos here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSpNS-6gfJ0s8eD1berLwQg

I am now following and streaming on Twitch.tv. Find me under www.twitch.tv/tessadeanauthor

Fiction, Prompt, Take Seven

Take Seven: 3rd September

September 3, 2021September 3, 2021 Tessa

Take Seven: 3rd September

It’s Friday!

Our words were:
blood, buff, gel, laugh, mask, numb, poke, pound, press, rinse, scrape, screen, shake, stain, sweat, tap, teeth, tickle, tissue, tremble, water

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Reflections Part 4 (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)

By Tessa Dean September 2021

Sabrina, Serena and Selena hugged each other as hard as they could until their arms were numb. They shook their arms in an effort to get the blood back into circulation. Looking at the reflection in the water Sabrina now sees three identical faces and they truly are identical triplets which is a rarity, but possible. Sabrina is trembling as she tried to take in the whole situation. This morning she was a lonely only child and now she had two sisters.

Serena grabs a stick and tickles Sabrina to make her laugh. Now was not the time for sadness. Sabrina looked for a tissue to wipe her eyes. Tears of happiness they were.

Serena has appointed herself the ringleader and they set about planning their revenge. First step was to go the hairdresser and get their hair all done exactly the same. They would all splurge on shampoos, cuts and a rinse to make sure they were all the exact same color since Selena had gotten highlights the last time and so she didn’t quite resemble the other two. Now they would all be the same.

Sabrina pokes Serena and says, “I think we should all switch parents so that if we can get them to believe they have the right daughter it will be easier when they all meet up. And make-up should be light, just some lip-gel in an all natural color that will make our lips just shine and no flavors since we probably all like different flavors and I don’t want them wondering what is going on before we hit them with the three of us at once. Let’s buff our nails, any colors we might agree on?” They each looked at their current color and surprisingly they all had green nail polish. So green was the choice. So mani-pedis were added to the list.

Selena said, “What about wearing masks, identical so they really can’t see that we are all the same as we walk up?”

“I don’t know Sabrina says as my parents would most likely object to being seen in public with me wearing a mask and it isn’t Halloween yet.”

Serena had to agree as well. “Let’s just be all identical.”

Sabrina tapped her tooth. “I chipped mine. They might notice if one of you show up with unstained teeth and no chip.”

Selena says, “We might want to revisit the idea of a mask so they won’t see that. We can look for princess masks. Nothing ugly.”

“Hey guys, the sun has shifted and I am starting to sweat. Can we discuss this elsewhere?” Serena asks.

Sabrina pounds her forehead. “I knew I was getting a headache and now I know why. I can’t tolerate the sun.”

Sabrina grabs their hands and presses them together. “To the three of us! Let’s do this!”

Selena says,” Where is the path I came down?” She scrapes at the branches that seemed to have covered the path and screened the opening well.”

Sabrina turns around and finds the path and leads them out of there to another place where they can continue their plans.

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Tessa –

Advocate for mental health and invisible illnesses

New Author’s Website – http://www.tessadeanauthor.com

Author – Old Writing – http://www.finallyawriter.wordpress.com

About my life – http://www.tessacandoit.wordpress.com

Author of a book published on the blog, https://tessacandoit.com/government-property-a-memoir-as-a-military-wife/

I am also a youtuber in the authortube section on writing. See my videos here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSpNS-6gfJ0s8eD1berLwQg

I am now following and streaming on Twitch.tv. Find me under www.twitch.tv/tessadeanauthor

#threethingschallenge, Fiction, Prompt

Take Seven: 2nd April

April 3, 2021 Tessa

March 28, 2021 Tessa Edit”Take Seven: March 26th”

Take Seven: 2nd April

Pensitivity101 Rules:

It’s Friday!

Our words were:
avoid, bad, before, buy, effective, envelope, evening, longer, much, offer, own, plenty, post, problem, replace, rush, same, smug, temptation, tucked, well.

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Beach Party Part 39 (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15, Part 16, Part 17, Part 18, Part 19, Part 20, Part 21, Part 22, Part 23, Part 24, Part 25, Part 26, Part 27, Part 28, Part 29, Part 30, Part 31, Part 32, Part 33, Part 34, Part 35, Part 36, Part 37, Part 38)

**********Cassie’s POV**********

Cassie tried to avoid touching anything. She had such a bad feeling about Wayne and she trusted her gut and canceled the date and the damn monster kidnapped her instead. First he ignored her and made her do the chasing, which made her want him more. How smug he must feel that now he had the upper hand. He obviously was in no rush to do anything with her because she hadn’t seen him since the evening he drugged her and hauled her off in that van. He hadn’t even offered her any food, just the water bottles which she still drank sparingly from. She hoped he hadn’t drugged them as well, but she needed water.

Now that it was lighter out she could see more of the cell. There was an envelope tucked behind the case of water. It had some writing on it. Was it for the post office or did the jerk write her a letter? She wasn’t in a rush to find out. She didn’t want to hear what he had to say. Although temptation might win out and she would have to check it out soon enough.

**********Wayne’s POV**********

Wayne wondered if she had read his letter yet. He also wondered how much longer he should wait before he made an appearance. She had caused him plenty of problems, but he was still wondering if he should take the time to screw her at least the one time. He didn’t own this house and so he had to make sure the landlord didn’t come sniffing around before he had the chance to clear out. He didn’t care if the place looked the same when he left or not since he didn’t expect to leave a forwarding address. He noticed one of the lights had blown out, but he didn’t have a bulb to replace it and he didn’t feel like going to the store to buy one.

“Who let that damn cat in?” It wound its way around Wayne’s legs and almost tripped him. Obviously kicking it out and not feeding it wasn’t effective. The damn cat was always in his way. The cat came with the house. He hated animals and was always kicking this one, but it didn’t take the hint and leave.

**********Cassie’s POV**********

Cassie wondered if he was planning to starve her to death? She still had water since she was taking it in slow sips, but as far as she could tell a few nights had passed and still no sign of Wayne or food. She was still huddled on the pile of blankets and comforters. She hated when she had to actually sleep.

She heard the door at the top of the basement open. Two legs appeared. Wayne’s? She didn’t know. Even though she didn’t trust him, she wanted some food.

“Hey doll!” His face appeared above the legs. He was grinning. God she hated him. How dare he do this to her. There was no sign of food in his hands.

“Let me out of here Wayne! What are you doing? This place is filthy. Why do you have me in a cage?”

“Did you read my love letter to you?”

“What letter? A love letter, eww! You make me sick. Let me go!

“Listen you, be glad that I decided to keep you for myself and not give you to my friends. They’ve been dying to get down here and have you all to themselves.”

“What do you mean, have me to themselves? And what makes you think I would rather be with the likes of you? You disgust me! Let me go you beast!”

“You’re going to be sorry you said that bitch! I don’t want you anymore and you can just deal with my friends until they tire of you.” Wayne went to turn around to head back up the stairs to the top when the cat tripped him up and he fell all the way down the stairs and cracked his head on the concrete floor.

Cassie stared in horror at his body splayed before her, blood dripping slowly out of his head wound. “Wayne, WAYNE! Oh God is he dead? Can you hear me God? I know I don’t go to church like I should, but I promise if you get me out of this alive I will go to church. Please….”

Wayne didn’t move or make a sound. She had no way of telling if he was dead or not. He fell almost all the way down and cracked his head on the cement floor. He could have broken his skull and damaged his brain and he could be dead. OH MY GOD! She wanted to scream, but she didn’t think there was anyone here to hear her. Unless his friends were up there and she sure didn’t want to summon them.

OK think, she tells herself. She wonders if she can reach him. If he had the keys on him she might be able to unlock the door and get out. Hopefully they weren’t in his hands because if they were they might have gone flying in the wrong direction as he tumbled down the stairs. Breathe, Cassie, breathe, in and out. You have to get yourself under control.

Cassie got down on her knees and tried to reach through the bars of her cage. He wasn’t that far, she might be able to grab a hold of him and pull him closer. Providing he is dead, of course, and doesn’t try to grab her. She could just barely touch his one extended hand. She needed to check his pulse.

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Tessa –

Advocate for mental health and invisible illnesses

New Author’s Website –http://www.tessadeanauthor.com

Author – Old Writing – http://www.finallyawriter.com

About my life – http://www.tessacandoit.com

Author of a book, a work in progress on the blog, https://tessacandoit.com/government-property-a-memoir-as-a-military-wife/

Highlighted chapters are done and ready to be read.

I am also a youtuber in the authortube section on writing. See my videos here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSpNS-6gfJ0s8eD1berLwQg