A Day in the Life / November 3

[morrobay1990]

Title: A Day in the Life / November 3
Author: morrobay1990
Warning:
Genre: canon/1990
Word count: 530
Disclaimer: They are AP's
♥ Jack











It didn’t start out exactly as he’d planned.

He got to Junior’s about nine and found her sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee, looking a little frazzled. Ben was nowhere in sight.

She started telling him what happened as he helped himself to a cup of coffee and joined her at the table.

Ben had talked of nothing but going riding with Ennis since Wednesday night, went on and on, talking more than Junior had ever seen and she was happy he was so excited about something.

This morning he’d got up before dawn and she knew that because he went down to the kitchen, turned on the light using the step stool she kept under the light switch for that purpose and tried to get the milk out of the fridge but couldn’t hold onto his horse and the milk at the same time, so one had fallen to the floor and made quite a noise and quite a mess.

By the time she’d got down there she’d worked up a pretty big head of steam and was going to let him know that he couldn’t roam around the house at all hours, and that she would get up and fix his breakfast at a decent hour……..but when she turned the corner the words left her mouth as her mother’s eyes saw her little boy standing in a widening lake of milk, holding a single paper towel while the entire roll, now soaked through and useless, sat at his feet, and his horse, presumably dropped when he tried to clean up the mess, was getting coated in the milk...Ben had a stricken look on his face, tears threatening, as if these two problems that he had created could never be fixed or forgiven.

Junior quickly sidestepped the mess and picked him up out of it, set him down on a clean part of the floor and, voice shaking, he said “I didn’t mean to”…..then she mopped up the large spill, turned to look at him and encountered the saddest face she had ever seen…so she picked him up and he started crying and holding onto her, saying he didn’t mean to, and she carried him to the couch and he sat on her lap and she soothed him until he stopped crying.

After she made him look at her and promise he wouldn’t wander around the house in the dark, she set him on the floor and started back to her room to get dressed for the day, until he asked about his horse and they went and got it to determine the damage. The horse was plastic, of course, but the little reins and saddle were leather and the saddle pad was wool and the whole thing was a sopping, sticky mess…but she reassured him, said she would fix it, then told him to go wash up and change his clothes.

She took a sip of her coffee and looked at Ennis, said, “He’s had a pretty bad morning.”

Ennis, since he hadn’t woken up to a soaked kitchen floor and an upset kid, smiled and said he’d try to make it better.

Comments

tears and choked up

[joetheone.livejournal.com]

Oh my I could feel the excitement of that little boy I remember so well my own experience so excited when my grandad would promise to do something with me usually going for rides in the mountains looking at the trees he would tell me about each tree on his property and the name and how long it must have stood on this spot. He would tell me stories of respecting the woods and the animals and taught me all about horses, guns, fishing and how to survive on the woods. As for the guns he taught me to respect it and he had me know it inside and out prior to using and if I were to kill an animal it was only if I were to eat the animal and if I could not eat it than let it live. Hunting and owning a gun in his books was only for survival. I rarely killed anything since I don't much care for wild game but I had to try. Those days were filled with joy for me I wrote each of those days down in my journal and still today even though he died 18 years ago I look at them and remember his stories. Since, I'm gay and not passing much to anyone I plan to try and share with my cousins children one day if allowed but who knows if that will happen. Joe

Re: tears and choked up

[mazaher.livejournal.com]

Oh, apologies for buttin' in, but please don't equate not having kids of your own with not being able to pass on much! (and not only to kids, nor to blood relatives...)
I for one have been learning a lot from your comments these past years. I'm sure those who know you personally feel even better how much you are indeed passing on. Thank you.

Re: tears and choked up

[joetheone.livejournal.com]

Thank you

Re: tears and choked up

[mollyinmirror.livejournal.com]

Hi Joe,
I agree with Mazaher. I truly appreciate your comments and I have learned so much from them.
Thank you for sharing and passing on your personal real life experiences. They give a whole other dimension to the fiction we read here.
Regards, Molly

[mazaher.livejournal.com]

Poor Ben, what a bad start. I count on Ennis to turn it into a precious lesson: even when the thing you most care about seems ruined, the world still turns, and while it turns, something can be done to somehow fix the mess.
Maybe (maybe) teaching the lesson to Ben will teach Ennis himself the same lesson.
Sure, milk is good for leather, won't ruin wool, and plastics, if unbroken, is fine after being washed clean, while other things are un-fixable...

[gwylliondream.livejournal.com]

Oh, this day really captures those moments in childhood that are never forgotten. You have such a way with wrenching the heartstrings when a character comtemplates the past. That's one reason I'm so glad you read my fic before anyone else. If it could pass your litmus test, I know I'm on the right track.

Also, joetheone! There is no better commenter! I hope he has some idea of how much he contributes to the lives of readers and writers with his heartfelt comments!

<3