The Word Worker

Tag: Memory

  • We’ve Come So Far?

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    wordworkerrussell
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    2000 years ago, the Romans possessed the skill to build aqueducts using stone blocks shaped by hand and stacked without mortar into columns and arches over thirty feet high, with more layers of arches on top. They laid roads of stone that spanned an empire stretching from India to Great Britain to Africa. Both were…

  • The Sun Tree

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    wordworkerrussell
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    She stopped on the last rise overlooking the coast, breath catching in her throat. She swallowed painfully around the lump of it and sank to her knees. Shades of red and purple bathed her, along with the waving grasses that now slid around her shoulders in the ocean breeze. For a thousand years her people…

  • Book Review: The Storyteller

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    wordworkerrussell
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    The stories of the kingdom have been forgotten, and as they disappeared the fountains have all dried up. A thirsty child is the only person who will listen to the last storyteller. Every day the old man offers a new story that builds on the last. Every day the boy’s cup magically fills with water…

  • Inexorable

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    wordworkerrussell
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    He had lived his entire life in its shadow. Gazing up its sides with jaws agape like the tourists he ferried. Losing himself in the whispering roar of its invisible flow. His boat had been a favorite; no one knew the glacier like he did. Every pop, every boom, was a message. His passengers returned…

  • The Square

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    wordworkerrussell
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    It was an odd place, cobblestone streets and medieval plaster houses confusingly paired with modern storefronts and colorful canvas awnings. Agatha loved it. Every birthday and anniversary, she insisted we have lunch at the little bistro on the tiny mishmash of a square. The city had long since turned the houses into a retirement village,…

  • Memories

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    My youngest turned five this week. It’s an odd feeling to realize my last baby is now officially school-age. I thought about trying to throw a big bash to mark such a momentous occasion, but with all the fullness of life we have going on right now that just wasn’t gong to happen. Fortunately she…

  • The Chapel

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    wordworkerrussell
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    “Boris, dorogoy, please come away from the window! The hall will not come to you, no matter how hard you stare. We must go to it, and soon or we will be late and the Chinovnik will mark against us.” Boris sighed and twisted his cap in gnarled fingers, his eyes not leaving the hall.…

  • Book Review: The Carp in the Bathtub

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    wordworkerrussell
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    Harry and Leah have a problem. There’s a fish in their bathtub, but that isn’t the problem. The problem is that the fish is dinner. Mama’s special Passover dish is gefilte fish, special fish balls made from a carp. The best fish always sell out early, and dead fish spoil quickly, so the carp has…

  • Black and White Summer

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    wordworkerrussell
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    This flash fiction was inspired by a photo prompt that I unfortunately don’t have the right to share. You the reader get to imagine the scene for yourself this week! Enjoy! ********************************************* Gramps kept the old black and white postcard in his wallet, folded up neatly to fit in a card slot. Sometimes he would…

  • The Christmas Gnome

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    wordworkerrussell
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    Ellen switched on the light in the cluttered garage and sighed. She had put this off as long as possible but with the house being listed in a week there was no more time. Maybe she could just load all the boxes and junk without opening them, haul them to the dump, be done. She…