FREE WRITE -- TIME

The three Tuesday Free Writers are now in two different countries but used the same prompt: "Time was an idea: it had no beginning and had no end" from Kate Morton's The Clockmaker's Daughter.

D-L and Rick sipped Yorkshire tea and nibbled a mini chocolate muffin at L'Hostalet as they wrote. Julia was back in Geneva, but it still worked.

D-L'S Free Write

"Time was an idea: it had no beginning and had no end" or that was what Jmma's mother always said, Her mother paid no attention to time, which was why her Harvard Professor father hired a nanny more to make sure that her mother picked up Jemma from school and reminded her to start dinner.

He was of Swiss origin and always on time if not to the second, to the minute.

Jemma took after her father. Her almost-finished doctoral dissertation was on the use and attitude about time in three cultures: an American Indian tribe, the African Lobi tribe and Medieval farmers.

Today, she stood outside the family Cambridge home. She had three minutes until 11:35, the time designated for her arrival by her father.

They would pry her mother, his wife, from her studio and start eating at 11:55. During the meal they would talk about Jemma's dissertation, her father's article to be submitted to a scientific journal, and her mother's latest painting.

Jemma couldn't forget that throughout her life they did the same things every Sunday with minor variations.

Time may have aged them, but it didn't matter because time was only an idea.

 Julia's Free Write

Off to the mountains, for the umpteenth time that summer, she was happ.y

Although she had kind of grown up in the mountains as her family often “headed for the hills” after church on a weekend to hike, picnic build dams in the rivers, she particularly appreciated this period in her life.

A village that she had frequented with her husband most summers for at least a week since their eldest was born over 40 years ago. In fact, when they discovered this village, she was 5 months pregnant with said son, thanks to a childhood friend of his who later became that son’s as well as the second son’s godmother.

Both boys grew up swimming in the pool built between the rocks and it became synonymous with happy times.

So, when she had the opportunity to rent for first four summer months then later six, it was a spot she often headed for to relax, reflect and simply be.

Time – what a concept. Where does it start? Where does it end? The happy times are perhaps too short and the difficult never ending.

Rick's Free Write

I kept drifting in and out of consciousness. The first time I remember waking up, it was day, maybe slipping into dusk. The next time it was pitch black. Not even a light from a phone charger. Then bright morning, Then night again.

They must have given me something. Something powerful enough to knock me out but not enough to kill me. I was so disoriented I didn’t know where I was. Couldn’t remember where I had been when it happened. Wasn’t even sure who I was.

For days, it seemed, I was never conscious enough to focus for more than a few seconds. Sensed I was lying down on something hard but didn’t have the energy to get up. I could see shapes, straight lines, but nothing I could identify. And nothing moving.

Finally, one night; I started to regain some focus. Then I heard a sound. Were they back? Had they never left? Had they been drugging me regularly? What could they possibly want with me? I had no money, no valuables to steal. I had no enemies (that I know of). Why me?

I started to try to move but my muscles were slush. I had to move, somehow, to get away.

Julia has written and taken photos all her life and loves syncing up with friends.  Her blog can be found: https://viewsfromeverywhere.blogspot.com/ 

Rick is an aviation journalist and publisher of www.aviationvoices. com

 

D-L has had 17 fiction and non fiction books published. Check out her website at: https://dlnelsonwriter.com