Saturday, January 8, 2011

Minding Your Peas



“Always eat everything on your plate because there are so many children in this world who don't get enough to eat.”  Beulah has heard her mother repeat this dinner time mantra over and over again.

Crying this time, she sat at the table and stared morosely at the pile of very green peas on her plate.  “Do I really have to eat these?”  

“Everything has to be gone if you want dessert!”  

Fortunately, Harry, her dog, was in his usual spot beneath the table.  Giving the peas to him, one by one, seemed like the perfect answer to her problem.  Harry didn’t appear to mind at all.  Ice cream was well worth the risk of punishment and besides peas were so yucky.  Just five more peas for Harry and she would be done.  

Knives and forks clinked against plates as her mother cleared the table. “Last one at the table again, Beulah.”  Mother was getting impatient.  “Next time, you had better be finished sooner.”  

“Okay, I will, Mom.  Please, can I have some ice cream now?”   Quickly, she fed the last pea to Harry.

Realizing then, that it was not Beulah eating the peas, but Harry, her mother paused for a moment. “Since Harry ate the peas, Harry gets the ice cream.”  

Tears, hot and alligator-like, streamed down Beulah’s face when she realized that she had been discovered and that there would be no ice cream tonight.  Under the table Harry’s ears perked and he sat up expectantly.  

“Vanilla for you Harry,” said her mother as she plopped a scoop of vanilla ice cream into Harry’s plastic dish.  “What have I told you, Beulah, and how many times? “ 

“X-ray vision,” Beulah mumbled.  “You told me that mothers have X-ray vision.   Zillions of times.”


This piece was inspired by this week's crazy fun prompt at Red Writing Hood:
Your assignment is to write a short piece - fiction, non-fiction, poetry, whatevs - in which each sentence starts with a the next letter of the alphabet. Starting with "A." So, yes, your finished product will consist of 26 sentences.


 
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 June 26 - I am linking this post to The Lightning and Lightning Bug's Dare to Share link up.

4 comments:

Jill said...

This is excellent! Beuhlah... I love it! Your's seemed so flawless & effortless.

Carrie said...

Great piece! It flows so well I totally forget you are following the pattern of the alphabet :)

Poor Beulah

Visiting from RDC

{Stephanie}The Drama Mama said...

I love this. It was fun and visual. The prompt? Isn't even noticeable.

Unknown said...

I agree you couldn't tell at ALL that you were following the alphabet! WOW great job. I remember when my little Jae used to feed her doggy just about everything off her plate, whether she liked it or not, and then she'd ask for more, whether she was still hungry or not! This adorable little story reminded me so much of those days. Awww!