{"id":228,"date":"2013-06-22T16:09:49","date_gmt":"2013-06-22T20:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/francesgilbert.com\/?p=228"},"modified":"2013-06-22T16:14:16","modified_gmt":"2013-06-22T20:14:16","slug":"short-story-separacation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/francesgilbert.com\/?p=228","title":{"rendered":"Short Story – Separacation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Deciding to include short stories in my blog.\u00a0 Here’s one to start the Summer off. FB<\/em><\/p>\n

Separacation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fantasy holiday: everyone has one \u2013 \u201cwhat I would really like is to. .. see the Pyramids, climb Kilimanjaro, row down the Amazon, take a theatre week in London, a spa break in the country \u2026 \u201c<\/p>\n

Bella snapped her paper irritably, the weekend section always annoyed her and this one was worse than ever, so called stars featured in their bliss on a fantasy holiday \u2026 you could write in and enter a competition and win the spa break \u2026 or the mystery trip<\/p>\n

\u201cStupid, probably a spa in Birmingham and a mystery trip to Blackpool,\u201d she snorted and threw the paper on to the couch where the cat immediately pummeled it into a satisfying crackly bed.<\/p>\n

Evan would be mad.\u00a0 \u201cOh well no use crying over spilt milk, or crumpled paper, they couldn\u2019t afford a holiday anyway, an unplanned early retirement had killed that hope.<\/p>\n

Maybe they should plan a what did they call that, a staycation, do something local and different, a spa trip, a few meals out in a good restaurant, maybe a stately home and gardens visit \u2026 actually that didn\u2019t sound bad, leave out the spa though, she wasn\u2019t stripping down for any young madams \u2019s eyes and the thought of Evan scuffling about in a robe and slippers forgetting to tie the belt and mishearing\u00a0 conversations was not appealing \u2026 how come the stars never seemed to have to deal with past their sell by date husbands on their fantasy vacations? Or vice versa come to that. Maybe they should do separate vacations?<\/p>\n

She dismantled the coffee machine and tipped the grounds into the compost bin, whew it was getting a bit whiffy, she should empty it today.\u00a0 She looked out it was raining still and the path was muddy, she would go down later on. She hid the compost bin in the broom cupboard, no point getting him angry, he hated the compost bin. The cat made a dive for the cupboard, it was currently having a love affair with the mop, scattering shreds of news paper and knocking over its water.<\/p>\n

\u201cDammed animal, get out, go on, scarper,\u201d Evan was down, shuffling into the kitchen in his weekend outfit, grey joggers, a worn T shirt that their son Jeremy had sent him which said \u201c keep calm and carry on\u201d, and backless trodden down leather slippers which looked as if they had been inherited from Scrooge. He toed the cat out of the back door, \u201cGo on get out. I don\u2019t know why we keep that animal. Now get the floor mopped, and pick up all this paper for goodness sake. I hope it\u2019s not today\u2019s\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s didn\u2019t come.\u201d Bella lied smoothly, better a lie than a tantrum, she flattened the cat\u2019s cushion on top of the rest of the paper, \u00a0fed the toaster and clicked the kettle on for his tea.<\/p>\n

Definitely separate vacations .. . separate staycations.\u00a0 What would be good if she was on her own \u2026 get up when she wanted, take the bus to the coast and sit on the front in that nice little Italian caf\u00e9 and have delicious coffee, walk along the beach and look for shell and fossils, take the bus back and get a Indian take out, and eat it in the sitting room on the good couch.\u00a0 The toaster popped, the water boiled, she put the toast on a plate and poured water into the teapot.<\/p>\n

Separate staycations\u00a0 \u2026 separacations .. yes, and the second day go with her cousin into town and do the art galleries and have lunch at that ancient, creakingly respectable store lunch room, the one with the cretonne covered couch in the ladies\u2019 room and the kind attendant who would hand out aspirin, advice, hot damp towels and guard your parcels \u2026 another world.<\/p>\n

But what would he do, maybe go fishing with his brother? Go to the railway museum?<\/p>\n

And the third day, a coach trip to a stately home, tea in the National Trust cafe, cake and biscuits and a wander around the gardens. That was enough for a first separacation.<\/p>\n

Evan was muttering, \u201cNo paper, no butter, no marmalade, wet floor, stupid cat, austerity, budgets, early retirement, no vacation this year,\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYour brother called,\u201d she said, \u201che wants to go fishing, next week, three days he said, up the river on his boat.\u201d
\nEvan looked at her, \u201cHe never goes fishing, nor do I, what is he talking about, be more like booze cruise. I\u2019m not going, call him back and tell him I can\u2019t go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCall him yourself, it\u2019s more polite, a booze cruise might be fun, relaxing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cat door clattered and the cat lunged back into the kitchen with a mouse in its mouth, which it dropped and began batting around the table<\/p>\n

Evan shouted, \u201cBastard cat!\u201d and jumped up. His slippers skidded in the water and he lurched forward,. Swiftly Bella pushed away the chair and the mouse leaped across his foot. With a roar Evan crashed to the floor, striking his head on the stove as he went down, and lay still, blood oozing from his ear and nose.<\/p>\n

Bella picked up the compost bin and went down the garden to empty it onto the compost pile. She did a bit of fiddling about in the shed, and the veggie patch until a shower blew over.<\/p>\n

Then, smiling, she went in doors to start her separacation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Deciding to include short stories in my blog.\u00a0 Here’s one to start the Summer off. FB Separacation Fantasy holiday: everyone has one \u2013 \u201cwhat I would really like is to. .. see the Pyramids, climb Kilimanjaro, row down the Amazon, take a theatre week in London, a spa break in the country \u2026 \u201c Bella … Continue reading “Short Story – Separacation”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/francesgilbert.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/francesgilbert.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/francesgilbert.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francesgilbert.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francesgilbert.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=228"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/francesgilbert.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":231,"href":"https:\/\/francesgilbert.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228\/revisions\/231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/francesgilbert.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francesgilbert.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francesgilbert.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}