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Teddy and Sweet Pea - an excerpt of Fluffy Click on book to View
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The grass is green and warm from the sun’s rays. Birds are laughing! But all of a sudden, a crow swoops down on the tree scaring and scattering the kookaburras away. I hear someone coming from behind me and as I turn to see who is approaching, I feel something tighten around my throat. I what to yell, I can’t.
I struggle to breathe. I break free and run, and run and run to the
edge of the cliff and over… down… down… then
I stretch out my arms and start flying, up. …and up…and
up… high
above the intruder. I soar past the trees, over the electricity wires
up into the clouds... |
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Fly Little Bird |
There again, Sweet Pea thought. And there.
And there, echoing. The voices woke her most nights. Strong, beating, they were voices that no longer cared for other people, voices that trilled up and down like notes on a keyboard, bad voices that cried and screeched and threatened like a runaway train. Ugly, threatening voices. Constantly present, rising from the kitchen, the hallway, the lounge room and seeping into her room like a cold draught beneath the door. Once, when she was younger and naturally more hopeful, she would’ve opened the door, crept along the hallway holding tightly onto Teddy and listened for the actual words. She would’ve prayed for their end, held her breath in hope then heard the gradual build-up of anger, the back-and-forth slap of accusations and finally the hatred, flung like shotgun pellets into their bodies. She would’ve listened and shaken and cried, then she would’ve tip-toed back to her room, back to the purple wisteria wallpaper and the old dolls left in a corner and the framed photograph of Teddy, taken years before when they were happy. |
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Moonbeams |
Teddy and Sweet Pea sat on their bed watching the clouds pompously advancing,
pursuing the falling sun and rising stars. Suddenly, clouds covered the
stars and they drifted far away on white fluffy clouds to a happier place.
Resting on the clouds the white moon falling on them transformed their
golden appearance to a silvery softness that shone of happiness and mystery.
They floated, up, up and away and all our cares and thoughts fell like rain on the house, drizzling, raining and pouring, until all was peaceful. The air was still and quiet, not a breeze, just stars blinking kindly at them as they floated past as if they were winking with foreknowledge of our great arrival. Sweet Pea closed her eyes for a second and then when she opened them the Moon was there in front of them. The Moon was the biggest, brightest and most beautiful sight they had ever seen. ‘Come over here,’ the Man in the Moon called in a gentle baritone voice. ‘Where have my little friends come from?’ he asked. .. more… |
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| © Shirley May, August 2008 |
