Defiantly Optimistic

Safe Return
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 1, complete
Word count (story only): 1301
[last days of November/first days of December of 2016]




Herb sighed as the plastic bottle crinkled, draining the last bit of water from it. He heard a truck and patted Elisabeth on the shoulder. “Abe’s back. Probably alone, since he’s edging over the speed limit.”

Elisabeth turned to watch the truck approaching in the rear view mirror. “He’s determined to be a good example for his grandson?”

“That’s a good deduction,” Herb laughed. “It’s wrong, and funny to anyone who knows him, but a good deduction. He’s got a lead foot, and used to race out at the salt flats.”
( Read more... )

House Call Gone Wrong
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 3 of 3, complete
Word count (story only): 1597
[last days of November/first days of December of 2016]


:: During Elisabeth Finn’s maternity leave, she makes time for a follow-up appointment with her six-week-old patient. When the mother doesn’t show, Doctor Finn sets out to make a house call. The trip is disrupted, but may have VERY positive results for her new acquaintances. Written for the November of 2025 Magpie Monday, from a prompt by siliconshaman, and posted for everyone to enjoy, with my deepest thanks. ::


Back to part two
:: Thanks for reading! ::



“Would you know who to sell it to?” Herb asked slowly.

“I can ask a friend in the hospital’s pharmacy; they order for one of the hospitals in my hometown. The blue chamomile leaves have to be processed, and my farmer friend can help explain the process to me. That part is outside your wheelhouse unless you’re interested.”

The older man hummed. “So, it’s just like growing lettuce for grocery stores. A cleaning station on site will bring better prices, but that’s expensive, especially now.”
( Read more... )

House Call Gone Wrong
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 2 of 3, complete
Word count (story only): 1508
[last days of November/first days of December of 2016]


:: During Elisabeth Finn’s maternity leave, she makes time for a follow-up appointment with her six-week-old patient. When the mother doesn’t show, Doctor Finn sets out to make a house call. The trip is disrupted, but may have VERY positive results for her new acquaintances. Written for the November of 2025 Magpie Monday, from a prompt by siliconshaman, and posted for everyone to enjoy, with my deepest thanks. ::


Back to part one
On to part three




“He cut through a lot of middle steps. I’m not worried that he’s gossiping.” Elisabeth laughed brightly. “I’ve raised children before. Wren is my youngest.” She unlocked the door and watched the older man step back to allow her plenty of room to avoid the grabby fingers of the evergreen trees that tried to catch her wool coat.

The teen clambered out of the rear door on the passenger side. Skinny and coltish as any early teen, his face was flushed red with forming acne in several places, and the small, round sticky bandages coated in medication to reduce them looked more like a caricature than a medical treatment.
( Read more... )

House Call Gone Wrong
By Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
Part 1 of 3, complete
Word count (story only): 1526
[last days of November/first days of December of 2016]


:: During Elisabeth Finn’s maternity leave, she makes time for a follow-up appointment with her six-week-old patient. When the mother doesn’t show, Doctor Finn sets out to make a house call. The trip is disrupted, but may have VERY positive results for her new acquaintances. Written for the November of 2025 Magpie Monday, from a prompt by siliconshaman, and posted for everyone to enjoy, with my deepest thanks. ::

On to part two




Elisabeth had been driving north for so long that she was beginning to suspect that reindeer were tracking her through the tall evergreens that crowded the winding, two lane road that had been called a highway on the map program, but in person looked like it had been built using angry prisoners’ labor a century before and never touched again.

The posted speed limit sign, passed some forty miles previously, read ‘55 mph’ but it had half a dozen holes in it around the edges, as if someone was deliberately avoiding the black markings on the reflective metal surface. Five miles later, when she tried to phone Eustacia Perez for the twentieth time since getting in the car at nine in the morning, she found that there was no signal.

Stopped on the side of the narrow road, with the tips of bare evergreen branches kissing the side of her SUV, Elisabeth studied the map. Truckee had services, had been among the first of the towns within fifty miles with uninterrupted power and water, but it was another half hour north. She could turn back, heading south to the well-lit gas station doing constant business, and call to check in with Graham.
( Read more... )