2672. New job

My mother died when I was eleven, and after that I was brought up by my abusive step-father. It’s not just step-mothers in fairy stories that are horrible. I think wicked step-fathers are ten times worse.

It was such a hopeful thing when I left school and got a job in an office, mainly filing stuff. Things like that. It was the first step to gaining independences from that offensive man.

The office was on the third floor of a building and I was happily learning the job when who should turn up but my step-father who had come to approve of the job or not. The first thing was the air-conditioning. Didn’t I know it harboured Legionnaires’ disease? Didn’t I know that if I aspired to type at a computer all day I’d get repetitive motion disorders? The communal coffee making facility was a haven for bacteria and germs. On and on he went. He took the joy out of my first job. In fact he suggested that I should drop the job altogether and come home and housekeep for him.

I asked if he would like to see the spectacular view of the city from the roof above the fourteenth floor. Of course he would.

It was a terrible accident.

2163. A late frost

A late frost had killed all the bees; just as the plum tree began to flower. No pollination this Spring. No plums this Fall.

Seraphina didn’t quite know what she was going to do. Her abusive husband preferred plum sauce to tomato sauce. “Demanded” would be a better word. If he didn’t get his way in everything he would get angry and violent. Where in the name of goodness was Seraphina to find enough plums to make her annual batch of sauce?

In the end she found a difficult but simple solution: she packed her bags and left.

2095. Who was out to murder?

Urs was a tyrannical husband. Alice had long felt trapped in the relationship. She knew she should untangle herself from such a situation but really she didn’t know how. Her only time of peace was after the evening meal when she would take her coffee (Urs was watching the evening news) and wander down to the back of the garden where Urs kept his racing pigeons.

Urs was besotted with his pigeons. Alice found their gentle cooing both soothing and consoling.

The racing pigeons were worth a pretty packet. He would enter racing competitions with them regularly. He cared for them more than he cared for his wife.

One of his more tyrannical aspects was that Alice should prepare only healthy food. He regarded vegetable greens as a must to every meal, especially peas. “Peas are riddled with nutrients,” he would say. “That’s why they are so green.”

Alice hated peas. Part of her post-dinner evening walk was to take the peas she had hidden in her napkin and give them to the pigeons.

One early morning, Urs went down to see his pigeons and they were all dead. A veterinarian post-mortem showed that they had eaten poisoned peas.

1612. Pretty garden flowers

There was nothing wrong with Shelley really. She was simply a goody-goody. She was one of those girls who was always proper and correct and nobody liked very much.

When the teacher gave students the task to write about their favourite thing in the garden, Shelley handed in what she thought to be the most beautiful reflection (complete with coloured-in drawings) of the poppies of Flanders Fields. She even stuck in a poem. Most of the other girls had gone in for something ordinary, like pansies. The boys, except for Gavin, went for potatoes or parsnips. But Shelley! Oh! exclaimed the teacher, what a darling! Oh it’s fabulous, Shelley! You have a wonderful gift! I have a special reward for you!

It was enough to make you sick.

You could tell. Shelley had a crush on the teacher. She was all starry-eyed and thought Mr Cvetkovic was the cat’s pyjamas. Personally, I hated Mr Cvetkovic, especially when after school he’d take me out to the school’s maintenance shed and tell me it was our little secret.

Music 223: Piano Sonata 2

Hi Everyone

I have such a backlog of piano compositions to share with anyone who might want to listen, that I hope I’m not testing your patience. However, I want to get the music “out there”. I’ve already passed the age at which all 4 grandparents shuffled off, and am almost at my father’s age… So I want to make sure all the piano music was available so that it could disappear into obscurity on its own merits!

This Second Piano Sonata is a bit darker than the first and is a bit longer. It doesn’t tell a story as such, nor is it autobiographical. For those of you who want to listen but need some sort of image to help with this type of music, it maybe helpful to think of an abusive or disintegrating relationship, which by the 3rd movement starts to crawl out of the tunnel. With this in mind it doesn’t make for an overly pleasant listening experience, but it is a sonata and not music to be played in the supermarket to enhance the shopping experience!

Thanks

Click on a link to listen
1st movement – audio
2nd movement – audio
3rd movement – audio

Click on a link to download the written music
1st movement – sheet music
2nd movement – sheet music
3rd movement – sheet music

1447. The engagement photo

Yes, this is a photo of me and my fiancé. We never married of course. We were engaged for just a short time. Our marriage was arranged, as indeed they were for many back then. Arranged marriages seemed to work well enough. You’d fall in love over time without usually having to spend energy on the lovey-dovey stage.

Hector and I had met just the twice, and he was to visit me again. In those days it took two days to travel from where he lived to my village. He had to catch a number of trains and a ferry. And arrive he did! I had spent all day perfecting my looks and hair. It wasn’t so much vanity, as nerves. One strives to look as elegant as possible for these pre-arranged liaisons.

Hector and I walked to the village hall where the dance was to be held. He was very handsome, and so very courteous and polite. As soon as we walked in the hall he said, “Whose that?” and I said “That’s Mabel Hussleworth. She’s engaged to Anton Gorinski.”

The announcement of her engagement didn’t seem to register. He danced with Mabel all night, and I, a wall flower for but a short time, danced the rest of the night away with Mabel’s fiancé, Anton. In fact, we have danced the rest of our lives away, and coming next Friday we will have been married for thirty-nine years.

Mabel and Hector tied the knot as well. I’ve kept the engagement photograph of me and Hector as a reminder of how lucky I was to have escaped getting married to a serial wife basher. Mabel I believe is in a wheelchair, and he murdered his second wife.

858. He brushed passed

Mr Sonny Hickmott was a pretty good teacher of Mathematics. Most of his high school students achieved well. Trena however, hated his guts. She hated Mathematics, and extended the hatred to Mr Sonny Hickmott.

Trena wished to see the school counsellor. “Twice Mr Hickmott has brushed passed me. It is most uncomfortable. He stands in the aisle between the rows of tables so I have to squeeze past him to get out. He stands at the classroom door and I have to wiggle through.”

Trena wished to see the school principal. “Twice Mr Hickmott touched me. He leans over my shoulder and pretends to be helping me with my work. But he’s touching me. And once he brushed passed and touched my breast.”

These days Mr Sonny Hickmott is out of work. No one will employ him. Trena has dropped Mathematics altogether. She’s feeling pretty pleased with herself. Except, she doesn’t like History, and hates her History teacher’s guts.

To listen to the story being read click HERE!

678. Cora had had enough

Cora had had enough. Her husband was abusive. In fact, more than abusive. She was a prisoner in her own home. No friends could visit. No relatives. She couldn’t go shopping for groceries. She had to order online and the goods would be delivered.

Enough was enough. Cora read online (she had to be careful; she had to use InPrivate Browsing because her husband would check her surfing history and beat her up if he didn’t agree with where she’d surfed) that foxgloves were toxic. She threw a couple of chopped up foxglove leaves into the coleslaw. It looked like comfrey. That should finish him off.

But it didn’t. He vomited and reckoned she’d tried to poison him. He took the coleslaw to the police. The police discovered the hidden chopped up leaves. Cora was to be arrested for attempted murder.

What the heck, thought Cora; I’m in trouble any way. She got a pistol and the next time her husband appeared she shot him. Straight through the ears.

645. Gisele begs

© Bruce Goodman 17 July 2015

Gisele lived with Zdenko (they had a baby together) in a grotty old caravan. Zdenko used to beat her up. He didn’t have a job. He sent Gisele out with the baby every day. She had to beg in the street for money.

Gisele sat cross-legged in the street holding her baby. It was illegal to beg, but she sat with a little tin in front of her. Hopefully some kind people would put money in. If she came home penniless, Zdenko would be mad.

She had sat there all morning and hardly any money had been collected. Gisele took to pinching the baby’s bottom. A crying baby always elicited more sympathy. She gathered more money that way. She pinched the baby’s bottom all afternoon and collected enough to go safely home.

Zdenko was pleased. He took the money and went out drinking with his friends.