OK. This post is me keeping my promise to give my readers a peek at my NaNoWriMo book writing attempt. At this point I have written approximately 15,500 words and have 8 days (counting today) to write about 35,000 more! We will see if I make it.
I will warn you that this post is longer than usual, but I picked this chapter to share because it's light, fun, and truly only gives you a very vague peek into the characters without revealing any of the story line.
Those who have been reading my blog from the beginning may recognize elements of this snippet. Yes, it is very loosely based on what I described happening in "And she went dumpster diving" (which you can read here: http://pennysworthofthoughts.blogspot.com/2011/08/and-she-went-dumpster-diving.html).
I hope you enjoy, but I will also warn you that editing probably needs to be done. I am purposefully not touching it for editing until I have finished writing. I have heard that if you start to edit before you finish writing, you will never finish writing. Please, please, please let me know what you think!
Chapter 9
“We are all a little weird and life's a little weird,
and when we find someone whose weirdness is
compatible with ours, we join up with them and
fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.” ~ Dr. Seuss
Hands immersed in cool, running water, Ruth was rinsing lettuce for the sandwiches that everyone would be eating for lunch. Katelyn was slicing tomatoes on the counter. Belinda and Fiona had not appeared from their quiet time yet.
Mrs. Hurst walked in and began to help with the lunch preparations. Katelyn set the knife down on the counter to arrange the sliced tomatoes on a plate.
“Mrs. Hurst, can I ask you a question?” Katelyn asked.
“Of course, dear. Go right on ahead,” Mrs Hurst smiled and answered.
“Well, I have had plenty of time to watch you and Mr. Hurst together and I think that you have a special marriage, one like the kind I hope to have myself someday.” She blushed a little and studiously kept arranging the tomatoes while she continued. “I was just curious... I have never heard how you and Mr. Hurst met. Could you tell us?”
Ruth looked and eagerly agreed. “Oh yes! Please tell us!” After all what girl doesn't like to hear a good romance?
Belinda and Fiona walked in as Ruth was speaking. “Tell us what?” Fiona asked.
Peggy Hurst answered her curious daughter by saying, “Katelyn and Ruth just asked me to tell them the story of how your Dad and I met.”
“That's one of my favorite stories!!” Fiona squealed. “Oh come on Mom, you've got to tell them!”
Peggy looked around at four pair of curious eyes and consented. “OK, I will tell it to you. But I must warn you that it's pretty, well... different.” She chuckled and Fiona covered her mouth to stifle a giggle. By this point even Belinda looked eager to hear the story.
“First I must tell you that I grew up in moral but unsaved home. I managed to make it into college without ever having given God a serious thought and without ever attending a single church service. I had always wanted to be a teacher, so I decided to go to college and get a teaching degree. I figured that I would knock the first two years out at the smaller, less expensive school and then go on to a larger university so the college I chose was a small junior college.
“I have always had a tendency to have the craziest and most embarrassing things possible happen to me. As a teenager I had hopes that I would outgrow my clumsy tendencies, but it didn't take long in college for me to find out it didn't work that way.
“One day in my first couple of weeks of school I had gotten off of work and gone home to the dorm. My parking spot that I had been assigned was the one right next to the dorm's dumpster. I had some trash in the car that I needed to throw away and I had gotten in the habit of just tossing it in the dumpster as I walked by.
“It was raining, so I grabbed my umbrella, purse, and back pack in one hand and my trash in the other. My car was one of those old ones that you had to lock from the outside, so I locked it and headed past the dumpster.
“Now, mind you that I had gotten off of work later than usual that night so it was dark as well as raining. I had a quiz the next day in my hardest class that I hadn't even glanced at yet, so I was thinking about that as I tossed the trash into the dumpster.
“As soon as my hand was empty I realized what I had done. I had thrown my keys into the dumpster along with the trash!! I was horrified but my dorm key was on that key chain so I couldn't even get into the dorm without them.
“It started raining harder and began to thunder and lightening. I ran to the dorm but I was in newer heels so slipped and landed face first in the mud. My hands were full of stuff so I didn't really catch myself. I was literally covered in wet mud from head to toe. I felt like crying but I got up and hobbled over to the dorm and pounded on the front door to get help.
“Well, it was also the night our dorm was having an impromptu party apparently, because I could hear music playing loudly and no one could hear me pounding on the door and tapping on the windows.
“By this time, I am soaking wet and muddy. I gave up and went back to my car and threw everything inside. I dug out an emergency flashlight that my Dad had insisted that I have in my car and approached the dumpster. It was really tall, the side opening was almost shoulder high on me. I kicked off my new heels and hiked up my skirt and scrambled up to the opening. Thankfully, the dumpster had just been emptied that morning or I would have been in even worse trouble.”
By this time the girls were all laughing so hard that all work on lunch had ceased and they had gathered around her at the table.
“Is she making any of this up Fiona?” Ruth gasped. She was laughing so hard that she had tears gathering in her eyes.
“Oh, it's all true! You should ask my dad how she looked! He describes it even better!” Fiona said knowingly.
“Now Fiona, you are going to give it away!” Her mom scolded laughingly. “Ok, I was on the ledge looking into the dumpster trying to figure out how to get down to the bottom of the disgusting dumpster, which by the way was collecting water really fast because the top was still open! There was already a couple inches of water in the bottom.
“Now what I didn't know is that our dumpster was shared with a guys dorm that was across the alley. So, while I am perched precariously on the edge of the dumpster, along comes this guy with a bag of trash to throw away. I didn't see or hear him because my back was to him and it was still thundering.
“I guess he had his head down because of the rain so he didn't see me either. He tosses the bag up into the opening and before I knew what was happening, it had knocked me to the bottom of the dumpster.
“I guess he caught a glimpse of me as he let go and he heard my shriek as I was shoved by his bag of trash into the dumpster. By this time, I was crying in earnest as I sat there on my hands and knees in the trash and water at the bottom of the dumpster. My mascara was freely mixing with the rain and mud on my face. My clothes were soaked with mud, rain, and covered in loose garbage that was floating in the trashy rain water.
“I had dropped the flashlight and wasn't sure where it had landed. The guy saw the flashlight fly out of my hand and land on the concrete by the dumpster. He grabbed it and poked his head into the opening asking in a horrified voice if I was alright.
“I managed to stand up and in my iciest voice I let him know that I had dropped my keys and needed my flashlight which he was shining in my face to find them. He handed me the flashlight and I managed to find my keys.
“That's when I realized that I couldn't get out! I had to suffer the further embarrassment of asking him for help to get out. He ran back to his dorm and got a folding chair. He handed me the chair and I climbed out.
“Once I was out, he was falling all over himself apologizing and asking if I was alright. I was never so humiliated in my whole life. To make matters worse he was such a gentleman and so very cute too! So I looked straight into the eyes of the man that I would end up marrying and told him to never speak to me again! Then I gathered up all of my belongings and left him standing there staring after me in the rain.”
“Wow!” Ruth exclaimed, tears of laughter streaming down her face. “It sounds like something you would hear in a book, not in real life!”
Belinda was holding her stomach and said, “I don't know if I can eat lunch now! My stomach hurts too much from laughing so hard!”
Katelyn looked all amazement and said, “Wow. How have I known your family for a year and a half and never heard that story?! It's so funny!”
“Looking back now, it's pretty funny, but at the time I just wanted the earth to open and swallow me up whole. I had already seen Ralph around campus a couple of times and remembered thinking he was so cute. I just knew that after that I would never have a chance because there was no way I was ever going to show my face outside of my dorm again.”
“But I couldn't settle for that now could I?” Ralph inserted as he stepped into the room making all of the girls jump with his sudden appearance. “I knew that night that the incredibly pretty girl I had knocked into the dumpster needed a keeper! And I found myself praying to God volunteering for the job.”
Peggy came and stood by her man and wrapped her arms around his middle while he easily draped an arm around her shoulders. “How on earth he found me attractive then, I will never understand. But I am very grateful that he did. What I didn't know that night was that I had not only met my future husband, but I was also about to be started down the path that led me to God.
“My life changed that night as I literally found my life in the trash that night. I had hit rock bottom in a filthy garbage dumpster. You see, just a few days later, Ralph was the first person to ever invite me to church. It took a couple of months, but I eventually came to believe that the Bible was true, that I was a sinner, and I desperately needed Jesus to save me.”
“Those were the scariest months of my whole life. I prayed more than I had ever prayed before.” Ralph said seriously. “I really wanted to date and marry Peggy, but I knew better than to allow myself to get into a relationship with an unbelieving girl. The day she made a decision to accept Jesus' offer of salvation was the best day of my life until the day she agreed to date me a couple weeks later and then when she agreed to marry me a year later.”
“Despite that awful beginning, Ralph became my best friend when I was in desperate need of a friend. He introduced me to Jesus. He was my hero.” Peggy gazed up into his face adoringly as she spoke. “He still is.”
“Your story is so neat!” Ruth told them.
“Well, it's certainly unique and one of a kind!” Fiona laughed.
A few minutes later the guys joined them and they all enjoyed the sandwiches the girls had prepared for lunch. But the whole time, Ruth kept thinking about how she wished that someday she could have a marriage like Ralph and Peggy's and how impossible that really seemed.
