The Time of My Life

Credit: Snoopy by Charles M. Schulz

 
I’m having the time of my life these days experiencing these highs and lows. It’s becoming like the present weather. It’s kind of a mixed bag with the sun, rain, thunder, lightning, snow, wind, frost, you name it, all happening in random succession.

First, the next project I was supposed to be working on was officially cancelled. The sponsor balked at the cost. With my contract ending on 3/31, I was concerned. I saw gloom but it didn’t last. The sun came up when the manager told me that he’s extending my contract until the end of the year

Yesterday, I went to the dentist in the rain to have my broken crown fixed. With my permission, he extracted two of my upper teeth I wouldn’t have done it, but lightning struck. He dared me if I was tough enough for it. Of course, I told him I was. Now I won’t be able to chew food properly for weeks until the sewed gum is healed and the partial bridge put in place.

I thought I could go back to work after the dentist appointment. But with cottons stuffed in my mouth, I wouldn’t be a welcome sight. I decided to go home instead. I logged on to the computer and read my office mail. There was an emergency staff meeting at 12 pm. I sent a message to the manager saying I’d be taking the rest of the day off because of my condition. I could dial-in for the meeting but wouldn’t be able to talk. Fine, he said, I could listen in.

The meeting was about the coming reorg. Outside the window, I suddenly heard the wind howling badly. The manager said that he’d no longer be our manager. He’d be working in another capacity. I could only imagine the chill the news brought to everybody. He assured the permanent staff that they wouldn’t lose their jobs. They would just be slotted to work for another manager. As for contractors like me, however, he didn’t know what would happen. At that instance, I saw the rain started falling again.

It was cloudy when I went to work this morning. At the office, the manager told me that he did extend my contract, but the coming reorg could throw a wrench on it. The sun was up again in the afternoon when he told me I had been slotted to join the ‘build’ team responsible for coding, testing, and customizing vendors’ applications. The new manager called me early evening to confirm what my former manager said. You know what, he’ll be managing his team from East Coast.

I don’t know how long I can wait for the spring season to arrive. If it doesn’t arrive soon, I’m afraid I’ll truly become a man imitating this weather on its topsy-turvy dance. It has taught me one valuable lesson, though, and that’s not to be too comfortable in any situation no matter how good it looks.

Remembering Grandma

For Friday Fictioneers 100-Word Challenge: 25 August 2017

Photo Credit: Jan Wayne Fields
 
While camping out in the desert, I was overcome by an overwhelming feeling of sadness. I remembered the night I said goodbye to my grandmother.

“Grandma, I’m going to America. I’ll see you when I come back.”

“Pepito, don’t hold your breath. I may not know where America is, but I know it’s farther than the moon.”

“Look, ” she continued, pointing at the moon. I can see it but not America.”

Several years later, she died. Due to the distance, I wasn’t able to attend her funeral.

“Grandma was right,” I realized belatedly. “America is farther than the moon.”

One From the Heart

For Friday Fictioneers 100-Word Challenge: 30 June 2017

Photo Credit: Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

With mixed emotions, David returned to the village to meet Anita who won his daughter’s heart.

He and Emily were very close. He watched her grow up, taught her to skate and rode the bike. He was there to support her when she came out of the closet.

But there was a time when he failed her. It was when she lay dying after a biking accident.

“Dad, I want to live,” she implored, and he couldn’t save her.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Anita said.

He hugged her so tight he could feel Emily’s heart beating in her breast.

What’s for Dinner?

For Friday Fictioneers 100-Word Challenge: 14 April 2017

Photo Credit: Dale Rogerson

As a waitress and single mother, Olivia could barely make ends meet. What kept her going was her faith she’d make it big in Hollywood someday.

Most days, she made do with leftover food. Today was no different. She was ecstatic when a customer barely finished half of his pizza.

“What’s for dinner, Mama?” her daughter Ella asked Olivia as soon as she arrived home.

“How about pizza?”

“Yipee!” Little Ella couldn’t hide the excitement on her face.

“Someday,” Olivia thought as she was setting the table ready, “Ella and I will look back and remember this time with fondness.”

The Day We Said Goodbye

For Friday Fictioneers 100-Word Challenge: 24 June 2016

NOTE: This will be my last post for a while. I expect to be back in the next few weeks.

Photo Credit: Rich Voza

I was eleven when our family immigrated to America.

I found her sitting on the bench outside. When I offered her half a piece of gum, she took it without saying a word.

Tara was my best friend growing up in the same neighborhood.

“I’m sorry, I have to go.”

“Me, too,” she said, her head bowed down.

I left her fiddling with the action figure I gave her for Christmas.

As we drove to the airport, I tried to look at her one last time but she was already gone back inside the house.

I never saw her again.