Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: FEAST (07/12/18)
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TITLE: Soul Food | Previous Challenge Entry
By Stephen Kimball
07/19/18 -
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But by the time the alarm went off, she was out. In her slumber, she turned off the alarm and promptly fell back into a deep sleep.
Her eyes flew open in a panic…8:03am the clock read, the bright red numbers laughing at her, in her imagination, taunting her for being late to work again…third time this month.
“No, no, no, no, no!” She yelled to herself as she jumped out of bed, threw on the first thing she could grab, brushed her teeth and raced toward the door.
“Why didn’t you wake me up?” She shouted as she passed her 12 year old son that was already busy playing some game on the X-Box in the living room.
“I gotta run David… I’m late! Love you! I’ll see you after work.” And she was in the car and out of the driveway in record time, not even waiting for his response.
Already running on empty, with little sleep and no coffee yet, she wasn’t far from the house when she realized the car was also running on empty.
“No, no, no, no, no!” She yelled, as she pulled into a gas station to put just enough gas in the tank to get to work…” I’ll stop on the way home and fill it up after work”, she thought to herself as she pulled out her phone to make the all too familiar apologetic, excuse call – “Stuck in traffic, again…I am so sorry.”
When she finally arrived at work, nobody seemed to be quite as concerned about her tardiness as she was. So she sat down at her desk with a heavy sigh and began to try to order her tasks for the day.
“This isn’t going to work without some coffee in the system”, she thought. So she headed for the break room, immediately regretting that decision when she opened the door to see her boss who was standing by the coffee pot, seemingly awaiting her arrival.
“Can I pour you a cup Theresa? You look a little tired today.”
“Yes, thank you. But I am fine...just got behind a fender bender coming in today, stopped me in my tracks for about a half hour.”
“Didn’t that happen to you last week?"
Theresa glanced down at her shoes, nodding her head giving a hearty "Mm-hmm."
He continued, "Theresa, the numbers are out for the quarter and you don’t have much to show for it. This company cannot afford to keep people on who are not performing. I need you to put it into gear. If you need to talk with someone, we can help, just let me know. But I’m telling you that things need to change, and soon.”
“Don’t worry John, I’ve got two big sales in the works, by the end of the month you will be happy.”
The rest of the day was difficult. Now the pressure was real, not just imagined. She placed some calls and tried to ready her proposals early, determined to follow through on her promise, but her thoughts were scattered. She found herself counting down the minutes on the clock, finally making an excuse to leave early so she could get home and hopefully catch up on her sleep.
She wasn’t at home 15 seconds before flopping down at the dining room table in a heap. Before long, she looked up at the computer monitor that was in the room and began to watch the family photos scroll through on the screen. David entered the room and quietly pulled up a chair next to her. Leaning his head against her shoulder they watched the familiar show that brought back so many sweet memories for both of them. The routine had David guessing where each picture was taken and they would both smile and laugh as they remembered all the places they had been and the things that they had experienced together. “A feast for the soul”, Theresa thought as they watched.
“How about pizza tonight?”
“Yes!” David responded with a genuine smile.
“Let’s go out, I forgot to get gas in the car on the way home.”
Psalm 127:3 “Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward.”
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