Wordzzle 52

Welcome to Raven's Wordzzle Challenge. Stop by and say Hi to Raven and read her stories.

The Ten Word Challenge: Netflix, mortgage, skunk, flagrant, the New York Times, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, perpendicular, geometry, crabby, shoveling snow

Mini Challenge: pragmatic, crystal ball, laundry, safflower oil, Gregorian chants

I am instituting a new procedure this week. I flail about each week when I post this to make sure that the challenge words are in bold. I am going to experiment and not make them bold this week. Let me know if it is not satisfactory. If that's the case I will fiddle around finding the words to make them bold.

This weeks episode: Star light Star bright

Dan looked up at the night sky. This far into the desert he was able to view millions of stars in a canopy of light that always reminded him of how insignificant he was. He needed something more than the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy to make sense of the vast Milky Way and the countless galaxies beyond. "Why does man huddle in huts when this view is available?" he wondered to himself.

He reached out with a stick, poked the glowing embers into life and looked upon the drowsy figure of Carla. The sleeping bag had fallen off her shoulder, exposing the beautiful geometry of her shoulder and breast. The growing firelight flickered off her soft white skin as he leaned down and kissed her neck where it met her shoulder. Carla shuddered awake and smiled. Looking up at his profile she saw the perpendicular evidence of his arousal. "OK sugar, I see why you woke me up" she whispered as he joined her in her sleeping bag.

This morning’s breakfast in the desert was scrambled eggs with veggies and cheese in a soft tortilla. Cooked with just a bit of safflower oil, it was delicious. Kona coffee was the luxury item on the menu. Dan had used the editorial section of the New York Times they brought along for help in starting the mornings fire, figuring nothing said there would affect their days hike. He learned that Carla was a potentially crabby person in the morning if not immediately greeted with coffee, a kiss and the promise of breakfast, in that order. If worked for him as he had never understood or trusted anyone who was too cheerful in the morning.

The air tasted clean with the smallest remnant of a close encounter with a skunk by some unfortunate creature just lingering on a bit. The fire's aroma tinged with mesquite chips and Kona coffee overrode the waning Pepe Le Pew fragrance. The flagrant use of precious and scarce mesquite in the fire was a sop to the indulgence of and respect for the sensibilities of Carla, who came hiking to be with Dan more than experience the outdoors.

Not that she didn't enjoy the clean air and exercise; she just preferred it in small doses without smelly or nasty or dangerous things. And the preserve presented the possibilities for all those. After breakfast and a quick cleanup they decided to investigate the large circle of buzzards in the distance with the idea of not getting too close. Instead they would take pictures of any predators other than the aerial scavengers that were there. One of the things Dan and Carla both enjoyed was photography and this allowed for some great nature shots as well as friendly competition.

Had either of them been able to look into a crystal ball at that moment the hike would have taken a different direction. Of course nothing but the day and adventure were on their minds. While still basking in the leftover endorphins of the previous night's lovemaking, nothing seemed amiss with the world. Both forgot about pragmatic matters like the mortgage, a lost CD owed to Netflix, laundry, shoveling snow (though in truth neither had done this for ages) or the myriad other banalities composing everyday existence. Today they were explorers. More like medieval Spanish conquistadors than modern citizens.

You could almost hear the Gregorian chants in the air as they left the campsite and headed farther into the preserve to check out the cause of the vultures circling in the distance. Dan smiled again at Carla and took the lead up the trail.

RT