Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Words for Wednesday- Back to the barn

I am linking up once again with Delores over at Mumblings for this weeks Words for Wednesday challenge.

Here are this weeks prompts:

beacon, evening, jealous, slander, dormant, peripheral
and/or
mystic, plentiful, splendid, destruction, gratitude, and bacon
or you could use this phrase
MISTY MOUNTAIN MELODY

Back to the barn

Jake and Ed returned to the barn a couple weeks after the hornet incident. Jake was determined that those old barbershop chairs were going to be his, they were in perfect condition and had to be antiques.

The first thing they had to do was remove that hornets nest, and getting to it without further destruction to themselves was the plan. Jake still had red marks on the back of his neck that shined like a beacon and knots on his head from the numerous stings, but this was the extent of his injuries.

Ed had faired much worse after suffering a head on attack from the hornets, the number of stings he received were more plentiful than Jakes, they left red blotches and swelling on his face, neck and arms. He was really sick for a few days.

At first the swelling stretched his skin to the point he thought it would burst, the red blotches left where the poison was injected each time he was stung burned like bacon sizzling in a pan. His ice trays were still empty after he had used all of the ice trying to soothe the burning.

Jake had a friend who knew a guy whose brother was a beekeeper, so Jake and Ed borrowed a couple of the beekeepers hats with veils that surrounds your face and protects your neck. They also went to the hardware store and bought themselves a pair of leather gloves and heavy coveralls, and also duct tape to cover the ends of their gloves and attach them to the sleeves of the coveralls, Jake said "There ain't no sense in taking chances"

Jake and Ed drove to the big house and pulled Jake's car across the yard, around the back and down the hill parking as close to the old building as possible. In just two weeks kudzu had almost completely covered the building, giving it a mystic and mysteriously inviting look.

Kudzu is a vine that grows wild in the South. Kudzu can grow up to two feet per day so Jake wasn't surprised to see it taking over the old building. Just two weeks earlier the front of the building was sticking out through the vine, and now only one open door was visible, the opening was covered with the Kudzu vine cascading down like a sheet with large green leaves and it's splendid purple flowers hiding the inside of the building.

Leaning on Old Man Johnson's car they hatched their plan, they would come back in the late evening after the hornets have settled in for the night, quietly tiptoe into the building, and ease the barber chair outside without disturbing the hornets, once outside Jake could light a torch and burn the hornets nest while the beasts were dormant inside. If something went wrong at least they would be protected with the coveralls and beekeepers hats.

As Jake opened his car door, in his peripheral vision he saw a movement at the big house, he stopped to take a closer look and just as the curtains closed he saw a face looking right at him. "Hey Ed we are going to have to come back a little later tonight, we need to wait until more than just these hornets are asleep."

He leaned back away from the window and closed the curtains, hoping Jake hadn't recognized him, the idiot probably never saw me, he thought to himself, Jake has always been jealous of me anyways, I will just sit here and watch them entertain me like they did two weeks ago, he smiled and turned to go and sit for a little bit.

At midnight Jake and Ed drove around the big house with the headlights off, they had already donned their coveralls and taped the gloves to their sleeves and also taped the tops of their boots to the tucked in pant legs.

After parking the car Jake took a moment to look up at the full moon thankful for the light it was giving them tonight. Ed handed Jake his beekeepers hat and began to walk quietly towards the building. "You know it's going to be dark in there, we have to get in and out really fast without making any racket" Jake whispered over Ed's shoulder.

Ed grabbed the Kudzu and pulled it back for Jake to walk through. Jake turned on his flashlight and shined it over the contents that sat rotting in the building, there were rats scurrying for cover and everything was just as they had left it. All but one thing, the most important thing, the barber chairs, the chairs were Gone!!

Jake exploded through the Kudzu cursing at the top of his lungs, Ed removed his hat and started jerking the duct tape from his sleeves to remove his gloves. Jake stomped and screamed and shook his fists up into the night sky.

He peered through the glass at the spectacle Jake was making of himself. He closed the curtains and smiled with gratitude at the satisfaction he was getting from watching another one of Jake's plans fail.

He turned away from the window and went to sit once again, he was slowly humming an unknown Misty Mountain Melody to himself as he sat in one of his two newly acquired chairs, his eyes appeared to glaze over as he began to dream up what his next slanderous deed would be.

33 comments:

  1. That's a wonderful prompt and one you have delivered well. I may have to try it out myself. Thanks and greetings!

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    1. I hope you do join us...it's lots of fun.

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    2. Yes please give it a try. You will enjoy it. It is a lot of fun.

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  2. I love this ongoing story. Very well done.

    Have a fabulous day. ☺

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    1. Thank you Sandee, I appreciate you my friend.

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  3. This is fantastic Jimmy......That old devil. Now how did he get those chairs out of there? Will we find out next week?

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    1. Hey Delores, we just may, first off I have to figure out how he did it then wait for the prompts next week, it could work though.

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  4. This is a heap of fun. And the sting goes on...

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  5. Love it, Jimmy, keep on going!!

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  6. I thought for sure that the bacon would be followed by some eggs!

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    1. Hey Bijoux, I first thought that would be where I would work bacon in, but that was too easy ha ha.

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  7. That would have been a hard writing prompt but you did it SO well. The story held together from beginning to end. All those hornets, though, gave me the creeps...I'm allergic.

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    1. Hey Jean, I'm thinking the hornets may have run their course for the story, but you never know what direction these tales will take.

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  8. I really liked how you continued the story with a whole new set of prompts. I think bacon would have been the hardest but you did it smoothly. Well done.

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    1. Thank you Patti, that means a lot to me, Thank you.

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  9. I look forward to this as a continuing series!

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    1. Hey Val, I'm going to have to work on this then ;)

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  10. It sounds like you have to get up very early in the morning to pull a fast one on the person looking out of the windows. Well told!

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    1. Hey Mimi, we always have to watch that person peeping out the window, Thank you Mam I appreciate you joining us.

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  11. Kudzu was one of the worst imports ever for sure

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    1. Hey Adam, as you know Kudzu may have started as a nice little ornamental vine but has now basically taken over the South.

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  12. I lost a gas cap on my tractor a few weeks ago. The tractor place got a replacement in today so "I went back to the barn" to put the new cap on the tractor. As I was leaving, a red wasp that had a nest in the rafters, dropped down and stung me on the back of the head. Unfortunately, this is a true story :)
    R

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    1. Hey Rick, I read that on your blog, man I hate wasps I ran into a huge nest out in my hedges while trimming but was lucky enough to spot a wasp flying in before I got to them, I hope your sting is feeling better and I am happy you didn't get more.

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    1. Thank you Denise, I'm proud you enjoyed it.

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  14. Well,well,well, who is this mystery man watching Jake and foiling every plan?

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    1. Well River, this is a mystery just now, I don't think I even know yet ha ha.

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  15. You did very well with this prompt.

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    1. Thank you Stephen I appreciate you my friend.

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  16. Hey Jimmy, you have a great future in story telling. I loved this one. When I saw the word list I wondered how you would fit all of them into one story.... you did it though. Well done.

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    1. Good morning Valerie, Thank you so much this is a great compliment coming from such a talented writer as yourself, I am honored my friend.

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Thanks for stopping by, jump in and tell me what you think, or just say Hi, I really appreciate your comments.