A Tangled Love Web

"Why are you doing this, Joe?" Annie pleaded, tears streaming down her face.

"Walk," was the only reply she got.

"Please, Joe, don't do this. You said you loved me. How can you do this to me if you love me?", terror flowed through her veins, replacing every drop of blood with the fear of certain death.

Silent, Joe kept the gun pointed towards, Annie. With a flip of his wrist, he motioned towards the water. "Get in", his voice was rough and his words slurred from the combination of alcohol and valium he had been taking since he found out the awful truth about Annie.

Her body began to shake uncontrollably as she stepped into the frigid water. Partly out of fear and partly due to the freezing water. Luckily the water only came to her knees, but even so it was the middle of winter, Annie rapidly began to lose all feeling in her legs. The numbness slowly traveling up the length of her body. Teeth rattling one against the other, "P-P-Please, Joe, why are you doing this?"

"You said you loved me. Why, Annie, why? I would have given you anything you asked me for," Joe screamed at Annie.

"I do love you but I...," Annie began, but before she could finish, Joe began shouting  "Shut up you lying bitch. You never loved me. You used me. To get close to him. My own brother. You used me, Annie."

Startled by a sound, Joe looked up at the top of  the riverbank. He had been too lost in his rage to hear the car approaching. It was only when Jamie screamed, "Mommy!" that Joe even knew anyone else was there.

Before Bill could stop her, Jamie raced down the river bank. Stumbling on the loose rocks, falling on the wet snow as she made her way down to the troubled man at the water's edge.

"Joe, please don't hurt my mommy," Jamie pleaded.

"Your mama is a lying cunt," Joe slurred. "Joe!" shouted Bill from above. "Don't you take one step, little brother," Joe warned. "If you do, they'll both be dead before you reach the bottom."

Bill knowing full well his brother was capable of making good on his threat, stayed firmly rooted at the top of the river bank.

Jamie, with a wisdom far greater than her 10 years of age, realized it would be up to her to get them out of this alive. "Joe" she began. "Do you love me, Joe?"

Confused by Jamie's question, Joe didn't answer, but he kept the gun firmly pointed at Annie. "Joe" Jamie asked again, "Do you love me, Joe?"

"Of course I do," Joe's voice was barely a whisper. If there had been a sound, Jamie wouldn't have heard his words, but even the woods remained silent out of fear of what Joe might do.

"Then give me the gun, Joe", Jamie inched slowly towards where Joe was standing. She held out her tiny hand, hoping that she could somehow get through to Joe. Could somehow get the gun away from him.

Jamie's words hit Joe like a ton of bricks. Joe slumped on the wet, snow covered ground. His head in one hand, the other wrapped tightly around the gun, still pointed at Annie. Jamie could hear the sound of Annie's teeth rattling. She knew she didn't have much time left. Again but with more force she said to Joe, "Give me the gun. I want to go home. It's cold out here, Joe. Please I am cold. Please take me home."

Before Jamie realized what was happening, she felt the coolness of the metal touch her skin. Her hand dropped towards the ground from the heaviness of the gun. Joe placed his head in both hands and began to weep uncontrollably. Bill raced down the riverbank. Grabbing the gun from Jamie's grasp as he rushed to help Annie out of the freezing water.

All four slowly climbed back up the river bank. Bill helping Annie, whose legs were frozen from standing in the river. Jamie helping Joe whose heart had been shattered by the betrayal of his love. The silence of the ride home was broken only by the sound of Annie's chattering teeth and the hiss of the car heater turned on high to help the warmth return to Annie's frozen body. Jamie occasionally glanced at the 3 adults that sat in the car around her. "Please God just let me make it back to Ma's. I swear I will never come here again," she silently prayed. "Please" she whispered as a tear slowly slid down her cheek. All she wanted was to get back to the safety of her grandma's house. Back to where sanity lived. Where she could be a 10 year old who didn't know how to talk a mad man out of murder. Back to where love lived.

This is for a writing prompt for Mama Kat's workshop. The prompt I chose was a story of love. Not necessarily your typical "love story" but a love story it is none the less.  

What Inspired You This Week?

 

This is for a prompt from Mama Kat's Writers Workshop. The prompt I chose was "What inspired you this week?". Since I started this week by twisting the rules, it seems I will end this week by also twisting the rules. At first I couldn't decide which prompt to choose, then suddenly this one just jumped out at me along with a poem so instead of writing an article I wrote my inspiration as a poem. I hope that doesn't get me in too much trouble. (Also I still can't get the button to paste properly so instead I just put the link. However button is in the sidebar if you wanna click it)

What inspired you this week?

The  moon and stars

upon the seas

the radiant sun

the billowing trees

The cool winter's wind

upon my cheek

The encouraging word

A friend did speak

The loving touch

Of his embrace

His gentle lips

Soft as lace

Nights alone

A kitten's purr

A stranger's laugh

Memories of her

And in my mind

The scenes did unfold

and from my pen

a story was told



One Recipe Fits All

This is for Mama Kat's weekly writing prompt. She gave 4-5 different prompts, and it was a really difficult decision but I ended up going with sharing a recipe.

(I tried adding the button for this but I kept getting an error msg regarding the code. It said it was broken. Anyone else have this issue or know how to fix it? I just added the link instead since I couldn't get it to work.)

(found on google images)

So this is my must have recipe. You can literally make dozens of things from this basic recipe from pasta/pizza sauce to an entree that serves your whole family. I will do my best to explain it. It is extremely simple. If I can make it, then anyone can.

I have broken it down into two steps: must have and optional. Depending on what you're making and what your family likes to eat will depend on how you blend the two.

Must have ingredients:

2 tomatoes

1 onion

salt/pepper to taste

Garlic 2 cloves minced

Optional seasonings: (while the below ingredients are "must haves" for me if I am out of something then I don't necessarily make a special trip to the store to get it, but if you don't like them or can't find them then you can add whatever seasonings you have on hand)

Bay leaves 2-3

Coriander small bunch finely chopped

Tumeric 1/2 tsp

Ginger 1/2 tsp minced

Curry Powder 1/2 tsp

Green chilies 3-4 (less if you don't like spicy more if you do)

Optional meats & veggies:

Ground beef/turkey/chicken

3-4 chicken breasts boneless skinless cut up into chunks

Beef or lamb tips (you could also take your choice of beef cut and cut it into chunks)

Mushrooms 4-5 diced

Green Pepper 1 medium sized diced

Carrots 2 whole carrots diced

Eggplant 1 diced

Broccoli 1 cup

Peas 1 cup

Potatoes 2-3 diced

Regardless of what you're making, these inital steps must be done to form the basis of your sauce/dish.

• add a few table spoons of oil to a heavy bottomed pan. Heat over medium heat.
• Then add onions. Cook until translucent but not browned.
• Then add your tomatoes. Cook until they are almost complete dissolved. If the mixture begins to stick or burn, add a few table spoons of water to keep it from doing so.
• Then add all of your seasonings (salt/pepper, curry powder, tumeric, garlic, bay leaves etc) and green chilies. Stir. Add 1-2 tablespoons of water to keep spices from burning.

Now that you have your tomato/onion mixture prepared, add in your meats (chopped chicken breasts or beef/lamb tips). Cook meat for approx 1-2 mins and then add veggies. Make sure you fully cover the meat and veggies with the mixture so that all of the flavor gets infused in them.

Once the meat starts to brown ( or turn white if you're using chicken breasts), then add about 2-3 cups of water. Enough so that all of the veggies and meats are fully submerged. Add coriander leaves after this cooks about 15 mins.

Turn the heat down, cover and simmer until meat and veggies are fully cooked.

Normally I cook most of the water out so that I am left with a thick sauce, but if you prefer it more thin, then just add more water or don't cook it as long. It takes about an hour if you cook it on low heat, 30 mins if you cook it over medium. It is really up to you. If I have the time, I cook it slower so the meat is more tender and gets more flavorful. If I am in a hurry, then I cook it on medium heat so that it gets done sooner. If you follow these directions, you will end up with something that resembles the picture posted above.

However, if you want a homemade pizza/pasta sauce, then prepare the onion/tomato mixture as stated above and add in your spices. After adding spices, cook approx. 1 min and then add in ground beef/chicken/turkey. Cook until meat is browned.

Pour sauce over pasta of your choice or spread on top of pizza crust and top with cheese.

Now I am not a sauce person. If you are a sauce person, then you will probably need to add in more tomatoes. Either canned storebought or paste or whatever you prefer.

The last and final option is for all you vegetarians/vegans out there. If you don't like meat, then just skip the step for adding meat and go straight to the veggies. All other steps/ingredients remain the same. When I lived in the USA, I couldn't get meat that often so the majority of the time I made this just with veggies. It was still great and very filling.

Serve with rice or naan.

Hope you all enjoy!!