The scar on the left side of her head began to ache like someone was pressing hot coals against her head.  Her vision became focused and centered in on her prey.  If anyone had seen her they would be able to see a fire in her eyes.  The attacker watched from the fire escape four stories up as the woman hurriedly moved along the street.  She had it all planned out so that at the moment her prey entered the alleyway she would approach the blond haired beauty.  The woman on the fire escape was very relaxed and in a peaceful stance as she prepared for the confrontation that was long overdue.  She had taken a long time to prepare for this moment and nothing could stop her now.

           The mystery woman scaled down the fire escape ladder, careful to make as little noise as possible.  She kept her eye on the prey as she made her way to street level.  She jumped from the bottom of the ladder to the wet pavement, crouching as she landed.  As she got up she pulled the kendo stick from its sheath.  Staying in the dark shadows of the buildings she moved quietly through the rainy evening.  The plan was in motion now and her heart began to race.  She had waited more than a decade for this confrontation and tried to calm herself as she moved towards the person who planted the bruise on her head.    

           The blond woman thought she heard a noise as she walked head down and jacket pulled up over her head.  The streets seemed pretty quiet due to the weather which made it easier to hear the little things.  She was splashing through puddles and did not hear the person coming from behind her.  A moment later the person cracked the kendo stick across the woman’s back.  Then the mysterious person took another whack at the woman’s back.  She continued to hit her with the stick until the blond haired woman lay motionless, face down in a puddle in the dark, empty alley.  The attacker smiled as she looked down upon her prey, finally feeling a little redemption for all the pain caused so many years ago.

           The mysterious woman was pleased with the job she had done.  She looked around to make sure no one saw what just happened as she scampered away.  If anyone had seen it, they would not understand that it was well deserved.  She again grinned as the woman lay unmoved on the wet ground.  She heard what sounded like footsteps and quickly ran for cover.  From the shadows, she watched her victim struggle to stay conscious.     

           The blond woman opened her eyes, still breathing heavily, as she lay motionless checking to see if the attacker was gone.  She did not see her attacker or hear any movement so she crawled on her hands and knees to the dumpster nearby.  She grabbed the handle on the dumpster and used it to pull herself up from the soaking ground.  A homeless man turned the corner and was walking down the alley when he spotted the woman getting up.  He rushed over to assist her, but was too late.  He offered the blond haired woman a rag to wipe the blood from her scratched up face, but she said she was fine.  The woman thanked the man for coming to help and then stumbled her way out of the alley.

           The red haired woman in the dark wanted to make sure the woman was still alive, but hurt enough to remember this incident.  As the woman limped out of the alley and dabbed at her face with the sleeve of her coat, the red headed attacker was creeping along the shadows in the opposite direction to make her escape.  She was laughing to herself and smiling like the Cheshire cat as she wandered into the nighttime unnoticed.

                                                       *************

(Twelve Years Earlier)

           She tried to refocus after her head hit the wet, muddy field behind the school.  Everything was swirling around for a minute or two making it feel like she was rolling even though her body lay motionless.  Sara watched as her attacker sprinted away from the field.

           Blood was dripping from Sara’s nose as she lifted her head off the ground and focused on her sworn enemy.  There was also blood falling from the side of her head.  She got some tissues out of her bag and clogged her bleeding nose then tried to stop the bleeding from the head wound.  Sara knew these beatings would continue unless she found a way to stop it.

         A friend had suggested going to self defense classes, but Sara thought that was cheesy.  Instead, Sara just wrote her thoughts on paper and most of the time they were evil, deadly thoughts.  She wrote about ways she could bodily harm the attacker and even wrote about killing her.  Sara knew this was wrong, but could not help herself.  She had no idea why the girl had a problem with her.  From the first day Sara set foot on the school’s grounds, this particular girl had harassed her and used her as a punching bag.

           The girl, Amber, was a tall, athletically built girl with platinum blond shoulder length hair.  She was the captain of the Girl’s Soccer team and also captain of the Softball team.  When Amber spoke, the other girls listened to what she was saying.  Even during gym class, the girls would listen to Amber instead of the teacher.  All the girls seemed to want to be like Amber.

           Sara, on the other hand, was a transfer student from Texas.  She was also athletically built and very attractive, but was a red head, not a blond.  Sara was a member of the drama club and also helped put together the schools literary magazine and yearbook.

           As Amber ran into the woods behind the schoolyard, Sara slowly made her way to her feet and tried to wipe the mud off of her clothes.  She was not ready for a head to head confrontation with Amber instead she wanted to prepare for a fight.  Once again, Sara had evil thoughts flowing through her brain as to what she could do to Amber and all the others that picked on her and beat her up.

                                                   ****************

                    Sara sat in her bedroom thinking about what happened behind the school that afternoon.  She could not figure out why these girls were so mean to her.  There was no cause for their viciousness.  Did they think that they were better than her just because she was new to the school or were they jealous because she was smarter than them?  Another possibility was that the girls thought Sara was weaker because they played sports and she did not.

 The school Sara was attending was a school for gifted students.  Her parents thought she would do better there.  Sara liked it because the teachers pushed the students to work hard and encouraged them to use their intelligence.  However, the school was also filled with pompous, greedy, self centered brats who thought that they were better than everyone else.

Please let me know what you think!! Any suggestions would also be helpful.

The nice thing about teamwork is that you always have others on your side.
~Margaret Carty

The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness.  You have to catch it yourself. 

~Benjamin Franklin

Some quotes for this cloudy, somber Sunday:

Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit.
     ~Elbert Hubbard

The years teach much which the days never knew.
      ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers. 

     ~Alfred Lord Tennyson

A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience. 

      ~Miguel de Cervantes

Legendary Actress, RAQUEL WELCH, will be signing her new book: Raquel Beyond the Cleavage.

Please call (201)445-0726 for details.

Bookends is located at 232 East Ridgewood Ave, Ridgewood, NJ.

The average pencil is seven inches long, with just a half-inch eraser – in case you thought optimism was dead. 

     ~Robert Brault

Optimism is the foundation of courage. 

     ~Nicholas Murray Butler

 A celebrity is a person who works hard all his life to become well known, then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognized. 

      ~Fred Allen

Don’t worry about the world coming to an end today.  It is already tomorrow in Australia. 

      ~Charles Schulz

They’re doing construction in the business district on a SATURDAY??!!  Who decided that was a good idea? Seriously, who in their right mind would do that? Saturday is the busiest day of the week. Anyway, I should focus on the good stuff and not the insanity of the town.

Last night was AWESOME!! Went to a booksigning in Central Jersey for one of my friends and had a great time. I always try to surprise her by not telling her which signing I’m showing up for. Everything was going according to plan other than getting there a few minutes late because of traffic. Usually I get there early enough that I can hide in the store and she doesn’t see me until after she starts the talk. This time my friend caught me as I was headed to the restroom (because it was a long drive).

Right in the middle of the talk the fire alarm goes off. The funny thing was, nobody bothered to leave. Everyone just stayed where they were. Even the employees didn’t seem concerned. They told us it was a false alarm and then the alarm actually stopped. My friend started the talk again and then we saw a firetruck pullup in front of the store with it lights flashing and sirens blaring. It was all very comical.

After the firemen leave, the talk starts up once again and every once in awhile the alarm starts ringing in short spurts.  At this point my friend is just laughing at what is happening during her event. In between the alarms sounding she started to take questions and got through that part pretty quickly.

She finally starts signing books and the alarm once again starts to sound. This time the fire department decides to evacuate the building. So, once outside, my friend starts signing books outside. Now, it’s almost 9pm and it’s really chilly out. Everyone is standing in line outside and freezing. My friend is laughing and I’m taking pictures of the event outside. Everyone was laughing and having a good time despite the situation.

At the end of the night my friend thanked me for coming such a distance to see her. All in all it was fun and unexpected and funny.

I sat and read through the newspaper to see if anything would spark an idea or two. That didn’t seem to work so I decided to go ffor a walk before heading to work. As I was walking I remembered bits and pieces of a dream I had last night, but could not fit all of the pieces together. There seemed to be parts to the dream I couldn’t remember and this was kind of annoying to me. The concept made me think it could be a good story, but those missing parts created a little anxiety within me.

I’ve been having a problem with my writing lately. It seems that I have hit a roadblock in my thought process. The one thing I do not have a problem with is journaling. I can sit and write for hours about stuff that happened during the day. Writing in a journal also helps clear my head of all the random thoughts swimming around in my head. This journal has become somewhat of a stress and anxiety relief for me.

Last Wednesday was St. Patrick’s Day and I came across a book of Irish limericks at the store. I read a bunch of the limericks and realized how much fun it was to say them out loud. As the day went on I found myself thinking of words that rhyme and putting sentences around them. At some point I started writing a limerick here and a limerick there. By the end of Thursday I had maybe 5 limericks written and was really starting to get the hang of it.

I have decided to put the fiction writing aside for now, even with that dream still lingering within my head, and try my hand at a collection of limericks.

Here is one of my favorite Limericks that I have written so far:

             There once was a man in a barrow

               He liked to shoot a bow & arrow

                          The birds in the tree

                           They started to flee

               So he chased them in his camaro

                                                         -Logan

Spring is nature’s way of saying, “Let’s party!” 

     ~Robin Williams

It’s spring fever.  That is what the name of it is.  And when you’ve got it, you want – oh, you don’t quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so! 

     ~Mark Twain
Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush. 

      ~Doug Larson

The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another.  The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month. 

      ~Henry Van Dyke

And this poem kind of reminds me how the last couple of weeks have been:

First a howling blizzard woke us,
Then the rain came down to soak us,
And now before the eye can focus -
Crocus. 

      ~Lilja Rogers

Today promises to be just as nice if not nicer than yesterday. When I walked out the door this morning I couldn’t believe how warm it was already. I took a long walk early before having to go to work. The sun was shining and there was a light breeze. It just felt wonderful to be outside and hear the birds chirping.

After I got to work, I took a stroll around the business district and all the coffee shops had their doors wide open. There was a line of people forming outside one of the restaurants for breakfast. Just goes to show that when the weather is nice people will line up outside. There were people in the park already, at 8am, with their kids running around. I saw a number of people cycling and out for a run.

Although Spring does not officially come until early this afternoon, I can already tell it’s going to be a wonderful Spring Day…. Now I can’t wait to get out of work to enjoy some of the sun and comfortable weather

The yoga mat is a good place to turn when talk therapy and antidepressants aren’t enough. 

      ~Amy Weintraub

You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you. 

     ~Ray Bradbury

Yoga is the practice of quieting the mind. 

     ~Patanjali, translated from Sanskrit

If there’s a book you really want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it. 

       ~Toni Morrison