Anyway, my goal is to be finished with Second Friday Jess by August 22, which is now this month!! Aaaaugh!
Camping put me behind, but I put in a marathon session today -- 4635 words. Now if I write 1450 words for the next 6 days, I'll be on course for my first draft.
Unfortunately, I don't know if anything I wrote was entertaining, so you tell me:
Myra’s temperature never went below one hundred three. She drank water at his urging, but wouldn’t eat more than a bite or two of Jello or soup. When she was asleep, she seemed to hover near wakefulness. When she was awake, she seemed right on the edge of sleep. Jess didn’t like it. He took Myra’s temperature every two hours, and almost hoped she’d hit that magical one oh five, so he could take her to the hospital. She was really sick. He had no business trying to take care of her. He couldn’t keep a houseplant alive.
He ordered from Rocco’s, made the girls drink milk with dinner, and sent them up to get ready for bed. They came back downstairs, and he had to read a chapter of *Little House in the Big Woods* to them.
“You actually enjoy this?” he asked.
They all nodded. They looked pretty cute, pink cheeked, in their pajamas.
“But, the whole thing was about making maple syrup. When are you ever going to need to know that?”
“We like it,” Sophie said. “You missed the bear chapter. Two bears.”
“One pretend bear,” Lily said. “You want to read that one? You’ll like that one better. Because it’s about the real bear and the fake bear, but Pa thought it was a real bear, and he was really brave because he hit it and he thought it was a real bear. But Ma hit the other bear and it was a real one, but she wasn’t brave because she thought it was a cow.”
“Uh, maybe I’ll read it later.”
They hugged him, which felt awkward and nice at the same time, and then gave him another hug to give to Myra.
“Good night,” Jess said. He thought that those words meant that he’d see them in the morning, but he might as well have said, “I’ll see you five or ten more times before midnight.” Sophie needed a drink of water. Caroline forgot to take her allergy medicine. Lily wanted reassurance that he’d be there all night. Sophie’s tummy hurt. Lily thought she might be getting the flu, too. Could she sleep on the couch with Mom?
“Good night,” Jess said again. “And what I mean by that is, good night!”
For some reason, that made Lily giggle, but she trotted up the stairs and stayed there this time.
Jess tried the TV again and found Die Hard, only half way through. He got a soda from the fridge and settled in to watch it.
“You’re watching Die Hard?” Myra’s voice was a croak.
“Yep.”
“You always pick your stuff over my stuff.”
That made him grin. “I like me better.” He got up and felt her forehead. “How are you feeling?”
“Oh, marvelous. Simply wonderful. I thought I was saved, but I was obviously mistaken. I’ve gone to hell.”
“It’s possible. Do they make maple syrup in hell?”
To reward myself for my diligence, I spent an hour looking at videos online, and I found a really cute one, which I would like to share with you. If I can figure out how.
Well, for heaven's sake. I figured it out! This is just a successful day all around.
Have a lovely evening, my friends!
Naomi
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