I started a personal challenge to write a story that is exactly 50 words! Thank you, Boy with a Hat. Not that he set up a formal challenge, but it was his idea. And his writing is worth checking out. And if you leave a comment, he’ll send you an invisible gift. So please click the link and find out what he’s up to. If you want to begin at my beginning, click here or search in the side panel with the words, “fifty word.”

This week, I opened my copy of Dorothy Astoria’s The Name Book to Baruska. OMGoodness! I know a Baruska. She works at my bank. She shares my Polish heritage, albeit hers is much closer to the motherland than mine. I’m only a half-breed. It’s Mom who’s a first generation American.

I thank my good friend, Diane, for suggesting I set up a formal Challenge. Almost everything she writes makes me smile. (Except when she makes me cry.) Check out her blog at “On the Border.”

“The children are nestled,” Baruska hipped Charles and winked.

“Visions of sugar plums?” Charles wiped dishwater hands on his apron.

Baruska kissed his cracked cuticles one by one, sighing. “Does Grandma’s brandied fruit count?”

Charles’s objections withered like dried leaves carried on desire’s hurricane. Time for a long winter’s “nap.”

Wednesdays are super-fun and challenging because paring down to exactly 50 words is really hard.

I never know what’s going to flow directly from my brain to my fingertips and onto the virtual page. Every week it’s a bit of a surprise. This week’s story started out with thoughts of Mom and Christmas traditions. That’s where the brandied fruit came from. The rest remains a mystery.

I do love finding out what you think.

Would you like to join me in for a 50-Word Wednesday Challenge? Please add your link in the comments section. I promise to pop over and read your stories. And I’ll give the best a shout-out next week.

Feel free to copy this picture. Please include the caption, or add my link, into your blog, so your readers can find me.