"In a good bookroom you feel in some mysterious way that you are absorbing the wisdom contained in all the books through your skin, without even opening them."
― Mark Twain

View Skyward, near the Pearl/Arts District DART station, Dallas, Texas

From my blog (I called it an "Online Journal" then), The Daily Epiphany, Monday, October 30, 2000.

Home Alone

After school, Lee went to a friend's house while Nick played basketball at the recreation center. Candy did some yard work in front of the house. Lee and his friend came over, walking in the back door and not seeing Candy - but seeing the van was there and assuming she was home. They never thought of looking in the front yard.

Candy's mom called the house and Lee answered the phone, upset.

"I'm home but Mommy isn't here!" said Lee.
"Now, Lee, you know you're mother wouldn't go off and leave you," Candy's mother replied.
"I'm afraid she's been kidnapped... No, I'm afraid she's been Mommynapped!" cried Lee.

Candy's mother called Lee's friend's mother (they live across the alley) and she came over, finding Candy working in the front flower garden.

"Someone's looking for you," she said.

And a piece of flash fiction for today:

A Telephonic Conversation by Mark Twain