Wishbone Soup Cures Everything

A-Z Challenge: a different kind of story collection featured here! There is so much more to Tae Kwon Do than punching and kicking. Each pattern (a sequence of attacks and defences against one or more imaginary opponents) has a meaning attached to it, which students are required to learn. These pattern meanings are intended to inspire students, showing the five tenets; courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control and indomitable spirit; in action. In practice, students tend to memorise a bunch of words, not always correctly. It is very amusing to be told by an earnest six year old that Yi the First was an expert on Neon Confusion but if he knew the real story of Yi I he would be getting a much fuller Tae Kwon Do experience. Pattern meanings are a marvellous, under-used resource for teaching Tae Kwon Do, for teaching about life and death, about another very different culture, about philosophy and true bravery. Which is why I wrote, illustrated and published a book a

A-Z story installment S The last bit of this story, although the alphabet isn't quite done Life can be confusing... She carries the little bundle up the stairs to bed. Echo curls under the quilt. Claire makes a wall of rolled up blanket behind her, to stop a fall, anchors it inside the sheet. She strolls back to damp the fire. Her ribs ache. The floorboards are smooth and cool underfoot. She pauses at the window. Stars ping out in a thickening sky. There they are, millions; millions of stars, casting down light in diamond lines, all through space, millions and millions of stars. She sits at the window seat, her hand pressed against the glass. She cries without effort. Shadows get deeper, they overspill, make a rising tide all through the small house. There is enough illumination left to find a match. Claire lights a candle, treads back upstairs, her silhouette lurching by her side, slips into bed. ‘Obscure,’ she whispers, ‘a speck, nothing more. Unique to t

A-Z story, installment R.  Claire's mind drifts. She finds herself in a garden: herself as a barefoot child, running, easy as a lazy wind, through swathing grass. Lilting air presses her face, whispers, indecipherable and ticklish. Light tilts, she jousts back. Broad leaves on a smooth barked tree: in the sun, the leaf glows, shows its skeleton. She holds her hands to this bright sun, then cool mist, then shivering wind, then fresh rain: years of seasons pass, they tangle up like riverweed: they knot and twist until she remembers all of it, receives it like a solar plexus kick. From the edge of the bridge, how the air pushes back at her, how her fearful limbs flail; the icy metallic smack of the surface, how sudden it is; the water that closes over her head and how her mouth opens, closes, silent and pointless. A swell of tears wakes her up. The fire glows. Shadows play, against the light. ‘Like stars fell,’ she says. It kind of makes sense now. Perfect Echo is los

A-Z Part Q In the alcove at the side of the fireplace, a brass box holds kindling sticks and firelighters. There is coal in the scuttle and logs in a basket. The grate has some ash, craters of it, like a moonscape. Claire ponders raking it out, but then again, it is a light layer, it won’t choke out the draw of air. She has done enough work to be happy with her day. She opens the brass lid of the box to pull out a square of firelighter, a handful of sticks to make a fast blaze. Echo, meanwhile, has wandered over and poked the curious ash. ‘Careful,’ Claire warns, gathering the child to her lap. ‘You can watch this, okay, but then I put the fireguard up and you don’t touch. Ouch, hot!’ Echo, intrigued, makes no comment. She studies the white cube of paraffin as it catches the proffered flame. She studies the flames that spiral around the skinny kindling. ‘Woff,’ she whispers. ‘Fire is lively, like the dogs,’ Claire tells her. ‘Kind of sounds like woff, doesn’t it?

The A-Z story: installment P It's what cushions are really for! Echo explains she has finished by tipping her plate upside down. Claire scoops up leftover clumps of sandwich, stacks the plates, crunches her last wedge of apple while she whisks into the kitchen. Echo climbs up onto the un-cushioned sofa, hollers triumphantly. Claire can’t help but laugh. She returns to the living room and re-poses the cushions; makes a wall to hide behind. Echo slides herself, legs first, to investigate. The wall tumbles. They cheer, and rebuild; cheer, and rebuild. The cheers magnify, the rebuilds wobble, flimsier each time. Laughter swallows them up. Claire lies on the floor, chest heaving, eyes overflowing: strange noises squeeze from her bagpipe lungs. The more hopeless she is, the funnier it becomes. Echo’s giggles reach an explosive frequency. She does a sort of hiccup and sighs. ‘I think,’ Claire says, recovering her breath, looking at the lowing sunlight on the wall; ‘we s

A-Z story installment O Echo climbs the sofa while Claire cuts chunks of cheese, butters bread rolls, peels some apple. She hears the child babble nonsensical formative words in a purposeful manner. From the fridge she fetches grape juice. She remembers the plastic bottle with the pop up lid, easier for Echo to drink from than the mess of the cup. With a plate in each hand, she wanders in to the living room. The sofa cushions are on the floor. ‘Oh,’ Echo gestures, in the manner of one surprised to find a floor full of cushions. ‘Oh,’ Claire repeats, ‘how ever can that have happened?’ She stacks two of the cushions to make a soft table, then one each for a chair, places the plates. ‘Shall we?’ She sits. Echo catches on to the game, plonking herself down with a grin. ‘Nomnomnom.’ Each little hand fills itself with cheese and bread. She presses as much as she can into her mouth. ‘Good bread, isn’t it?’ ‘Mmmm.’ Echo’s mouth is too full for comment. She nods enthu

A-Z Part N Echo loves the water hitting her hands. She laughs and presses a chubby palm to the tap, spraying cold water into her face. Shock follows splutter, then she tries it again. This time it too is joyous for her. Water hits the walls and floor. ‘Enough!’ Claire is laughing also. Echo grins. She pats a wet hand on Claire’s cheek. ‘Nom,’ she says, decisively. ‘I am a bit peckish, now that you mention it.’ And a little apology: for I have not been as busy visiting other A-Z challenge folks as I would have liked: life is somewhat bowled over right now: if you have dropped by and left a comment I will get around to returning the favour!