"You Little Tart" - Day 585: 5 Minute Freewrite: Tuesday - Prompt: tart
You little tart,
her mom would say, just like my cousin Lenna, and she meant it in a good way, but "little tart" blocked out any other term of endearment Mom might have used on her. "You little tart" sounded too much like her brother's word for her.
Tard.
Short for, you know.
"Tart" was not a compliment when Dad dug into a rhubarb custard that didn't have enough sugar. Tart was a lemon; used cars that were unreliable were lemons.
Why didn't anyone call her mom over the carpet for calling her a tart?
Being a little tart, if the word meant to everyone what it meant to Mom, suggested that she was sassy, saucy, not passive, not meek. But the word meant other things to other people. How was a mere child to grow up with the insight and understanding to to live up to a label that didn't seem to fit?
For that matter, what labels ever really fit?
"Tart" was a legacy,
but growing up hearing "tart" used sneeringly and disapprovingly for everyone else but her, she knew that it wasn't such a good thing to be outspoken and assertive.
Everything is the mother's fault, as they say, and so she might have blamed Mom for her unexpected lot in life, the submissive wife, the last thing anyone expected the little tart to become. But to be fair, the predicament she was in now started with a cat.
That cousin Lenna, as a matter of fact, and Lenna's missing cat....
FIVE MINUTES ARE UP
And, for once, I'll stop being a cheat, and I'll finish this story in a separate post, if I finish it at all.
Day 585: 5 Minute Freewrite: Tuesday - Prompt: tart
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Labels never fit!!!! Love your writing- but you know that!
Posted using Partiko iOS
I loved this one. I could see the direction and I really liked the follow up with the missing cat. He he. And that pic of the cat is priceless!
Thanks so much! There's a reason for that photo. If I follow up with this story, the way @owasco is doing with her now four-part feuding neighbors saga. It's so much fun to let a prompt set off an unplanned stream of images and characters. I still picture your boy at the window, the teddy-bear moon in goggles (I can see that now!), and the satisfying ending. #HappyEndings are unduly vilified thanks to Disney. But after revisiting Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame, I saw how lame it can seem. Weirdly, the cathedral fire occured while a local theater was putting on the musical--and the live-theater version of the Hunchback, which uses all the Disney songs, keeps the Victor Hugo ending, Esmeralda and Quasimodo DEAD. Brutal!!! Maybe that animated version's happy ending wasn't so laughably unbeliievable after all. Ok, it was. It was a ridiculous. But the Hugo ending is something I cannot unsee even though I never laid eyes on it.
It's nice to see what comes freely into your head woman! Even your meanderings are spell binding. So now I want to know how the missing cat led the little tart to become a submissive wife. I think it was the brother's fault, calling her a, you know, not the mother's.
I'm a mother. I for one refuse to blame The Mother.
LOL! I'm a mother of three, and early on, someone told me "Everything is the mother's fault," and I've been haunted ever since.
Thanks so much for reading and commenting!!!
Man am I in good company on this msp curation! such an honor! and thank you for the mention above!
I gave you 100% upvote on this @carolkean
wow! Thank you Jerry!
It took me a while to get past the picture. LOL! Look at all of your colorful ways you used the prompt and what a fun to read. I hope you continue the story. : )
Resident cat here, not being able to get that image of the cat out of my mind as I deliver today's new prompt: https://steemit.com/freewrite/@mariannewest/day-586-5-minute-freewrite-tuesday-prompt-chapter
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Thank you @whatisnew! Those hairless cats kinda haunt me too. Thank you so much for reading, commenting, and delivering the next prompt!
Sounds like a harsh label to have to endure. I think this greatly demonstrates the problem with not expressing your feelings to others.
Beautiful sphynx cat :) I'm looking forward to the rest of your story
Posted using Partiko Android
Thank you so much! I look forward to more of your stories.
The power of words and labels should not be underestimated. Greetings.
Thanks for reading and commenting! Greetings to you to. :)
Hello!
This post has been manually curated, resteemed
and gifted with some virtually delicious cake
from the @helpiecake curation team!
Much love to you from all of us at @helpie!
Keep up the great work!
Manually curated by @sunravelme.
Oh thank you! (Now if I could appropriate that gif!)