Day 753: 5 Minute Freewrite: Tuesday - Prompt: greens (and, The Posture of Innocence, day 22)

In the "Greens" freewrite portion of The Posture of Innocence, Jetson Black and Commissioner Scott, in their respective spheres, each experience the relationship between food, friendship, and the way faith and respect are communicated in many aspects of life...

To get totally caught up on The Posture of Innocence, here are the prologue, day 1, day 2, day 3, day 3.5, day 4, day 4.5, day 5, day 5.5, day 6, day 7, day 7.5, day 8, day 9, day 9.5, day 10, day 10.5, day 11, day 11.5, day 12, day 12.5, day 13, day 13.5, day 14, day 15, day 16, day 16.5, day 17, day 18, day 19, day 19.5, day 20, day 20.5, and day 21!

Mr. Jetson Black read the Lofton County Free Voice that morning, smiled, and called Mr. James Varick IV, editor-in-chief.

“Hey, Jimmy, good morning – thanks for smoothing my way today,” he said. “Yes, I imagine Nathan is not going to like even that concession, but, that's all right. If we don't see some movement from Commissioner Scott after this carrot, we'll have quite a story to make it all up to Nathan afterward, after all. It'll be a good one either way. Yes, I'll teleconference the interview with him from my room here, in time for lunch … I tell you, Jimmy, there's a restaurant next door called Soulful Greens where I will be getting that lunch – if Commissioner Scott acts right and I can stay in town, we can go eat there and celebrate tonight – man, look, the hot water cornbread is hitting so hard with the greens with the peppers and the onions that you don't even realize you are eating healthy. Here's to celebration later on – but yes, it's at 10; I'm just about to head over to headquarters. Right. Right. Goodbye.”

Drawing even … drawing even … the words kept rolling around in Commissioner Scott's head with some new words, given as a command: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

“Ms. Thornton, tell me something,” he said as he walked out into the outer office. “What kind of refreshments would you whip up if another commissioner were coming to see me?”

“Oh, I always make sure you and your guests have the best,” she said. “What you get, they get.”

“It's that whole do unto others thing, isn't it?”

“You're catching on so fast, Commissioner!”

“Ain't got no choice – I need the One Who has saved me to save this whole department! Thank you for doing your part, all this time, in His service, and mine! I don't have to tell you to serve Mr. Black like you would me, do I?”

“Nope,” she said. “God doesn't respect persons, and we shouldn't either. If he's good enough to be your guest, he's good enough for me to serve him like I would serve you – no exceptions.”

Commissioner Scott thought about losing Ms. Thornton as a secretary if her fondest hopes and dreams someday came true … she just lit up whenever Captain Lee came around … but, she would make a good wife for anybody who was prepared by the Lord to be a good husband. She had good spiritual sense in addition to fabulous interpersonal and hospitality skills. The question was, did the Lord see Captain Lee or anyone else at headquarters needing a wife more than Commissioner Scott needed a secretary? The commissioner was glad that, at least for that day, the divine answer was, “no.”

Day 22.5 is up!