

Science fiction, fantasy, mystery and what-not
Watched the “Serenity” movie again. Apologies to anyone who thought I was going somewhere spiritual with this. I thought, it’d be a fun sequel to have Zoe hunt down the old crew, including River Tam, so that they can go and rescue Mal. If you don’t understand, you’re probably not a gorram brownshirt.
She would have been called a troubled teenager. Drinking too much, dropping out of school, becoming pregnant, marrying before she was seventeen, her life had taken turns that we didn’t expect from such an intelligent and charming person.
Two divorces, two children, and forty-five years later, she acquired her GED, graduated college with a B.S., runs a family business, is a grandmother of three, and is also a professional. She’s the one we turn to for help. She’s strong, stable, and reliable, the person we thought she would be before she became a troubled teen.
He and his sister were talking about words. She said, “You know where spitting image comes from?”
No.
“It was originally spirit in image. It was a religious reference. Somehow it got twisted into spitting image. I think it’s probably from someone’s accent confusing people, so they thought someone was saying spitting image instead of spirit image.
He later searched for origins, and spirit in image wasn’t mentioned. Shame, though, it sounded like a good story.
It was a simple pleasure. He stood outside on the covered back porch, sipping from a hot cup of coffee, listening to the rain, smelling the fragrances as cool air bathed him. The knots in his soul unraveled as he stood there.
He comes in.
Looking up, she sees him and asks, “You’re already here?”
Clearly, it’s a verbal tic. As an expression, it puzzles him. They’re looking at him and asking if he’s already there, when he clearly is. But that’s the nature of those things, something employed to buy some thinking time.
It’s one of two tics which dominate the family. He’s been away so much, he doesn’t have them, so he notices. The other comes up as he says, “I’ve already put the garbage out,” or, “I already ate lunch.”
The reply comes back, “Really?”
He mostly bites back the response, “No, I’m making these things up.”
Mostly.
He watched a cricket cross the room. Twenty minutes later, the cricket crossed back over to the original side. It left him wondering, why did the cricket cross the room?
Maybe it was bad GPS. It happens.
As the coffee maker brews more of its black magic, he leans close to the machine and urgently whispers, “Brew, little coffee maker. Brew, brew!” Naw, he doesn’t have a problem.