The winner of our tenth annual Mosaic Musings Holiday Classic has been chosen! A special goes out to our judges Bev (Peterpan), Karen (Anaisa), Snow (Eisa), Maureen and Carol Lynn. They were tasked with choosing 3 of the submissions they felt best represented the season, allocating 3 points for their top nod, two for second and one for third. The winning submission received 15 points awarded out of a possible 30, taking in 50% of the total; in other words, every judge chose it as their number one choice - FANTABULOUS results!
CONGRATULATIONS to Psyche (Sylvia) for her winning entry, "Christmas Reunion" in our tenth annual Mosaic Musings Holiday Classic! May your holidays always be memorable ...
~MM Staff
Christmas Reunion
Sylvia Evelyn, Bariloche, Argentine Patagonia. 2015.
December inched laboriously towards the festivities, leaving a trail of fretful shoppers attempting to purchase that final, symbolic gift for somebody’s cousin just arrived from Chile; or perhaps for an odious personage they’d overlooked while writing Christmas lists... in Freudian slip mode. Meanwhile, the noonday Buenos Aires sun was wickedly transforming downtown asphalt streets lined with skyscrapers into veritable furnaces.
Cynthia, on the other hand, sat through a suburban garage auction, feeling sweaty and doubtful. Indifferently, she dropped her little brown handbag on the ground by her chair. She wasn't at all sure why she was there. Waste of time. Lots of tatty articles being sold off at a pittance, perhaps for thrifty -or stingy- buyers seeking Christmas bargains. If it hadn't been for Jack's sister, for respect, companionship and all that, she'd have upped and left half-an-hour ago.
Still, she sat there as if glued to her inflexible, plastic chair. I'm daft, she thought to herself; after all, Jack was my husband and now he's gone, why should I sit through this nonsense? Nobody even remembers me here. It doesn't matter one way or another what happens to that load of rubbish. Just odds and ends that Jack hadn't bothered to collect from his home, when Cynthia and he had married and gone off to live in Patagonia, so long ago. Family stuff, gilt-bound classic books, pictures, recipes, toys, candlesticks, silk scarves with damp stains on them... what the heck, he’d never had time to deal with all that. His sister should have thrown the lot out ages ago.
The monotony of the auctioneer's voice, the oppressive afternoon, everything seemed to combine to make Cynthia nod off to sleep. She wasn't sure how long she'd been dozing, when she abruptly realized that a peculiar silence had fallen on the small crowd of people, twenty at the most. It was the silence that had awoken her, she was certain.
She gaped in confusion up at the wobbly wooden stand where articles were being offered from a collapsing cardboard box. The auctioneer was holding up a water-colour of a glade encircled by trees and ferns, quite pretty, come to think of it... but suddenly Cynthia realized that there were two moss-covered mounds of earth nearly concealed in the woodsy scene. Her heart began to beat faster! She'd seen that scenario before, somewhere, many years ago... Yes! It had been Christmas Day, during that scintillating summer spent in Argentine Patagonia, in a log cabin they’d rented to get away from the strident city ambiance.
Cynthia sprang up and ran to the stand. - Wait, wait! - she cried, - I must touch that picture, I must inspect it closer, please hand it to me!
The man seemed unnerved, but he held it out to her. Turning the framed water-colour around, Cynthia read an inscription on the back in a whispering, tremorous voice:
What a lovely surprise, Lori! Thanks so much for your kind words. Never imagined this result...
I also want to give special thanks to Peterpan, Anaisa, Snow, Maureen and Carollyn for their hard work on MM's annual holiday special.
This is a big perk in the midst of personal grief (who doesn't have some personal grief?), since my husband died soon after Christmas, last year. Not over that void by a long shot.
So love to you all and may your dreams and projects come true during the rest of 2016!!
Psyche/Sylvia
Powered by Invision Power Board (http://www.invisionboard.com)
© Invision Power Services (http://www.invisionpower.com)