Today is Tell a Story Day!

"It takes a thousand voices to tell a single story." ~ Native American Proverb

"There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories." ~ Ursula K. LeGuin

"Stories live in your blood and bones, follow the seasons and light candles on the darkest night -every storyteller knows she or he is also a teacher..." ~ Patti Davis

Today is tell a story day. Everyone who knows me well, knows I love to tell stories. I will admit that every once in a great; great; while I will even add the teeny tiniest bit of fiction to a boring story to make it tell a little bit better. Never making up a lie but some stories just have to have a little bit of dressing I think.. For instance, The last time I flew I was searched over and over for what seemed like a hundred times..... ~ I was actually searched only three times! But being that they took a flip flop and my bra every time; it surely seemed like a hundred times and you have to admit that the first telling sounds better.... Today I am sharing with you a story that I wrote a while ago when I was sent some very detailed instructions by a friend. I was to write a story, at least two of the characters had to have names from the Bible but this could not be a Bible story. It also had to either be about the future or the past, and it had to be about re-incarnation. It also had to have a cat in the story. Not too much to ask for is it?? Only a very few people have ever heard this story before today and yet it is one of my favorites that I have written.

Please enjoy my story for today. Today; if you get the chance; tell a story to a child or maybe ask an elderly person to share a story with you. The elderly have so many wonderful stories to tell and not nearly enough youngsters with time to listen. Storytelling is fast becoming a lost art in this new world of cell phones and the Internet. I hope I will always have a story to tell and a willing ear to listen! Have a great day!
Patsy


A Bad Day to Be a Barber


Delilah was a barber. Not a beautician, not a massage therapist, not a tattoo inker. But a Barber! She hated it when people came into her shop here in the green zone and asked for any of the other services. She had her red and white flag flying outside. Didn't that tell them that "Delilah's Den" was a barber shop? "Let today be a good one!" she said to herself as she turned the knob to enter her shop, "A good day to be a barber!"

She had discovered her career quiet by accident when she was four years old and had found scissors in her Mother's work basket. She had cut her brother, Paul's hair and it had been so skillfully done that her path had been decided by her Dada right then. Delilah loved cutting hair. She hadn't counted but she was almost sure she had cut at least a million heads.

"We're open again." she told her big, bronze colored cat. "You have to let me use the chair for a while."
" Yea Whatever." Cringle replied, leaping from the chair to lie along the window sill in the sunlight. Delilah laughed at him. " Be nice Cringle!" she told him " Not all cats have it so good!"

Delilah went about her morning cutting and trimming hair for the many men who came in and out of the shop. Tossing a mouse here and there to Cringle when she found them lurking in the beards of the old ones. Laughing at the same old jokes she had been hearing for years. Listening to the sad stories of love and hate that the men would share as they waited for their turn in her chair.

It was as if she were an equal with them. She liked that feeling. Delilah liked feeling equal with the men. She wondered how much longer she would hold that joy, a joy unknown by most women in the green zone.

Delilah's Mother had warned her that Dada was looking for a mate to match her with. She hoped to put him off just a little bit longer. She had hoped to marry for love like her parents had. She knew that love was rarely found any more but still she hoped. Her brothers had both been matched by the old ones. Paul to a lovely young girl from the red zone who had been traded for food; and Noah to a ship builders daughter who had wound up here, an orphan, when the family's ship had crashed. They had been traveling to the red zone from the blue zone far away. It was possible that Ruth had left family behind in the blue zone, but that wouldn't matter here. Since she had no cat to look after her she had been declared an orphan and had been mated just as soon as the old ones could find a single male who would take her as his mate. Even though her brothers had both been matched by the old ones, they seemed happy. Their wives were grateful to be counted as wives and not as orphans. Both families were expecting their second sons this year; their first sons now several months old.

Delilah knew Dada would make sure the old ones made a good match for her as well but she wanted to hold off just a little longer. She was only twenty seven ages this year. She still had a little time. A little time to find love.

Cringle lay in the warm sunlight and worried about his lady. He knew she would never be happy matched with any man without love. He dreaded that day for them both.
"Delilah?", Cringle asked, When I have to become a house cat, will you still allow me to talk?"
" OH Please Cringle!" Delilah muttered, " could I or any mate they might match me with stop you?"
"Probably not!" he answered rolling away with a swish of his long tail and swirl of worry hanging over him. Cringle had been around. He knew that most house cats were silenced unless they were sent by their mam to carry a message to her mate. Most men wouldn't allow their wives to continue her special relationship with her cat once she had been mated to him. Why even Dada had silenced Mother's cat for a full month last year after it had repeated to Mother some words it had over-heard him say. " Let him try!" Cringle muttered to himself, turning his eyes to the street; watching the men and the occasional cat carrying a message hurrying by. "Just let him try!"

Delilah picked up her sweeping stick as Cringle closed his eyes for a nap. She always cleaned the shop during lunch time. No men would visit the shop for those two hours. The single men were somewhere seeking a mate and the mated men would be in their own huts, mating or resting and having a cup of tea with their lady. Sweeping floors and dusting counters, she was unaware of the vision she gave to the watcher across the way. The silvery hanging orbs that the customers used to look at themselves captured her beauty and tossed it back to the watcher. Her hair hung in raven waves to pool softly around her slim hips. Her green eyes flashed as she talked and laughed with her beast.

"I'll silence that soon enough." Sampson said to himself. " No cat will hold such a high spot in my mates heart." Sampson was spoiled. The son of a rich man and his lady, Sampson had always been given what ever his heart or body desired. Today he had decided that he desired the beautiful barber. He had decided that he would have her for himself. " Very soon..." he promised himself. " Very soon you will belong to me. I will pour my body into yours. I will pour my life into you. Very soon You will do as I say!"

Delilah pulled the brush again through the long thick hair hanging over the stranger's shoulder. His locks hung almost as long as hers and not a mouse to be found. Something very strange was going on here. Delilah knew this was no ordinary man. He had come striding into the shop demanding a brushing as soon as she had re-opened. He had slammed through the front door disturbing Cringle and causing him to roar. Delilah couldn't remember the last time she had heard the big cat roar. Even now he was eyeing the stranger with Hatred. Something seemed almost familiar about this stranger, she felt that she knew him deep with-in her soul. Delilah joined him in a delightful shiver as his eyes met hers reflected from the orb hanging before his face.

"A trim stranger?" she asked seeking a truth in his eyes. " or just a brushing?"
"I'll have a trim." he agreed " But silence that beast!" he added with an authority not yet his
"or I will!"
"I would know your name stranger" she said as she reached for her bearding knife I would know your true name."
"I am Sampson." ha said, realizing too late that he was out numbered by the lady and her beast.
"I am Sampson of Nazarii" he repeated as her bearding knife sliced his throat; his life blood flowing hotly across his belly and down; forming a scarlet puddle at Delilah's feet.


"Pull her up Gabe!" Sampson said, sucking in the sweet breath of life that had been restored to him as soon as he had reached this place. "Pull her up before a customer finds her there."
"The boss won't like it" Gabriel said "Why do you always have to bother the cat."
" You know she has to finish this life," Michael added from the shadowy corner of the room.
"Why?" Sampson insisted. " She Killed me again. We may as well go ahead and start over right now. Sooner or later she will get it right." he added, " I know she will. Give her one more try."

"You win Sampson" Michael said flicking Sampson straight away into the arms of a new Mother, "You Win."
"The boss is not going to like it" Gabriel repeated , worried that he would be blamed. "he's going to be angry!" he added with a shudder " I hate it when he's angry."
"He won't be angry" Michael replied hopefully. "just pull them up and send them after him. I'll go talk to the boss."

"Hey Michael?" Gabriel asked ; his hand hovering over thew two heart stones blinking as one in the life orb. " They almost had it this time didn't they? It's him that needs to change isn't it? Will they get it right this time?"
"I hope so!" Michael said as he reached the door. " What are you going to tell her when she gets here?"

"I think," said Gabriel with a chuckle and a lop-sided grin, That I shall say it was a bad day to be a barber!"


written by: Patricia Sawyer
2-7-2008