The alarm went off at 7:00 a.m. as usual. Beatrice opened her eyes a crack, turned off the alarm and yawned lazily. She was about to get up when she remembered that her parents had left after supper last night for a short getaway, leaving her and her (slightly) older sister by themselves for a couple days. School was out for the summer, but there was a long list of chores for Beatrice and Anna to do in the house and out in the garden before they’d have some free time. Beatrice luxuriated in the thought that no one was there to make her get up, rolled over and went back to sleep.
“Bea – get up!” Anna, of course. Bea kept her eyes closed to retain the illusion of sleep and mumbled “I’m going to sleep in – just leave me alone.” Amazingly, this seemed to work. Anna closed the door and left Bea in bed. But now she was awake. Oh well, she still didn’t need to get up. She reached for her phone and started out with Instagram before moving on to Facebook, Snapchat, and TikTok. A couple hours later, she realized she might as well get out of bed and at least eat breakfast. She put her feet on the floor and stepped on something sharp. “Ouch!” She checked the floor, but didn’t see anything. Another step, more pain, like she was stepping on broken glass. There were no cuts on the soles of her feet, though. “Odd,” she thought, and made her way slowly to the bathroom, trying to step carefully, but still feeling like she was walking on thorns. Progress was slow. She found her sandals out in the hallway and put them on, but it made no difference.
She worked her way slowly and painfully out into the kitchen and saw that Anna had already eaten, cleaned up and was nowhere to be seen. She was probably outside watering and weeding in the huge garden that their parents set such store by. Bea felt a slight pang of guilt, but this was quickly overshadowed by irritation at Anna. The worst thing to happen when one is giving in to a splurge of self-indulgence is to see someone else doing the Right Things. Bea knew she was being unreasonable and she didn’t care. She reached for the refrigerator door. “Ouch!” The door handle felt like it was covered with prickles. Bea fumed. Her one day off and everything was becoming so difficult. Why?!!
She inched toward the back door and couldn’t even touch walls for support – sharp, everything was so sharp. When she got to the door it was ajar, so she nudged it with her knee to open it more (ouch!) and gasped when she looked out over the back porch and the yard. An entire sea of thorny overgrowth had sprung up. You could barely even see a pathway out to the garden. Bea could hear the hose running and heard Anna humming, so she knew Anna was out there working.
“Anna!” she shouted, hoping Anna was close enough to hear her.
“Oh, you finally decided to get up, eh?” Anna answered from somewhere, hidden by the prickly jungle that had overtaken their yard, “I could use some help out here. When are you going to come and do your section of the garden?”
“What? How did you make it out there through that hedge of thorns? I’m not sure I can even get past the door!”
The hose turned off. Anna suddenly appeared through the thicket of overgrowth, walked easily to the door and asked, “What on earth on you talking about?”
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The way of the lazy man is like a hedge of thorns,
But the way of the upright is a highway.
Proverbs 15:19
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Fiction Friday was inspired by my reading in the book of Proverbs today.
Have a blessed weekend!
I’ll probably delete this in the morning, hopefully not having to work through a hedge of thorns to do so.
Lynniebeemuseoday 