Spooky Season Cinema: Young Frankenstein

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings10 Comments

When I was in elementary school, though I can’t remember which grade, one of our teachers plopped us in front of one of those big TVs on a cart with a VCR on a shelf and thought we would enjoy a movie called Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Not only did I not enjoy the movie, but it gave me nightmares, mainly because of one man and his crazy eyes.

Just watch this scene and tell me he’s not a psychopath.

It took me another 20 years to actually try that movie again and the eyes still haunted me, but I made it. Imagine my discomfort when, as a young, newly married woman, my husband said to me one night early in our marriage, “Will you watch one of my favorite movies ever with me? It’s called Young Frankenstein and it stars Gene Wilder.”

I’m sure I visibly shuddered, drawing images from my childhood of that man’s terrifying eyes, but eventually agreed.

That was many years ago so I didn’t remember much of the movie, which is why watching it last night with him again as part of the Spooky Season Cinema Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs, was almost like watching it for the first time.

Wilder’s eyes don’t frighten me as much anymore (total lie) so it was easier to watch it this time around, even with Marty Feldman’s eyes now freaking me out (not a lie at all).

The movie, for those who have never seen it, is a Mel Brooks film and is complete ridiculousness from start to finish. There are numerous classic scenes from the film, or at least they are classic to me because my husband has quoted so many of them over the years.

The film is a parody of all the old black and white horror films of the 30s and 40s and was made in 1974. The story follows Dr. Frederick Frankenstein, the grandson of Dr. Victor Frankenstein, of the Mary Shelly book fame. He insists everyone call him Fronkensteen, rejecting his ancestor, who he calls a lunatic during a lecture at the American college he works at. He doesn’t even want to be reminded of what his grandfather did.

When Frederick is given his great-grandfather’s will, he travels to Transylvania, leaving behind his fiancé (Madyln Kahn) and joining Eyegor (not Eegor/Igor), portrayed by Marty Feldman, and his attractive assistant, (Terri Garr), and the housekeeper, Mrs. Blucher played by Cloris Leechman at his great-grandfather’s castle. It’s there he finds his grandfather’s notes about reanimation and decides he’s going to try it again, but this time he’ll do it the right way, by putting a brilliant scientist’s brain in the body of a dead man.

Sadly, Eyegor drops the brain of the brilliant man and picks out one that is abnormal, which is when all the craziness — well, gets crazier and the monster, played by Peter Boyle, is brought to life.

“By the way, that was just one big sex joke,” my husband said during the reanimation scene and, well, he was right.

There are a few innuendos throughout the movie. “They got away with quite a bit for a PG-rated movie,” my husband pointed out.

According to Wikipedia, Young Frankenstein “was No. 28 on Total Film magazine’s readers’ “List of the 50 Greatest Comedy Films of All Time”, No. 56 on Bravo’s list of the “100 Funniest Movies”, and No. 13 on the American Film Institute’s list of the 100 funniest American movies.” ‘

It was more fun than scary, which is why I’d put it up there with one of my favorite “spooky season” movies that we’ve watched so far, other than Clue.

Read Erin’s impression of the movie HERE.

Up next in our series of movies for this feature:

The Nightmare Before Christmas (this is replacing Transylvania 6500, which we decided we just couldn’t watch)

Creature from the Black Lagoon (Classic Creature Feature)

Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Johnny Depp version)

And Halloween from 1979.

Book Recommendation: Mama, Sing My Song

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn book reviews, books and reading4 Comments

Book Title: Mama, Sing My Song

Author: Amanda Seibert

Genre: Children’s

Release Date: September 2022

Description:

Mama, Sing My Song is a children’s book about God’s big love, giving families affirming words to shower on their kids, revealing the bright joy, deep care, and unending love they have in their hearts. Amanda Seibert, founder of Mama Sing My Song, the popular company that creates personalized songs for parents to gift to their children, knows that the words we speak over our little ones can shape them for years to come. 

When we look at our children, we see those one-in-a-million grins, their crinkled noses, and sweet eyes looking back at us, which soften our hearts. God designed those babies uniquely, and Mama, Sing My Song is a celebration of all that is lovely and true about your child. Let your little ones know they are safe, loved, and cherished in your family.

This affirming book for 4- to 8-year-olds.

My review

This beautiful children’s book captured my heart and my and 7-year-old daughter’s attention with the beautiful words and beautiful illustrations. The message was heartwarming and instills such an important message in our children — that they are God’s work of art. No matter what others say about them, they are made in God’s image and God loves them, protects them, and watches over them.

I absolutely love how the front and back of the book provide spaces to personalize the book to your child with headings such as “wonderful qualities I see in you”, “my hopes and dreams for your life,” “the special meaning of your name,” etc.

This isn’t just a children’s book. It is a child’s keepsake, something I feel like children will hold on to remember that their parents love them, and God does as well.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book which I received from the author. All views expressed are only my honest opinion.

Sunday Bookends: Little Miss turns eight and a trip “up north”

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends4 Comments

Welcome to Sunday Bookends where I ramble about what I’ve been reading, doing, watching, writing and listening to.


What’s Been Occurring

My post is late today because today is Little Miss’s birthday and we took a trip to a small restaurant near us after holding a birthday party at home for her yesterday. Between running all over and getting interrupted today, I didn’t have time to finish this post for this morning.

There were seven kids tearing around our house and jumping all over the neighbor’s trampoline for several hours yesterday. Little Miss had a blast.

Today she wanted a family dinner out with her family. Originally she wanted to go to a restaurant to sit inside but this morning, after cuddling with Zooma the Wonder Dog, she decided she wanted to go somewhere we could eat outside so we could bring her furry best friend with us.

There is a restaurant near us that encourages customers to bring their pets and even sells meat bowls for them so we decided to go there. That gave Zooma an outing too and she was so excited to be a part of our day. We’ve been heading out places lately without her and it’s sad to leave her home.

Earlier in the week, we left her home for over eight hours when The Husband was at work, and we drove two hours away to see my 89-year-old aunt who will be going into a nursing home very soon.

Today we went to the restaurant, ate outside, admired the lovely covered bridge by the restaurant, then stopped at a local trail where The Husband and the kids hiked a little bit and I stayed at the van because of a bum knee and because I don’t do well at hiking these days.

I thought the trail was going to be a lot smoother than it turned out being. I hadn’t been there for years and did not remember the trail going down such a steep hill with so many rocks and tree limbs sticking out.  I would have liked a little bit more sun during the day, but it still turned out to be a very nice day.

As for the trip to my aunt’s, I hate driving long distances, but my mom doesn’t drive much anymore, and my dad has been driving a lot lately, so I volunteered to drive and actually did much better than I expected. It helped that I know the route there better than some and that it’s pretty much a straight shot up a couple of major highways. My aunt lives in Upstate New York, which is the part of New York most people don’t know exists. It’s a mainly rural area in the part we are closer to, with a few bigger “cities” like Binghamton, N.Y.

There is a three-lane highway that bypasses the city of Binghamton and it’s always a little crazy for this country girl to drive on. Cars are flying from off ramps on one side and people are switching lanes and it is in those moments I long for a tractor to get stuck behind. I did well on that stretch on the way to my aunts but on the way back it was rush hour and there were cars coming in and out and passing me on the right to get around a slow truck and aack! In the middle of all of this, a spider ran across the top of the windshield and I sat for a moment trying to figure out if it was inside or outside.

It didn’t take me long to realize that line of thought was stupid considering I was driving at 55 mph and there was no way a spider could hold on like that on the outside. So here I am trying to maneuver through this year while a spider is running up and then down the windshield and then disappears along the side of it. At that point, I have no idea where this thing is going to pop up. My mom, who was sitting in the front seat with me, told me to focus on the road and not on the spider. I did my best to listen to her and eventually I forgot about the spider. Luckily, he stayed hidden the rest of the drive.

The weather this week was similar to last week with a few days where it rained for a little, then the sun came out, then it rained again, then the sun came out, then it rained…well,  you get the idea. My poor cats were totally confused during the day and were either crying to get out or crying to get in. Zooma the Wonder Dog got wet a few times because I let her out and then didn’t realize it was raining again.

The weather was the same on the drive to and from my aunts and during the visit with her too.

During our visit there The Boy decided to stress me out by climbing a really tall tree in my aunt’s backyard. They are selling her house when she moves so it will probably be the last time he climbs that tree.

My aunt’s friend stopped by before we left and when I told her the story she said boys never grow out of climbing trees because the other day she caught her 49-year-old son up her tree. She’d gone out in the backyard and couldn’t find him. That’s when she heard him calling to her from above. He told her he’d just wanted to see if he could still do it.

It will be hard for us not to see my aunt in her home after all this time. I’ve never visited her in any other home and I know this move is very hard for her and for her daughter. We hope to visit her in the nursing home when she moves in. It will be a little bit of a further drive then.

What I/we’ve been Reading

This week I finished The Uncertainty of Fire by Stephanie Daniels.

Description:

What price will she pay for following her heart?

Chicago, 1871. Sixteen-year-old Whimsy Greathart would rather fight against Chicago’s child labor practices than attend her privileged family’s high society events. And a very public social blunder only strengthens her resolve to use her influence for good.

On the night of the Great Chicago Fire, her tenderhearted choice leads her into danger and results in life-changing consequences.

With her world turned to ash, she must rely on the mercy of poor relations to rebuild her future and is forced into the very labor system she wished to fight against. As Whimsy staggers under the weight of street gang violence and hazardous working conditions, a chance at deliverance persuades her to make a promise. One she intends to keep. But now she must determine whether it’s God’s heart she’s following or her own.

A Top Faved Christian story on Amazon’s Kindle Vella. Now available in paperback and e-book.

I had read part of this book on Kindle Vella last year before I had the dreaded virus and was a little too out of it to finish it after the dreaded virus so I was glad to have it in book form to read now. It is well written and a very interesting read, especially with all the history thrown in. The characters are rich and well developed and easy to love – or hate depending on the character. Stephanie will be releasing a second book in this series in the future and I’m looking forward to it. I’ll have a larger review on this later in the week.

I also continued reading A Quilter’s Holiday by Jennifer Chiaverini and picked up another book by her during a recent library visit.

A Quilter’s Holiday is part of the Elm Creek Quilt series.

Description:

For the Elm Creek Quilters, the day after Thanksgiving marks the start of the quilting season, a time to gather at Elm Creek Manor and spend the day stitching holiday gifts for loved ones. This year, in keeping with the season’s spirit of gratitude, Master Quilter Sylvia Bergstrom Compson Cooper is eager to revive a cherished family tradition. A recent remodeling of the manor’s kitchen unearthed a cornucopia that once served as the centerpiece of the Bergstrom family’s holiday table. Into it, each Bergstrom would place an object that symbolized something he or she was especially thankful for that year. On this quilter’s holiday, Sylvia has invited her friends to continue the tradition by sewing quilt blocks that represent their thankfulness and gratitude.

As each quilter explains the significance of her carefully chosen block, stories of love and longing for family and friends emerge—feelings that are also expressed in the gifts they work on throughout the day.

As an early winter storm blankets Elm Creek Manor in heavy snow, the quilters find new meanings in their best-loved traditions and new reasons to be thankful. A Quilter’s Holiday is a story of holiday spirit, in its truest, most generous sense.

I hope to finish reading a book I started a while ago by Donald Westlake this week or next, but with the way I’ve been reading lately – interrupted constantly by life and writing – it will probably be sometime later in October.

The Boy is reading a lot of text for history — a book on Medieval History By Susan Wise Bauer and is waiting for a new copy of War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells after Little Miss’s slime got stuck to the book he is reading.

Little Miss and I are reading The Year of Miss Agnes during the week and The Golden Years from the Little House on the Prairie season at night. Yes, we’ve read it before, but she asked for it again so…sigh.

The Husband is reading the latest Robert Galbraith, The Ink Black Heart.

What We watched/are Watching

This past week The Boy and I watched Hocus Pocus, which I wrote about on the blog for Spooky Season Cinema.

I also watched a lot of Dick VanDyke this week which I do when I am having a stressful week, which I did, but mainly mentally rather than other ways.


What I’m Writing

I’ve been plugging away at Shores of Mercy and hope to have the first draft of it finished in the middle of the month. I announced on social media this week that the book will release January 2023. I also revealed the cover on the Fiction Friday post.

On the blog this week I shared:


Now it’s your turn

Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.

Fiction Friday: Mercy’s Shore Chapter 21

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Fiction Friday3 Comments

I thought I’d share an update that I hope to have this book out on Amazon in January. It will be called Shores of Mercy and I revealed the cover this week as well.

Here is Chapter 21 (for blog purposes anyhow. The chapters often change in the final version).

As always, this is a continuing/serial story. I share a chapter a week and at the end of the story, after I edit and rewrite, I self-publish it. To catch up with the story click HERE. To read the rest of the books in this series click HERE. Let me know in the comments what you think.

Chapter 21

“There is no way I would steal from you and you know it, Lonny!” Judi ignored Lonny’s attempt to quiet her with the way he was lowering his hands and placing a finger against his mouth. He stood and walked to the door of his office, shutting it.

Judi flinched at the door clicking closed and hugged her arms around herself briefly before letting out a breath and letting her arms fall to her side.

“Judi, all I know is that I have a guy who has worked 15 years for me telling me that you’ve been taking money from the till. I can’t have you working here if I can’t trust you,  understand?”

“I didn’t take money from you. I’ve been working a second job.”

“Yeah, that’s what you say —”

“I’m working for a lawyer in Burkett. Ben Oliver.”

Lonny snorted a laugh. “You? Yeah right.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Lonny shook his head and laughed again. “What lawyer is going to hire someone like you?” He leaned forward in his chair and propped his large, hairy arms on the desk. “Come on, Judi. No need to lie anymore. Just leave your keys and apron, get out of here and I won’t press charges.”

Judi narrowed her eyes and pressed her lips together, wanting to fling a series of curse words across the desk at the heavyset man with hairy arms and black bushy eyebrows, but at the same time knowing it wasn’t worth it. It was over. She’d be leaving this job with a reputation as a thief, but at least it wouldn’t be going on a permanent record.

She flung the door open, slamming it back against the wall of the office, and started at the sight of Hannah standing in the doorway. The woman she thought had been her friend gasped and jumped back a step.

“Get an earful, Hannah?” Judi snapped, pushing past her.

“Judi, wait —”

Judi whirled around, hands at her waist. “I don’t want to hear a thing from you. We were supposed to be friends. How many shifts did I take for you when you had hangovers or had been out partying too late the night before? How many times did I cover for you when you were out back making out with your boyfriend instead of working? Now you stab me in the back? For what? More money? A fling with Lonny? What?”

Hannah’s mouth fell open but then closed again. Her gaze shifted to the floor as Lonny stepped into the doorway of his office and pointed at Judi. “Get out, Lambert. You’ve been nothing but trouble since you started here. Go be a pain in the butt somewhere else.”

Since the bar wasn’t open yet, it was only staff that watched as Judi left, tossing the restaurant front door keys and her money apron onto the front counter on her way out. She didn’t care who heard when she ripped her car out of the parking lot and headed back toward her apartment.

She ignored her cellphone ringing when she parked the car outside her apartment building and started to walk in. She didn’t care who it was. She wasn’t in the mood.

“Judi!” She turned at the sound of her name being called. “Hey!”

The tall, lean figure jogging down the street toward her transformed her scowl into a relaxed smile. Wearing a dark gray shirt and a pair of dark blue jeans, Evan looked even better than he had the day he’d looked at her car. She turned from where she’d been about to walk up the stairs to her apartment, folded her arms across her chest, and leaned a shoulder against the building to watch his progress. It was a nice view.

He winked as he reached her and propped his arm close to her, against the wall of the building, pushing the cowboy hat he was wearing back on his head so the sun hit his face when he smiled. “You’re a sight for sore eyes. Where you off to in such a hurry?”

She returned his smile. “Having a bad day so I’m headed up to my place to drown my sorrows in a pint of ice cream.”

Her gaze trailed across his unshaven jawline, drifting to a cleft chin before sliding back to his green eyes with flecks of brown and gold in the iris. “Want to join me?”

The words startled her. She’d just invited a guy she’d barely seen since high school — when she’d made out with him under the bleachers — up to her apartment. He was either going to run for the hills or —

“I’d be glad to. Got any chocolate?”

Her throat tightened as she smirked as an answer and turned to head up the stairs. She hoped he knew she was only offering ice cream and a chat and that he was as polite as his older brother. Then again, if he wanted another make-out session it would be a nice distraction from Lonny’s lies, Hannah’s betrayal, and that voicemail from Seline she knew was waiting on her phone.

Since she’d moved into the apartment, it had either smelled like apple cinnamon candles or all things feminine, thanks partially to Ellie and partially to her own likes. Dropping her keys on the table next to the door and catching a whiff of Evan’s masculine cologne caused her to suck in a quick and quiet breath. She gestured toward the small loveseat in the equally small living room as she headed toward the kitchen.

“Make yourself at home,” she said, walking to the refrigerator, and into a kitchen that was essentially part of the living room.

When the front door clicked closed behind him, a chill shivered through her, but she brushed it off and opened the freezer door.

“Can I get you a drink to go with your ice cream?” She smiled over her shoulder. “Non-alcoholic only.”

“Water is fine,” Evan said from the couch. “What was your bad day all about?”

She huffed out a sigh. “I got accused of stealing money at my job and got fired.”

Evan winced then laughed. “Ouch. That is a bad day.” She heard his footsteps behind her and the muscles in her entire body stiffened. “Can I give you a hand?”

“Sure,” she said with a quick smile as he stood next to her. She pushed the carton of ice cream across the counter. “You can dip out your own ice cream if you like. Bowls are in the cupboard toward your left.”

“No problem.” He opened the cupboard and took the spoon she handed him. “So, how did you even end up back in Spencer? I heard you were loving it in the city.”

“And who told you that?”

Evan shrugged. “Through the grapevine.” He grinned as he dipped the ice cream out into the bowl. “Jessie Landry is usually the source of the grapevine.”

Judi rolled her eyes. “Ugh. Jessie. Yeah.” She put her carton of ice cream back in the freezer, then took his carton as he handed it to her. “We used to hang out a lot. She wasn’t as interested in hanging out when I told her I wasn’t going to be drinking anymore.”

“What led to that decision?” he asked as they walked back to the couch. “The drinking one?”

Judi hadn’t expected that question and wasn’t sure she wanted to answer it. At this point, though, she also didn’t care who knew why she’d stopped drinking. “I got tired of waking up with major headaches. That and one day I woke up and realized I’d poured half of my life down the drain.”

She’d worried about how he’d respond to her openness, but she looked up to see him nodding in apparent understanding.

“Makes total sense. Alcohol has never been my vice, but then again, I’ve probably only had a couple beers my entire life.” He made a face. “Just never got used to the taste or the way it made me feel.”

She dug into her ice cream and curled her legs up under her, thinking about how this was the first time she’d ever sat next to a man on a couch, simply talking. She also wondered what Evan’s vices were. Or was he as put-together as his police officer older brother?

She watched him take a bite of his ice cream, her gaze drifting to his lips, which she’d once kissed but knew she needed a refresher course on at some point. That make out session had been a long time ago.

“How long are you home for?”

“Not sure yet. Couple weeks at least, but my boss offered me a full month.” He placed the bowl on her coffee table and laid an arm on the back of the couch. “Tell me about this job of yours? Was it what you really wanted to be doing?”

Judi laughed. “Yeah, sure. I wanted to spend my whole life waiting on tables and getting hit on by old drunk men.” She took another bite of ice cream. “I haven’t grown up yet, Evan McGee. I have no idea what I want to do with my life. Do you?”

He shrugged a shoulder, his gaze meeting hers. “Not really no. I like driving truck. It’s a lot of fun to see so many different places and not get stuck in the same old every day. I don’t  have to be tied down to anything.”

Judi nodded. “Or anyone, which is good. Being tied to people can be very draining. I love my family but in the city, I didn’t have to deal with family issues as much. I was my own person, not Ellie Lambert’s crazy sister or Tom and Rena Lambert’s black sheep daughter.”

“You think you’ll ever go back to the city?”

The city held a lot of temptations, a lot of danger, but “Yeah. I think I will. Spencer really is too quiet for me. I feel stagnant here.”

He laughed softly, reaching up to push a strand of hair back from her face. “Yeah, I get that. I feel the same way.” The smile faded into a more serious expression. “It would be nice to be stagnant with someone else for a little while.”

Her breath caught in her throat as he leaned his head toward hers. She hadn’t expected him to move in for a kiss so soon, but she’d take it. She’d love to think about something other than everything else going on in her life right now. A warm mouth on hers might be just what she needed right now.

His lips were as soft as they looked. She was used to hard, urgent, sloppy, and drunken kisses. This one was nice, slow and easy and he was keeping his hands to himself other than eventually cupping her cheek as he continued to kiss her.

“Sorry,” he whispered leaning back a few inches, his mouth still hovering close to hers. “I’m probably moving a little too fast.”

A smile tugged at her mouth as her gaze fell to his lips. “Fast isn’t always bad.”

When he kissed her again, she slid her hands in his hair at the back of his head and felt softness between her fingers. Even as she moved closer, he kept his hands above her neck, in her hair, didn’t try what other guys had.

The kiss was tender, not full of wild need and it ended a few minutes later when his phone rang. He let his lips linger a few seconds longer before reaching for the phone in his back pocket.

He frowned as he looked at the screen. “Family is calling. I promised I’d be there for a family meeting of sorts this evening and I’m supposed to be helping my mom set up.” She sighed and slid the phone back in his pocket. “My sister and her kids are coming over and Matt’s coming with Liz and the baby.” He reached up and twirled a piece of her hair around his index finger. “Mom is cooking up a storm. I’d better not miss it.” He let the strand fall and trailed the same finger down her arm. “Hey, you wouldn’t want to come, would you? I can swing by and pick you up around 6.”

A family gathering with a loving, religious, and perfect family? Her stomach churned at the idea. Those were the types of places she didn’t fit in, but those green eyes were focused on hers and that finger was sliding across her skin, making tiny circles on the back of her hand. It didn’t hurt that his mouth was still looking insanely kissable too.

“Yeah, why not? I don’t have to work for Ben until tomorrow and all I was going to do tonight was drown my sorrows in the rest of that ice cream anyhow.”

He grinned and leaned in for another quick kiss. “Great. I’ll see you then.” She stood as he did. “Looking forward to it.”

He was looking forward to it, but she wasn’t sure she was. Quiet family gatherings weren’t really her thing. Time to sit and chat and talk about her life didn’t exactly appeal to her, especially since so much of her life wasn’t worth talking about.

Spooky Season Cinema: When my son and I asked ourselves if we were in hell while watching Hocus Pocus

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings11 Comments

“I can already tell this is going to be awful,” The Boy said as Hocus Pocus started.

I couldn’t help but agree.

Especially since Bettle Midler is in it and I’ve never been a fan of her. Ever. Like..really..ever (if I hear Wind Beneath My Wings again I will scream. It was so overplayed “back in the day), but in recent years I’ve liked her even less.

But, the initial impressions aside, I can see why fans of silly spooky movies would like it. It just wasn’t my thing really, which I knew within the first five minutes.

I just wanted it to end, and it had only started.

And I was feeling guilty because Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs loves movies and books like this and I want Erin to like me (please, please like me even if I’m not a fan of spooky movies!). We are watching movies for “spooky season,” in case you are new here.

So far we have watched Clue, The Addams Family, and Shaun of the Dead.

I soldiered on through the cheese and the silliness and clueless parents of Hocus Pocus to see if it would get any better.

We did and found it interesting that some of the movie was actually filmed in Salem and surrounding towns near it.

That’s about all we found interesting because we cringed through the rest of it.

The Boy kept pausing the movie to complain about it and I told him to stop prolonging our misery.

Comments uttered by one or the other of us during the movie:

The Boy: “He just threatened to hang a child from a telephone pole.”

The Boy: “Did she really just tell that girl her brother likes her boobs.”

Both of us: “They said the thing! Hocus Pocus!”

Me: “All it took was lighting a candle to bring them back and they’re telling me that no other teenager in 300 years had tried to light the candle? No! Just in 1993!”

Me: “This acting is 90210 bad.”

The Boy: “If you rhyme one more time, I swear to God, I’m going to pull  your hair out.”

The Boy: “This movie is just bad in every way possible.

Zombie comes up. The Boy: “It’s Michael Jackson!”

The boy: You’re telling me they put wiring and a plumbing system in this house? Took all the stuff out and then put it back exactly as it was?”

The Boy: “I would rather listen to Wonderwall on repeat for the rest of my life than continue to watch this movie.”

The Boy: “This movie just likes to pull stuff out of its butt.”

The Boy: “I understand why alcoholism exists now. It’s just to numb the pain of this movie.

Me: “What is happening right here? Why is she on his lap?”

The Boy: “Now we have a pervert bus driver who I wouldn’t allow within a thousand miles of my children.”

The Boy: “Best character, Sonic.” (Kid in the background dressed as Sonic the Hedgehog. )

The whole 90s obsession with kids who were still virgins at the age of 16 being “uncool” or “abnormal” is completely at play here, as with many 90s movies. I always found it incredibly disturbing how Hollywood always tried to push the idea that teenagers should already be having sex and if they weren’t they were “losers.”

Anyhow, in the end, we agreed with the Rotten Tomatoes consensus:

“Harmlessly hokey yet never much more than mediocre, Hocus Pocus is a muddled family-friendly effort that fails to live up to the talents of its impressive cast.”

And also this review by Johanna Steinmetz of the Chicago Tribune: Hocus Pocus is harmless, but it’s about as much fun as celebrating Mardi Gras under the influence of candy corn.

Up next in our Spooky Season Cinema:

Young Frankenstein

The Nightmare Before Christmas (this is replacing Transylvania 6500, which we decided we just couldn’t watch)

Creature from the Black Lagoon (Classic Creature Feature)

Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Johnny Depp version)

And Halloween from 1979.

Read Erin’s take on Hocus Pocus HERE.

Little Miss’s Reading Corner: Silly, spooky, and grasshopper books

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn books and reading, little miss reading corner10 Comments

Little Miss and I took a trip to the library a couple of weeks ago and she picked out some books for us to read together. I thought I’d share a few from our stack today for her Reading Corner. I took photos of the fronts of the books, but our library puts the barcode right over the titles, which I find terribly annoying as someone who likes to photograph what I’m reading. Silly, I know. I suppose I’ll get over it. Sigh.

Little Miss wanted something “spooky” even though she doesn’t usually like spooky stuff. She said she would read it during the day. So we grabbed a book called simply The Spooky Book by Steve Patschke and illustrated by Matthew McElligott.

It was a very cute book about a boy reading a spooky book that is about a girl reading a spooky book at the same time. When something happens in the book, it happens to the boy too.

It’s a fun book that insists a book can’t scare you while it scares the people reading it. We thought it was very cute.

Next Little Miss picked a book about dragons because she loves dragon stories.

Dragons Are Real by Holly Hatam is a board book probably meant for younger readers and those less discerning about dragons because Little Miss kept correcting the lore within its pages saying “that’s not true,” or “dragons don’t do that” when she disagreed with the declarations made inside it.

Overall we enjoyed the book, however, because the illustrations were very colorful.

 

I picked out Grumpy Monkey by Suzanne Lang and illustrated by Max Long (brother and sister) and we both ended up really liking it, partly because the illustrations featured extra creatures in the images, hanging out on trees and in leaves, etc.

The story is about a monkey who is grumpy but doesn’t know why and tries his best to be happy for everyone who keeps telling him he needs to be happy.

The message is that sometimes we are grumpy and it’s okay and we don’t have to figure out why we are grumpy. As long as we aren’t mean to others while we are grumpy. That’s not okay.

I placed The Ant and The Grasshopper by Luli Gray and illustrated by Giuliano Ferri on hold as part of our grasshopper unit.

This was a very cute book about an ant who prepared for the winter and a grasshopper who didn’t and how the ant helped the grasshopper and they became friends.

Little Miss has been fascinated with grasshoppers lately, including catching them in the backyard and running to me to show me what she’s caught.

We also signed out a book about dinosaurs and another one about grasshoppers, but haven’t had a chance to read them yet.

Hopefully we will get to them this week before they are due.

So that’s what Little Miss has been reading. How about you?

Sunday Bookends: Birthday, fall is coming – oh, it’s here, and cat books

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends1 Comment

Welcome to Sunday Bookends where I ramble about what I’ve been reading, doing, watching, writing and listening to.


What I/we’ve been Reading

Last week I finished The Cat Who Wasn’t There by Lilian Jackson Braun.

Description:

Persuaded by his beloved companion to join her in a group tour of Scotland, Qwill expects to revel in his Scottish heritage while keeping Polly Duncan safe from the Pickax Prowler. Instead, his trip is cut short when a thief swipes a suitcase, the bus driver disappears, and a fellow tourist is found dead, all in the same day.

Although the town of Pickax is in a tizzy over the recent events, Qwill has other, more puzzling worries on his mind. Who is the fellow still following Polly? Why is Koko licking Qwill’s photographs of Scotland and tackling him on the apple barn stairs? Upon investigating the secret life of the deceased and the bizarre behavior of one of the tour’s members, Qwill’s sensitive moustache tells him one thing: more trouble is on the way.


I then started Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan. I’m reading it via a library book and as many of you know, I have a library book phobia because I am always afraid I will dent it or mark it up. So I tried reading the library book without moving anywhere, but I leaned up to get something and bent the pages slightly. It freaked me out so bad that I looked up on Amazon how much it would cost to get my own copy. It turns out it was on Kindle Unlimited so I downloaded it through there and I’m taking the library book back out of fear of ruining it. I know. I have issues.

I’m also listening to The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs. Kip by Sara Brunsvold on Audible.

The Boy was reading War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells (yes, still) but then Little Miss left some slime around that hardened on it so the book was damaged. This became a bit of a family crisis because The Husband said he’s owned the book since he was 15 and it won’t be the same thing if I buy him a new copy. Sigh.

The Husband is reading Raising Steam by Terry Pratchet.

Little Miss and I are finishing up a Paddington book we hadn’t read before (Paddington On Top) and during the day we are reading The Year of Miss Agnes, which we might have finished last week if I hadn’t lost the book. Argh!



What’s Been Occurring

The nights are getting colder and in the second half of this week temperatures didn’t get past 65 during the day. It looks like it will be the same next week. Our leaves are turning much slower than I thought they were going to but it looks like we might have some bright colors in October.  

My birthday was Monday, and it was cold and rainy and I was excited. I know. I’m weird. I literally giggled with glee because I knew it meant I could read a book, under a blanket, while it rained.

I opened a book and watched a Thin Man movie. I literally did nothing Monday and making myself do nothing was fun. That night we all watched The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill and Came Down a Mountain.

The day before my birthday we went to my parents where they made me a delicious lunch of beef ribs, homemade onion potatoes and cabbage from my dad’s garden. Yum!

My dad also gave me some sunflowers from his garden and my mom gave me a check and told me I couldn’t spend it on the kids or groceries like I usually do. It was very hard because I had a couple pieces of curriculum I wanted to get, but in the end I bought myself a booklight, a journal, a paperback of one of The Cat Who books, and a new cover for my Kindle.

I wrote in my recent Randomly Thinking post that our kitten is a killer. Both my cats are actually, so imagine our surprise on Sunday when The Husband and The Boy saw a mouse running out from under our stove. Hmmmm…. The cats can apparently kill rodents outside the house, but not inside.

Wednesday night, though, our older cat, Pixel was lying in wait by the couch because the mouse ran under the couch Tuesday night after it scampered all over the living room, trying to get away from her. We still haven’t seen a sign that she’s caught it, since The Boy said she was still looing for it Friday night.

What We watched/are Watching

I already mentioned I watched a Thin Man movie for my birthday. I watched it all by my little ole’ self. It was The Thin Man Goes Home and I don’t remember seeing it before.

I also mentioned we watched The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill and Came Down a Mountain. If you haven’t seen the movie before, it’s really enjoyable and fun.

Last night The Boy and I watched Benny and Joon with Mary Stuart Masterson and Johnny Depp. It’s a movie I remembered from my teen years and it was my first intro to Johnny Depp.

Earlier in the week we watched Shaun of the Dead, which I wrote about for my Spooky Season Cinema Post.

What I’m Writing

I’m continuing to work on The Shores of Mercy. I’d hoped to have the first draft finished by the end of September but it looks like it will be mid-October now.

Last week on the blog I shared:



Now it’s your turn

Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.

The Summer of Paul Wrap Up

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings1 Comment

I managed to finish up my Summer of Paul with The Sting this past week so I thought I’d share impressions of that movie, two of Paul’s sort of “epic” films, From the Terrace and The Philadelphians and one in his later years, Mr. and Mrs. Bridge, as a type of close out to my Summer of Paul movie watching. I’m going to place a spoiler here and tell you I did not finish Mr. and Mrs. Bridge for various reasons. Read on to find out why.

First From the Terrace.

Warning: There will be spoilers for this one, so if you haven’t seen the movie and are just dying to do so (I have no idea why you would want to, however), then don’t read on, or skip on to my impression of The Philadelphians.

If you don’t think you are a fan of Paul or of his amazing good looks then you need to at least see him in the beginning From the Terrace, specifically the scene with him and Joan Woodward (his wife by the time this movie was made) on a boat. Oh my. I’m not usually the swooning type but — swooooon. I felt the need to fan myself and then give my husband a kiss (lest you think my crush on Paul distracts me from loving my husband. Don’t worry. I’m not that far gone.)

Alfred (Paul’s character) certainly doesn’t have it easy in this movie, but he also doesn’t always make things easy for himself. He has an alcoholic mother, an angry and bitter father still mourning the death of a young son, his firstborn, who died some 20 years earlier. Alfred’s choice of work and then a few other bad life choices also don’t make his life easy.

I read some reviews that called it melodramatic garbage and it was, but it was also well acted by everyone involved, even the characters I hated. I think I hated them so much because they were so well acted.

I wasn’t fond of many aspects of the movie to be honest. At the end these words came to mind, “Wow. That was a pile of hot garbage.”

This movie was like watching a train wreck, since I pretty much assumed where it was going and I wouldn’t get a nice ending, and while I don’t usually really agree with the critics, I did this time. I see a lot of movie critics as stuck-up elitists and usually like what they don’t and hate what they do. This time around I had to agree with the critics who said the movie was horrible.

Despite this movie being so awful, it was progressive in many ways with themes that were unnerving and made me cringe a bit, similar to A Streetcar Named Desire, which I watched earlier in the summer.

If lines like “What does success look like when you turn out the lights?” isn’t enough to tell you that this movie is full of innuendos and suggestive moments, I don’t know what is.

In the end, though, this movie was two and a half hours of watching the destruction of a man and his marriage, and that’s not really a spoiler. It’s obvious by the movie’s description that it isn’t going to go well for the guy. They could have destroyed his life in an hour and a half and still reached the same conclusion, in my opinion. This is a movie where it’s normal to have a lover on the side if your wife or husband isn’t showing you the attention you think they should. Communication be damned, I guess.

 It was awkward and cringeworthy for me to watch Paul make eyes at a woman who was not his wife for the second half of the movie, so I ended up fast forwarding a lot. I guess we were supposed to feel sympathetic to his “plight” but I didn’t. He was the one who traveled all the time and left his wife behind.

 I couldn’t really get on board with feeling all swoony about that when he’d already invested his love in one woman and then went chasing after another as if she was now something special. Then the romantic music when he pursued a relationship with the new woman. Like this time it’s real love. Gag me.

Not only that, I’m beginning to get annoyed at Paul’s stoic way of acting. He doesn’t have a terrible lot of range in some of his movies.

Eek. I know.

How could I speak ill of my “favorite” actor? I don’t know but I guess watching this many movies of his in a row isn’t the best idea because now I am analyzing him too much.

The Young Philadelphians

This movie is pretty depressing as well with a lot of people who lie, cheat, and don’t communicate, leading to a lot of hurt and destruction.

The movie starts out with a huge lie that will shape all of Paul’s character’s life and made me sit and wonder when the lie would come out.

This is another movie where parents try to keep their children from marrying each other to protect the family name and reputation and all that jazz. This movie provided me with a lot of moments of yelling at the screen, “Why didn’t you just talk to him!?” or to her or whatever. It was full of tons of assumptions by the main characters, leaving them wandering away from each other for years and wandering based on the inferences of others, instead of the truth.

This movie was also about Paul working his way up the ladder to success to prove others wrong who said he couldn’t become successful. The movie was also sort of all over the place plot wise and got really odd at the end with a court case.

It definitely wasn’t one of my favorite movies of Paul’s, even though I have seen worse.




Mr. and Mrs. Bridge

This movie starred Paul and his wife Joan as a husband and wife.

I am going to be straight up and honest that I abandoned this movie part way in, though I should have much earlier, like after a scene where it looked like Paul was checking out Kyra Sedgwick, who plays his daughter, right before he finally does something not boring by sleeping with his wife in the middle of the day. The scene was very confusing and I don’t know if he attacked his wife because his daughter turned him on or because seeing her reminded him of his wife when she was younger. Either way, it was a really creepy scene. I thought maybe I interpreted it wrong, so I Googled for any other opinions on this scene and found this impression of it on a site called Vocal Media:

“I make this comparison because though I have described Mr Bridge as incredibly, remarkably dull, he does have one trait: he gets turned on by his daughter. Yeah, that’s a running through-line of this austere drama, dad is kind of incest-y toward his daughter. A scene in which Mr Bridge watches his daughter sunbathing leaves Mr Bridge so horny that he immediately has sex with Mrs Bridge.

It’s possible that this wasn’t the intent of the filmmakers but when you place the scene of him leering out the window, trying not to be seen while watching his daughter sunbathe, and then follow that scene with Mrs Bridge walking in and Mr Bridge is immediately (ahem), the implication is almost unmistakable. Either they intended this, or they are very bad at making movies and understanding how film language works.

Granted, this is as close to something happening in Mr. and Mrs. Bridge as the movie gets, but it’s not something that anyone should want to happen. In fact, I have to wonder why anyone thought that this was a good idea to include in this or any movie. In a movie this dull, livening things up should not include ‘my daughter made me horny so now I am having sex with my wife.’ I don’t care how boring your movie is, don’t do this.”

I agree with the assessment of the above reviewer.

Shudder.

The movie is based on a pair of books, one called Mr. Bridges and the other Mrs. Bridges, and I don’t think the weird incest-type stuff was in the books, from what it sounds like. They were much more innocent I’m gathering. The story I about two insanely boring people who are noticing the world is passing them by.

Mrs. Bridge doesn’t like this and wants to experience some of what she is seeing going on around her, while Mr. Bridges is very stuck in his ways and doesn’t want to change. He tries to change in tiny ways for her, only to fall back to his boring self with all his particular ways of doing things. The movie is just a series of boring scenes built on top of other boring scenes. It’s baffling why it was even made really, other than to wake people up and try to urge them not to be boring themselves.

Paul’s excellence at being boring was probably why this movie actually was boring. He’s a good actor and is even great at being boring when he needs to be.

It was so boring, I didn’t even care what happened in the end and didn’t finish it.

The Sting

This movie was much more exciting, and it was a good movie to end my Paul Newman movie binge.

Paul and Robert Redford playing conmen who work to pull off a huge con on another conman in the city.

Paul is a retired big-level conman while Redford wants to break into the big-time of con jobs.

While Paul is smooth, Redford is a bumbling idiot who screws up most of the time. By the end of the movie, you start wondering if Redford’s screw ups are going to be the end of him or if he’ll pull it out after all.

Robert Shaw plays the bad guy in the film (wait..they are all conmen so who is the actual bad guy? Hmmm…) and for those who don’t know he’s also in Jaws and unpleasant things happen to him in that movie. We had a hard time watching the movie without saying things like “Watch out for the shark!”

The movie is a lot more lighthearted than some of the Paul movies I watched during my binge. I loved Paul’s personality and seeing him a character who was allowed to, and supposed to, have a range of emotions, versus characters he portrayed in other movies, which were a bit more stoic.

No matter how old Paul got, he kept those amazing good looks and crazy blue eyes, which makes watching him fun no matter what movie he is in.



For the final wrap-up, here are all the Paul Newman movies I watched this summer and fall:

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Paris Blue

The Long Hot Summer

The Hustler

Sweet Bird of Youth

The Rack

A New Kind of Love

Cool Hand Luke

Torn Curtain

From The Terrace

The Young Philadelphians

The Sting

In the past I watched Exodus, Twilight, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and the Towering Inferno.

Now, while I did say in my post about The Hustler, that I didn’t enjoy the movie as much as I hoped, I do recognize it as being a very well-acted and well-written movie. It was just darker than I thought, and I would have liked more Jackie Gleason.

Movies I wanted to get to but didn’t included:

The documentary on HBO Max by Ethan Hawke (The Last Movie Stars)

The Color of Money

The Verdict

Hud

And Somebody Up There Likes Me

I also started The Prize but got interrupted and forgot to finish it before my rental ran out.

If you want to read the impressions of the movies I watched you can search for “Summer of Paul” in the search bar.

So, how about you? How many Paul Newman movies have you seen? Any on my list? Which one was your favorite?

Fiction Friday: Mercy’s shore Chapter 20

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn fiction, Fiction Friday3 Comments

As always, this is a continuing/serial story. I share a chapter a week and at the end of the story, after I edit and rewrite, I self-publish it. To catch up with the story click HERE. To read the rest of the books in this series click HERE. Let me know in the comments what you think.

Chapter 20

Bill Henderson slammed the palm of his hand down on Ben’s desk as he stood. He turned his back to Ben and spat out a curse word. “That woman is absolutely ridiculous.”

Ben had been back at work for half a day and already he felt like he was back in his element, far away from a world where he’d had to face his past, his failings, and situations he couldn’t fix. At least here, in his office, he had the law and the law stayed steady, no matter how much a client flailed in anger or cried in despair.

Bill placed his hands on his waist and let out a long breath, then turned to face Ben again, pointing at him. “You tell her lawyer that it’s not going to happen. I’m not giving her full custody of those kids now. She can forget it. I’m fighting for full custody because she has clearly lost her mind.”

Ben winced and leaned his arms on the top of his desk. “Bill, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Tit for tat isn’t really the best path to take in a divorce proceeding. I would really like to encourage you to think of the kids here. They are stuck in the middle of a situation they didn’t ask for.”

Bill’s eyes flashed with anger. “Did she think of the kids when she filed for divorce? No. As usual, she only thought of herself and her own selfish wants. She accused me of cheating, Ben! Cheating. I never cheated on her. Could I have cheated? Oh yeah. Plenty of times. The opportunity and the desire were there and she certainly didn’t make it easy for me to come home some nights, but I did. I should get some credit for that. But will she give me credit for anything? No. I worked my tail off for her and those kids for twelve years and what thanks did I get? None! All I got were complaints and demands to do more.”

There were times with all the negatives he heard about marriage in his office, Ben was glad he’d never asked Angie to marry him. Then again, they had plenty of negative moments without the ceremony and piece of paper.

“I understand Bill, but let’s slow down a bit here. I think we really need to get you two in a room to work this out.”

Bill scoffed. “The last time we were in the same room she threw her shoe at me.” He pointed at his right eye. “She almost took my eye out.”

Ben slid a hand over his mouth, and tried not to laugh. “Well, it could have been something heavier and more deadly, I suppose. I can make you both take your shoes off at the door.”

Bill flopped back in the chair and slumped down with his arms hanging over the edges of the chair, his chin on his chest. He was silent for a few seconds and Ben started to worry he’d passed out.  “You ever been married, Ben?”

Things were going to get awkward fast here, and he really needed to steer the conversation back to the divorce agreement, but Bill seemed to need to talk.

“No.” He cleared his throat. “Never have.”

“Got kids?”

More awkwardness.  “One, yes. I – uh, don’t have a lot of contact with her or her mother.”

“What happened?”

Ben shrugged and rubbed a hand across his jawline. “I – uh – Well, it’s a long story, but I  screwed up and walked away.”

Bill shook his head and looked at the painting on the wall next to Ben’s desk. “How did I even get here? I never pictured myself getting a divorce. I knew things weren’t great, but – this just threw me.” He looked back at Ben again. “How could she have been this unhappy and I not know it?” He shook his head again. “You know she used to pick fights with me? She started complaining about the dumbest things. She said I wasn’t home enough or doing enough with the kids. She said I treated her like a nanny. A nanny. Can you believe that? I was at work, providing for her and the kids, but I still wasn’t doing enough. What was I supposed to do?”

Ben fiddled with his pen, lowering his gaze to the paperwork on the desk. “I really don’t know, Bill. I’m not the best person to ask. I blew it with the mother of my child four years ago. I’m not exactly an expert in relationships.” He and Bill chuckled together, and Ben leaned back in his chair and hooked his hands behind his head. “I guess I could ask you something that my ex’s father asked me. Do you still love her? I mean, when you think about who you want to grow old with, is she the person you think of?”

Bill looked away, pressed the back of his thumb against his closed mouth, and swallowed hard. Ben could see him fighting emotion as he slowly began to nod. “Yeah.” He said finally, his voice thick. “She’s the person I’ve always pictured myself growing old with.” He looked back at Ben, eyes glistening. “But I don’t know if she still wants to grow old with me.” He laughed swiping at his eyes with the back of his hand. “Obviously not or we wouldn’t be sitting here, right?”

Ben dropped his hands and folded his arms across the top of the desk again, leaning forward slightly. “Not necessarily. Maybe she’s just too angry to know what she wants. Maybe she’s afraid. I don’t know and it’s not my job to know. I guess you have to ask yourself if she’s worth fighting for. If your marriage is.”

Ben wiped the back of his hand across his eyes, then laughed. “Dude, did you forget you’re supposed to be my divorce lawyer and not my marriage counselor?”

Ben laughed with him. “I know. Maybe I need to switch careers, right?”

“Maybe.” Bill tapped the top of the desk with a knuckle. “But what about you?”

Ben tossed the pen on top of the paperwork and leaned back in the chair, yawning. “What about me?”

A small smile tugged at the corner of Bill’s mouth. “Do you still love her? Your ex? You daughter’s mom?”

Ben looked at his watch. “Oh wow. Look at the time, Bill. Looks like times up or I am going to have to charge you for another hour.”

 Bill laughed as he stood. “Yeah, yeah.” He lifted his jacket off the back of the chair, slid it on and looked at Ben. “You’re still young, Ben. Save it if you can, okay? At least get to know your daughter.” He slid his hands into the front pockets of his khakis. “And let’s set up that sit down with Veronica and her lawyer. Maybe we can try to work all this out in a more rational way. You’re right. I have to think about the kids and how this is affecting them.”

Ben agreed to call Bill’s lawyer and told Bill goodbye, sitting back in his chair as the office door closed.  Bill’s situation was difficult, no doubt about it. Rebuilding his marriage might not be possible, but Ben knew rebuilding a relationship with Angie was even more impossible. Not only did she hate him, she was also in a new relationship. Maybe it would be possible for them to be civil, though, enough for him to get to know his daughter if Angie would let him.

He reached for his phone as it rang, looking at the time on the lock screen above Maggie’s name. It was only lunchtime. Really?

He needed a good long nap, but somehow, he had to push through the rest of the day.

“Hey, Benny, coming to my softball game later?”

Oh man. He’d forgot about the softball game.

“Yeah. Of course. Wouldn’t miss it.”

“Good, because I’m pitching again.”

“Looking forward to it, Slugger.”

“Slugger? What are we in? A movie from the 80s?” Maggie giggled. “Anyhow, I have a question.”

Ben cradled the phone between his shoulder and ear and turned to the computer, starting a search for a file for his next client. “Fire away.”

“What’s my niece like?”

The phone slid off his shoulder and clattered to the top of the desk. He fumbled for it and picked it up again, returning it to his shoulder and leaning his ear to it. “What?”

“Threw you off a bit, huh?”

“Yeah, a little. What — I mean how —”

“I heard mom and dad talking the other night after they talked to you.” She was quiet for a minute. “I know you told me that Angie doesn’t want you around, but do you think she’ll let me meet her when they move back?”

Ben rubbed a hand through his hair and closed his eyes, gritting his teeth. He wished he’d thought of all the heartache he was going to cause when he’d walked away from Angie almost five years ago. It was more than just him and Angie who were going to be affected but he’d been so selfish and, well, quite frankly, too drunk and career-driven to care.

He let out a breath. “I don’t know, Maggie, but probably. Angie always loved you. Give her some time, though, okay? I really messed things up with her and there is a lot of hurt there.”

“You’ve changed, though. Does she know that?”

He shook his head even though Maggie couldn’t see him. “I don’t think she really cares. I can be as best of a person as I can be but that will never wipe out what I did to her or Amelia. I abandoned her at a really difficult time for her and I never really made contact again other than a couple birthday cards and child support.”

He clutched at the top of his hair, wishing he was not having this conversation with his little sister.

“Did you want to see her, though?”

Why did everyone keep asking him this question? He’d always wanted to see Amelia and yes, he still loved Angie, but how could he explain why he’d stayed away for so long?

“Yes, Maggie. I did. It’s just — It’s hard to explain. I just felt they’d be better off without me, okay? Angie and Amelia are happy with their life right now and I’d just mess things up.”

Maggie snorted a small laugh. “That’s such a cop out, big brother, but I love you anyhow. Bring me a soda when you come today. Mom says I shouldn’t be drinking it, but she won’t say no if you bring it.”

Ben laughed at how easily his sister could slam him and move on. After they said their goodbyes and he hung up, though, he thought about what she’d said. Maybe it was a cop out to say he’d mess things up for Angie and Amelia if he tried to be a part of their lives, but it was true. They had their own life now. Angie had moved on and Amelia would probably have a real dad soon. That was a good thing.

His chest constricted at the thought of Angie in another man’s arms, as it always did when he thought about that over the years, but at the same time, he felt a strange peace. She deserved happiness after how he’d treated her. If William was her happiness then he was okay with that. William had seemed like a good guy. He simply hoped that maybe she’d let his family get to know Amelia, even if she didn’t want him around.