Writers Unblocked Magazine Volume 1/ Number 1

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ORNAMENTS BY CATHY SCHLENDER, Manager, Corporate Communications | Marketing and Communications THE ENTRANCE TO BRIGHAM MANOR is brightly decorated for the holidays. In the parlor off the main lobby, a brightly-lit, decorated pine tree is displayed in the corner. Carols play quietly in the background as a crackling gas-fuelled fireplace illuminates ornaments on the tree. George’s eyes drift to the small red sleigh hanging from one of the boughs, smiling as he remembers a recent trip to Toboggan Mound – at least that’s what the neighbourhood called the giant hill they visit every winter. “Daddy,” his eldest daughter suggests, “Why don’t you get on the front this time and we’ll get on behind you?” “Okay,” George agrees, climbing onto the toboggan. His young children don’t realize that he heard them conspire moments earlier and knew what they were planning. He can still hear their shrieks of laughter as they pushed him down the hill without joining him on the toboggan. George smiles, remembering how it gave his children such a thrill to think they got one over on good old dad. George turns his head and another ornament catches his attention. A golden, porcelain Christmas cookie with white wavy lines for icing and coloured dots for sprinkles. Just like his mother used to make. George remembers the neighbour, Mr. Skinner, who would drop into his parent’s home uninvited and – as far as his English mother was concerned – quite unwelcome. Mother liked everyone – almost. George thinks Mr. Skinner is possibly the world’s most socially awkward person. Mr. Skinner made a habit of timing his visit when George Sr. was just sitting down to have his afternoon tea – there was certainly nothing wrong with his internal clock, George remembers! Mr. Skinner would knock once, walk straight through to the kitchen at the back of the house, take a cup from the shelf and pour himself a cup of tea, all without asking. This one day, Mr. Skinner grabbed a Christmas cookie from father’s plate, took a bite and contemplatively looked at the cookie. “Betty,” he called out to George’s mother. He took another bite as she entered the kitchen, a slightly pained look on her face. He holds the cookie up to her. “Did you make these?” he asks. “Why, yes I did,” mother replies in her lovely east London accent. “They’re not very good, are they?” He said it just like that. George is certain mother was mortified as she stood there, only blinking rapidly. Then George and his sister, Annie, scampered from the room, desperately suppressing giggles. Maybe mother’s cookies were an acquired taste, but George could really go for one right now. 6 WRITERS UNBLOCKED • VOL. 1 / NO. 1
“I’m dreaming of a white Christmas” is playing in the background. George sings along for a moment, then stops as he sees one of his favourite ornaments - the train engine. It reminds him that he hasn’t yet set up his train set with the Christmas village. There was something about trains that George loved. He recalls the family farm in Newmarket, a rural community with a oneroom schoolhouse. He remembers how, as a child, he would run through the fields with his dog, Buster, feeling so free yet full of curiosity. He stopped whenever he heard the train whistle, musing about the exciting ventures of the train passengers. “One day,” he tells Buster, “we’ll move to the city with its tall buildings, automobiles and electric street lights! There’s a museum and the YMCA too, Buster!” They eventually move to the city, where George meets Richard, who is dating Annie. While they are slow to become friends, Richard will eventually marry George’s sister and the two men become best friends. They share a passion for trains, spending hours at the railway tracks by Lake Ontario, watching the trains as they travel east and on to Ottawa and Montreal. Though neither smoked, they lit cigars and talked about combustible engines and the future of trains, rehashing stories from train and science periodicals. Best friends are like that. George is singing again, this time to the carol “Sleigh Ride.” The jingling bells from the horse sled take him back once more to the farm. While his father was not much of a farmer, he loved the animals, and George Sr. loved to tell the story about the day the family’s horse stopped pulling the plow in the field. No matter how much George Sr. yelled, that horse just refused to move, and he was determined to drag the stubborn animal if he had to. Walking up to grab the horse’s reins, George Sr. saw baby Annie, sitting playing in the horse’s pathway. She’d wandered away from the house without George’s mother noticing. That horse saved Anne’s life. That was the worst part of leaving the farm. They had to sell the horse. He feels a tear running down his cheek, and suddenly feels foolish. Who cries about a horse? George’s soft blue eyes scan the tree for the horse ornament, but he cannot find it. He bought it years ago because it looked like the horse that saved his family from tragedy. “Hey,” he says out loud. “What’s the big idea? Who took the horse off the tree?” He looks over his shoulder, expecting to see one of the children smiling mischievously. But they’re not there. Instead, a woman is sitting in a blue chair startled by his outburst. “What are you looking at?” George asks. He’s embarrassed because he doesn’t remember who she is. He has never been good at faces or names. But this woman is not at all familiar. “Where is everybody?” he calls out. “Quit clowning around. I’m serious!” George is becoming frustrated. A joke is one thing, but to hide the horse is going too far. And who is this lady? “Oh George,” a lady in a blue cotton shirt and pants rushes over to him. She wears a name tag that reads ‘Denise’. “How about some coffee and cookies?” George has never turned down coffee and cookies. Denise takes George to a small table in the bright coffee lounge where several residents are watching an annual Christmas romance on the large-screened TV. A man in a gold sweater enters the room and greets George VOL. 1 / NO. 1 • WRITERS UNBLOCKED 7
Page 1 and 2: VOL. 1/ NO. 1 WRITERS UNBLOCKED
Page 3 and 4: LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT Centennial Coll
Page 5 and 6: When Centennial College Libraries l
Page 7 and 8: WRITING AND REVISING Now, my favour
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Page 15 and 16: late riser it was with the grim sat
Page 17 and 18: NO ONE SAID YOU HAD TO DO IT ALONE:
Page 19 and 20: From this point forward, try to be
Page 21 and 22: BUSY BY MAY WALKOWIAK, Faculty | Sc
Page 23 and 24: PANDEMIC Being scared makes me sick
Page 25 and 26: STANDING ON MT. KILIMANJARO BY PHIL
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Page 33 and 34: That side spoke to his interest in
Page 35 and 36: Deep down it was about knowing your
Page 37 and 38: THANK YOU FOR READING WRITERS UNBLO

Writers Unblocked Magazine Volume 1/ Number 1

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