SC # 48, 49 & 50 - Mrs. Jenny Matlock's Saturday Centus

Welcome to Saturday Centus for Week 50 (which will include texts for weeks 48 & 49)!

For several reasons I have not been able to participate in Mrs. Jenny Matlock's Saturday Centus for weeks 48 and 49. Since the text we are to write for Week 50 is a review of a text written for Week 49, I have decided to post three texts for week 50. This means that I am presenting these texts in this reading-order: first week 48, then week 49 and then lastly, week 50. Please read my texts in this order. (Mrs. Matlock's instructions for each week's assignment follows each text.)
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Here is my text for SC week 48:

"How d'ya do it?" asked Judie, sitting beside Sanna in the rented airport-car, barrelling down a road through the Arizona desert.
"It's been tough. [Please look at the map. We're getting close.] But I got lucky."
"'Lucky', how?" Judie looked at the road-map and signs along the highway. "How d'ya get enough for airfare from Sweden?"
"I won! It sounds crazy. But I bought a lottery ticket and won!"
"Wait a minute." Judie spied a sign: " Exit 181, 1/2 mile ahead. The turn-off to Jenny!"
"Hooray!" squeeled Sanna. After a difficult divorce and down-sizing, Sanna Rumsten decided to re-invent herself and have some fun.

Word count according to WordCalc: 100

Disclaimer:The lottery ticket in this story is a Deus ex machina, an unexpected and arbitrary event in the plot to temporarily move my protagonist from Norrkoping, Sweden to Tusan, Arizona. In reality, I have not won any money on any kind of a lottery. I never gamble or even buy lottery tickets, so the likelihood of me ever winning is very slim. This is a piece of fiction. A fun piece of fiction, but fiction none-the-less! I thought this way: Imagine how nice it would be if I could just take off and visit some of the interesting people whom I've met through blogging and memes like Saturday Centus! My character, Sanna Rumsten, does this for me here! I hope that Judie McEwen of Rogue Artists and Jenny Matlock of Off My Tangent don't mind me borrowing their names for these Arizona-characters.

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This is Mrs. Jenny Matlock's instructions or Week 48:

Hi! Last night I realized I hadn't written a prompt for today.

We were driving home from Tucson and I asked Mr. Jenny to write one and he said, "Here you go..."
Exit 181, 1/2 mile ahead...
So that's what I'm going with. Technically you can't get annoyed at me...it is Mr. Jenny's prompt AND being an incredibly obedient wife how could I possibly question what he told me?
Cough. Gag. Sputter.
Seriously.
So there ya go!
Use this prompt and UP TO 100 additional words to write in any style you choose...so long as it's not risque.
You know, I'm all about the PG here at Jenny Matlock...Off on my Tangent.
Please display link button or just a hyper-link back to Saturday Centus. Be careful to link your SC URL to the Linky and not just link to your main blog.
Please e-mail me directly with ???'s or ask your question in a comment and I will do my best to get back to you as soon as possible.
Feel free to link up anytime between now and next Saturday!

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Here is my SC-text for week 49:

Several months before the trip to Arizona, Sanna Rumsten was sitting on her tiny balcony at ground-level thinking about the garden she left behind, at the luxury townhouse that disappeared in the divorce settlement. "I was never that good of a gardener", she thought. But that was just sour grapes. In her mind's eye (as well as nose) she recollected how the snow drops and crocuses sprang out of the earth as soon as the snow had melted; followed by scilla, daffodils, tulips and lilies-of-the-valley. With a watering-can she let it rain over her potted plants, singing out loud: "April showers bring May flowers".

Wordcount according to WordCalc: 99

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Mrs. Matlock's instructions for week 49:

I have to say I just finished reading the 'chicken' posts and I was blown away. You are all so wickedly creative. I just posted my Exit 181 story last night and looking forward to reading your entries. Today I thought we could just continue on a pretty 'normal' SC. No tricks, no gimmicks. Just 100 words in whatever genre you like (not including the five words of the prompt). And the prompt this week is: April showers bring May flowers... Please display link button or just a hyper-link back to Saturday Centus. Be careful to link your SC URL to the Linky and not just link to your main blog. Please e-mail me directly with ???'s or ask your question in a comment and I will do my best to get back to you as soon as possible. Feel free to link up anytime between now and next Saturday!

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This is my SC-text for week 50:

I am reviewing RINKLY RIMES-Brenda Bryant's text for week 49:

APRIL SHOWERS

I remember the tide of optimism; Summer was on its way.

Winter was receding; April heralded May.

As a girl I felt the sap rising higher, ever higher

As though everything in Nature was working to conspire

Against greyness, cold and lethargy, against discipline and school!

Then, every year it seemed the same, I became an April Fool;

While my heart was singing Summer songs down came the April Showers,

Battering the brave young leaves, decapitating flowers!

'Not yet!' the showers seemed to say; 'You still have a way to go.

Don't you feel a little chilly? We may even turn to snow!'

Was it good for my soul, maybe, to cope with disappointment,

When Summer made a date with me and then missed the appointment?

June, July and August still waved a beckoning finger,

But Winter kept a strangle-hold, determined it must linger.

And yet, that very fickleness was part of the Springtime joy.

Yes, April could be tantalising, teasing us, being coy.

But here, in another country, where Springtime just strolls in,

Where hardly anything marks the time when the warmer months begin,

I remember April Showers with a rush of real affection

And my heart is on a journey in a Northerly direction.

This is my review:

Brenda Bryant's "April Showers" is a whistful poem about the happy fickleness of Spring. Born 1931, she looks back with sparkling clarity on the Springtime of her life. With the closing lines, "I remember April Showers with a rush of real affection, And my heart is on a journey in a Northerly direction", she reminds us that she resides in Australia, which lacks four distinctly different seasons as there is in Northern Europe. "April Showers" is a perfect jewel as to form, with the exception of its 208-word length; a fault easily forgiven for the fine qualities of this text.

Wordcount according to WordCalc:100
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This is Mrs. Jenny Matlock's instructions for Week 50:

Welcome to week fifty of Saturday Centus. I think that makes this something like our golden anniversary or something. So, in honor of that momentuous milestone, I can't just let your minds go unchallenged. That would be just wrong, on so many levels. Right? So...

The April Showers bring May flowers prompt last week was quite interesting and I thought it would be a different writing exercise if we all played 'literary critics' this week.

Pick any of the links from week 49 (you can review them by simply clicking here) and then write a 100 word or less 'review' of it.
It can be your own link or anyone elses!
Please cut and paste the April showers SC you are 'reviewing' at the top of your entry, and then have fun !
If you have any questions, please e-mail me at: jennymatlock at cox dot net with the words "Are you losing your marbles on this SC prompt" as the subject line, and I will get back to you as soon as I can sometime between soccer and basketball games!

As usual, please display link button or just a hy News, Viewsper-link back to Saturday Centus. Be careful to link your SC URL to the Linky and not just link to your main blog.
Keep your post PG AND no more than 100 words.
Feel free to link up anytime between now and next Saturday!

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Best wishes,
Anna

First Commenter:
Sue of
Sue's News, Views 'n Muse


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To read other SC-texts for Week 48, please click here.
To read other SC-texts for Week 49, please click here.
To read other SC-texts for Week 50, please click here.