Ma Bell: Magpie Tales

It was a beautiful day for a walk in the meadow.  After a long week at work, the quiet of the pastoral scene was revitalizing.  The birds called to her overhead and the wildflowers provided a fragrant welcome. She could feel her body relaxing and her mind invited healing thoughts in.

Suddenly, her reverie was shattered by an annoying electronic noise.

Damn cell phones!  Interrupting life wherever she went.  There was no place to hide anymore.

There weren't any cell phones when she was growing up.  She even remembered when her parents got their first rotary phone.  Ancient history, now.  Before that, they had to ring up the operator using a little crank on the side of the phone.  Yes, she was that old.

The two young people coming across the meadow chattered away loudly on speaker mode, crushing wildflowers as they came closer and causing the birds circling overhead to flee.

She found her serenity fading away as the teens came closer.  Still, she smiled at them, hoping to at least get a friendly smile back.

They ignored her.  Just as well.  She didn't trust herself not to beat them to a pulp.

She began to giggle hysterically as she imagined what the handset of an old rotary phone could do to a person.

The two girls who had just passed her looked back and then looked at each other.  "OMG!  What a crazy bitch!" they said to the invisible person inside the phone.

"Just call me Ma Bell!" the old woman muttered to herself.  I may be old and I may be crazy, but at least my imagination is still in fine fettle.  As she looked out at the vista in front of her, she laughed out loud and once again found peace.

Image by Sarolta Ban

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Tess over at Willow Manor has been providing inspiration for bloggers with her photo prompts on a site called Magpie Tales.  Stop over to check out who else was inspired this week.