He: "Well it's but a part of or a piece of something that combines with something else in this box of parts."
She: "Brilliant! But then what is it?"
He: "If you say so.....remember I am not the one who paid $20 for this trunk of junk! Buying a pig in a poke and look what it got! Maybe all the pieces scattered through come together to make one something..old or rare or even useful.."
Another younger She voice: "Dad, Mom, where are you?"
He: "Out in the shed, Lizzie...."
Lizzie: "Oh, guess what happened today at school? Never mind, I'll tell you, I won the story poetry contest for the third week in a row now! That puts me at the top of the chart for the class; I'm 60 points ahead of the rest...they won't catch me now! And that means I am going to go on to the District finals in Philly, I just know it. And that means I have to start thinking right now what I'll write on for....whoa, What's that?"
He: "Where have I heard that question before?"
She: "Exactly what I asked before Mr. Puzzle Piecer commented on scattered pieces making a whole or something wise like that...."
Lizzie: "That's it Mom, I'm going to my room to work on my poem for Philly! It'll be 'Scattered Pieces!' Thanks for the idea..nobody's gonna believe this my Mom had an idea that I could write about....later....."
He: "Well, damn, there is more......."
She: "It looks like a pipe..and wire and......"
He: "It's a roller spool and wire and here is the other side of the one sided winder you were pondering......"
She: "Put it all together and still what is it?"
He: "Well it's heavy cast iron and shiny as glass....there's a cog on the inside here to thread the wire; and a clamp. Looks like it fastened to a work bench by the vise clamp...this small pin moves the cogs...wait a minute...I'm getting my Kovel's Guide to Old Tools.....it looks like, really a sidewinder....the Union Army used them in the Civil War to tighten the wire bales on the....."
She: "Umm hmm, right, a sidewinder...next? I'll go mix up the martinis and start dinner..."
Later that evening, Lizzie shares her rough draft of her 'Scattered Pieces' poem.."Dad I need a punch line....".
Mom loves estate sales, auctions and junk
Dad loves the tools all metals and hunks.
Mom bought a trunk full of metal scattered pieces
Dad put it together with screw drivers and greases.
Dad laughed at the pieces, scattered all through the trunk
But it kept him quite busy those nuts, bolts and funk.
His work really paid off in value today
It entertained him for hours, will he sell it for pay?
Scattered pieces put together one piece made from many
With imagination and thought it grows into plenty
Plenty of tools and gadgets and such useful stuff
But even Mom never dreamed of a sidewinder in the rough.
Scattered pieces of such like the folks we all know
Brought together into one, our friendships may grow
At school, stores and churches wherever we wend
We can bring them together as family and friend.
Mom laughed out loud for she'd only paid twenty
Not one dollar more, for those pieces aplenty .
But Dad had the last laugh, a side winder tattered
The price in Kovels became all that now mattered
It's worth is hundreds of dollars his old tool book said
Such worth from scattered pieces grew inside our old shed.
Try taking scattered pieces today wherever you go
Keep them close together, it works, now you know...
Lizzie: "Dad, help me here, we need catch words to rhyme and a good finale!"
He: " Keep on thinking, girlie, you're onto something there....."
Mom: "All thanks to my scattered trunk pieces for the inspiration.."
This has been my feeble attempt using the prompt posed for this week's Magpie Tales. To read what others have written on the same prompt, click on the title to this post. A sidewinder is my purely fictional way of portraying this whatever it is along with its fictional use. It all makes a story. If someone knows of such a contraption...please let me know...
