Jeannie Labelle -Potvin

“Harry Get Out Your Cane” by Jeannie Labelle -Potvin

Submitted to Contest #153

 HARRY GET OUT YOUR CANE.Ginny sat, once again, in her therapist's office. She wondered if she’d ever be done with this woman, yet in the same moment looked upon her with deep gratitude.This person had stood beside her for almost two decades. She stored an encyclopedia of details about Gin’s life and knew things and connections to things that few others did.Gin could be quite a blabbermouth and though she told people much, she hid even more. Her words often became a shield that protected her from those she felt most vulnerable.The woman...

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“A Song For Someone” by Jeannie Labelle -Potvin

Submitted to Contest #151

 A Song For SomeoneGinny awoke with The Voice strong in her head.It had broken into her imagination and freely taken whatever It wanted. She was fine with this, for after all, she’d given this Force full permission to do so.She began her day with a prayer. Having woken knowing that a new day had begun, her brain began to percolate.It told her of all the things she had to do, all the tasks done, those left behind, those that still needed to be done.This devious organ went to the many ways it could distract her…both naughty and nice....

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“Morning Has Broken” by Jeannie Labelle -Potvin

Submitted to Contest #149

Ginny woke up softly with an old Cat Stevens song rising from someplace deep inside. Indeed, morning was breaking and yes, it felt like the first morning.She stretched, thought of Luke with her eyes still closed. She smiled gently, reached out to caress his body and realized he wasn’t there.Ginny sighed, took a deep breath of praise and elation and opened her eyes.Glorious, blinding radiance filled the eastern sky. It had begun with a tentative flicker as the earth traveled towards Her burning lover. His ardent passion burst into a...

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“The Magic Flute” by Jeannie Labelle -Potvin

The Magic FluteA short story byJeannie Labelle-PotvinGinny began to awake.At first she thought someone in the neighborhood was playing drums, just a little too enthusiastically. She was about to get up, open the curtains and check where the sun was before calling the police. Just as she reached up, a loud boom blasted against the window. She flinched wondering if there was a shootout at the crackhouse down the alley. A brilliant flash of light quickly followed as a wild charge of unharnessed electricity jaggedly zigzagged across the eas...

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“When Harry Met Ginny” by Jeannie Labelle -Potvin

Submitted to Contest #149

There were two males in Ginny’s life who did their best to hold a mirror of truth before her eyes. They each loved her in ways that fed her soul and filled many of the spaces that had left her empty and depleted for so many years.The first and perhaps most important of these men, was her maternal grandfather. Ginny was his first born grandchild, born to his only child. His wife, Elizabeth Jean, had died 2 months before Ginny was born. As the child grew and began maneuvering her surroundings, her uncanny resemblance to the dead woman was som...

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“She Called Him Al” by Jeannie Labelle -Potvin

Submitted to Contest #146

 SHE CALLED HIM AL. Gin had many scripts that fleshed out her fantasies about a life with Harry.One of her fondest ones had their lives played out according to Paul Simon’s “Call me Al”.So we shall take some poetic license now and script this story to Paul’s song.Gin will become ‘Betty’ and Harry? Well, we will just call him ‘Al’. We find Al walking down the street, muttering, bitching and complaining, “Why am I so soft in the middle? The rest of my life is so hard.”Betty sighed.Al’s soft middle held her attention more than on...

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“Hell Bent for Leather” by Jeannie Labelle -Potvin

Submitted to Contest #145

“Hell Bent for Leather”Ginny rolled down the runway with her walker. It was very expensive and had been guaranteed to hold up to 500 pounds. The wood framed catwalk also seemed to be reliable enough to hold at least five normal size models - about the equivalent of Gin and her walker.Her hesitancy to trust such promises rose out of the murky pools of experience.Ginny’s biggest fear was that the walker would buckle under her weight at some inopportune moment. She knew from the past, that this could be physically painful and excruciatingly emb...

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“"It's Only Words"” by Jeannie Labelle -Potvin

Submitted to Contest #141

Ginny's face blanched, her stomach knotted into a tight fist. The social worker standing in front of her said very few words. The look on her face however, spoke volumes. Ginny, through an ingrained default process, interpreted that unspoken language. Unfortunately, her abilities to accurately assess were somewhat out of kilter. She immediately turned it against herself and came up beaten by both the short end and the long one. She cringed with shame as she mentally tallied the litany of mistakes she had made; as a mother, as a...

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“Fat Chance at the Heartache Motel” by Jeannie Labelle -Potvin

FAT CHANCE at the HEARTACHE MOTELJanuary 1st- some year, sometime, somewhere.A door opens, Gin gets sucked through and finds herself in a world she’d not looked forward to finding.She’s always known that this world was possible and had dreaded it with much horror.The horror played out on the day Gin broke up with Harry.It was a strange day, mostly as the break up was more or less a complete figment of Gin’s imagination. Well, truth be told, the entire relationship had been a figment of her imagination.She'd built a very complex world, c...

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“Rise Up, Rise Up.” by Jeannie Labelle -Potvin

Submitted to Contest #119

“Listen Mark, it is really simple. Either use the hydrogen peroxide or don’t, the choice is yours.”Mark blanched slightly, wavered momentarily, grabbed the brown bottle, carefully looked at the label and began reading.Perhaps it wouldn’t be as bad as he imagined.Purified water - checkHydrogen peroxide 3% - checkDirections: clean the affected area. Apply a small amount of product 1-3 times a day. - checkWARNING: KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN.  -no problemFor external use only - check“Hmmmm”, Mark pondered, perhaps Ginny’s ...

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“Like A Bird On A Wire.” by Jeannie Labelle -Potvin

“Liar, liar pants on fire hanging by a telephone wire, while you’re there, cut your hair and stick it down your underwear.” A dozen children surrounded Lyle, relentless shouting out their accusation.By the time the recess bell sounded, the circle had tightened, and the chant, repeated endlessly, had taken on distinctly vicious overtones.Lyle sat huddled in the centre of the circle, head stuck between his knees, arms crossed over to protect himself from the onslaught.As the bell continued to ring, a teacher approached the chanting c...

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“Truth or Dare?” by Jeannie Labelle -Potvin

Submitted to Contest #107

As We Speak the Truth.“Raise your right hand and repeat after me.”“I, Wilfred McNab do solemnly affirm that the evidence to be given by me shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.” Wilfred looked nervously around the courtroom. He’d been in jail several times in his life and the prospect of returning was not one he relished.His big dilemma about taking the required oath was whether to tell the truth, or slightly bend the edges in order to shape an outcome that hopefully would keep him out of prison. He blinked...

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“"My Eyes Are Dim"” by Jeannie Labelle -Potvin

Submitted to Contest #105

“My eyes are dim, I cannot see,I have not brought my specs with me.”From the Quartermaster’s Store.“There were foxes - stuffed in little boxes.”From the Quartermaster's Store.Jane died two months before Ginny was born. The awakening for Ginny was traumatic.For Jane, it was also somewhat of a shock. Her massive heart attack dropped her to the ground and the last thing she remembered was talking to her sister-in-law as they sipped cocktails and smoked a forbidden cigarette.Jane had left her Island farm to visit a favourite broth...

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“Ain't No Mountain High Enough” by Jeannie Labelle -Potvin

Submitted to Contest #104

“I’m never going out with you again!”The words echoed through Ginny’s skull. She’d heard them a few times throughout the seven decades of her life.Sometimes the words went in one ear and straight out the other, a direct line so to speak.Sometimes they got trapped in the sticky cells of her brain and then trouble began.The words would change from a simple interpretation to one that left Ginny sobbing in a corner ready to throw in the towel. Many had tried to control her over the years.She had been threatened with expulsion, banishment, s...

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“The Jablonsky Family” by Jeannie Labelle -Potvin

This story is taken from a manuscript in progress:FAMILY SECRETS/Breaking the Code of Silence. “A Family Secret is a secret kept within a family. Most families have them, the nature and importance vary. They can relate to taboo topics, such as alcoholism, rape, etc."Kathy desperately longed to find release from her anger and resentment. She struggled daily, praying for signs from her Higher Power. She humbly begged God to remove all her defects of character and she knew that her resentments were a burden that she, on her own, ...

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