The Wrong Turn
Happy Friday, Lovely People! It’s the end of the week again, and we gather to share our inspiration, our brilliance, and our support for one another. Speaking of support. The brilliant and talented Rohini has requested that I take this week’s challenge since she has quite a few things on her plate. I know her creativity will be missed, but she will be back very soon. In the meantime, please send all your love, virtual hugs, prayers, etc. in her direction.
That being said, this shift is perfectly appropriate for the prompt I was thinking of anyway 🙂 We all know how it is. We are all set to walk out the door and the phone rings. We’re on our way to an appointment and take a wrong turn. We’re minding our own business, pretending to read a book and some rabbit wearing a waistcoat and muttering to himself about being late runs past. We’re sitting down to tea, and some bossy wizard and a houseful of dwarfs show up with tales of dragons and treasures. Life is full of unexpected situations that throw us completely off our schedule and out of our comfort zone.It’s easy to see these sliding doors, these unexpected encounters, these unwelcome interruptions as an irritation, an aggravation, an inconvenience. But perhaps, just maybe, they can serve as an opportunity. Sometimes the cyclone takes us to OZ; then again, sometimes going down the Rabbit Hole causes us to almost lose our head. Either way, it’s a new and unanticipated experience.You can use one of the prompts provided, or completely create one of your own.
Life is what happens when…
The Wrong Turn
Great Minds Think – Life Is What Happens When…
It began with a wrong turn.
Not a dramatic one.
No screeching tyres, no near collision, no mysterious stranger appearing in the road.
Just a left turn where there should have been a right.
Clara was already late.
Her phone battery was dying, the satnav had apparently developed a personal grudge against her, and the coffee she’d bought twenty minutes earlier was now decorating the passenger seat.
“Wonderful,” she muttered.
She had an important job interview at ten.
At nine forty-seven, she found herself driving down a narrow country lane that seemed to lead absolutely nowhere.
Then the engine coughed.
Twice.
And stopped.
Clara stared at the dashboard.
“You have GOT to be kidding me.”
No signal.
No passing cars.
And somewhere in the distance, a rooster crowed.
It was not even morning anymore, as far as Clara was concerned. It was a personal attack.
She climbed out of the car and started walking.
After ten minutes, she spotted a little cottage surrounded by roses.
A handwritten sign hung from the gate.
TEA, CAKE & UNEXPECTED ADVICE
Clara almost laughed.
“Well, I’ve certainly got the unexpected part covered.”
An elderly woman appeared in the doorway.
“Lost, dear?”
“Completely.”
“Excellent. Come in.”
Clara blinked.
“Excellent?”
“People who know exactly where they’re going rarely discover anything interesting.”
Before Clara could argue, she found herself sitting at a kitchen table with a steaming cup of tea and an enormous slice of lemon cake.
The woman introduced herself as Rose.
Clara explained about the interview, the car, the wrong turn, and the spectacular collapse of her carefully organised morning.
Rose listened patiently.
Then she asked, “Did you actually want the job?”
Clara opened her mouth.
Closed it.
“Well… it’s a good opportunity.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Clara looked down at her tea.
The truth was, she’d spent years pursuing a career everyone else thought she should want.
She had almost forgotten the little bookshop she’d dreamed of opening since childhood.
Rose smiled.
“Funny thing about wrong turns. Sometimes they’re the first honest direction we’ve taken in years.”
Outside, a car pulled into the driveway.
“My grandson,” Rose announced. “He can help with your car.”
A young man entered carrying a toolbox.
After hearing Clara’s story, he laughed.
“You’re the third person this month who’s ended up here because of that ridiculous road sign.”
“Third?”
“Council keeps promising to fix it.”
He glanced at his grandmother.
“And Gran keeps asking them not to.”
“ROSE!”
The old woman looked entirely innocent.
“What? People need cake.”
An hour later, Clara’s car was running again.
The interview was long missed.
But before leaving, she noticed a little shop beside the cottage.
Its windows were dusty.
Its shelves empty.
Above the door hung a faded sign.
THE LAST CHAPTER
“Used to be my husband’s bookshop,” Rose said quietly. “Haven’t had the heart to reopen it.”
Clara stood very still.
Then she smiled.
“Would you ever consider renting it?”
Rose looked at her.
Then at the shop.
Then back at Clara.
“Well,” she said, “I suppose we’d better put the kettle on.”
Six months later, a small bookshop opened beside a rose-covered cottage.
Above the door hung a freshly painted sign:
THE LAST CHAPTER
Inside were shelves of books, comfortable chairs, and the smell of fresh coffee.
Rose supplied the cakes.
Her grandson fixed anything that broke.
And Clara finally woke each morning looking forward to work.
On the wall behind the counter hung a framed photograph of a battered road sign.
Beneath it, Clara had written:
Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.
And below that:
Sometimes the wrong turn takes you exactly where you belong.
The council eventually repaired the road sign.
Rose was furious.
Clara bought her another kettle.
Just in case. 💜
With love, coffee, poetry, and stardust,
— Maggie The Afterlove Voice 💫
DJ Maggie in the house
https://ditto.fm/arena-51-the-calima-conspiracy-original-mix
https://ditto.fm/arena-51-the-calima-conspiracy-alien-invasion-remix
https://ditto.fm/silenced-but-not-broken
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