An Imminent Demise: Use Your Words

Today’s post is a monthly writing challenge. If you’re new here, this is how it works: participating bloggers picked 4 – 6 words or short phrases for someone else to craft into a post. All words must be used at least once. All of the posts will be unique as each writer has received their own set of words. That’s the challenge, here’s a fun twist; no one who’s participating knows who got their words and in what direction the recipient will take them. Until now.

At the end of this post you’ll find links to the other blogs featuring this challenge. Check them all out, see what words they got and how they used them.
I'm using: biography ~ cheek ~ exclusive ~ librarian ~ document
They were submitted by Rena of The Blogging 911.

                          
The world has come to an end.

She stood in the hollowed out, mostly wall-less shell of what once had been the town library. More than just a library, really. They had hosted story based parties, book reading challenges, informational sessions, dramatic readings for children, whatever they could do to bring the love of reading to, share the love of reading with, the community. 

The librarian just kept twirling. Slowly circling in one spot, trying to take in the devastation. Not an inch of floor was visible, covered as it was with chunks of shelving, books crippled by broken spines, defiled newspapers and magazines, documents resembling those having gone through a shredder. Newspaper wedding photos with no announcement, encyclopedias devoid of information, tattered cookbook pictures without a recipe.

Lemon Lime Pie Parfait

Bethryn, like everyone else in this part of the country, had lived with tornado sirens, those ear piercing warnings that danger was eminent. And this is the season, without a doubt. Watch the local news and the weatherman seems to be constantly warning someone somewhere. But never had one hit anywhere near her. Never. yet here she stood, in her beloved library, the place she chose to focus all the efforts of her life's work. And it was gone, The world truly had come to an end.

She stopped spinning and hung her head. Not in defeat maybe, just trying to let some form of belief, resignation, take hold in her brain. And looking down she saw that there it was, just to the side of her left foot, the book that had arrived just yesterday. An exclusive. Not yet released but she knew the author, a local woman who has been a frequent patron of this library for years. She'd promised an advance copy and one week before release it had arrived. She was so excited to learn more about the background of this local blogger that she almost took the book home with her last night. Almost.

Shocked to have even found it, Bethryn bent to pick up the book. The spine was crooked, pages bent, but it actually looked to be intact. Gently rubbing the dirt from the scratched  cover she could just make out the title of the biography:

A Not So Ordinary Life

by Karen BakingInATornado

PS: Although I write this little piece of fiction with tongue firmly planted in cheek, it is with a profound sadness that I do acknowledge the slow painful decline in use of many local libraries. When my boys were little they participated in many programs at ours, sifted through the shelves looking for a book on a favorite subject, even did some school work there while their mother browsed.

I'm part of the problem, of course. A voracious reader, I went to the library every other week for books all while my boys were growing up. Now I borrow books on my kindle, or read them on my phone or laptop. I appreciate the convenience, especially in the freezing cold of winter. But I can also see the writing on the wall, the fewer hours and the staff cuts. And I mourn the imminent demise of so much more than a big building full of books.

Here are links to all the other Use Your Words posts:

Spatulas on Parade
The Blogging 911 
On the Border 
Bookworm in the Kitchen 
 The Bergham Chronicles
Simply Shannon 
Southern Belle Charm
Part-time Working Hockey Mom 
Climaxed

Lemon Lime Pie Parfait

                                               ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients (makes 6 - 8):

10 graham crackers
1 (6 oz) can frozen pink lemonade concentrate
OPT: 2 drops red food coloring if desired
1 (6 oz) can frozen limeade concentrate
OPT: 2 drops green food coloring if desired
1 (7 oz) jar marshmallow creme 
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
2 cup whipped cream

Directions:
*Crush 5 of the graham crackers and break up the other 5 into piece.
*Pour the frozen lemonade concentrate into a small bowl. Whisk and return to can. Repeat with the limeade.
*Put 2 TBSP of the lemonade concentrate and 2 TBSP of the limeade concentrate into a bowl with the marshmallow creme. Whisk together well. 
*In a medium sized bowl, put 1/2 cup of lemonade concentrate with 1/2 of the can of sweetened condensed milk. Add red food coloring, if desired. Whisk together. Gently fold in 1 cup of whipped cream. 
*In another medium sized bowl, repeat with the 1/2 cup of limeade concentrate, remaining sweetened condensed milk, remaining whipped cream and green food coloring. 
*In 6 to 8 glasses, divide up the marshmallow creme mixture, graham cracker crumbs, then the lemonade mixture, graham cracker pieces, and finally the limeade mixture. 
*Place in the freezer to keep cold. These won't freeze, they'll remain mostly liquid but are refreshing when served cold on a hot day.