MOUNTAIN DINING

The scene was incredibly pastoral. Mozart played in the background, but it was definitly a Beethoven ambiance. On the hill that faced the window where Jennifer Lansing sat waiting for her order, two cows were doing a funny motion with their heads, a sort of nodding from side to side, left to right, almost touching the ground in this pendulum-like action. There were five homes built into the mountain side view and the cows filled in the foreground of this picture.
The dry cabernet soothingly reduced the stress level brought on by a particularly annoying day at work. A day puntuated by missed appointments, unavailability of patients for therapy and a general lack of cooperation among the staff. Jennifer ordered the catfish for the second time this week, too agravated to have an original idea about the menu.
There was only one other party in the dining room at this early hour, a well-dressed elderly couple, small in stature, perhaps in their eighties. They exuded a joy for living and gave the appearance of having the where-with-all to live well; not having to scratch to maintain their needs.
She couldn't help comparing them to the residents of the skilled nursing facility where she was employed as a speech pathologist. There, the elderly were totally dependent for their care with very few choices available to them.
Jennifer wondered, as she watched the elderly lady serve her husband from her salad plate, if her life with Mark would bring a satisfying life-style like this to their old age. Of course, their life together had barely begun. Their careers and family responsibilities distanced them from having any real life together at this point in time. But this was lucky number three for both of them, and maybe, just maybe, if they could get all of their ducks in a row...


For the IndieInk Writing Challenge this week, Tara Roberts challenged me with "You never know what's going to happen when you wake up in the morning." and I challenged Crosshavenharpist with "You open your door one morning and find three little kittens have been deposited there."