This was for the final week of The Writer’s Mess challenge, odd celebrations. I chose the picture prompt below, and melded it a little with some good old fashioned parental bribery. Where a mother makes up a special celebration to make sure her daughter succeeds where she did not.
There was never a lot of money at their house. She had enough to eat of course, and a roof over her head. Most people thought they had more than they did, because her grandparents liked to spoil her with toys and clothes bearing labels they could never afforded. She learned young to save her money, and to really think about what she wanted. She had been thinking about this shopping trip for months.
This was the time for her favorite celebration, what her mother called “The Marking of Marks”, and the destination was the local used bookstore. While she lived at the library there were always limits to what she could find. Books though, like all magic, came at a price, especially when you were buying them Her mother wanted her to do well in school, and so it was agreed for each of her 8 classes, she would get 2 books for an A, 1 book for a B, nothing for a C, and lose 2 books for every failing grade. She was proud to say she had never lost a book.
This year was 15 books, with the only blemish on her record the B she received in Gym. They had gone to the bookstore every week since Christmas, and she already knew exactly which books she wanted. This was going to be the best Marking of Marks ever!
Anne McSommers' Writing Nook 