Her Ritual (story by Jill inspired by Jennifer's photo)

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Jennifer gave me this word prompt on July 23, 2021. I love the bright color in this photo and the idea of drinking something that looks like a potion. But then I wondered, "Could you bathe in butterfly pea flowers?" And so I Googled it, and... Yes! You can. So, this is what came to mind ...


Her Ritual


Dina locked the door and slipped out of her robe. She sat on the edge of the tub and turned on the faucet. The water quickly warmed as it flowed over her hand, and she immediately felt some of the stress leave her body at the sound of the running water and the feel of its warmth on her skin. 

She loved her tub—its old-fashioned clawed feet, how high it was to sit on the edge. It was Dina’s favorite part of her current apartment. And she would miss it most when she had to leave. She bent over and plugged the drain. 

Exhaling heavily, she reached for her jar of butterfly pea flowers. She opened it and put some in the tub then gently set that jar on the table by the tub, opened the next jar, and sprinkled some epsom salts in the tub, as well. Dina then bent toward the water and stirred it with her hand for a few seconds. 

This was her ritual. This made all the stress of the day leave her body and her mind—well, at least for the next 20 to 30 minutes, maybe, before she had to unlock the door and let it all back in. But for those moments, she was in her one safe and calm space. The door was locked, and she was alone.

She swung her legs over the side of the tub and gently slid into the water.

“Ahhhhh,” she exhaled.

In the water, she could forget about the fact that the rent money was due sooner than her paychecks were coming in. And that her latest love interest, Rod, had stopped calling her shortly after he had borrowed 175 of her last dollars that she really needed for the rent and the bills. And that her son, Dale, was missing … again. She wished that he would stop getting caught up in idiotic schemes that she always had to try to bail him out of. 

But for the next 20 to 30 minutes, Dina didn’t have to worry about any of that.

She could just sit there. 

And slowly breathe. 

And relax.

She took a long breath in counting to five, and then she slowly started to breathe out mentally getting to the number three when the phone rang.

She opened her eyes, sat up, and glanced over at her phone on the bathmat beside the tub, “Dale,” it said. 

She sighed heavily, knowing that her moment of peace was over and reached for the phone.


—Jill Morse (written on July 29, 2021)

A character from It Felt Wrong (posted 7.30.21) is mentioned in this post.



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