A Visit From Joshua

Here's a short (really short) story I just wrote. The idea came out of some things that someone said during a class today. I won't go into it too much because I don't want to spoil the story, but I really like it. Again, it's very short, and it might not make a whole lot of sense to everyone, but it makes a whole heck of a lot of sense to me. I might expand it someday.

A Visit From Joshua

The warm smell of banana bread filled the small cottage as the woman hummed and dusted and baked. She rushed around the kitchen, making sure everything was just so, everything in its place. There were dishes to be cleaned and shelved, clothes to be folded and put away, and floors to be swept, and she went about the work happy as can be.

She jumped a little from surprise when she heard a knock at the front door. "Coming!" she called as she hurriedly hung up her apron and made for the door.

"Joshua!" she exclaimed to the well-dressed young man standing on her front step. "How are you doing?"

"I'm doing very well, Misses Patterson. How are you?"

"Oh, splendid, just splendid," she said. "Won't you come in?"
The young man took off his coat and hat as he followed her into the house and she began to tell him about all the exciting things she had been doing since the last time he'd dropped by. "I'm making some bread right now, if you'd like some. Oh, I do wish you'd called, I might have been a bit more prepared."

"I did, actually," he said, "but I only got your machine."

"Oh, that's right, that's right, the telephone hasn't been working properly," she said, a bit absent-mindedly. "I do need to get that fixed, I just haven't found the time."

She led him into the living room, and grabbed a feather duster to clean just a little bit more. "I'm so sorry about the mess in here," she said, "I've just been so busy."

"It's quite alright," Joshua said. "I don't mind at all. So, tell me, how has your family been doing?"

Just as he finished speaking, a timer rang out in the kitchen. "Oh, yes, just one moment," Misses Patterson said, "I've got to run back into the kitchen for just a bit to check on the bread. Please make yourself at home."

She quickly rushed back into the kitchen, and Joshua took a seat on the sofa. He could hear Misses Patterson humming a cheery tune from the kitchen. He looked around at the living room walls, adorned with family portraits that were very old, and not a little bit dusty. The room hardly looked lived-in at all, actually. It looked more like a set piece in a museum, put together as a depiction or an homage to what might be considered an idyllic home.

There was a piece of paper crumpled on the coffee table. and he picked it up to read the hastily-scrawled handwriting across it. It was a note, a reminder to stop by a neighbor's home and say hello.

"How is Misses Grant?" Joshua asked loudly so that Misses Patterson could hear him.

"Oh, drat," Misses Patterson called back. "I knew I was forgetting something. You know, I meant to go visit her the other day, but I just forgot all about it. Dreadful thing, too. She's been terribly ill for a few months now. But I'm sure she's alright. Someone from the church will have gone to visit her."

Joshua set the note down on the table and rested his hands on his knees, waiting for Misses Patterson to finish whatever it was she was doing in the kitchen. "What are you making in there, Misses Patterson?" he asked her. "Could you use any help?"

"Heavens, no," she said, "You just stay right where you are. You're a guest, after all! Besides, it's nearly done. It's an old family recipe for banana bread that is just delightful. You'll love it when it's finished.

After a few more minutes of preparing things, making sure everything was just so, Misses Patterson finally came out of the kitchen with a plate full of delicious-looking banana bread. "All done," she said. "Now let's have that chat!" She offered Joshua a piece of bread.

"Thank you," he said, picking up a small slice and eating a bit of it, "Actually, I'm really sorry, but I've got to be going now. I'm on a bit of a tight schedule."

"Oh, no," she said, crestfallen, "but you've only just arrived!"

"I know, I'm terribly sorry, but I have a lot of people I need to be visiting. And you seem to be rather busy at the moment anyway."

"Well, that is true. I am rather busy," she said as she walked him to the door, "but you will come back again soon, won't you?"

"Oh, I'm sure I will," he said as he put his coat and hat back on. "And thank you very much for the bread. It was quite good."

He started back down the walk and waved to her as he left. "Do come again soon," she called after him. "I do so enjoy our visits."

I don't know if that made much sense to anyone. If you're not thinking the same way about it that I am, then it might just seem like a rather boring scene, where nothing really happens. The way I see it, it's hugely telling of our nature and who we often are. It's a small thing, but it was nice to write and to think about.

I haven't posted on here in quite a while. A lot has changed since then. The biggest thing would be that I moved to Utah, I suppose. But a lot of other things have changed as well. I guess the tough part is to take all these changes and exciting things going on in our lives, like baking banana bread, and making sure that they don't take away from the more important things we should be doing, like visiting Misses Grant or talking with Joshua.