Photo: Valentin Salja via unsplash
“You can’t do it.” Lizbeth scowled.
Betty shrugged a shoulder at her cousin and put the hand-bound manuscript in the box beside her.
“You’ll ruin it.”
“I won’t,” Betty countered. “I’ll be gentle.”
“That’s not what I meant!” Lizbeth folded her arms and planted her feet firmly on the dusty floor of their late aunt’s apartment. Her color rose. She was jealous but would never admit it.
Betty always got the best of everything: Summer camp, long visits with Aunt Mathilde, a degree in writing, even a dad who taught her Swedish.
“I’ll be gentle in my translation,” Betty caressed Aunt Mathilde’s poetry booklet. “Dad will help. Her words languished long enough without being read.”
For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Translation in 115 words
Na'ama Yehuda 
Beautifully done! And with a migraine keeping you semi-blind to boot!
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😀 Thank you my friend! Good thing I type ‘blind’ … And … yeah, it’s a bit tricky to look at the screen (cue apologetic music for any typos I might’ve missed), but it is easier than watching a movie or reading or and there’s only so much lying-down-with-eyes-closed I can do when I’m not TOTALLY incapacitated. So I let me fingers run wild. … 😉
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Coz we done learnt how to type in high school (well, I did – so I don’t need to look at my keyboard).
And too bright hurts, too, I imagine…
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We didn’t learn to type in my high school, but my fingers are so used to typing they pretty much find their way on their own. 😉
Yeah, I dimmed the screen to 25%! How’d ya know, you smart gal you?!
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I cannot tell you how happy I am that I learned typing in Grade 9. I was a secretary/admin/same sh*t, different title for 30 years. I easily type 60 words/min…
Coz not only my sister but my mother and my husband all suffered…
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Yeah to typing! I don’t know how fast I type — certainly NOT 60 words a minute, I think, though I never measured … But I type quickly and efficiently enough for me, and it sure beats one of my friends ‘finger-by-finger-letter-search’ which drives me BANANAS to even see … 😉
As for migraines … Oy! Them are unfortunately not a rare thing, are they? One day we’ll figure out how to evict them completely and permanently!
Children get them, too. Some severely and often un-diagnosed and under-treated. Even when all is done as it ought, some get no relief. A friend of mine lost a son to suicide following unrelenting migraines that responded to nothing. I can’t even imagine …
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Oh no…. cannot watch two -finger typing.
Yep. Lisa (sister) has been getting them since the age of 3…
Oh man. I know my aunt wanted to chop her own head off…
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Yeah. Me wanna keep me own head on. I can do without the upper left quadrant, though. Certainly it cannot be THAT important, right?
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Let’s just sit back and let it pass so we can have all of you.
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Ok, fine. 😉
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That contains everything. Beautiful.
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Thank you, Crispina! 🙂 I’m glad it felt layered … I certainly hoped it would, and your perceptiveness caught right on! 🙂
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🙂
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Na’ama Y’karah,
I wonder how much of Lizbeth’s assessment of Betty and their aunt is true? Lovely use of the prompt. S’babah. 😉 Hope the migraine has left as I write.
Shalom,
Rochelle
Here’s mine: https://rochellewisoff.com/2019/06/23/lost-in-translation/
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Thanks, Rochelle. I’m only dealing with some postdrome effects (fatigue, lingering headache) but am better today. As I wrote to Dale, I’m fortunate mine aren’t totally disabling as I know they can be. Still doesn’t make them much fun … But better today, so that’s what counts.
As for Lizbeth, I think you are spot on and that it is a lot more about her own issues than about Betty …
Hugs
Na’ama
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