Life Under the Jaguar Sun

How this little book, Jaguar Sun by Martha Bourke, slipped under the bottom of my reading pile (especially since I use a Kindle) I will never know.  But I found it there, calling my name, weakly since I had ignored it for so long! I couldn't let it lie there a moment longer. Now I have read both this book and a book by Dark Moon by Maggie Tideswell and it is time to do some sharing!  We will start with Jaguar Sun and in the next few days I will add Dark Moon.

The Perfect Man (a Halloween tale)

Jill strolled down the street breathing in the fragrant autumn air. Her long, blond hair danced in the light breeze and she pulled it aside to stare up. The sky is never as blue as it is in October. She had heard it had something to do with  the distance of the earth from the sun during this time of the year. She didn’t care why; she simply soaked up the sight of brilliant red and golden leaves backed by the clear, dark blue sky.

Vampires, ghosts, super heroes, and fairy princesses swept down the street, announcing the end of afternoon classes. Children eager to start the Halloween tradition of begging for treats, raced home to an early dinner. Jill smiled at the billowing capes and fancy dresses that were such a contrast to her trim, dark red and black pantsuit. She wouldn’t be dressing up in costume tonight. She hadn’t had a date in over a year. Still, nothing could dim the joy she felt this perfect day.

A noise in a nearby alleyway caught her attention. “Stop, please stop! Let it go,” a small voice pleaded. Jill hurried the five steps to the corner and looked in as she heard an evil laugh. “Please, please,” begged the small boy dressed as a little leprechaun.  Two older boys laughed at him, the shorter of them pulling on the cute leprechaun’s pot of gold. Jill cleared her throat loudly while grabbing the shorter bully by the back of his neck. The larger boy looked up at her. His eyes widened and he fled the alley leaving his friend in Jill’s grip.  “I think you should drop the child’s pot right now.”  She squeezed her red tipped fingernails into his neck a tad harder and he dropped the pot while struggling to see his assailant.  Pushing him away by the scruff of his neck, she stepped toward the young boy.  “Are you all right?”  The bully stumbled then turned to accost the woman who had pushed him. She glared at him. His eyes doubled in size and he fled.

Jill picked up the filled pot topped with gold foil covered chocolates. “My this is heavy. Do you need help carrying it home?”

“No! My father wants me to learn to carry it myself.  I’m a big boy. I am a leprechaun.”

“Yes, you look just like one!”

“I am one! I can grant you a wish for what you did! I can! Tell me what you want”

Jill smiled wryly. “Maybe I should let you do that. Do you think you could find me a man?”

“Sure! I’m a leprechaun.  I can get you anything! What kind of guy do you like?”

Jill shrugged. “Hmmm. Tall, dark, and handsome with a voice deep and thick like honey.  Eyes as blue as mine are green. Not too fat not too lean. Not too sweet, not too mean. Oh, and no ties so he can give me his all.” She laughed lightly.

“I can do it, I can!”

An hour later, Jill dropped onions into her shopping cart at the local market.

“I’m sorry. I was wondering if you could tell me where they keep the spices? I’m new here and can’t seem to find a thing.” The deep, honey-thick voice behind Jill startled her. She turned to face a pair of captivating blue eyes looking down at her.

“Yes, I can take you there.”

A beautiful smile lightened the already handsome face. “And, do they have Cornish hen here? “

“They do, but I picked up the last two.” Jill watched the man’s face fall a bit.  “However, I can share. My name is Jill.”

Pleasant laughter erupted in the man. “I’m Jack. Nice to meet you, Jill. Tell you what. I will cook these for us tonight if you would like. My cooking skills are pretty sharp.”

Resisting this temptation was not easy and Jill’s temptation resisting skills were not well honed. “At your place? Do you have someone you were going to cook for?”

“Sadly, no. I moved here last week. Haven’t met anyone here. “

Jill turned her cart in the direction of the spice aisle. “No job, either? Surely you have friends from work?’

“Nope! Besides, I don’t work. I don’t need to. I am the last heir to a family trust, which will keep me for a lifetime.  I do write, though.”

Temptation was blossoming into a full-blown bouquet.  “Sure, I’ll let you cook the hens for us, at my house.”

Later, after the costumed children ceased knocking on the door, after the last of the butchered meat was stowed in the freezer, and the last of the lights turned down; Jill relaxed in her favorite chair.  Maybe the child was a leprechaun. Tall, handsome, blue eyes, and a gorgeous smile was exactly what she ordered. She smiled. “And he had been not too fat and not too lean,” Jill thought as she picked the last of Jack from between her teeth.

Ransom is available!

Don't forget to enter the Raffle for the last book in the Healing Crystal Trilogy by Michele Poague. Check out RANSOM!

Small Footsteps in the Land of the Dragon

Small Footsteps in the Land of the Dragon: 
Growing Up in China

by Barbara Brooks Wallace

Publisher:  Pangea Publications

• ISBN-10: 0989406547
• ISBN-13: 978-0989406543

Available at Amazon 

How many Americans can say that they were born in China? Today China is viewed as a powerhouse, world player, financier and new entry in to the world corporate scene, but in this short autobiography, "Small Footsteps in the Land of the Dragon," it is the China of the "little people" -- the children -- that we see. Looking at the "normal" world around her, the author describes, in her childhood voice, the impressions of her childhood, especially the day to day activities that she had no idea were different from what other children experienced. Beggars in the streets, bandits, getting lost in hostile countryside fields, gunfire in the city, were all part of "normal" everyday events.

While large social and political upheavals were growing and becoming more and more violent, everyday life went on. In Barbara's childhood, the older Chinese sensibility ruled.