Flame, Glass and Ink are Poems, essays, and reading notes by Stefania Joori Suh

Tag: fiction

  • Just One Day

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    “Dearie Me. I only wish I could be anywhere but here today…” Sally talks to herself as she sits down on a chair after setting up her popcorn cart for a day’s operation of her business. She has been selling popcorn, chocolate-covered bananas, frozen fruits, and French Fries for three years. Sally loves her job because she likes to interact with folks of all walks of life and hears their own stories of life and themselves. It gives her a new fresh point of view on her own life, which helps her look at her existential problems with a variety of possible solutions. Sally feels a sense of community and finds her existence  in her daily dealing with her customers, which can’t be materialized simply by reading books and internalizing the knowledge in the abstract. But Today is different. That is, only today she feels out of place, misplaced,  and  discontent with her sweet establishment.

    IMG_3987The proximate cause of the vagary of  her state of mind is her inability to go to see the outdoor music concert held in Elusian Park today at 12:00 PM. It’s a classical music event in which her favorite Regal Philharmonic Orchestra will play scores of music from the Baroque to Romantic periods. According to a program Sally has read from the Calico Times, the orchestra will play her beloved “Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G Major” By Bach, “Fledermaus Waltz” by Strauss II, “Trumpet Voluntary” by Hendel, “Radetzky March” by Strauss I, and so forth. Sally’s soul leapt up with effervescent joy and her spirit sprang from the dormant mode of cultural activity upon reading it and wanted to attend the concert in a heartbeat. So she checked the onlie ticket booth to get a ticket, which was sold at $3.00 each yesterday. But alas, all were sold out as there were many more likely-minded spirits wanting to enjoy the festivity of music – the festivity of art in the same place at the same time. A phantasm of a basking herself in the gorgeous feast of elegant music is vanquished.

    IMG_3995Nevertheless, Sally is not sulky or soaked in a miserable feeling of being left out of a cultured crowd. It’s just one of those moments when you feel like doing things that you feel most comfortable and familiar with differently just for one day. Being a responsible and sensible being she is, Sally tries to take the image of the musical concert in her mind’s eye  and the music that plays in her ears off her mind by gently forcing herself to turn to a different subject. “I should have nice brunch with a cup of fresh Americano coffee at Snoopy’s now. It will make me awake again!” So she goes to the cafe that is just around the corner of the street with her cart being attended by her fellow street vendor Randy, the fruit guy. “Randy, thanks much for your help as always. I will come back in an hour with a nice take-out set from the cafe.” And when she goes into the cafe, to her pleasant surprise, Bach’s “Bourandebourgh Concerto No. 3 in G Major” welcomes her lovely entrance. This is sufficient for Sally to make amends for her failed hope of going to the concert today, and what with a cup of warm Americano coffee accompanied by her beloved brunch meal set and what with the customary cozy ambience of the cafe, Sally desires nothing more and becomes content with such simple joy of the moment she’s in.

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  • The Enterprising Spirits

    After years of working as seamstress and nanny with a trust fund her paternal grandmother Mrs. Molly Miller bequeathed to her in a magically discovered will, Sally’s mother Mrs. Mary Lamb bought a three-story house building in Charlottestown. It is indeed a revelation of lucky stars winking at the Lamb who have believed that heaven help those who help themselves as asserted by Benjamin Franklin. Not that the meaning of life aims at a pursuit of happiness, such as manifested in the realization of having a property now the Lamb possess, but that it is rather a by-product of their making efforts to live meaningful life simply by fulfilling demands placed upon their daily dealings with the world because to the Lamb materialistic bliss is not the ends of their life thanks to the influence of Logotheraphy, established by a great Austrian psychoanalyst Viktor E. Frankl whose book entitled, Man’s Search for Meaning Sally Wrote about in Serendipity, a kind of Reader’s Digest-like literary magazine of Charlottestown.

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    Mary Lamb, Sally’s mom

    It is a big leap from the cozy and pastoral Avonlea where the mother and the daughter were comfortably accustomed to the modes of life for long. But that was exactly why Mary had decided to move to Charlottestown, a coastal city 5 miles off the Pacific Ocean where seas are bluer and deeper and wider, and the skies higher and clearer, with people bustling with many different lives and daily episodes. She wanted to become a pioneer woman and wanted her only daughter Sally to mark herself in such world, triumphing over her obscurity and self-doubt as awriter of her own.

     

     

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    Sally Lamb, before getting off for the intervie

    Sally seems to like her new surroundings, adjusting herself thereto with her face radiated with a new sense of purpose and cheerful moods that were seldom surfaced to bloom back in Avonlea. But is she really content with their newly acquired state of material affluence with a house and a bakery, and even a car? Why not? It would be hypocrisy to deny what it is given, whether or not it’s favorable, especially if it is conducive to the invigoration of new energy that stimulates your mind growth to discover a wide panoramic view of life, a vista for what life asks you to do.

     

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    Bonnie Baker, Bakery’s new attendant/cashier

    With a hereditary sense of business acumen aided by philanthropist streaks in her family line, Mary made the first floor a bakery where delicious cakes and freshly brewing coffee are made on premise (that is, in her kitchen on the second floor), all of which are served with genial courtesy and amiable smile of Bonnie Baker, a new attendant at the shop whom Mary hired last week. Bonnie is a sister of her two baby siblings, Nena and Neno, all left orphaned by the death of their parents from a tragic car accident in Kingsbridge two years ago. The Baker used to live with their maternal aunt Brenda, but Bonnie did not get along with her because of her curmudgeonly temperament and depressive emotional tendency. Hence, when she saw an advertisement on The Traveler’s Times, seeking for a reliable, affable bakery shop attendant/cashier, without hesitation and with guts of confidence and adventuresomeness, Bonnie applied for the position, met with Mary, who liked her instantly, and got the job.

    To her amazement, Mary even volunteered to take care of the babies when Bonnie is at work. However, when Mary is also working on her mobile Candy Shop, her niece Sophie babysits them.

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    Sally’s ready to drive her very first car to her job interview.

    Sally is on her way to her job interview at Buena Vista, a literary magazine that covers a wide scope of literature from book and film reviews to poetry, to essays, and to letters from readers, all except matters concerning Politics. Surely, this is an outright betrayal of Aristotle’s dictum that anyone who’s not interested in politics must be either a beast or a divine being. But talking and writing about politics in public only disintegrates a stability of societal codes of conduct and builds up walls between one another and makes a clan of itself… So for this reason, Sally is elated to be selected for an interview by her favorite magazine. She feels her time has finally arrived, the time when her ability as a writer gets a recognition at last…. She feels that the auspicious interview notice is a foregone result – that is, she has a precognition that this position is to be had only for the asking. So off our Sally goes to the magazine company, which is located at 101 Fifth Avenue, 10th floor in Manhasset, 20 miles off Charlottestwon linked by the Thomas Jefferson Bridge.

    Sally, being easily moved into tears at the sight of people in need, also gives a ride home to Laura Collie, who with a heavy basket full of groceries is grateful for her act of kindness. Best Wishes for Sally’s job interview, or maybe we should congratulate her on the new job? Why not? What You Think and Believe Becomes Reality.

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  • Bluebird Interview

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    She was born when Saturn and Uranus were housed in the Aquarius. That says pretty much about her. The Aquarian are known for their independent spirits, compassionate and caring nature, and unquenchable wants of knowledge, all enveloped in mysterious estrangement even among the crowds. Yet, Stephanie, the writer and the editor of her two-year old Web log, “The Stylus,” (formally known as “Offbeat) is generally quite approachable and genial although she is never too loquacious at a first meeting. In fact, you might find her quite interesting to talk to, especially when you strike up a conversation with her about books written by classical writers or about history, dogs, or cultures. And if any of these appertains to one of her writings published on her digital log, “The Stylus,” you will see her soul being elevated to the ether with her eyes sparkling like stars on the Persian night sky. On Monday morning at a cozy cafe in Avonlea, Bluebird had the pleasure sitting down  with a cup of warm hazelnut coffee to talk with her about her blog, from the inception, the purpose, and the future thereof.

    BD: Hi, Stephanie. As Oscar Wilde has said that a woman who would reveal her age would tell anything about her, I won’t ask you how old you are because I suspect that you will not anyhow.

    Stephanie: I appreciate your judiciousness. (Smile) And yes, you are right in saying that I won’t tell you my age. (Smile) But I am neither teen-aged nor maturely aged, single, like one of those 10 vestals in the ancient Roman Empire. (Smile)

    BD: Okay, then let’s start talk about your Web log. What was the idea behind the creation of this log of yours? Did it occur to you all of sudden that you wanted to have yours like everyone else?

    Stephanie: Well, I first started thinking about having my writing log about 2 years ago. I had always wanted to write things about what I liked and to convey it in written letters because I think writing revels one’s soul in his/her genuine self without worrying about the physical appearance and how to present the self externally in public. In that regard, writing is non-discriminating of all social and biological differences. And I always thought that in people’s writings I could see the intelligence and nature of the writers because people would tell about their innermost feelings by means of writing rather than by speaking, which I think, sometimes seems a bit pompous and artful.

    BD: So, is this why you came to create your blog to write about what you think and feel that cannot be shared by speaking in public?

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    Stephanie: Partly so. And partly it’s because writing seems easier to communicate than speaking, which requires of me instantaneous faculty with dialogue that necessitates breaking from shyness. You see, English is not my mother tongue. Being a native Korean, the language differences between the two languages are as wide and deep as the Pacific Ocean: The English belongs to the Indo-European lingual family, while the Korean to the Ural-Altai to which the Japanese, the Turkish, the Finnish, and the Hungarian also belong. The syntax and the grammar are of course very different. So, it will be much different from, say, someone from any Western European country speaking and writing English because Western European languages belong to the same family as the English. Nevertheless, I want to break from such syntactical, grammatical, and literary inhibitions to craft the art of writing, just as Jack Kerouac felt the same about it.

    BD: That’s a sublime motivation to create your blog. Then how about the name of your blog? It has recently gone through some changes…

    Stephanie: Yes, indeed. But for the good reasons. First, it was started as “Offbeat” because one of the teachers at the language school I currently work at told me that my blog seemed to carry this offbeat vibes, a sort of New York feel, the independence, the avant-garde spirit that knew no boundary of subject matters of writing. So I thought it was a cool name for my blog and kept it until the last week. But suddenly I came to think that it needed name changing just for a change of scenery; you know the kind of moment when you want to reinvent your image with a new haircut.

    BD: Okay, Stephanie. By the way, what are your readers like? Do you have many followers?

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    Stephanie: To be honest with you, I am more concerned about the qualitative likes I get for what I write from fellow bloggers who also love writing and publish qualitative posts by which I mean the writings, such as musings, creative stories, poems, and/or book reviews. The reason I say this is that recently there has been someone who creates several unsolicited blogs that only contain commercial stuff, copied works of others, or nothing just to get to my blog. And I tell you that I only appreciate the likes from those qualitative bloggers. And I also tell you that I don’t appreciate those of illegitimate ones’ likes. How do I know they are illegitimate? Well, can you like my writing as soon as I publish? That means that person does not bother to read my writing, which I take it as an offense.

    BD: Who is that one plaguing your blog with empty likes? Have you done something about it?

    Stephanie: First, that one appeared in my spam comment section. He said he liked my blog and asked for some advice of writing. I think I was too naive to even reply to him, thinking that he was going to have his meaningful blog filled with writings, but no… I should have never done that…. This is my character flaw; that I bring trouble and pain on myself through pity and compassion… In that respect, I sympathize with Katherine Cookson, who said the same thing in her memoir Before I go, about which I have also written.

    BD: You must be really frustrated with that person… Sorry to hear that.

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    Stephanie: I even contacted an engineer at wordpress. about this issue in effort of stopping him from visiting my blog, but was told that because it’s in a public domain, there’s no way I could do that… And you know it’s really disheartening to see it happening in my blog because it is a sheer form of sabotage to my blog because my blog is not an object of popularity… Although my current followers are 52, what I care about is my works being duly appreciated by fellow writers, amateur or professional. Nevertheless, I don’t want to canvass for liking my writings. It’s just not me. But if you like any of my writings in terms of the contents regardless of any grammatical errors, that makes me feel fulfilled. And any comment is always welcome.

    Don’t be shy to comment on any of my posts because I am a human being, too! (Smile)

    BD: Stephanie, I understand how you care about your blog and your love of writing in this interview. Any word to your readers?

    Stephanie: I just want my readers to know that I write because I like to portray what I feel about things in my heart in poetry and what I think about books I read in my mind in belief that taste and reason is universal in all human creatures regarding principles of judgment and of sentiment common to all mankind, as Edmund Burke averred in his essay On Taste. So Many Thanks to You, Dear Readers with My Whole Heart.

    BD: Thank you, Stephanie. I hope your writings will have a wide range of loyal noble readership.

    Stephanie: Thanks! Have a lovely day!

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  • Sunday Episode – Avonlea Tunes

    Little ones’ sweet days (Click here for what they did.)

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    It’s still cold here in the town of Avonlea with the North Wind reigning his realm of winter. The snow has stopped falling since the last Tuesday, but the cold temperature still befalls the residents of Avonlea. However, the spirits of the little ones are all the more upbeat with their seemingly nonstop frolics and curious minds about what goes around them everyday.

    Yesterday after attending their 9:00 AM Sunday mass in the Church of St. Mary, the little ones gathered again at Mrs. Lompstrompf’s cafe to confabulate with one another with sweets and refreshments. It was a reward for their attending the early morning mass despite the frigid temperature added by frightfully pungent wind slapping he little faces without mercy as they had marched forth to the church. What brave souls they were! That’s why Jesus told that we should be like children to inherit the kingdom of heaven.

    So this was how they spent yesterday in Avonlea. However simple the story might be, it’s recorded in their chapters of life. That’s what a life is. The meaning of life depends upon whether or not we fulfill the demands placed upon our daily tasks. The little ones seem to know it. What about you, dear reader?

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  • Episode IV: Lunch at Rainbow Bakery

    Lunch at Rainbow Bakery (Click here.)

    73eea028ace6869003bb394a78d4e400It’s after a wintry weekend, and the boys of Avonlea met together at Rainbow Bakery for lunch. It’s their elbow room where they can sit down with a set of delicious food, always freshly cooked on premise by Mrs. Lompstrompf according to her old world recipes from her grandmother in Norway and enjoy their time there as long as they like. In terms of the food, Anika, Mrs. Lompstrompf’s only granddaughter who can speak both Norwegian and English thanks to her grandmother’s bilingual teaching since she was a toddler, always adds a great touch of many inventive flavors to the food. In fact, were it not for Anika’s delightful fusion of diverse flavors from all over the world, the little ones would not make Rainbow Bakery their yummy den.

    There was also Sally at the bakery after a visit to her doctor’s office on Kingsbridge Avenue early this morning.  Sally had been suffering from an unfortunate case of abscess on her neck. It gathered and burst 5 days ago, which lessened the pain considerably. She thought that there would be no need to see a doctor for such because she could be healed of as time would go by, but her ma and pa told her to see to a medical provider’s help. So Sally, being always a good girl with full of humanity and great filial duties, hearkened to her parents’ advice and took a trip to the office by tram.  Sally endured the pain of treatment with ladylike dignity, got her prescription from the doctor, and decided to go to Rainbow Bakery to rest herself with the food prepared by her aunt Mathilda to brighten up her weary soul and weakened body. Now she felt much better and relieved, thanks much to the hearty food and the ever gentle kindness of  Mrs. Lompstrumpf (“Grandma” as Sally endearingly refers to and calls her) and vivacious Anika’s personality.  Grandma cheered up Sally with a mug of hot peppermint tea she made especially for the poor girl.

    The lunch at Rainbow Bakery is always pleasant, and even a total stranger would feel included just by sitting there with a cup of coffee and a donut. There is no time limit for how long one can stay there regardless of the cost of food from the menu; you can buy just one croissant and sit there until you are bored with sitting. That’s why the little ones, Sally, and others regard the bakery as their elbow room.

     

     

     

     

     

  • Episode II of the Sylvanians: Before the Weekend

    Click here for Thursday evening

    24879320_502678990099370_2033890894_oThis is an episode 2 of the Sylvanian Series I have written. Although the story might be deemed intent upon children because of the characters being anthromopoistic, it is actually intended for all ages, including the young at heart.

    The theme of the story goes thus: It’s a Thursday evening, when the the residents of Avonlea enjoy their mealtime after a hard day’s work. In fact, Thursdays are much pleasant than Fridays because the impending weekends are all the more enlivened by plans of cherished weekend activities as they deem enjoyable and rewarding on their own accord.

    It’s always heartening and relaxing to expect to do something rather than doing it in actuality. Meet Sally, Mr. Karl’s family, Mrs. Lompstrompf, Mathilda, and a band of little guys for their evening repast.

    *Sylvanians are the residents of Avonlea, the miniature figures that I have. I haven taken pictures thereof and written a few short episodic stories thereabout.