Maria Calderoni
Bio
Born a lover of stories. I love to read, write and tell them. Tales of inspiration, resilience and struggle.
A life long learner, I enjoy nothing more than sharing interesting and useful things I have learned so far.
Please join me.
Achievements (1)
Stories (64/0)
The Accidental Gift
She was a giver of gifts. Her greatest life pleasure often came from the hours she spent pondering, scheming and plotting. The delight of choosing just the right gift. The anticipation of the perfect, often stealthy, delivery filled her quiet soul with a sense of fulfillment. Possibly unbeknownst to even her own consciousness was the fact that her very deepest joys were caught up in the tangle of thoughts devising the best presentation and choosing her next unsuspecting victim.
By Maria Calderoni3 years ago in Humans
Pennies From Heaven
The dusty tan Impala station wagon slowed to a crawl in yet another tiny town in the southern Okanagan region of British Columbia. Nearly as road weary as the car, a passel of children tumbled out of all available passenger doors as the driver, a woman with dark hair pulled into two long ponytails draped over her ears, eased to the curb along what appeared to be the town’s main street. The woman and the smallest child, a blond boy, headed for a bank across the street from the parked vehicle. The other two children looked up and down the road and then selected a bank about a block away. The girl appeared older, though not much taller than the boy, but she led the way confidently as if she knew exactly what she was doing and where she was going. The boy, looking mildly annoyed followed a half pace behind.
By Maria Calderoni3 years ago in Families
The Final Christmas Tree
Walking the long way back to her seat from Mr. Robertson’s desk, Catherine glanced outside the tall thin window to see if it had started snowing yet. Living in the Selkirk mountains you’d think the children would tire of the deep snow, but to the contrary each new downpour was celebrated. It was almost Christmas vacation and the student’s were eager for long days romping and cavorting through the snowy yards and neighborhoods. At nine, Catherine was a slight girl, the shortest in her class. Short yes, but not in confidence. She and David Stewart, who was of similar stature, constantly vied for the moniker “Smartest Kid in the class.” Though never conferred as such by the teachers, they compared every grade and test and constantly asked for extra work to stay ahead. Both David and Catherine were well behaved and often called upon to be the teacher’s helper. On this particular day they were racing each other to finish the most times table worksheets. Though only third graders they had cajoled the teacher into giving them multi digit multiplication worksheets and each worked diligently trying to finish the most problems correctly. When the lunch bell rang, these two stayed put finishing their final problems until the teacher grabbed their work and sent them off to get lunch. “It’s snowing!” excitedly called a first grader from the eastern corner of the large one room schoolhouse. The first and second graders had the best view outside as their classes faced the large playground and they had larger windows. Everyone rushed to finish their homemade lunches, eating at their desks and then cleaning up quickly. It was a race to get outside and make the first footprints in all the fresh snow! The snow banks were already taller than the tallest children and the untouched snow, though there wasn’t much of that, was at least 3 feet deep. And now more was coming down rapidly.
By Maria Calderoni3 years ago in Families