Trifextra

"Then Mother said, "Oh Elena, oh no!" and it was the strangest thing, looking at her, to see her get white beneath her summer brown.  And then she said, "What can we do?""

This is my response to Trifextra's challenge for this weekend. 

The rules are as follows:

This weekend we are venturing into uncharted territories once again.  This Trifextra isn't so much a writing challenge; it's more of a reading challenge.  We want you to scour through your favorite pieces of literature and give us the best 33 words you can find. 

Some quick guidelines:

• The writing you choose should not be your own.
• The 33 words should be lifted directly from another source (i.e. don't take 33 random words from Macbeth and shake them into a poem of your own (though that would be an awesome idea for another challenge) and don't take a sentence from the beginning of a book and another from the end--keep the original order).
• Credit your sources.
• You can't use the same 33 words as anyone else in the linkz. Skim through before posting your own.  You can use the same author and even the same title, just not the exact same words.

Mine is from Meet the Austins by Madeleine L'Engle.  She is my favorite author, which is quite odd, as she writes about God and science mainly, neither of which I have any use for, and mostly children's books, something I have not been for quite awhile.  However.  She also writes about families. Imperfect, quite odd, ever accepting, extremely smart, loving to no end, families.  The mothers especially have always grabbed my attention.  When I was young, I wanted the strong knowledgeable mothers to be my own.  I always felt I was in charge of protecting mine.  Now that I am a mom, I will their confidence and intellect, as well as their offsprings' unshakable love, to be my own.  This particular passage, the mother receives awful news about her best friend's husband.  She does not wail and moan, she has biological responses, and keeps her emotions in check.  Assuring she is the One In Charge, as well as the One You Can Go To For Help, No Matter What.  Mrs. Austin is my idol.