The Number 12

Does It Mean Anything to You or Is It Half-Baked?

Photo by Kelly Neil on Unsplash

The number 12 appears to mean something special to me. It’s the name of a document where I was starting half-baked stories that might eventually turn into something somebody would like to get their teeth into. I already have two documents on my computer that have gotten to be quite large over time. One is for already published and scheduled to be published articles on Medium. The other one is for the half-baked bits of stories I started and never finished. Occasionally, I’ll pick through them and work them up into something I can publish.

Otherwise, I open up blank documents and start writing. Something. For me, there is something magical about a clean sheet of paper. If at the end of the day that bit I was writing hasn’t resolved itself into an entire cookie, it gets put in with the other half-baked bits in my draft document. Usually, come morning I forget I put it into that particular cookie jar and begin again with another blank sheet of paper. Or it sits there unprotected with no name and not saved all night long.

The power could go out and the piece would be lost.

The cat could go to sleep on my keyboard, which she has done before, and who knows what creativity Daisy Mae would work upon the piece? Sometimes she writes too. Apdf9za;lk101432. Things like that. Kitty musings in the night and comments on what the neighborhood gets up to from her study window that looks into the backyard.

Usually, I remember to retire the keyboard, tucking the little legs against the base and slipping it onto the shelf of the rolling cart next to where I sit. Upon retiring for the night, on the now empty shelf the keyboard sits on during the day, I put Daisy Mae’s plush little bit of material so she has a place to roll and push her face against stuff.

Many times, during the day I will sense her looking at me. My cat sits on the desk beside me and stares at me. If I don’t respond she will put her paw on my shoulder until I set the keyboard aside and invite her over for some loving.

Anyway, back to 12 and the idea for the piece I am writing. I looked it up and it means visitors present. It’s a police code 10–12 they use when en route somewhere…