A Southern Estate Sale

We always thought the big white house was haunted. My friends and I would sneak through the yard on the way to school despite this association with the underworld, but that didn’t mean I didn’t walk quickly and keep one eye on the windows. I know I saw a shadow in one of the upstairs windows several times, and I’m not afraid to say that I broke into a sprint at the sight. Fright made me fast I learned as I ran through, over, and past my friends, nothing short of a pell-mell every-boy-and-girl-for-themselves charge to school.

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Another Gig

Lykke lay the cherry-red six string in its case, closed the lid, and snapped it closed. It had been a good gig, she thought. Her playing hadn’t been perfect, but the small crowd at the hotel bar didn’t notice.

The boys in the band were busy packing up their own gear around her. She had been substituting with this group off and on for a couple months now, while their regular lead ax was in rehab.

She perched on her stilettos and called over to Aaron, the drummer with the various face piercings. “Aaron, what’s it going to be? Am I in tomorrow night?”

He was hunched over and unscrewing part of his kit but looked up in her direction. “Of course, luv. You rocked it tonight. The lads and I shan’t carry on without ya, luv.” He stood then

Alone

The timing was poor. Still it couldn’t go on as it had. She woke up and realized the person she had become was empty, a hollow shell. It had to be done. Maybe he would understand someday. Or not.

She owed him a face-to-face, so she called on the phone. He said he would be right over, unsuspecting she thought.

Free Write Day 19

Writing 101 Day 19 is another free writing day.

I hike. One foot in front of the other. It is a hot day, but surprisingly not that humid. The air is thick with bugs. One buzzes around my ear and I wave a hand to shoo it away. Temporarily. It’ll be back in a few seconds. It is a bug.

Mrs. Pauley’s Eviction

Another hot day is on order for today, I realize as I sit here on the steps of our apartment. Mom left for her early job hours ago, while I was still asleep. I suppose she woke me up on the way out; she usually does — whispers that she is leaving and kisses me on the head as I sleep on the sofa in the family room. But, I don’t remember this morning that clearly to be honest, so I am just guessing.

Fear

Writing 101 wants us to write about a personal fear using a different style.

Fear rhymes with ear and hangs out with scary who is the brother of Harry, a kid that lived down the street from the house

Outwitted

All that she could think about was escaping. Jean-Claude had been such a charmer initially, she had fallen for him hard. The trip to Martinique promised to be something special. Her friend Maureen hinted at ‘a proposal’ being in the works and they giggled together.

That had all changed quickly. Irina learned that Jean-Claude was a fraud, a con man. The tickets had been purchased on a former girlfriend’s credit card and he needed to get out of the country fast.

Privatized Libraries

The community library used to be an institution where everyone that lived here could go and borrow books and other materials to read, study, and learn. It is no longer that way.

The Most Boring Picture Album Ever

Mr. Pubbeedle was a curious little man who had befriended Uncle Herbie in a time before mine. I was never certain why they felt they needed to stop by our flat so often, but I suspect it was because mother was such

Where Twelve

“Where did you live when you were twelve, Knovah?” his daughter-protege asked. They were standing on a transparent section of a moving sidewalk which spanned across the trees of the park below. The view below their feet was mostly obscured by the localized shower of rain down in the park.