New scene I'm working on in How To Own and Operate A Haunted House -- thanks for reading!
Captain Tim wore a dickie and served us spaghetti on the ancient Cornell plates that my parents received as wedding gifts. I tried to cast back to a time when these plates were a chosen and not a given.
“For the lady,” Captain Tim said, setting my dinner before me. It didn’t look awful. I had taken heed of the warning Chris had proffered about his first girlfriend’s attempt at such a meal -- she hadn’t known to drain the grease off the hamburger meat after cooking it and the whole concoction swam in grease no matter how many times she’d strained it.
“And for the man of the hour,” Captain Tim continued. I looked at my sad attempts at making my parents’ dining room look like a bistro. Tim smoothed his dickie and set down the bell that Mimi had used to ring when she needed help.
“Ring if you need me,” Captain Tim said. “I shall retire to the living room to catch some light entertainment.”
Chris and I began to eat, illuminated by a tealight placed in a holder covered with angels that looked as if they had Down’s syndrome. The theme music from Sanford and Son wafted into the dining room. I thought about the episode where Fred tries to stop Lamont’s wedding. And about Chris’s mother Darla’s honeymoon story where Chris’s father brought his best friend Earl along. Just for that, she told us, she started flushing her birth control pill down the toilet, one each day. Such was the lovely conception story. They divorced a few years after Chris’ sister Nika was born. I’d never heard the name. When I looked it up in the OED at school, I found out that it meant victory, but the empty kind that you use up all your resources to get.
Michelle's Spell of the Day
"The only advice I can give to aspiring writers is don't do it unless you're willing to give your whole life to it. Red wine and garlic also helps." Jim Harrison
Cocktail Hour
The Vampira tomorrow -- perfect hangover cure, not that any of you guys need it!
Benedictions and Maledictions
Happy Wednesday!
13 comments:
Is this autobiographical?
MyCajunQ
FunnaryStory
FoxlyLadyD
VampirellaB
R2C2Shazammm!!!!!
It takes a really special person to run around in a cape, in public.
A cape in public,it is a fun time of year isn't it. We can all act a little goofy and not be our reserved selves.
I am some what partial to the new characters names,but I'll be damned if anyone but the wife and I would go on a honeymoon.
Ahh,the power of imagination ?
I hope all finds you well and feeling better. There will be no Flu shots on this end. Are you in town any time soon ?
I like this very much. It is tight as it is and pulls without effort through the scene.
I don't need a hangover cure anymore but what the hell...I might.
Do you actually publish anything?
Outside of Vanity Press and Web pages?
I mean, for money?
I like it. I haven't heard the word "dickie" in a long time. I remember those from my teen years.
Hi Beautiful, You are getting me in the Halloween spirit with that cape! Ewwww. Greasy spaghetti on Corelle plates? Never good. Wine and garlic can get you thru anything.. xoxo
I don't like garlic.--B. Lugosi
In answer to the two anonymous questions -- to some degree, the writing is autobiographical, but I take pretty big liberties in fiction and I consider this fiction. To the second question, I have published three chapbooks with small presses and my first full-length collection of poetry is scheduled to be published by Backwaters Press. I have published stories, poems, and essays in various literary journals, some pay, some don't. I haven't done any vanity publishing, but I don't think there's anything wrong with it and certainly don't rule it out for the future. As for the blog, I think the form is one of the best things about living in the time we do -- publishing becomes very democratic and people gravitate to what they naturally like, whether it be types of writing, photographs, art, cooking advice, etc. I've found some fabulous writing and friends this way, both through writing my blog and reading other blogs. It's great to have the interaction. Thanks, as always, for reading!
Michelle! You responded in a comment! This like so violates your Blog Terms Of Use! I like it!
Kind of like Henry V going out amongst the troops before the Battle of Agincourt to find out what they think.
As far as your scene is concerned: amusingly creepy as I have come to expect of your writing. I look forward to reading the completed work.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start.
The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'
- *Quietly smoothing MY dickie* -
I don't drink...wine.--B. Lugosi
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