One Mid-November Monday temperatures hovered around freezing. Dusk pulled up its blanket as rain fell then froze to trees as Arctic air swept in. Limbs groaned with burden. Victims’ cracks and crashes echoed outside of the house, and the earth vibrated with their landing — the equivalent of an earthquake in Michigan.
The old willow lost another limb, downing the power line again. All went dark and silent except for an expletive. She threw another log on the fire and lit candles throughout the house.
Then she heard a prying sound in the attic with a deep voice she recognized calling, “Hello, Lisa! Did you miss me?”
Cell phone in pocket and a cat under either arm, she went to her sanctuary, dialed 9-1-1, spun the cylinder on the Magnum, clicked it shut, and waited. If it’s darkness we’re having, let it be extravagant.
[144 words]
Victoria is today’s host of dVerse. Victoria says:
Today, I’d like to introduce you to one of my favorite poets. Jane Kenyon was born in 1947 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She grew up in the Midwest of the United States but eventually lived out the remainder of her life in New Hampshire, married to fellow poet Donald Hall. Her poetry is immersed in her environments and in the small or not-so-small realities of daily life. It has been described as simple, spare and emotionally resonant. Jane succumbed all too young to Leukemia in 1995. She was 47 and, at the time, Poet Laureate of New Hampshire.
[Y]ou must include the following phrase from Kenyon’s poem, “Taking Down the Tree”:
If it’s darkness
we’re having, let it be extravagant.
image link here
Bravo. I like how you built up the tension and then that spinning of the Magnum. Hopefully it isn’t some unruly spirit up there in the attic.
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🙂 Thanks Victoria. This is the second story in a week about critters in the attic. I wonder what my mind is trying to tell me 😉
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Oooh…the subconscious speaks!
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Yeah, my first thought was the noises in the attic in THE EXORCIST, an evil spirit who has visited before. But the .44 brought me back to reality, and real danger.
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Thank you, Glenn. In the last couple of years there have been multiple power outages here. To be honest, it isn’t the dark that gets to me, it is the silence.
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Nice work! Real or imagined, ghost or human, the gun sounds like the right move.
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Thanks, Toni.
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Very well written. Love how you incorporate the Prompt line.
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Thank you, Sadje!
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You’re welcome Li.
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This lady does not mess around! She is ready!! Great job Jade!
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Thanks Dwight!
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That gun may not help if it’s something else…but it can’t hurt.
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As I think about it, I should have just threw the cats into the carrier and ran out to my car and took off. I’m glad I wrote the story now so I have the plan in mind if it ever comes to pass 🙂
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There you go…you never know.
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Oh so creepy! Loved it 🙂
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Yes, it creeped me out writing it! 🙂
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I love a strong woman… no fainting filly here
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lol so true!
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Spooky! (K)
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Wow, wow, wow! Powerful write Lisa!
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Linda, thank you, glad you liked it!
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Self possessed and ready for anything. Bring it on.
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You got it, Len 🙂
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Oh… the buildup is perfect… it’s so much better than “it was a dark and stormy night”… and the additional meaning of darkness holding that magnum… Also love the detail of using your own name when telling the story in third person.
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Bjorn, thank you 🙂
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I love how you end this with the line, hangs with tension, leaves me wanting the next line.
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Paul thank you very much.
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Very welcome indeed
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I love the mystery in your words and the imagery at the start.
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🙂 Thanks Astrid, glad you liked the story.
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Love your buildup in this. Very clever.
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