I was sitting in my study in front of my laptop, as per usual, staring at the empty screen. I had decided to try my hand at story-telling, even though I am a woman of few words. Thoughts were drifting idly through my mind, and my eyes shifted over to the bookcase.
There are many books on my shelves, mostly fantasy titles, and I caught myself wondering if somehow all these tales of days gone by (even though they had never happened) had filtered through into my life. Stranger things have been known to happen, and I remembered reading a book once about a woman from our time, waking up in the middle of a fairy tale…and of late, I had been having the weirdest dreams, even for me with my technicolor dream-movies of people I had never known, places I had never seen.
This time my eyes drifted out the window – almost as if drawn to the newly-painted white garden wall, the lawn that needed some serious mowing, the abundance of trees, the soft light of the sky as the sun started setting behind the clouds, chittering birds getting the last bit of seed or insect down before night fell… when, in my mind’s eye, I saw her.
Well, it must have been my mind’s eye, because the garden wall is eight foot high, the gate was locked and barred, there is no way anyone could get past the electric fencing, so she could not have been real. At least, this is the way my reasoning went. And then she spoke to me.
‘My name is not important. My message is…,’ she said, the sound of her voice trailing away like a soft echo. Her voice was beautiful, melodious, deeper than you’d expect from a girl not much taller than five feet. She was dressed in a kind of shift, with bare feet, and I was sure I saw a leaf or two stuck in her long, dark-brown hair. Her face was thin, her cheekbones casting a slight shadow in the last light of the day.
. . _________________
MIA
Thu Dec 29, 2005 9:55 pm
Hawaiian
Joined: 01 Dec 2005
Posts: 816
Location: Transplanted to Africa
ghost,
I think I already asked...so again, more please.
HAU'OLI MAKAHIKI HOU,
-Hawn _________________ 'A'a i ka hula, e waiho i ka hilahila i ka hale.
Dare to dance, leave your shyness at home.
Sat Dec 31, 2005 8:55 am
Raven
Joined: 20 Jan 2005
Posts: 1409
Location: Basking in the Garden
Chica you know how I love fantasy - it is my core . . YOU HAVE TO KEEP GOING . . dont be a tease lol.
Kisses,
Rave _________________ Love is my Salvation and Destruction.
Mon Jan 02, 2006 5:04 pm
Allison
Joined: 12 Oct 2005
Posts: 4216
Location: Florida
Do please continue.....intriguing so far! _________________ Alli
Tue Jan 03, 2006 7:48 pm
ghost
Joined: 06 Nov 2005
Posts: 2828
Location: MIA
to continue..
thank you ladies...
but some advice please. this looks like it is going to turn into a minor novel, never mind a short story. what is the least irritating way to add new parts? alli, i like your chapter by chapter sumissions, but you are going to wait an awful long time for me then, it has taken a week to write another page and i think i haven't yet reached the end of the first chapter? whichever way, here is a bit more of the story...
Never-ending story (part 2)
She was standing on the pathway running across the lawn. I got up from behind my desk and went over to the window. “How… how did you get in?” I stammered. Inane question to ask when so many others were running though my mind, I must admit now. She simply smiled at me. “That is neither important, nor relevant at this time,” she said. “Now hear my message…,” she continued.
“You have been summoned, because you hold a key. If there were any other way, we would not have appeared in this world of yours, but we are desperate. The key holds the answer to what is plaguing our world, but only you can wield it. Will you come?” she asked in her soft voice.
I stared at her. Another world? Now I knew I had been reading too much fantasy. “I’m sorry, but is this some sort of joke?” I asked. “Do you have the right person? You must be mistaken. Can I call someone to fetch you?” I rattled off the questions trying to give myself some room to think. In answer, she turned away from me and stared at my SUV parked on the driveway. “We do not have much time, human. Yes or no?” she replied eventually. “‘Human’?” I asked. “If I am human, then what are you? No, wait, don’t tell me, you are an elf, right?” I said. My mind was whirring through the possibilities, trying to remember the names of all the different beings I had come across in my vociferous reading of fantasy tales. “Mind you, you are a bit on the short side for an elf. They are supposed to be tall…” She whirled around to face me again. “Don’t be impertinent, you fool!” she snapped. “It doesn’t matter who or what I am, all that matters is your answer! Yes or no?” she repeated.
“How much time can I have to decide?” I asked. I was thinking of the deadlines I had to meet for the week, the pile of laundry heaped in the kitchen ready for the washing machine, the lawn that needed mowing… stuff, the kind of stuff that fills our lives and makes us feel as if we are achieving something, as if we are alive and well and living a peaceful (well, almost), suburbian life here on planet earth.
“I need your answer now. We cannot wait, the …umm, …problem… is, has grown beyond our control already.” She stumbled over the naming of whatever was so threatening to her world, as if she were unsure of what to call it. Or maybe she didn’t want me to be frightened off by the actual name? Not that I would have known what it is, anyway.
I laughed uncertainly. “You give new meaning to the phrase, ‘dropping out of the sky’, give me an ultimatum without telling me what it is all about, and you expect an answer right away?” I asked. “I have important things to do here, I cannot go running off to God knows where at the drop of a hat…,” I went on. She looked at me with a strange expression on her face.
“You really don’t understand, do you? That it is a matter of life and death, a real threat of extinction for my people?” she said softly. “That only you can still help us now?” Now I ask you, what did you expect me to say? If it had been you, what would you have done? My eye caught the line of text I used a screensaver, scrolling over the computer screen. “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less travelled by, And that has made all the difference ... Robert Frost.” – I had already made up my mind by the time I reached the end of the quote…
“I will come.” It was a simple statement, short and to the point. I did not realize what a profound effect it would have on my life, from that very moment onwards. _________________
MIA
Thu Jan 05, 2006 10:34 am
realwoman
Joined: 05 Dec 2005
Posts: 1040
Location: under our tree in Africa
SPOOK
Please dont stop - cant wait to hear the next chapter - and i know your lawn needs a mow - lol!!
RW _________________ .
.
light is to darkness as love is to fear...
Thu Jan 05, 2006 2:24 pm
Hawaiian
Joined: 01 Dec 2005
Posts: 816
Location: Transplanted to Africa
Ghost,
I do agree with real here...can't wait for the next installment. And to answer your appeal for advice, I really don't know...I think that this way is fine, as long as there's not dozens of women begging for more between chapters...heh.
Please keep adding to this piece...novella or not.
Aloha,
-Hawn _________________ 'A'a i ka hula, e waiho i ka hilahila i ka hale.
Dare to dance, leave your shyness at home.
Tue Jan 10, 2006 4:38 pm
Guest
Real Intriguing...
Mon Jun 05, 2006 10:35 am
desert-fish
Joined: 13 Apr 2006
Posts: 2777
Location: deleted
Just a thought:
We all hold a key to some aspect of some-one else's life,
but just because we wield that key, doesn't always mean
that they are prepared to walk
through the door that is opened
Tue Jun 06, 2006 7:16 pm
ghost
Joined: 06 Nov 2005
Posts: 2828
Location: MIA
ladies, thank you all for your nice comments. i am afraid i have left this story lolling around here for so long, i almost forgot about it myself! and time, time is always the problem...
pale - how true.
regards
ghost _________________
MIA
Sun Jun 18, 2006 9:51 am
Raven
Joined: 20 Jan 2005
Posts: 1409
Location: Basking in the Garden
Find Pale's words to be very, very, oh so true. _________________ Love is my Salvation and Destruction.
A wonderful story and it does not matter to me how you add to it...as long as you do.
As to your question about adding new parts...
One option I like is starting a new post with each new addition that contains the entire story up to that point. You can do that with every new addition or at intervals. I like that because on the poetry board you could have a dozen parts to a poem scattered out over a dozen pages and spend an hour hunting down part 1. But ummm that may not be a problem here at the moment.
Hugs,
Eiregirl _________________ All poems and stories posted by Eiregirl are
Copyright 2005 - 2008 Aoibhegréine
These literary works are my property under copyright. If you wish to use my work for any purpose please ASK FIRST.
Tue Oct 31, 2006 8:48 pm
ghost
Joined: 06 Nov 2005
Posts: 2828
Location: MIA
lol eire... we have solved that lil problem since... to keep it all together and make it easier to find, we are supposed to edit the first post and add the new part, also edit the title ta say a new section has been added.
quote:Originally posted by ghost:
lol eire... we have solved that lil problem since... to keep it all together and make it easier to find, we are supposed to edit the first post and add the new part, also edit the title ta say a new section has been added.
anyway, ty for the comment.
regards
ghost
cool...that is even better
Hugs,
Eiregirl _________________ All poems and stories posted by Eiregirl are
Copyright 2005 - 2008 Aoibhegréine
These literary works are my property under copyright. If you wish to use my work for any purpose please ASK FIRST.
Wed Nov 01, 2006 3:51 am
lori
Joined: 19 Aug 2007
Posts: 1454
hahaha. id be very interested to know what happened next too Ghost. _________________
WHEN I FALL, I LOSE MY HEART AND FILL THE SPACE WITH HER..
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