Sand

Inspried By The SFC Prompt:

Footprints In The Sand

If I could walk

to the end of the world

I would find a hill to stand on

and I would

 watch the sunset.

 

I wonder.

Would the sky look the same

at the end of the world?

Would the air smell the same?

If I put my hands to my face and screamed would I sound the same?

 

If I could walk to

the end of the world

I would walk upon the dead ocean floors

and touch rocks full of bones

tombs

for creatures I knew

when they were covered with flesh

a long time ago

when the Sun was Yellow

and not red.

 

If I could walk to the end of the world

I’d walk in circles for miles and miles

and

I would leave my footprints there in the dusty remains

of my world

and

wonder if

someday, somebody

would know I once was.

Doors

Inspired by The Soul Food Cafe Prompt:

Personality of  A Front Door

Have you ever stood in a dark hallway in a strange building all alone with a flashlight that you found rolling around in the trunk of your car?

It worked fine when you first flicked the switch on and it worked fine when you were with your friends but it was not fine when you broke away from the group to check out those doors- those doors that were shut when you first pointed your flashlight in their direction.

But you were sure that with the last weak beam of light you saw one door ajar- and you were just as sure when you turned around and the last of the light died away you saw the rest of the doors standing wide open.

What kind of things, you thought to yourself, would chose to hide in the darkness- what kind of creature would wade through fetid water and live with the echoes of screaming rusted hinges that go on for ever and ever.

And what kind of monster, you thought to yourself, would stand next to those wide open doors, with the blackness streaming out-

And like it?

 

My Enduring Bones

I belong to an on-line writers group at The Soul Food Cafe

and one of our projects was to come up with stories and artwork based on

Poe’s

The Raven.  

I ended up with a little collection of  fun stories and  two interesting characters- Sunny Longyear and her friend Waldgrave Tillanghast. I liked them so much I think I’m going to re-write their adventures and start posting them here considering Halloween is just around the corner it seems like a fun idea.

So here is Part One

of

My

Enduring Bones

a series of adventures

 inspired by

the works of

Mr E.A. Poe

a.m.

There I was, standing alone in front of a door that was nailed shut from the inside.

What kind of nut job, I wondered as I poked my finger against one of the nails that had made its way to the outside of the door, would wall themselves up inside of a house?

Well.

I guess I was about to find out.

So I backed up and kicked at the door- hard- and no I didn’t expect it to do anything dramatic like fly open. I just wanted to give whatever was on the other side to – you know – run.

I must have kicked at it a half dozen times.

I’ll bet it wasn’t running though, I thought with each kick.

I’ll bet it was on the other side of the door laughing at me- and then I thought to myself:

What am I doing here-

I’m going to save Waldgrave-who just happens to be a ghost-  and right now I have to wonder why.  Because,  to be perfectly honest, I don’t really understand why I’m about to save a dead guy from something I that could be anything- anything with big teeth and knives.

Yeah. I’ll  whatever is on the other side of that door with Waldgrave is very handy with knives and meat hooks because that’s exactly the kind of luck I’ve had for my entire life.

And then it came to me:

 All I have to do is just turn around and walk back the way I came- right now one foot in front of the other and who would ever know?

 I could go back to my nice quiet life as a Funeral Director and wear my sensible dark suits with my black engineer boots ( hey, it’s not like anyone ever looks at my feet- trust me on that one) and in that life dead people are just that…

well

Most of the time.

It would be so easy I heard a voice say in my head  to just walk away.

I looked around and slammed my hand over my mouth, to keep from yelling because where the hell did that thought come from?

Give Waldgrave up to something called The Black House and walk away no- slink away like some slinky coward?

I’ll tell you where that thought came from-

it was either from the house or Waldgrave and I’m not sure which of those two things scared me more- that house getting into my head or Waldgrave trying to let go.

I point at the door and say, “It’s obvious you are not going to cooperate. “

Think, think, think I told myself.

I walked to one of the boarded up windows and pushed just a little.

It gave.

Good.

I took a deep breath and this time when I swung at the boards I followed through.

All the way through.

 

I’m standing all alone ( please let me be alone ) in this nasty dark house and all I can think to say is, ” Pizza Delivery. “

I roll my eyes up because from down the hall I can hear a familiar voice say,

” You know, people aren’t laughing with you Sunny, they’re mostly laughing at you. “

” Aren’t you supposed to be in a cemetery? ” I say to Waldgrave to keep him talking because I have no intentions of opening any of these doors unless I have too.

” There’s a Crypt in the basement- “

I follow his voice to a not so awful looking door- the only one that looks like it ever gets used and I  tap on it and say, before I open it, ” Are you decent? “

” Get it in here you stupid twit, we have a problem.”

Unlike the rest of the house this room is not nasty and dark, but it feel like it all the same. There are lit candles all over the room and I can sort of see that I’m in a library and that there’s a dead man sitting behind a giant desk with about a hundred pictures in little silver frames in front of him.

I don’t need to look to know they’re probably all of  the same person.

” You killed him, I think you scared him to death. He thought you were some woman…I think he murdered her. He wanted her to come for him but he was afraid she would come for him at the same time. He dreamed about her even when he was awake.”

I don’t have anything to say.

And then I think of something, ” Help me out here just a little  exactly where are you right now?  Picture, book or statue any idea? “

“Your lack of empathy leaves me speechless Sunny, it really does.”

” If only. ” I say to myself- but you know loud enough so that I can be sure Waldgrave can hear me.

” I’m not in a book.”

Waldgrave’s surprised sounding voice is coming from right behind me.

I look and there above desk on a shelf is a statue of some guy’s head. ” You know, I’m not sure how this thing with you works, but if you think I’m going to drag you around like that  you can forget it.”

” Look down. “

I do, right into the face of the dead man and he is looking back at me.

” Oh no.” I say

” Oh yes.” Says the dead man with Waldgrave’s voice.

” Hey. I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to do that.”

” Hey. I’m pretty sure you’re right. ” Waldgrave is starting to sound a little hysterical.

Just as an FYI- hysertics are contagious because I don’t sound like I’m in full control of myself when I scream back: ” I thought you said before you could only take possession of inanimate objects.”

Waldgrave points at the dead man’s-well his face and shrieks  ” you can’t get much more inanimate then a corpse Sunny!”

” Well, damn Waldgrave get the hell out of there.” I yell at him.

” Gladly. But I can’t. I’ve been trying and guess what? I am  STUCK!”

I run over to the fireplace and grab a poker and when I turn around I tell Waldgrave ” Okay, don’t move.  I have an idea. “

Waldgrave isn’t in the mood to follow directions. Instead he  jumps up, runs around the desk and grabs me buy shoulders and shakes me hard- which makes me really angry and he says, like I haven’t heard it a million times already,

 ” I am trapped inside of a corpse!”

” I’m going to fix that Waldgrave. ” I swing the poker at Waldgraves newly acquired head and then…

he reaches out and grabs my wrist and shakes it until I drop the poker.

I’m sure I look just as confused as he does.

 With one hand pressed against his shoulder to steady him I reach slowly out for his neck with my other hand. Waldgrave flinches just a little but he figures out what it is I’m going to do and lifts his chin up 

 I put my fingers against his neck.

Then I put my hand on his chest and snap it back.

” You are in so much trouble Waldgrave. “

” Yes.” he says ” We are.”

 

It’s The Mash- The Monster Mash

Back in October of’65 ABC’s Shindig! broadcast their Halloween episode and showed a clip of the Monster Mash performed by Boris Karloff. The clip was lost somehow, but with scenes from that show that still remain Godzzla at youtube was able to assemble a music video of what it might have looked like.

Enjoy!