Secret Key

This week's gossip:

Who:  Anthony Black (Hmmm . . . I wonder if he's related to Hayley)

What:  lost key, a bounced check, a next door neighbor, dusty attic

Where:  a small town

First line:  The old woman turned and smiled.

Let us find out if Mr. Black is related to Hayley, indeed. 

The old woman turned and smiled.

"Seeing you eat those remind me of my time in England."

"Excuse me?" I asked, wondering what she was talking about, or to for that matter. Sometimes when talking to seniors they tend to fade in and out of memories. Who knows, maybe she was thinking I was an old lover of hers or something, or had a really good sandwich, which is what I was currently stuffing my mouth with.

"Your chips," she pointed to the half-eaten tube of Salt and Vinegar chips that I was happily munching on. "They remind me of my time in England."

"How's that?" I ask, not really knowing if I want to be drawn into a conversation during my lunch break.

"When I was younger, I used to live in a small town in England, some shire or something like it - my memory fades," she smiles back at me knowingly. " I remember one time fondly enough though, amazingly. I went over to a next door neighbor to complain about the bounced check that my former work place just sent me."

"Interesting, but I only have a few minutes left on my break..." I froze at what I was saying, remembering that Mom always told me that no matter what I need to respect the wishes of those who were my senior. "I'm sorry, that was very rude of me, please continue."

"Oh, no problem dear, I understand that you have work to be getting back to and I don't want to keep you here listening to some old story by some old lady."

"My apologies, please continue."

With a nod of her head she continued where she left off. 

"Anyway, as I was complaining about my circumstances my neighbor invited me in to share some fish and chips that he had just picked up down the street. Lovely food that. We always doused it with a liberal amount of vinegar and salt, so seeing your chips reminded me of that."

"Oh, I get it. Yeah sure, right. Okay..."

"Which got me to remember something that I have and need to give to someone. Someone that can be trusted, and that could use it. You seem to be the kind of person, I am looking for."

"What? No ma'am, there is no need to do anything like that." I started.

"Nonsense, it's my treasure, and if I want to give it away, I can do just that."

"Treasure?"

"Well, it's probably not much, but you look like someone that likes a challenge with some possible adventure involved." She looked me square in the eye, almost like she was looking through me with her violet eyes. How could I have missed those, wow.

"After our lunch my neighbor wanted to show me something, so I followed him to his dusty attic, where he retrieved a box that looked as though it hadn't seen the light of day in ages. The wood was so well oiled and unblemished, in fact now that I think about it, there wasn't much dust, if any, on it either," she paused reflectively thinking back to that day. "He opened the box and pulled out several sheets of paper that had notations all over it and what appeared to be a map, or two.

"There was also an old key in the box that he said was the lost key to the secret, one that has been kept for several hundred years. He told me that one day, after my eighty-sixth birthday, I would 'find' someone that was to be given the key and..."

"Wait. What secret?"

"That's just it, he never told me. In fact, if I remember correctly he was killed in a freak accident the next day before I could ask."

"So, now you are eighty-six and you want to give this lost key to me and I'm supposed to do what exactly?"

"I don't know, but here is the key, " she hands over the key, which really doesn't look like much, except for the engravings of some words along the stem and the fleur-de-lis design on the top of the key. It looked like a mixture of two different styles that had been smashed together to be honest. Quite an ugly key in fact.

"Good luck, young man."

"Wait! What am I supposed to do with this?" I yelled back at her, but she just kept on walking.

"So what are you going to do Anthony Black?"

"I really don't know Hayley, I wasn't going to do anything, but then I saw today's paper."

"What about it?"

"You know that gas station explosion that injured Aunt Babs?

"Yeah?"

"Well, there was a casualty after all? They found a body after digging through all of the rubble. It seems no one knew there was anyone there, so they weren't looking for anyone. Once the excavation began they found her." Pointing towards the front page of the paper was a picture of an elderly woman, with the headline:

"Local heiress found in rubble of GasCo explosion"

Emilia Sarah Cavanaugh March 3, 1925 - March 4, 2011

****

Okay, I'll admit that I just threw this together, but it might have some legs. :) Hope you have a great day and enjoyed reading this. - R

Molly Moves Up

This week's gossip: 

Who:  Molly Holden

What:  a luxury car, a broken piece of glass, a pair of knitting needles, an old brick

Where:  a mansion

First line:   The picture in the catalog had lied.

The picture in the catalog lied.

There was no way that Molly Holden was going to pay that much money for a pair of knitting needles, even if they were made of solid gold. She needed something more practical and realistic to use while sitting alone in her new mansion that her boyfriend Jack Cavanaugh had purchased for her, just a mere three months ago.

Of course, three months ago she was happy thinking that she had found the man of her dreams. He was tall, dark and handsome. Sure he seemed to be a bit on the loopy side, but he did have a ton of money and that had to matter for something after all. So when Jack wanted to but her this house, who was Molly to say no.

Two months ago Molly suspected Jack of cheating on her. Molly was shocked, no one had ever cheated on her - to the best of her knowledge at least, but Jack was pretty open about his cheating. Oh sure, he never came out and said that he was seeing someone else, but Molly just knew.

She knew.

So, she started following him around in the luxury car that he bought for her. She even thought that she had been spotted on more than one occasion, but he continued to carry on like nothing was amiss.

He was good.

So good, that she had never even spotted him alone with another woman. One time she thought she was going to catch him in the act, and was crawling along in the bushes, in order to peek through a window, when her knee caught on a broken piece of glass, she nearly yelled out in pain from the cut but quickly remembered where she was. By the time Molly peeked into the window, only to see Jack and his brother talking, the pain in her knee made her decide that enough was enough and so she turned around and started to head back to her car, when her toe crunched on an old brick.

Damn vandal got me twice, Molly thought, as she kept her second scream in.

She finally caught Jack with his little hussy, Babs was her name, at a gas station where they were acting so casual, almost like they had never met before. Then the bimbo, went and got themselves all blown up, thankfully neither of them died, but Jack sure wasn't as good looking as he used to be, and now he had to have nurses around him all day and all night long.

At least Jack did one thing right before the explosion, he made sure that Molly was well taken care of, without a care in the world. She even hired a handsome young pool boy to help with the maintenance of the pool, and maybe the occasional bit of maintenance for herself as well.

You know, getting those solid gold knitting needles might be worth it after all. She had notice that her pool boy had been a bit distant as of late, I wonder what he is up to, Molly thought as she clicked the buy now button from the catalog's website. You never know what those needles could be used for after all.

*** Fun Monday prompt will be up after noon CST today, in case you wanna play with that as well. Don't forget to click on the picture above to sign up for some Tea Time fun! 

Who Needs a Prince?

This week's story prompt:  Write your ending to the Cinderella story, but this time with the shoe fitting one of the icky sisters.  What does Prince Charming do?  How does Cinderella respond?  What about the Fairy Godmother?   Write in any format . . . serious or humorous.


Hahahahaha! This should be interesting...


"Ahem.


By Royal proclamation PC-673, I hereby announce that there will be a special fitting for all the ladies of the land. It seems that our your Prince has found the love of his life, yet does not know who she is. All is not lost, however, as the young lady left something behind that will uniquely identify her to the Prince. So ladies of the Kingdom, please make your presence known at the palace starting at nine in the morn, sharp."


"What's that all about Cin?"


"Oh, the Prince has made it known that all the women must flock to his side for a fitting of some kind. I can only imagine what it is for, but I suspect it might be about the slipper I lost."


"Oh, so you are the future Princess then?"


"Don't be silly. Why would I want that? Besides, as far as you know I wasn't at the ball last night, remember?."


"That's right, I forgot you are just a poor housemaid that never gets out because of your evil stepmother and her two obnoxious sisters."


"And that's the story I'm sticking with. No need to settle down with some misogynist that thinks he is in love with me because of a couple of dances."


"I thought you liked the Prince?"


"I did, until that announcement. Now I need to find my Fairy Godmother and see if I can get her to do something for me."


So it came to pass that all the ladies in the land, with the exception of Cinderella made their way to the palace to try on a glass slipper, that the Prince was sure to be his young lady love. Hundreds of fair maidens tried, unsuccessfully, to get the glass slipper to fit. Finally the Tremain sisters were all that was left and the Prince was certain that his lady love could not be one of them. Alas, a proclamation is a proclamation so he had to prove them unworthy of his love.


Anastasia, the fairer of the two (which wasn't saying much, let me tell you) tried to cram her foot into the glass slipper, to the point where those around her were concerned for her health. They hadn't seen that shade of red on a face since good Uncle Philip got kicked in that place that good Uncle Philip's do not like to get kicked, it was pretty bad.


"My good lady," coaxed the Prince, " please refrain from trying to get the slipper onto your foot, as it is quite obviously too small for you."


"B-B-B-But," Anastasia stammered, "I almost have it on."


"Please allow your lovely sister to take her turn trying it on."


Drizella, with her greasy hair, blemished face and foul smell stepped up to the chair to have a go. The Prince felt relief when he saw her foot appeared to be even bigger than her sisters, especially with the big toe nail sticking out like that.


To say that he was surprised that the slipper actually fit Drizella like a glove. Although he was not nearly as surprised as Drizella was. The royal wedding date was set for fifteen days hence. 


Meanwhile...


Cinderella sat at home and watched all of these proceedings from the comfort of her home, eating popcorn and giggling to her hearts content.


And legend has it that they did not live quite so happily ever after, especially once Lady Tremain got her hands on the palace.

Hayley's Horror

The rules...


Friday: come back for the rest of the story and share your version using the suggested prompts -- a couple sentences, a few paragraphs, or a short story.

This week's gossip:
Who:  Hayley Black

What:  camera, discovery, snoop, letter

Where:  graveyard

First Line:  This isn't where she wanted to be.

Where will we go with this? Let's find out, shall we?

This isn't where she wanted to be.

I mean sure a graveyard has it's pluses, especially one as old as St Mary's, but today it is just full of sadness and Hayley Black couldn't help but think it was all her fault. Curious as a cat Hayley would always snoop around her relatives homes whenever she made a visit. Thinking that she was the next Nancy Drew, carrying around her camera to document her latest discovery.

It was all fun and games when she did it as a child, and she really knew better than to do it as a professional photo-journalist, all that practice as a kid paid off, but she still couldn't help herself. So when she was at her Aunt Babs house a couple of weeks ago, she came across the letter.

A love letter. 

A recent love letter. 

A recent love letter, not from her Uncle George.

It was also the first time she had ever been caught, as Hayley didn't hear her Aunt come into the room behind her. Nothing could be said, and nothing was. The eyes, as they say, did all the talking for them. Hayley's were full of sorrow and her Aunt's, full of guilt.

Now she was here at her Uncle's funeral, while her Aunt was still in intensive care after being involved in an explosion at the local gas station and didn't know whether to feel relief at the fact that her Uncle died not knowing, or anger at her Aunt for betraying him that way. What she really did know though was...

This wasn't where she wanted to be.

Now head over and visit the Georgia Girls and join in the fun.

Last Fun Monday challenge for the month of April will be posted after noon CST today, so come back for that too! And if you want to host nest month's Fun Monday, let me know.

Jack gets Gas

This week:

Who:  Jeffrey Kavanaugh

What:  credit card, handbag, vanity, run

Where:  a gas station

First line:  In the end, it didn't matter.

In the end, it didn't matter.

I pulled up to the gas station because my little light that tells me what to do, lit up reminding me of my need to fill the car up with gas. I think it's a remarkable little light and there are several more inside that tell me things like which direction to turn, if my door is left open or even if I don't have my seat belt on. Pretty amazing stuff.

So after I place the car in park and turn off the engine, because there is a sign that says that as well, although there are no lights attached to this one. I wonder if you can still read it after the sun goes down, and if you cannot read the sign, does that mean you do not need to turn off your engine? I had never thought of that until now, I wonder why?

I make a mental note to come by after dark some evening to see for myself. I can just see all of the cars running while having gas pumped into them. 

I grab my credit card out of my wallet and proceed to place it into the slot that says place card here, again no lights and again I am left to wonder about how anything gets done at night around this place without lights that tell you what to do. 

Behind me a young lady pulls up to fill her car with gas and I wonder if her car has those very informative lights as well, and decide that I must investigate. As I run towards the young lady, she starts to hug her handbag - I don't know why she does this, is she really attached to the handbag, is it a sense of vanity, or maybe she doesn't even realize that she is doing it.

"Get back, or I'll call the police," she exclaims as I slow down to ask her my question.

"Why would you call the police?" I ask, although that was not my original question, that was in regards to the lights in her car, if she even has any.

"You want to steal my handbag and take advantage of my innocence." She says.

"I would do no such thing, madam, I just ran over here to ask you a question before my gas stopped pumping into my car." I try to explain.

"Oh, I apologize, I thought you might be one of those hooligans I have been reading about in the news."

"What? I would do no such thing." 

I act offended enough that she says.

"I'm sorry."

"It is okay madam, I was just coming over to inquire about the lights in your car, or rather, if you have lights in your car that tell you when to get gas."

"Um, yes I do have lights, but I don't always wait until they light up to get gas."

Needless to say I am shocked by this pronouncement and I turn to leave.

"What is your name, may I ask? You seem familiar to me."

"You may ask, my name is Jack Kavanaugh."

"Nice to meet you Jack, my name is Babs. Do you perchance have a light?"

"Yes I do, several of them in my car."

"No, silly man, I mean a light for my cigarette."

"Oh that, I sure do. Here, let me light that for you."

In the end, it didn't matter. 

Babs Watson

Just cleaning out my old drafts...

Who:  Babs Watson

What:  a fur coat, phone call, jealousy, push

Where:  a taxi

First line:  Babs threw her bag on the floor and burst into tears.

That, my friends is where I start...






Babs threw her bag on the floor and burst into tears.


She was a mess and knew it, but didn't need to have a phone call remind her of all those inadequacies just the same. I mean who does her brother think he is anyway? She's the oldest and she should know what to do in a situation and not have to be bailed out by some punk kid seven years her junior.


Okay, so he is forty-seven and the vice president of the bank but really she didn't need to hear his crap. Especially with it stemming from his jealousy of her situation with her latest love interest. The fact remains that the fur coat she gave to her sister in-law, was just going to be wasted sitting in her closet.


This latest incident was just going to push Babs away from her family even more so than she already was, and instead of being a "Chreaster" - one who visits only around Christmas and Easter - she might just wait a few years before visiting again, even though she dearly loved her nieces and nephews.


"Here's your stop ma'am," barked the taxi driver, as he rudely slammed on the brakes in from of the Essex House.

*****

Went for the free flowing, just-off-the-top-of-my-head approach to this. Hope it makes sense, as I don't like to edit you know. Click the link(the picture, up there) and give it a try, be it the free flowing manner in which I did it, or after some serious thought. All entries are welcome and appreciated.

Have a great weekend and don't forget to try your hand at the Fun Monday for next week.