The Voice

Posted on August 11, 2024 by hdh

The writing prompt was – The main character is in a frustrating situation.

“I don’t know what to do,” was heard.

No one in the group acknowledged saying it, but everyone had heard it. 

The voice was quite forlorn. You heard the anxiety and frustration in their plea. But who was it? And what was the answer to the unasked question?

There was a mystery to be solved.

Then the voice spoke again. “It will be too late, but I must make a decision.”

Now, we were all perplexed because we had our eyes wide open when the person spoke, and we did not see it created by anyone in the room.

 Was someone a ventriloquist and trying to play a joke on us?

Wanting to disprove that theory, I asked everyone in the room to open their mouths wide and hold it that way for 30 seconds. 

It seemed a silly thing to do, but everyone did as I asked. I was hoping that the voice wouldn’t sound again, for a ventriloquist cannot perform with a wide open mouth, 

It was but 10 seconds in that the voice sounded again. 

“I’m doomed,” it said, “There is no help here.”

One of the group members answered quite quickly, “Yes, there is. You need to give us more information. Who are you? What are your choices? What can we do?”

We all waited. That’s when a burly man entered the room.

“HIM!” was the voice’s response.

Everyone in the room looked at the man. “Who are you?” I asked. 

“Why do you ask?’ was his gruff reply.

“Don’t tell him, please,” pleaded the voice.

None of us spoke. 

“I asked you, why do you ask?’ he said.

I tried to take charge, “I’m sorry, this is a group meeting for registered-only. Is there something we can do to help you?”

The man hesitated for a moment, then said, “I’m looking for someone. But, apparently, she’s not here.” 

The man turned to leave. We all heard the tears falling from someone crying in the room. Obviously, the man could hear nothing. He left as mysteriously as he had arrived. 

“Thank you.” said the voice. And that was the last time we heard it. 

We never did find out who belonged to that voice. 

However, I suspect it had something to do with the newspaper article in the paper a week later. The article showed a picture of a missing woman in the local area who had been missing for some time. There was suspicion of foul play, and the lead suspect who police were looking for, whose picture was also in the paper, was the man who had entered our library writing group that day. 

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Another Lesson Learned?

Posted on August 7, 2024 by hdh

Today’s writer’s playshop prompt was Merrymaking. We were given 20 words to choose from to prompt us. We could use as many as we wanted. I used all of them. All the words used are in italics.

——————–

Another Lesson Learned?

If there is one thing I know, it’s when someone is trying to flummox me. At least, I thought I did until one day, I got hit with a doozy. Well, I shouldn’t say one day; it happens more often than that. But you all probably know that.

This particular one was a big one. A friend of mine came over to my house with this thingamajig and gave me all this gobbledygook about how he could use it to razzle-dazzle some people into giving us money. 

My initial response was, “Balderdash!” I had doubts about his tomfoolery. But he was my best friend, and even though he was quite a whippersnapper, I didn’t want to raise a big kerfuffle, so I let him waddle his way through this malarkey.

If you know anything about me and my friend, you have already guessed his name. From experience, I should have listened to my logical brain and skedaddle, but as usual, I played along and lollygagged along with his plan. 

Ronald’s plan was to sell battery-operated self-heating flapjacks to any nincompoop willing to buy them.

“How do you eat a battery-operated flapjack?” I questioned. 

“That’s the gimmick,” he said. “We make some real flapjacks, and you switch them with the battery-operated one while I distract the buyer.”

I was flabbergasted. I couldn’t imagine the hullabaloo that would occur should we try this. But instead of saying what I felt and hurting his feelings, after all, he was my friend, I kept my mouth shut. This time I would let him get caught and I’d just dawdle around and let him get in trouble with his merrymaking. In my head, I cried out, “Fiddle-Dee-Dee.” Finally, I’ll come out on top.

Well, if you know Ronald, you know it didn’t work out that way. He managed to find an excuse to leave just as the first person realized what was going on. And who was there, holding the, well, flapjack as it was? When will I ever learn?

 

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Hope and Dreams

Posted on July 26, 2024 by hdh

Hope and Dreams

 

The air up there is much to be desired

It’s clear with shades of blue

The crispness of the clouds creates images

Floating creatures with soft, comfy fur

Large oceans of pure mindlessness

A face, a feeling, a piece of reality that is missing

That’s where I want to be

 

Not bound here by these earthly restraints

Not inundated with worries and concerns about health

Far away from the rashness and futility of our world

Far away from the inundation of ignorance

 

The sky is where I want to be

I want to fly

I want to exist with others in harmony

I want to be able to see the world as whole

Not fractured in conflict and despair

 

And I don’t want to be alone.

 

Solitude may be necessary to find inner peace

But I also want those I love and care for to share it with me

And maybe together, as one, we can create 

Down there

The vision I have of that perfect sky

A vision of beauty

A vision of peace

A vision of cooperation and collaboration

A vision of hope

 

A vision that we can all agree

Is meant to be.

 

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The Aquarium

Posted on July 18, 2024 by hdh

**The writing prompt was a visit to an aquarium**

The Aquarium

It was my first time at an aquarium, but this one was much different than I ever had imagined. 

First of all, it appeared that we were in the fishbowl. Water surrounded us, and we had limited movement. The surroundings must have been made of sheer glass, but you couldn’t see it. 

Let me backtrack a bit. 

This was the maiden voyage on the exploratory excursion called the WTF, which stood for the Water Tracking Facts. The admission price was only a dollar. It supposedly was the first of its kind. Once you paid, you were placed in a room by yourself. 

The room itself was about the size of a bedroom closet. When the door was closed behind me, everything went black. 

You listened to instructions that somehow came into your head. My instructions were to take three steps forward. That seemed odd since when I entered the room, it didn’t seem like three steps in any direction was possible. I slowly stepped forward as instructed. Surprisingly, I didn’t bump into anything, and on my third step, I found myself in the enclosure I had mentioned in the beginning. 

The ground I was standing on was solid earth, with plants and small trees around me. I began moving forward. There was no problem with my movement until I hit an invisible wall. Using my hand, I followed the wall around the enclosure until I reached my starting point. 

Wherever I was, it was a circular domed area about twenty-five feet in diameter. I remind you that I could see no walls, but water and aquatic animals surrounded what was on the other side of the dome. None of the people I came with to this aquarium were with me. In addition, the door/closet I had passed through to get here had disappeared. 

 I could hear the sounds the aquatic animals were making outside, but I could not understand what they were saying. They seemed to be in family groupings: an adult whale, with some smaller ones with it, and a large school of fish with some bigger fish amongst them. I also saw something that looked like a human in a mermaid costume swimming from group to group, clearly speaking to them. How it breathed was beyond me. 

I was bewildered. I called out to no one in particular that I had seen enough and would like to go home now, but I got no response. 

At one point, I saw what appeared to be a window open relatively quickly, and some food was placed in one corner of the enclosure. I assume it was for me.

I started banging on the glass or whatever the wall was made of, hoping that someone outside would hear me. 

Then, I saw the lights dim on both the outside and inside of the enclosure. Before the lights went out completely, a large manatee floated by and placed a sign in front of the enclosure. 

That sign I could read. It read, “Human Zoo is closed until tomorrow.”    

WTF!

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The Mystery of the Box

Posted on July 13, 2024 by hdh

The Mystery of the Box

What is it to dream if you can’t use that dream to benefit from it? That was the question that Lyla asked herself each day upon awakening. But her dreams were worthless. 

She recalled none of them. Well, that is to say, after about an hour of waking up, she didn’t recall them. Her dreams either made no sense or were silly remembrances of the past.

That all changed the day Lyla woke up after having a vivid dream. The place in the dream was so familiar. It took place in the park near her house. There was a hole in the ground just feet away from the swing set she knew so well from her youth. Inside that hole was an emerald-encrusted box. 

What made this dream different was that she remembered it after that usual hour. Furthermore, she had the same dream three days in a row. 

Each time she dreamed of that box, she wondered what was inside. On the fourth day, it became a lucid dream. She was aware she was dreaming, but this time, she had control of it. In her wakeful state, she reached down into the hole and was able to pull up the box. Of course, as all dreams do, they end in full wakefulness, so she still did not know what was in it. 

These lucid dreams continued to occur, yet no matter what she did in them, she could never complete the task and find out what was in the box. 

Finally, on the seventh day, she decided to find out if anything she had been dreaming about was real. That morning, she went to the park. She even decided to bring some digging tools, should that be necessary. 

When she got to the park, it was early in the morning. The morning mist covered the ground. As she approached the spot by the swing set where the hole should be, she noticed movement heading toward the same spot from the opposite direction. It was a man.

Both interlopers reached that spot at the same time. Neither said a word. Looking down at the ground, they noticed not a hole but a place that definitely had been dug up and refilled.

Both of them looked at each other, not saying anything at first, and then, as if by magic, they said the word “Dream” simultaneously.

He introduced himself as Jerry, and she introduced herself as Lyla. It didn’t take long for them to discover that they had had the same dreams, except, in Jerry’s dream, the box was sapphire-encrusted. 

Since it was early and no one was around, they agreed to dig on the spot. It wasn’t long before they hit something hard—a box encrusted with diamonds. They managed to pull it up slowly.

Together, they decided that whatever was in it, they would split equally.

They opened the box, only to discover a handwritten note.

It read, “Beat you to it!”

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And then there were none

Posted on July 3, 2024 by hdh

And Then There Were None

When he was young, he heard lots of stories about generations past. He was amazed at how extensive their living quarters were in their infancy. There was no lack of food; you could always find something to eat. The warm environments left by nature sustained them. 

Their lifespan was something to be dreamed of and admired. They were independent and allowed to do their thing.

It might have taken a few days to get accustomed to growing up when they emerged from their cozy surroundings, but they did. 

And then came adulthood, when the chemistry of love and desire took hold. They’d light up the darkest times with joy and mutual satisfaction. 

They were envied by all in the living world. An outlander’s goal was to capture the sight and light of their existence, to capture their being, and to be awed at what something so small could create. Their light from within and throughout the summer nights brightened even the gloomiest of observers. 

He was amazed when he was told that many of his ancestors didn’t eat at all in adulthood. Others fed on the nectar of life. All used the time they had left to put on displays to each other and the world to create a new generation of beings like himself. 

 

He thought life was so short. We must use the time we have to relish what is important to us: being born, growing from babyhood to childhood, and eventually adulthood, and finding our significant others so that we can continue our evolution as a species. 

This was his dream. Unfortunately, it is not coming true. The inhabitants around him have damaged their habitats, poisoned their fields, and taken away the environment that he needs to survive just to satisfy their narcissistic sense of what they consider beautiful. 

He may be one of the last of his species. That is a great loss to humanity. 

 

———

 

Author’s note: Last night, as the lights of the houses around mine were turned off, I looked out upon a clear and ever-present darkness. Unlike in my youth, when I saw and enjoyed their multitudes, this night, I did not see a single firefly. What have we done?

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Advice – What to choose?

Posted on June 27, 2024 by hdh

Advice – What to choose?

The choice to be made was nigh on impossible to make. Should she or shouldn’t she? 

Clara was sitting at home when the phone rang. The person on the other end sounded very familiar, but Clara just couldn’t place it. The voice was calm in her demeanor yet somewhat forceful in what she had to say. 

“You have two choices, and you must choose one now!”

Clara responded, “What do you mean? And who are you to make such a demand?

“Now is not the time to discuss that,” was the immediate reaction, “you have a choice to make, my…your life may depend on it. It is irrelevant who I am.”

This did not make any sense to Clara. What could possibly be so important that she had to make this decision now?

“Listen carefully, for I will only say this once,” the voice said, “There will be a knock at your door in exactly…seven minutes. Do not under any circumstance answer that knock or open that door. Ignore it.”

“Why? Who is it going to be?” Clara asked.

“It’s not important,” the voice said. “No matter who it is or who it looks like, do not answer the door!”

This was very perplexing to Clara. She needed more information. “I need to know why,” she shouted in frustration. 

“I can’t tell you. It disrupts the …” There was a pause, and then Clara heard the word “continuum.”

“What? I didn’t get one of your words.”

“There are some things that we’re not permitted to say,” was the quick answer. “Suffice it to say Time, and I repeat Time, is of the essence. Do not answer the door. Lives depend on it, particularly yours.”

The phone line clicked at that point, and a dial tone returned. 

Clara did not understand what was happening. It was then that there was a knock at the door. 

She got up slowly and moved toward the door. Looking through a side window, she saw who was standing outside the door. It was a mirror image of herself, dressed exactly as Clara was today. It was then that she remembered the voice she had heard on the phone and recognized it—it was her own voice. 

The choice to be made was nigh on impossible to make. Should she or shouldn’t she? 

 

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Perfect in Every Way

Posted on June 21, 2024 by hdh

 

The following writing piece is fictional. Any resemblance of a character within this writing to a real person is purely coincidental. 

** I approve of this message. HH

Perfect in every way

There’s a song sung by Mac Davis. It starts Oh Lord, It’s hard to be humble, when you’re perfect in every way. https://youtu.be/dg8NPPEms54

People always looked up to Fred. Ask anyone. Well, actually, the person you could ask about that would be Fred. Fred was the kind of person that only thought about himself. Everyone else that didn’t agree with him was wrong. 

He was in his comfort zone when he was followed by people who fawned upon him. I’m sure you know people like that. 

Laughter was his out. He would laugh it off and belittle that person or idea when he couldn’t think of anything positive to say. Thinking positive of others was not his strong point.

Some people say that Fred graduated from the University of Ineptitude with honors. 

Fred’s strength was in numbers. The more he could convince people to follow him, the more powerful he became. 

Everything that Fred attempted to do, according to him, he was the best at. 

There were those who knew Fred and were confused about why he was so popular. On the other hand, even though they knew in their hearts that he was wrong, most of the time, they followed his teachings and supported him anyway, hoping that someday it would rub off on them and they would be as loved as it seemed the people around Fred were with him. 

Fred had high aspirations and there came a time when things weren’t going so well for him. His goal was to be a giant. Which is why he went on that sailing cruise to parts unknown. He figured he could find a place inhabited by those who would bow to his every whim. 

The last I heard, he found such a place. I never would have guessed that the fictional Island of Lilliput was real. 

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I Remember It Well

Posted on June 12, 2024 by hdh

I Remember It Well

On the street where I live there was John. John was compulsive. Everything that he did had to be in a certain way. Don’t ask him to define that way or admit he had a certain way of doing things. He would deny it. But just by watching everything he did, you could predict his next move or thought, which is why he never should have taken that trip to Las Vegas. At least, that’s the prevailing thought.

You’ve heard the saying, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” The inference in that saying is that the rules of everyday life don’t apply to you. You can go crazy, indulge, and do whatever you want because when you leave to return to your routine life, none of that will have happened. 

I’m not sure who suggested going to Vegas, but John jumped on the idea. This was his way of proving to everyone that he was not set in his ways. He said, “With a little bit of luck, I’ll show you how I am not the person you think I am.”

If we were a betting community, we would all have put money down on John becoming obsessed with Vegas, and it would become a yearly compulsion to do whatever he did there. 

I would like to say that we were correct in our assumption, and it is possible that we were correct, except for one minor glitch in John’s actions. 

Remember, I said that he was compulsive. We thought he would latch on to some routine that met his standard of obsession while in Vegas and add it to his list of things he had to do when he returned. That assumption relied on one action—that he would come back. 

John left on the first of May. He packed up two large suitcases, hailed a cab, and told us not to worry about his house because he had someone caring for it during the week he was gone. “If ever I should leave you for a longer period, don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine,” was his last remark. 

We should have been suspicious. If he was going away for only a week, why would he even mention leaving us for longer, and why did he pack two large suitcases?

The people who had been watching John’s house for that week were very reclusive. We rarely saw them at all. As the week came to an end, John had not communicated about his return or how he was doing in Vegas. Our suspicions were heightened when the moving trucks came and pretty much gutted John’s house. 

 

It’s been over five years now. The house still stands, though no one has moved in. Curious as we were, none of us could find any information about John or his whereabouts. Internet searches and police inquiries led nowhere. It’s as if John didn’t exist anymore, which, of course, some of us believed was the case. On a side note, we’ve seen a white van with D.C. license plates drive by every month or so. 

Had he come into contact with some nefarious gangsters and rubbed them the wrong way? Did he change his name and start a new life as someone else who was not hassled by neighbors about his compulsions? Was John not his real name to begin with, and was he part of a witness protection plan for some high-stakes criminal case? Did he even go to Vegas?

 

Any thoughts? We are open to all your ideas and theories. Has this happened to any of you on the street where you live? I’m not claiming this is a compulsion of mine, but I really have to know. 

 

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A Puzzling Image

Posted on June 8, 2024 by hdh

A Puzzling Image

She stood alone at the beachfront. The ocean waves rolled ashore and then receded. Staring out at the water was mesmerizing. Why did he tell her to meet him here?

 That last splash broke her trance. Looking down, she noticed the piece of glass. It was not sea glass; it was clear, polished glass. No, it was not glass; it was a piece of a mirror. 

She picked it up in her hand and gazed into it. The reflection was perfect. Wet, wind-swept dark hair. The image was not smiling. She could not take her eyes off of it. The image was of someone else. 

As she moved the mirror around, it reflected more of the picture. The woman in the picture was standing on the same beach as she was. She recognized the scenery behind her, but it was different. It seemed much older, from a different time. 

She slowly moved around and watched the reflection of her surroundings. They were identical to where she was. 

Who was this person in the mirror? 

It was then that her cell phone rang, breaking the spell. 

 

—————-

 

He dialed the phone. In his research, he found the clues to help solve the mystery of her disappearance in 1950—that was only five years ago. He knew that when Sarah disappeared, nothing was left but a mirror missing a shard. He was sure that somehow, that mirror piece held the solution not only to her whereabouts but also to her rescue. 

But it was 1955 now. The paper he had recently found listed a phone number to call, a location, a person to contact, and a beach location nearby. He anxiously waited for someone to answer the call. 

There was a click and then a voice. Could it be her?  It had a faint resemblance to her voice. He told her to meet him at the listed location. He verified the date and time. It sounded too unreal. Twenty twenty-four? How could that be?

He went to beach and no one was there. So he continued to go there each year, in the hopes that he would find her. 

 

—————-

 

She answered the phone. A much older voice was on the other end. “Is it you?” he asked. 

“I’m not sure what you mean,” was her reply.

“It must be.” he said, “I’ve waited so long. Please wait.”

She didn’t have much time to process the information. Coming towards her was what appeared to be an 80-year-old man dressed in a dated 1960s-style suit. He had a smile on his face. He looked familiar. 

The recognition of his face broke the spell. She had come home. 

 

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