Notepads …

Do you ever go into a stationary shop with the aim of buying just the one notepad and come out with armfuls? I do. All the time. In fact I did it today. I went into Blackwells, my local book and stationary supplier with the intention of just buying the one notepad for class and came out with four. I couldn’t just get one that would be irresponsible. What if I lose it? Then I wouldn’t have a spare one. But they also had these cute little spiral bound notepads. And I justified the buying of these by telling myself it’s almost April. 

Now you’re asking what is the significance of April? Well I’ll tell you. April is camp NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). The practice version for November which is the actual Novel Writing Month. 

But back to the point as to why that justifies a note pad. Because during that month I’ll be writing nonstop. I need paper to jot down my awesome ideas. And what sort of person would I be if I didn’t have a backup?

Are you now seeing the circle I go round? I do this every time I see a notepad for sale. 

I make it sound like I have no impulse control. I do. Honest. But just not when it involves my two weaknesses. Writing and reading. 

Notepads give me the urge to write again. 

So here goes …

Describe the most recent moment when you couldn’t think of anything to say. We’re you having a hard time making conversation, or were simply dumbfounded.

Mr Wilde held out his hand to me and I reached to take it. I knew words were meant to come out of my mouth. They really were, but they were stuck in my throat almost suffocating me. Gently he took my hand and brushed his soft, ruby-red lips across the back of my silk-gloved hands. If I had been one for swooning I would be on the floor by now, or safely in his arms. But either way I wouldn’t need to say any words. Flirtatiously I batted my eyelids at him and flipped open my pale blue ornate fan, which matched my Cinderella ball gown. 

Alexia leaned to my ear and whispered, “isn’t he gorgeous?”

He was but I couldn’t even find the words to tell I agreed.  This conversation was fast becoming awkward. But Mr Wilde  didn’t seem to feel it.

“May I have this dance, my lady?” He asked offering me his arm.

“Eech!” I squeaked in a most unladylike manor, but vigorously nodded my head.

Little did I realise I was being watched across the room by a man who I would later come to love and hate in equal measure, by a man who I would have no problem talking to.

To finish I would like to thank 642 Things To Write About for the idea, but above all I would like to thank you, the reader, for taking your time to read this.
Please leave your comment and critique bellow…

How to Read More

The pile of unread books by your bed keeps getting higher? Artist, writer, and creativity unlocker Austin Kleon shares six tips for reading more every day.

https://discover.wordpress.com/2016/03/11/how-to-read-more/

The urge!

Sometimes I just need to write. To just put pen to paper and write. To feel I’ve actually done something rather than  tapping away at my tablet. Don’t get me wrong, I love technology. But that isn’t what I’m getting at. 

Writing is a pure pleasure … And sometimes an uncontrollable urge. I just need to let the words flow, and in times like that I think about starting a journal. And several times in the past I have. For a few days I document everything. I get a bit like Mia in princess diaries. Always writing. Then life takes over again and I struggle to keep up, and suddenly I stop writing all together. 

A week passes or maybe ten days and then the uncontrollable urge to write hits me again. 

So… I have decided I need to control this urge. And I may have found the perfect way to do so.

Have any of you heard of a book called “642 Things To Write About”? It’s is a very interesting book. Perfect for a budding young author, like myself, who is looking for inspiration. Great for exercising those creative brain-muscles. And for directing any urges or the writing kind.

So without further ado I will give you the first of my “Things To Write About”.

WHAT CAN HAPPEN IN A SECOND…

All it took was a second, as Johnathon blindly adjusted his weight on the creaky old floor boards, for Mariah to disappear. One moment she was there, the next a gust of wind blew right through that old dilapidated house swirling Johnathon’s long hair around his ice-blue eyes, making him loose his balance, and Mariah was gone. Johnathon called out for her, his dry voice echoing through the empty house, but no answer. As he looked around the dark foyer the shadows dancing in the flickering candle light. He wished he’d brought a torch but this had been Mariah’s idea. And now she was gone.

The urge to break down, to sob, was almost too much for Johnathon. But he squared his shoulder and put one foot forward in search of his best friend … Not knowing that he was being watched … That he wasn’t alone as the house may suggest…

I hope you like my little flash fiction. Please feel free to critique it it the comments, but also have a go at the title “what can happen in a second” and leave links to it.

7. Seeing is not always believing …

 Safety is a relative thing, don’t you think? And it never lasts too long. Real safety is accepting the errors, dangers and unfairness I the world and confronting them one at a time. But before you’re ready to face them you can have the illusion of safety. You can hide from all that and create your own little bubble that stops you from truly living. 

James was unsure what sort of safety they had reached when he looked across the manicured lawns at them it’s stone educate that faced him. But he was sure that Lily was eager to reach it. It was very isolated that was sure, but Lily talked about ‘we’ as if this was a community. 

Not within sight of the building that Lily called safety she started to run even faster than ever. James tried to move just as fast in an effort to keep up with her but his feet simply couldn’t move that fast. She was up the long marble steps and trying to heave open the heavy oak door before James had completed the grass. He trudged across the gravel after Lily and was climbing the steps when the doors burst open and out flooded a mass of people who eagerly greeted her. Pushing through the masses, James tried to get to Lily, but it was like pushing at a brick wall. He called her name several times but above the throng he could not be heard. 

But then, out of the corner of his eye he saw a gentleman. Old than the rest of the crowd, he stood in a full three piece suit and an overcoat and mahogany walking stick. James approached him warily. 

“You, my son, are a strong one, a strong one indeed,” he muttered as James got within hearing distance. “I suppose,” he said louder, “that you are Lily’s newest find.”

“Yes, Lily is one of the easiest to see but also one of our best fighters. She was barely in this world a week before she started to see.”

They way he said ‘started to see’sent chills down the back of James’ neck, but it was ‘this world’that really set him on edge. 

“What do you mean ‘this world’?” Asked James.

“Seeing is not always believing, my son,” he said in his own critic way. “May I ask, my boy, what is your first memory?”

James thought it was a strange question, but he was beginning to get used to it. “Starting year 6, at primary school.”

“Does that not seem unusual to you?”

“It does, but what’s unusual in a world of invisible people?” James asked.

Somehow, James was beginning to think the gentleman was right. Seeing was not always believing. And strange would soon have a total different meaning.

6. Safety…

James’ feet hit the ground in random shocking movements as he was dragged at full speed from the house.  When comparing the both of them, James knew he could easily stop her and demand an explanation from her but something stopped him.  Her blond hair flowed behind her like a long scarf in the wind; her hand was soft and smooth in his but also strong and firm.  For some unknown reason he felt safe with this almost stranger.

They quickly exited the boundaries of James’ garden and then they were running into the wild of the countryside, right up into the hills.

“I don’t even know your name!” shouted James against the wind.

“Lily!” called the girl with a smile spread across her beautiful face.

Lily, thought James.  A beautiful name for the most beautiful girl in the world.  Her skin had barely even been touched by the sun and blue eyes looked like they’d been taken from the midnight sky.  She was about the same height as James, maybe a little shorter.  Her clothes were dark, practical but fashionable; her leather jacket was moveable, the same with her skinny black pants.  Her boots were knee high buy Lily was running as if they were the most comfortable trainers in the world.

As the got higher into the hills their pace started to slow.

“Where are we going?” asked James.

“Somewhere safe.”

“You know you kidnapped me?” James stated.

“How could I have kidnapped you when no one see me and there was no physical evidence of me ever being there? Plus your bigger than me, you could have easily taken me out.”

James almost had agree with that except, “what do you mean no one saw you?  You were sat on that bench for two weeks, how did no one see you?”

“They don’t see me, and soon they would stop seeing you.”

“What? Why?” asked a panicked James.

“We don’t know exactly why, but they just do.  And being able to see me is a sign that you are one of us and that you would disappear soon.”

“We?” asked James.

“Yeah, we,” Lily said as she tried to negotiate a particularly difficult part of their climb.  “There’s a group of us, we all sort of banded together.  We recognise the signs of when people start to become like us.  I was sat on that bench for about six weeks before you saw me.”

“What!? How could that be?” asked James as he boosted Lily up a large rock.

Lily turned to offer a hand to James as she said, “I don’t know the science behind it.  Can’t you just accept that somethings just are?”

Lily had a point, James thought.  There was somethings science couldn’t explain.  But this was definitely the strangest thing he had ever heard of.  How did people still exist, but suddenly become invisible  from everyone else.  It wasn’t rational.

They climbed in silence for what must have been nearly an hour, James didn’t know.  He’d left his watch on the kitchen table.  But the sun was starting to set when they reached the peak of that particular section of hill.

“Where are we going?” asked James again.

“Safety,” replied Lily.

5. Danger

Wednesday was very similar to Tuesday, in that he was excited to see the blond girl.  In fact all days started to blend together, with the aim always being to get to the girl who sat on the bench.  James was starting to garner strange looks from some people on town as he gradually sat with the girl longer and longer.  Friday evening became a problem when he was left with the potential of not seeing her for a whole two days.  But she promised she would be there all day Saturday and Sunday, just waiting for him.  Anyone who looked at him could tell that he was infatuated with someone, but James didn’t even know her name.  James managed to get away from his mum for several long hours on both Saturday and Sunday which he spent gloriously with the blond girl.  Mr Willis even had to come and shoo him from the bench when he arrived to watch the cricket.  He didn’t look impressed.  In fact he didn’t even seem to notice that the girl was there.

James realised on Monday that he had never asked the girl’s name.  He bolted from the bus on Monday evening and dodged the ever annoying footballers towards the bench only to be stopped short when he found that the bench was empty.  Panicked, James looked round trying to find the girl.  She wasn’t here.  What was he going to do?

Despondent, James headed inside to get on with work in the cafe.  Janice was quite surprised to see him in so early and even managed to surprise his mother, but he didn’t get any pleasure from it.  The evening was quite boring but James forced himself to get on with homework after a weekend of neglecting it to be with her.

He was in his mothers pristine, hardly used, kitchen doing his homework when there was a tap on the glass of the french doors.  James almost jumped out of his skin when he looked towards the door to see the blond girl stood there.

Quietly, so as not to disturb his mother who was up in her study, James opened the door. She rushed in her head spinning on her shoulders checking every corner of the room for anyone else.

“Are you alone?” she asked on high alert.

“No, my mother is upstairs.”

“We have to go,” she insisted.

“Why?”

“I’m in danger and you’ve been seen with me,” she said trying to pull him towards the door, “we have to go.”

“What sort of danger?” James demanded.

“I can’t tell you until we are safe,” she said panic entering his voice.

“I don’t even know your name.”

“Does that matter?” she asked.

“Kind of.”

James’ voice was starting to raise and he could hear his mother starting move around upstairs.

“We’ve got to go!” she insisted again.

James hesitated just long enough for his mother to enter the room.  Alicia looked round the room her eyes glazing straight over the blond girl.

“Who were you shouting at?” she asked.

James realised that his mother couldn’t see the girl.  What was going on? thought James to himself.

“No one.  I practicing for the school show,” James lied.

The blond girl breathed a sigh of relief as Alicia went back up the stairs believing James’ little lie.

“We’re going now,” she said and dragged James away.

4. Possibilities…

James started moving as fast as he could.  He pulled Alistair back form the cowering Janice and grabbed the long roll of kitchen roll, thrust it at Janice and hauled her towards Mrs Wright.  Carefully James took the baby off the struggling Ms. Carp and started to shush baby Isla.

Alicia came out the kitchen, her hair a mess and looking slightly disheveled.

“Mum!” James exclaimed, rushing over to her with the baby Isla comfortably in his arms.

“I’m okay, I’m okay,” she soothed.  “What’s going on out here?”

James gesturing round explaining the three accidents all at once.  But he started to wonder if those five minutes outside were why this all happened.   Could him not being here have started all this?  He didn’t come in, so Alistair made his move, banging his chair against the wall, making Mrs.Wright jump and spill her coffee and making baby Isla wake up and scream.  Could that all be possible?  James debated this in his mind.

Alicia tried to get everything back on track but they ended up closing later than usual because of all this kaffufal.   James simply hoped that Tuesday would get this week back on track.

***

Tuesday came and James vehemently avoided the blond girl, but it was hard.  But no disasters happened at the cafe that evening.  James thought life could get back on track.  He enjoyed talking to that girl, the one sided conversation that it was.

James began to consider that those disasters hadn’t been his fault.  How could that chain of events have happened simply because he had’t gone in at the usual time?  It couldn’t he was being irrational.  So Wednesday he decided to talk to the girl again.

“So your back?” she said as James went to sit beside her.  “I thought you’d been scared off.”

“Scared off by what?” James asked.

“Changes,” said the girl, “or well, more accurately, the possibility of change.”

“The possibility of change?”

“Yes, it scares most people off.  They can’t stand differences in their life.”

“Why should the possibility of change be so scary?”

“It just is.  Now hurry along, my dear, I will still be here tomorrow.”

James got up.  The blond girl was very strange and he was very curious about her.  But James went into the calm cafe and got on with the evening.

There were always the possibility of changes and James was learning to embrace those changes.

3.Changes…

Wednesday came and everything was the same as Tuesday, including the girl on the bench. Thursday and Friday followed suit with James becoming gradually more curious. Saturday was an interminable rush for James as he tried to juggle homework and the busy cafe, but still the blonde girl sat there. Sunday was long and slow as he finished off his essays in the comfort of his room.

But then came the dreaded Monday. How can a word, just the word Monday, bring so much fear? James wondered if the blonde girl would still be there. He still couldn’t believe that no one else had noticed her. Nothing ever went unnoticed in a town as small as Helhaven. There was barely 300 people in the entire village. Everyone knew everyone. But then someone would have noticed her. Perhaps James was just being ignorant. Had someone new moved into town?

James was distracted the entire day throughout classes. He stumbled through the corridors and barely made it off the bus in one piece. The blonde girl was waiting once again. As he made his way toward her through the football match he wondered if approaching her was the best idea. Maybe he could just go back to ignoring her.

But before he could put his foot through the door of the cafe he was at the bench and sitting down.

“It’s warm, isn’t it?” The blond girl asked, not even looking at him.

“Uh-huh,” murmured James.

“It took you long enough to come over,” she said.

“You know, no one ever really sits here,” James said.

“I know.”

James got up from the bench and headed into the cafe. He was only five minutes later than usual but everything looked so different. Alistair was up by the counter reaching out towards Janice. Mrs Wright stood up screaming with a hot coffee stain down her skirt. And in all the confusion the small baby was screaming the place down.

The changes. Just the small minutes had made so much difference.

2.Those little things…

James entered the cafe which was teeming with life.  Janice was behind the counter taking orders and getting coffees ready to serve.  Mr and Mrs Wright were by the bay window with their customary paninis and a pot of tea. Alistair was sat on the table nearest the counter and leering at Janice.  It was obvious that he liked the girl but he didn’t inspire much confidence.  Ms. Carp’s was rocking 3 week-old Isla in the pram as she sucked on her thumb.  It was all those little things that you see all around you.

I must confess that those little things are things that only James would notice.  He always notices the little things.  But when nothing changes all you have is the details.  Thos little things …

“Hey, Janice,” James called as he slipped behind the counter and into the kitchen.

A small “hi” followed him as he snuck up behind his mother and started to put his arms around her waist.

“Good afternoon, James,” she said before he had even touched her.

Never had James been able to sneak-up on Alicia Bright.  She turned and hugged him tight ignoring the pan of rice of the stove that was about to boil over and the toasties that was on the verge of burning.  She broke the hug just in time save the rice and the toasties, moving round the kitchen like a storm.  Her food was always perfect and never had she ever disappointed a customer.

“Can you go out and help Janice out front?”

“Sure, mum.”

And off James went.  Around five o’clock, just as the cricket practice started, the cafe got very busy, but still James could see the girl on the Willis bench.  He couldn’t see much of her face at this angle but her blonde hair glinted in the sun light as she tucked a loose strand behind her ear.  She was definitely there.  There was no way he was seeing things.  But James was dragged back to work over and over before James could mention the blonde girl to Janice.

The cafe closed at six as the last customer wandered out and the cricketers came to collect their evening meal to eat on the grass after they played.  All the locals called it “the cricketer’s picnic”, with the exception of the actual players.  “Picnics are for kids and couples” they would always say.

Alicia got James in the car fast after that and drove to the small take-away in the village.  The take away sold everything.  Fish and chips, kebab, Chinese, and if you really wanted food poisoning, indian curries.  It is true what they say about chefs never eating their own food.  James had never once seen his mother work a full day in the cafe and then cook herself an evening meal.  For Alicia it felt too much like work in a place were she shouldn’t need to work.

The Brights shared a little cottage about a mile and a half out to the village, and James chose that time to mention the blonde girl.

“Mum?” he asked, checking that she had enough concentration to drive and speak, and receiving a hum to the affirmative he continued, “did you see that girl sat out on the Willis bench this afternoon?”

“No, dear, I didn’t.  But something as unusual as that, Janice would have mentioned it.”

“Yeah, I’m sure she would.”

Janice was known as a village gossip.  It was the only reason she had taken the job in small cafe.  She never missed a thing.  Alicia had basically just told him that if Janice hadn’t seen it and mentioned it, it hadn’t happened.

“Did you mention it to Janice?” she asked.

“No, I didn’t get chance.  The cafe was busy.  We were both ran off our feet.”

James could tell that the next question coming was “was he sure he’d seen it?”.  And the answer was yes.  But would his mother believe him?  He wasn’t even sure he believed himself.

“It must have been a reflection in the window,” he lied, “Liv was in the cafe, it looked a bit like her.”

But the blonde girl didn’t look a bit like her.  Not one iota.  The height, the style, it was all off.

It was those little things that made you so sure and so doubtful at the same time.

Welcome

I though I should write a welcome to my blog.  Here I will be publishing story ideas and except from stories. I welcome any comments and critiques of my work. 

Over the next few days I have many stories scheduled to come out. I hope to keep up a regular schedule of writing for any followers I gain. 
I’m also looking for writing partners. Message me if you would like to exchange ideas and work for proof reading.