Marta

Marta put down the Daily Telegraph. She smiled. Her ad was published today, exactly on Stanley’s 40th birthday, all according to plan.

Adventure for sale. +354 511 6397

She would leave it on his chair in front of the TV, as always. No way he was going to miss this.

*****

Confused? Check “Adventure for sale”

Insanity

Today was cookie and flower day!

Some called it insanity day or cookie madness. But whatever you called it, on cookie and flower day the sun was always shining a bit brighter and the air seemed light and playful.

Today the village square smelled like vanilla and cinnamon. Three cases of big, perfectly round cookies were piled on Gaia’s table. Right next to it a basket filled with fresh fruit and bouquets of hibiscus, white lilies and Bougainvillea in all colours of the rainbow. Under the table pots of aloe vera (for a good skin) and a chocolate-brown labrador receiver. Today would be a good day.

When Gaia first came to the village, four years ago, people were afraid of her. They called her insane. A mad woman. Nobody knew where she came from and nobody knew her real age, but Gaia acted as if she were a 10-year-old girl. When she was in the park, she acted like a puppy and played with her labrador Chocolate until they fell asleep in the grass. She was talking to herself and played with stuffed animals. She loved nothing more than baking and eating cookies, and sometimes the neighbors heard her sing out loud in the middle of the night when she was trying a new recipe. Her skirts were purple and orange. Nothing like the other women on this traditional Greek island.

Not long after she settled in the village, Gaia started selling her cookies and flowers and fruit from her garden. She set up a table in the middle of the village square, with a simple red tablecloth. Not on the regular market day, but any day when she felt like it. It could be 6 in the morning, it could be 8 at night. With Gaia, you were never sure what happened.

In the beginning the people were a bit sceptical about her spontaneous sales techniques. But Gaia didn’t seem to mind whether the people bought her cookies or not. She just sang en laughed and played with Chocolate.

The smells of cinnamon, chocolate or vanilla were stronger than the people’s distrust. The colors of the flowers were flirting with the people’s fear. The old man Drakos was the first one to buy a cookie. He started to dance. Soon after that, everyone wanted a taste from the crazy lady’s cookies. It brought a smile to everyone’s face. The people’s hearts felt lighter when she sang the sweetest songs or frolicked with Chocolate.

The lady is insane, but so what? It’s cookie and flower day!!

The letter I in the A to Z challenge

 

Adventure for sale

This is my first post in April’s A to Z challenge. Today’s letter is obviously A. Have a blast.

Stanley was sitting in front of the TV, as always, with the Daily Telegraph on his lap. He stared in the void. Marta was babbling along about the chocolate cake, the apple crumble pie and the Baileys she bought for Saturday.

“Hm Hm”.

Saturday would be his birthday. Again. His 40th already. What actually happened since he was 26? Last thing he remembered of his ‘real’ life as he called it, he was dancing all night long with long-legged ladies without a name, drinking more Mojito’s than he could count and skinny dipping under the stars. Until he met Marta with her dark eyes and olive skin. She made him think he fell in love, and before he knew what happened he was sitting in front of the TV with a Daily Telegraph on his lap. He knew it wasn’t fair to blame Marta.

40…

The party would be a blast, Marta said. Don and Dana would be here, and Richard and Ana. They met Don and Dana 11 years ago in the sauna they used to go to in the first year after their honeymoon. Ana was Marta’s older sister, and Richard, well Richard was one of those guys that were more socially engaged to computers than to human beings. The party would be a blast.

40…

Marta carefully placed the forks and napkins on the table. “Richard darling, could you call Stanley for me? Ana and I are ready to cut the cake. I think he’s hanging out in the garden with Don, having their secret cigarette”.

Ten minutes later Richard and Don cheerfully came back into the kitchen. “You were right about that secret cigarette, Marta”, Richard said, “but I only busted Don here. Stanley must have been gone for a new pack of Lucky Strike, because his car is gone too.”

Marta frowned. She really had to talk to Stanley about that bad habit. And now he is letting the guests wait. “Let’s have a drink while we wait”, she managed to smile.

It was three days later when Stanley’s Toyota Corolla was found in the long-term parking area of Heathrow. The doors were unlocked. Under an empty package of Lucky Strike a Daily Telegraph lay opened on the ads page. Only one line was circled:

Adventure for sale. +354 511 6397

The Golden Rock Adventurers and the Beautiful Secret of Little Mountain

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It was a warm day in the beginning of eternal spring on the island of Golden Rock. Two adventurers started their search for the Beautiful Secret of Little Mountain. It was not an easy road.

But they did not know fear and started their journey bravely.

They found many challenges on their way. A cactus forest…

valleys and oceans…

and hidden trails.

 

But with some help…

they managed to get back on the right track. Although the signs were written in a secret language.

They barely had time for a drink and a snack…

because they noticed the signs…

 

of a giant beast with hairy claws as big as swords!

Ruuuuuuuuuuunnnn!!!!

 

More spiny challenges were ahead.

 

But a trail of fantasy flowers…

 

were leading the way to the old tree…

which pointed them to:

LITTLE MOUNTAIN SUMMIT (translated from the secret language).

They had to hide for Indians in caves…

 

and keep an eye on the volcano that was about to erupt.

 

In the distance was a strange island that had never been there before.

 

But something told them that was OK.

They finally made it to the top.

 

But when they leaned over they saw…

POISON!! Millions and millions of liters of poison!!

 

Was this the Beautiful Secret of Little Mountain?!?! That couldn’t be!

They turned around and saw the Real Beautiful Secret, only to be seen from Little Mountain. It was so beautiful, it couldn’t even be fully captured on camera. It was the WHALE THAT WOULD SAVE THE WORLD!

 

With peace in their heart the Golden Rock Adventurers walked back to civilization, already fantasizing about their next adventure.

****

Check here for more adventures of the Golden Rock Adventurers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Valentine’s

Charlie always lost track of time when she wandered on the long, deserted beach of her hometown. Since she lost her job and showed her adulterous boyfriend the door, she had more than enough time to wonder on the beach and fantasize. Two days ago, on Valentine’s day, she threw a message-in-a-bottle in the sea.

SOS. In desperate need of unconditional love. Charlie.

Wouldn’t it be funny if some fishermen in Thailand would find her message? She chuckled. 

But exactly where she threw the bottle in the sea two days ago, she saw the same bottle washed upon the shore. Hm. OK. Let’s throw it back in the sea one more time, a little further now. But when she picked up the bottle she noticed that the color of the paper was different. She had written her message on a bright pink paper, while this one here was yellow. The bottle was the same though. The cheapest Merlot from the  Chinese store. 

She opened the bottle with a weird feeling in her belly. She felt nauseous. She read:

Charlie, unconditional love is growing inside of you. With love from Thailand.

At that moment Charlie realized she missed her period for 2 months.

 

Miss Violet

Miss Violet was rocking her old wooden chair on her tiny, even older wooden porch. The red color on the concrete started to wear off again, even though Blackah repainted the porch floor completely last Christmas. Blackah, that poor man… Some people in Hilltop didn’t want to have anything to do with him. Too much Guinness brings out the demon, they say. But Miss Violet kind of liked the poor man… He was always in for a little chat and helped her out with small jobs like painting the floor or fixing a hole in the fence. In return she gave him a rice & peas with some fried fish she bought from Yuyu.

Blackah was gone now. Maybe it was the demons that took him. Maybe it was just an accident, falling of the porch, right on his bottle of Guinness. The glass cut straight through his artery. It happened so quick, Miss Violet called for the neighbors down the road, but by the time they arrived the porch was already stained with a darker shade of red. That poor man…

Blackah was a little afraid of Miss Violet. Maybe because she was not afraid of him, unlike the rest of Hilltop. Blackah, whose real name was Wayne Campbell, was living on the streets since his mother died, when he was 8 years of age. She was beaten to death by a lover or a costumer – he never really knew the difference, the treatment was the same. Little Wayne was standing outside when he heard the beating. Again. He wanted to run inside and save his mom. He wanted to kill the bastard. He should have killed him. But instead, he stood paralyzed behind on the other side of the wooden fence between the room and the outside kitchen. Ever since that day he was filled with shame. Shame that he wasn’t man enough to save his mother, the only person that would give the world to him. He hid in the woods in the daytime, after dark he came out to “borrow” some food. Small things. A loaf of bread. A tin of sardines. And a Guinness if he could. Water was everywhere in Hilltop. In the river, in taps outside. Bananas and mangoes too, so he didn’t have to grow hungry. People were afraid of him, especially now he has gotten older. He didn’t really know why. He wasn’t the only “poor man” in Hilltop with a fucked up youth. But Blackah was used to the silent treatment now, and the fact that Miss Violet dealt with him as if he were her nephew was distressing and comforting at the same time. Her rice & peas tasted like heaven.

Yuyu brought Miss Violet four pound of fresh red snapper last Friday. As every Friday in the last few years. He handed her the plastic bag, she handed him the money, that was it. Yuyu didn’t like Miss Violet. His mother used to work for her, washed her clothes twice a week. But from one day to another she stopped working there. When Yuyu asked her why, he never got an answer; his mother just shivered by the thought of the lady and kept quiet. And many years later, when he had Miss Violet as a customer for his fresh fish, he too shivered when he saw the lady, although he didn’t know why.

Sonya was only 16 when she gave birth to Yuyu. As so many girls her age, she quit school and had no choice but to look for a job. Sonya was washing clothes for some Hilltop ladies. When times were particularly rough, she danced in the bar on the other side of town. Miss Violet was a good customer. She had work for her twice a week, gave her the money on time and didn’t interfere much with her life. She was a quiet little lady and Sonya liked it that way. Until that hot day in August. Miss Violet watched Sonya wash quietly for a while and suddenly asked: “What do you 25 years from now?”. Sonya slowly looked up from the washpan, not really understanding what Miss Violet was aiming at, then said: “In 25 years I wish my Yuyu is a strong, wise and wealthy man”. Miss Violet laughed with a strange voice: “25 years from now, I will cut a young man’s throat with a piece of glass”. That was the last day Sonya set foot in Miss Violet’s house.

homE *writing challenge*

It was the first time in months I walked Rosa. She had had a nasty pitbull-bite in her neck and finally the wound was healed well enough to put her collar back on and take her for a short walk outside. I had to take it really easy on her, because her scarred neck was still very sensitive. So I just followed the dog where ever she wanted to go.

We went uphill. I knew nothing was there, except for the neighbor’s cottage. A trail used to lead you straight up to the volcano, but it was completely overgrown with Acacia these days. But Rosa wants to go uphill, so we go uphill.

The neighbor, whose name was Bür (something Scandinavian, maybe Dutch), was living about 100 meters from my house.  A quiet guy with a bike, always friendly. I noticed he was not at home because the bike wasn’t parked in the usual space. I did notice the broken fence.

It looked as if a small bulldozer had just run over the fence. In the grass were tracks. At first I thought they were tire tracks – of the bulldozer? But coming closer I realized they were not machine made; they looked more like enormous turtle tracks. Should I go inside and check it out? A heavy rumble, like a miniature earth quake, made me go for the garage door. Rosa pulled on her leash and managed to break free. She ran straight back home.

The door to the garage was open. Even before stepping inside I knew what I would find. The disk was glowing and humming. My Mercurian friends were ready to go. I was right in time. Finally going home.

***

This short story was written for the “What if…” writing challenge by Okaywhatif.  The challenge was What if you discovered a space-ship in your neighbor’s garage? Any resemblance to actual dogs, neighbors and houses is entirely coincidental. The only part non-fictitious is the space-ship. Don’t believe me? See you in space.