Tuesday morning I took another coat [and a dress off my mum] to the War On Want, where my Gran used to work, then went home to listen to the radio, while I was on the P.C. Well by the afternoon I could take the pain in my face any longer, so I phoned the dentist.
Thankfully the young lady I spoke to gave me an appointment, like a.s.a.p., which suited me down to the ground. I locked up quick, donned my old-style leather and walked fast. I didn’t get to see ‘my dentist’; as to judge by the prescription I received, was the head of the practice. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.
The fellow was swarthy, and yes, I like that word. Swarthy, but friendly and kind to someone scared shitless, which I had been. An X-Ray had been taken, after I’d lain back in the chair, then I’d been asked to wait awhile, which I had.
When I returned to the room, he showed me the X-Ray and said to me, ‘Each tooth has five lives; and each filling weakens it a little bit more. Yours has reached the end of it’s lives.’
He had also explained to me that I have an infection in my jaw and sinus: through having an abscess where the gold cap was fitted and am now on antibiotics.
So, I will have the damn tooth extracted, eventually.
I am terrified.
But, as it feels as bad as if I’d had an arm cut of, [I would imagine,] either damn one; so in a way, I am glad that the darn thing will be gone. Well, in a way.
Then, as I was writing of the day on my little HP, I stood and the keyboard on my laptop got destroyed, when a common or garden lighter fell on it.
It had definitely not been one of my better days.
A Short story, with some Adult themes: Not intended for minors.
* *
The phone-rang, just as I’d taken my coffee through to the bathroom, to enjoy as I wallowed in the water.
I had placed the red mug down on the corner of the bath, and then ran barefoot, in just a terry-towel robe, to the back-room, to answer the phone.
“Hi, I know we haven’t spoke for a while, but…” It was a soft voice, speaking fast.
It was Lucie, of Lucie and Darren. They had a place in New Brighton, where I used to call quite often, one pleasant summer.
He had been a body-builder, dash builder, who’d met her dancing in a lap-dancing bar and been quite taken with her blonde hair, blue eyes and, at the time, full somewhat pneumatic looking breasts, that ended up slimmer and somewhat perky, after a fitness regime. But, I digress.
I had met her on a confidence course, which I’d needed, after a disastrous relationship had turned real sour on me.
Come break-time, we would go outside for a cigarette together: and, on one of those occasions, she had dropped her grey sweats to her mid-thigh, to show me the little red devil, with pitchfork, on her upper thigh, right hip.
With her endless lists, family runaround; and relationship issues of her own, Lucie had been a real candidate for a class such as it.
But to quote the tutor, “It’ll only work for you, if you really want change.”
All I can say now, in retrospect, is that Lucie hadn’t wanted change.
And, to further exasperate matters, it soon became apparent to me, that her fella just wasn’t too happy with her friendship with me.
He’d been in a band, mainly doing covers and suchlike, but when I did sit in a few times, on rehearsals and at a couple of gigs, with Lucie, both his band members and himself just weren’t ‘right’ with me.
And, looking back, one of the things I missed about my friendhip with her, was that she was not only comfortable with me liking to dress in lingerie, she had even passed some onto me and one, hugged me, whist I was dressed in a lacy one piece that did up at the crotch, lacy panties, worn reversed, to hold him in place; and, thigh-high, self-support stockings.
That had been memorable, in itself.
But, I hadn’t heard from her in ages, now she had phoned: weird.
“I hope you can help me…?” She asked.
“Maybe,” I relied, somewhat cautiously. As I say, I hadn’t heard from her, in ages.
“Well…” she began, “do you still like men??”
What a question to ask, pretty well out of the blue. But, I answered.
“Yes, I guess.”
“Well, when did you last go with a man?” She asked me, hurriedly, as it to rid herself of the embarrassment, in asking me at all.
“Awhile back I guess,” I replied, wondering where this was going, while my bath water was getting cold.
“Well, are you doing anything later?” She asked fast again, as if the question itself, was hard to ask.
“Er nothing, I guess.” It was Saturday and there was a show I wanted to watch. But other than that; sure, I had nothing really planned. Nothing I wouldn’t say “no” to, if presented with something far more interesting to do.
“Well, do you want to meet someone?” She asked, in a timorous voice: and, I couldn’t help but wonder if she was turning red, with embarrassment as she spoke.
I crouched down, listening with intent, to what she was saying to me.
“Pardon?” I asked, more a little surprised still, that she had phoned: Now stupefied, that she had asked what she had.
Granted, we used to talk of such things. But that was then, way back then.
“Well,” she started up, as though she were talking to someone in class, “Darren has this friend who’s come over from Canada, to give a hand with the band, but well I guess he’s been feeling lonely and I wondered, maybe you’d like to…”
“Be fucked by him?” I asked, putting it bluntly.
“I wouldn’t put it like that,” she threw in, defensively.
“Erm, okay Luce, what did you mean??” I asked, intrigued.
“I told him I knew someone who might like to do outcall escort work; who likes to give and receive; and, dress up. He liked that bit, a lot.”
Now she had me interested.
“What else can you tell me about him??” I quizzed, very aware that between my thighs a twitch of arousal had him bouncing a little.
Well, he liked her proposition; and that was certain already.
“He’s in his late thirties, well-dressed and is quite slim with thick brown hair, that’s kinda wavy,” she answered.
I thought. I thought long and hard, for all of two seconds, before I asked my next question of Lucie: “So how much have you told him I charge??”
It was a good question.
En says
“Well I told him you charged eighty pound for an hour…” and she paused a second or two, before carrying on, “and, fort, for most extra’s.”
“Most?” I queried.
“Well,” she answered, “I didn’t know what you won’t do, so I thought that the safest.”
I could easily imagine her smiling, as she said that. Lucie had known me quite well, back then and now, it seemed: ‘Coz, I am a little bit more adaptable, than most.
“Well, it’s an interesting idea,” I told her, “But, I need to think about it Luce. Like I said, I haven’t been with a guy for ages.” And besides, I had my bath waiting for me.
She went quiet.
“Well…” she began, “he wants company tonight. And Darren needs his help… and…” There it was, she was asking me to see this man, for her fella.
“Look, I’ll have my bath and think about it,” I told her.
“I need to know soon… I…” she responded, all at once: and, I could swear I heard mumbling in the background, perhaps from Darren: “I have to let him know, soon.”
“Like when?” I quizzed, as I stood up.
Again I heard muffled mumbles, as a hand went over the mouthpiece and there were mixed voices in the background.
“Five o’clock, at the very latest, erm… Darren says,” she pronounced.
“Okay, baths ready, ring in about ten minutes, I’ll have an answer for you then.”
And that was it, for now, I thought to myself: and so it so, as I wallowed in the bath, after topping it up with some more hot water.
I knew already what my answer would be: I would say ‘yes.’
It was inevitable that I would; but Darren had had such an effect on my friendship with Lucie that I was reticent to do as they had asked of me, even though I do like my adventures, particularly the ones of a sexual nature.
Well, ten minutes later the phone rang, almost to the second.
‘Someone’s impatient,’ I mused, with a wry smile, as stood watching the phone and let it ring awhile.
Finally I answered the phone.
“Hello, who is that?” I asked.
“It’s Lucie, you said to ring in ten minutes,” she said to me, all very quickly.
“Oh yes, sorry,” I retorted, a smile on my face.
I was determined to play this out and say where it went, but why not have a little fun on the way?? It seemed fair, to me.
“Have you made a decision?” Lucie asked, anxiety in her voice.
“Aye, I have.” I replied flatly.
“Well what is it?” She asked me, her words slurring one into the other.
“You bring me something pretty to wear and give me a hug, like I remember so well and we’re on, okay?” It seemed like a pretty reasonable request, to me.
“But… but…”
“That’s my condition Luce. And anyways, its not like I’m asking much, now is it?”
Again there was the hand over the mouthpiece and mumbling in the background, as the two of them talked.
“It’s one o’clock…” she told me, “I’ll be down in about half an hour. What sort of thing to do you want to wear?”
Probably not for little people, for scenes of general weirdness and ...
Part Ten
The curtains billow out, on a cool spring day, as the figure sits in the middle of the French windows, in the open doorway, in an armchair, a pillow behind his back and below his arms. The small ward has just six beds in it, three either side of the room.
Two nurses floated round the room, paying attention to one patient, then another.
As they came to the one empty bed, the blonde looks up from the bedding to the young Thai on the other side of the bed.
“I need a break,” Luanne tells Mai, with a broad grin.
“And a cigarette?” The quietly spoken young woman asks her colleague, with a frown.
“You know me too well…” Luanne told her, as she threw the crumbled sheets into the bag on the laundry trolley that Mai had wheeled into the ward.
“Two years I have been working her with you. So yes.” She told Luanne with a light smile on her face, as she threw the old pillowcases after the sheets.
“Will you make the tea then hun?” the blonde asked, rooting in her pocket for her Slims and lighter.
Mai looked at the busty blonde, folded her arms and glared at Luanne.
“It’s always me who makes the tea,” she responded indignantly.
“You always make the tea so well,” Luanne told her, moving toward the open French windows and the fair-haired young man, sitting in the armchair.
His family, what remained of them, hardly visited anymore and that saddened the busy nurse, who had seen him slowly fade away before her eyes, since he had arrived on the ward, almost a year ago.
He had never spoken, but he had blinked his response to her questions at first, but not now. Now it was almost as though he had withdrawn further into himself.
He had not spoken, but he had sat up at and screamed, when she worked nights.
That had freaked her, the first time it happened.
But, Mai was good with him, getting him to relax, as she would softly sing to him, words that Luanne couldn’t understand. But, the words hardly mattered; Joe Richards seemed to appreciate her voice and soft touch.
She lit-up, looking out at the expanse of green that the ward looked onto, and sighed.
Exhaling, Luanne smiled: ‘It wasn’t a bad job, all in all.’
She liked caring for those who needed her and those on the ward, definitely needed her and the attentions of good nursing staff.
‘Good nursing staff’, that was Mai.
Ever since she had joined their staff, the young Thai had shown a dedication to the job which genuinely touched her, acting to remind her now and then, just how jaundiced she had become, at times.
“Tea!” Mai’s announcement drew Luanne from her reverie and she turned to accept the white mug offered to her.
Holding the cigarette in her left hand, she drank with her right, watching Mai tenderly dab at Richards’s forehead with a dampened white flannel.
The young woman looked up from what she was doing, a questioning look on her face. Luanne knew that look only too well, as she had answered a lot of questions, following ‘that look.’
“Go on Mai?” She quizzed.
“Well, I was wondering…”
“Uh huh?”
“Mr Richards went into save his daughter from the fire, isn’t it a pity he never knew she was on a sleepover that night?”
Exhaling blue-grey smoke, Luanne stared briefly at the man she was talking of.
‘A pity?’ He had succumbed to the smoke, fallen into unconsciousness and been found eventually by the fire-fighters, still mumbling that he had to save his daughter.
But that was then. Now, he would sit and stare dark pits were his eyes had been, till he had blinded himself, with grief.
“That’s an understatement babe…” Luanne muttered.
COMMENTS
Great work, Neil!
You dipict the detatched indifference of the ward nurse.
Probably not for little people, for scenes of general weirdness and ...
Part Nine
Just ahead of me, a little girl sat, with her back to me: A little girl with long straight hair falling down her back, reaching to the floor, wearing a white cotton nightdress, with her pale bare arms were curled round herself, as she rocked back and forth, sobbing. Crouching down, I approached her, my left hand outreached tentatively.
“Are you alright honey?” I ask, my fingers touching her bare left shoulder.
She turned her head, to look at me over her shoulder: turned to look at me, with black dark holes were her eyes should have been, then she screamed, hands reaching for me.
Crying out, I back-pedalling, stumbling backwards.
And, with my hands on the floor behind me, I looked on, as the little girl rose slowly and walked toward me, those hands outstretched, as she stared out me, still screaming.
Abruptly she stopping screaming, yet continued to walk toward me.
“Why didn’t you help me?” She questioned me, in a long whining pitch.
“Why didn’t you help me Daddy?” She asked again.
And, scrambling backwards I moved backwards in a crouch, toward the doorway, my mouth open, in a wordless scream, of my own.
At the doorway, I fall backwards and down the stairway, into blackness…
To be continued…
Probably not for little people, for scenes of general weirdness and ...
Part Eight
With my fear factor increased, I had blinked several times, as my eyes adjusted to the dim pool of light that suddenly that came from a single sixty-watt bulb that dangled from a long cord, suspended from midpoint one of the roof’s crossbeams.
There was boarding throughout the attic-space and many dark that were untouched by the light: dark corners where anything might lurk.
Staring ahead, an icy tingle ran down my spine: and, in my head, I heard the tune to The Twilight Zone: as what I saw before me, seemed so out of place.
To be continued…
COMMENTS
That bit was a bit pressed. I look forward to placing it in context
as you advance.
You know perhaps, if you used the name of the score used in the Twilight Zone theme, if it is a Score.
The idea of writing this in small chunks is working...very readable hon.
It is just that, the twilight Theme
The Twilight Zone (fantasy/science fiction anthology, hosted by Rod Serling)
(CBS Primetime, 1959 - 1965)
One of the most notable fantasy/science fiction anthology programs
in TV history was created by veteran radio/TV writer Rod Serling,
who narrated the opening, and even appeared before a few of the
early episodes introducing the story ala "Alfred Hitchcock Presents."
The quality of the writing and other production values including music
was evident throughout this show's six-season run. Along with original
underscores, some tracking (using pre-existing library tracks) was
done in accordance with an agreement between CBS and the musicians'
union.
So too were elements of the 2nd-season Theme which had been written
by French avant-garde composer Marius Constant. These elements
appeared in the CBS "Foreign" Music library, which was largely
composed and recorded overseas for tracking in CBS Dramas and Westerns.
[Following the release of "Twilight Zone: The Movie" in 1983,
CBS attempted to revive the TV series for the 1985 - 1986 season
under the title "The New Twilight Zone", with new color episodes
and a THEME which was a broad (and weak) improvisation on Marius
Constant's THEME #2 by the rock group, "The Grateful Dead" (Jerry
Garcia et al.) The color series revival only lasted one season,
and went into short-lived reruns after that.]
Probably not for little people, for scenes of general weirdness and ...
Part Seven
Abruptly the screaming ended and I warily took my hands away from my ears.
I lifted my head, then upper body, as I turned round, now constantly ill at ease, and expectant that the next second would bring something new and terrifying.
Yet sitting there would provide any answers, so I stood once more.
Then that overwhelming silence was broken again, by the sound of sobbing, quiet sobbing coming from the floor above me.
I stood still, trembling.
‘Screaming, I could handle that. But a child, crying?’ Now that got to me.
I turned toward the stairway, to the third floor, and deepening shadows.
I could hear the sobbing coming quite distinctly, from the other side of the door at the head of the stairs.
The sobbing continued as I cautiously walked up the quiet, dark stairway, toward a burnt a blackened doorway.
Two inches from the door handle was a lock, with an old-fashioned iron-key in it.
Turning the key, I pushed the door open slowly.
And, in my back-brain, I could hear the music from the film Halloween and Jason’s approach.
I was unnerved and heading fast toward unhinged: I knew it.
Yet through all that, my curiosity was overwhelming all fears.
So I’d pushed the door open, onto what felt like a large space.
Inside all was darkness: ‘it had to be’ I thought, as I stumbled forward, with my arms stretched outward.
I took one cautious step after another, until I reached around and felt something brush against my face, something wispy.
Snatching at my face, I realized what it was, with a sigh of relief.
A light-cord.
That’s what it had been, a light cord: I pulled on it.
To be continued…
Probably not for little people, for scenes of general weirdness and ...
Part Six
A wrapped bundle of bedding covered a figure, the thin somewhat emaciated arm sticking out from it.
I reached up, closed the window and all-in-one movement, and pulled the sheets and blankets away from a body, which appeared to be my own.
I fell backwards, onto my hands, my feet pedalling as it is to run away from what was in front of me.
The body looked as if it were me: just how, ‘how could that be?’
Standing, I ran from the room, back into the hallway and closed the door, standing with my back against it, head slumped forward, breathing heavily.
Seconds passed.
And, still I listened, as I debated with myself what to do next.
Then the screaming began, again.
I lifted my head and looking around muttered, “Curiouser and curiouser.”
There was still silence throughout the house, except for that scream, which filled my ears, splitting my skull in twain.
Suddenly, I was down on my knees, forehead forward to the floor, my hands over my ears.
I couldn’t bear it, couldn’t bear the sound of that woman’s voice as it continued to echo through the upper rooms of the old house.
To be continued…
Probably not for little people, for scenes of general weirdness and ...
Part Five
Looking around, I looked for a light-switch. There was none. So placing my hand on the far wall, I traced around, looking for one. And, though it took a few minutes, they were long minutes, long drawn out minutes.
Pressing the switch down, I more than half expecting it to be not working.
It was though.
As the dim light came on, illuminated by a bare single bulb, dangling from a long threadbare chord, I looked around myself once again.
The scream had ended, yet I was still alone, on the second floor, with no knowledge as to why I had decided to follow my impulse into the building.
But, I was thankful for the light: it made my moment more, bearable.
That said, the screaming intimated I wasn’t alone, as I had first thought; so with my left hand flat against the wall, I moved ahead, to the closed door, immediately to my left, the stairway going up, to my right.
I tried the door handle, a little surprised that it opened easily and I moved into the door, groping for a light-switch, as I did so.
Surprisingly quickly, I’d found what I searched for and pressed downward.
Illumination brought to my eyes a visceral horror that I’d not expected, coupled with a cold that I’d not felt in the hallway.
A dresser and mirror was directly ahead of me, curtains blew inward, thanks to a half-open casement window and then I let my eyes shift, to the double bed that dominated much of the room, bar the wardrobe, to my immediate right.
The bed: sheets crumpled, duvet seemingly thrown aside, the two pillows and the formerly white sheets were soaked in blood, that had turned black, as it had dried.
On the far side of the bed I could see a hand, clutching the mattress, intimating there was more, in the gap between the bed and the wall.
Cautiously I walked forward between the gap between the dresser and the end of the bed, with a rising sense of apprehension.
The scream, the blood, ‘what next?’
I looked down, to into the shadows at the bottom of the window and the side of the bed, my curiosity overcoming my fear.
To be continued…
Probably not for little people, for scenes of general weirdness and ...
Part Four
There was a skittering noise and shadows moved in every corner, as the laughter had continued, for several seconds more.
I stopped, still.
Then turning back I grasped hold of the handle and cautiously opened the door.
Outside the light was dimming, as day turned to dusk.
Inside, the new shadows hid things, which had been visible earlier.
Even the black mass in the bath appeared different and appeared to writhe in the shifting light, as I turned, to look at the mirror.
The skittering sound sounded again, which is when I noticed the uppermost, light branches of an adjacent tree, hitting the window outside.
“That’s alright then,” I muttered with a smile of relief.
It was something I could understand, at least: it was the wind, that’s all.
So I turned back, to the mirror, just in time to see myself enter the room and turn, to look out, to me.
From beneath my view, he brought something shiny into view, a pair of scissors.
He stared at me; as I looked into his face, intently.
Then, he slowly and deliberately turned its blades toward himself, holding the handles, with both hands.
I knew what he was going to do.
I’d thought of it myself.
And, I stared in wide-eyed horror, as the sharp blades pieced his right eye, I felt a tightening in my gut, as I watched in fascinated revulsion as fluid erupted, and a visceral ooze trickled down his cheek.
Yet, my reflected self continued to stare back at me, with one left eye and one empty black socket; still looking calm and stoic.
My guts roiled inside, I gripped the sink leant forward and digested and undigested food erupted from my mouth.
Then, lifting my head slowly I looked back into the mirror, to find that I had no reflection, no reflection at all.
To be continued…
Probably not for little people, for scenes of general weirdness and ...
Part Three
The red ball, that had bounced down the stair had imploded and become a pool of blood, ‘strangeness indeed.’
Yet, that was nothing compared the urge that I have to traverse those very stairs, to see what I might see.
‘Sheer insanity,’ I mused to myself, putting one foot on the bottom step, to do so.
And, with my right hand on the banister rail, I walked upstairs, with mounting trepidation, the quiet of the house only adding to my sense of unease.
Yet, when I made it to the landing, I saw nothing to indicate where the ball had come from, as each of the doors I could see where closed.
There were fours doors, one to my immediate left, another to the right, adjacent to the next set of stairs, going up; then, ahead a small corridor, where two more doors that faced one another.
I opened the door to my left, to find that it was a bathroom.
Inside there was a toilet, with it’s cistern above and a pull chain, a bath to the right of it; and at the end of that, a sink, with a mirror above it.
And, I couldn’t help but stand in front of the mirror, my hands on the sink, with enough light coming through the window over the bath to show me just how dusty the mirror was. So, I’d drawn the back of my windcheater sleeve jacket across the mirror in a wide sweep, cleaning a swathe of dust from it.
I then held the sink, as I leant forward a little to stare at the face reflected.
Blue eyes looked back at me, that were tired and puffy looking; with gaunt cheekbones, giving the face a look of ten years on from my actual age.
‘Now, how did I know that?’ I wondered, unable to draw my eyes from those looking at me.
I was transfixed by the reflection, that was me, yet not.
There was no other way of explaining it to myself than that: it wasn’t me.
‘A stupid thought,’ I reminded myself, making a point of taking my focus away from the mirror, as I turned my head to survey the small room.
The tiles were dirty, though not filthy; the bath though, was a different matter.
There was a matted dark shape lying in the bottom of the bath, brown and dried.
It just didn’t look pleasant, not at all.
It was just then, as I turned back to the mirror, and to the door, that I caught the shape of something moving behind my reflected self.
That something was fast, because as I looked to the doorway, there it was, whatever the fast-moving shape was, going into the shadows between the far room and the stair going upward.
Startled already, my heart stopped completely, when a cough drew my eyes back to the mirror, where my reflected self still looked ahead, hands out of my vision.
Incredulous, I held the sink tighter, as I damned my nervous state.
“This is ridiculous,” I said aloud, watching my reflected lips move to the words.
I turned away from the mirror, to leave the bathroom.
“This is ridiculous,” my voice repeated, as I left and closed the door.
Then I heard laughter, my own, coming from inside the small room.
To be continued…
Probably not for little people, for scenes of general weirdness and ...
Part 2
Inside there was little light, other than that coming from the two nearest windows, which filtered through with dust motes floating in them.
To my left and right were closed doors, and down at the end of the long hall was a third, partially open. The room on the inside was in darkness.
Ahead of me a little to the left, there was a stairway, made of a dark hardwood, like much of the oppressive hallway.
I took one step forward; and, behind me the front door closed with a thud, seemingly blown shut by a non-existent wind.
“Oh bugger,” I expressed, putting my right hand over my heart, as I felt it restart.
I was filled with an urge to explore further, yet the mounting feeling of tension that was building within me was almost overwhelming and my feet seemed rooted to the spot. But, the house had drawn me to it, I felt. So I had to know more.
Blinking a few times, I allowed my eyes to adjust to the light, then as I took a step forward, a sound drew my attention from the landing above, which seemed incongruous in the silent, dark interior: a light thump on the boards above me.
Then after the first sound, there was a second and third and my heart rate began to increase yet again.
Budda –Budda – Budda, came from the stairs, as something small, landed on each step toward me and I snapped my head round, to peer toward the noise, as a small red ball bounced downward.
Finally it bounced off the last step and onto the floor, where it flattened out, pooling outward, to cover he area before the stairs.
An urge to run filled me, but that wouldn’t help, so instead I chose to walk toward the anomaly to my left, curious as to what it was.
I knelt down, reaching forward with a curious right fore-finger, which I dipped into the red pool, then brought the viscous liquid to my lips and tasted it.
‘Blood, it’s blood,’ I spluttered, with shock.
To be continued…
COMMENTS
-
dabbler
06:44 Mar 17 2009
Had you not taken decisive action you incremental pain would have assured you an absent minded irrational accident.
I am always reluctant to go to dentist, ( I came to during a wisdom tooth extraction, with no dentist in the room.. ).