There was a man with thick curly scarlet hair. He wore his blue square glasses like a Liberian and loved wearing his velvet coat, with his cargo pants. Jack had a old eye phone hanging out of his shirt pocket. He had a pair of mucked up slippers with the peanut motif on his wide feet. Jake also had a backpack on, it was such half open to see the continents. In the backpack were vinyl records and an astrometry book.
I shuddered as the cooling night air seeped its way into my Brooklyn studio apartment. I rose from my seat, closing my prized copy of Bonatti's Liber Astronomiae, perhaps my favorite of all my astrological texts, and retrieved my scarlet, velvet coat from the hook by the door.
"I might finally have to get a new coat." I grumbled, as I continued to struggle with the coat's tarnished clasp. It was my favorite though. How could I possibly get rid of my birthday present from John Locke?
He was such a riot at parties. I miss him.
A loud buzzing noise pierced the twilight calm of the apartment. The screen of my iPhone illuminated on the kitchen table across the room and I hurried to retrieve it.
Just a text from those tumultuous warlocks in Manhattan wanting me to come down and wreak a little havoc with them.
Did they not understand subtlety?
I suppose not.
They were young, first generation warlocks and most of them from the projects with no magical parents to guide them.
If they wanted to life forever they were certainly going to have to learn.
They would though, magic tends to lose its charm after the first century or so. Then it just becomes a burden.
I ran a hand through my shaggy brown hair as I looked around my apartment, tokens and toys from almost every era of history littering the open space. I made my way towards a cardboard box of vinyl records which sat on the floor beneath my dusty stereo. I selected one from the stack, Pithecanthropus Erectus by Charles Mingus, and set it gently in the record player, placing the needle on the ridged, black surface of the spinning disc.
I returned back to my cushy arm chair to continue reading as the energetic, jazz music danced through the air, my slippers making a just audible thwack, thwack against the hardwood floor.
I sank back into my seat and extracted from the breast pocket of my coat a copper pocket watch.
8:46
Three hours and fourteen minutes until my birthday and all I was doing was rereading tattered copies of books that had been in my possession for centuries.
But then again, what's another birthday when you can live forever?
He slipped off the velvet coat, letting it fall to the floor with a dull thud. Yawning, he searched the fake desk for his iPhone but was unable to find it amongst the various papers and blank astrology book. "Sue!" He stormed off the set, knocking over a box of vinyl records in the process. "Sue!" "Yes, Mr. Whyl?" "Where's my phone? Go find it. And once you've brought it to me clean up that stupid box of records." "Yes, Mr. Whyl." He crossed the set, only stopping once he had slammed the door of his changing room shut. "What's taking the stupid girl so long, Sue!" He slumped into a plastic chair and grabbed the closest drink to him, a half empty bottle of vodka. As he took a swig the door swung open once more. He threw the bottle and laughed as it shattered against the wall. Sue seemed unfazed as if she had almost expected it. "Your phone, Mr. Whyl, and your Peanuts slippers. I thought you might..." "Yeah whatever, get out of my room. And find out if that idiot of a director has rewritten my scene yet. A star like me cast as some lousy professor," he trailed off, mumbling darkly to himself as he grasped a whiskey bottle on a nearby shelf. "Yes Mr. Whyl." She dropped his belongings onto the vanity cluttered with autographed pictures, cigarette stubs, and alcohol stained lines that he had yet to memorize. As she left the room she made a silent wish that when she came back at dinner time he would be dead from overconsumption.
He wouldn't let go. He couldn't let go. The mistakes he made were enough to keep him eternally tied up in this place - this cold, empty place. He knew it was his fault. His family now lived ashamed to admit that they had ever known him, and it was all his fault. But he couldn't let go. And so he held on. Stolen possessions were used to occupy the space in the deserted room. On the wall hung his wife's blood-red velvet jacket, nipped by the chilled breeze of Autumn on the very day they met. On the desk laid an aged and tattered book, belonging once to a boy with an unfathomable fascination for the stars. The musty slippers of a child rested at the foot of an aged rocking chair by the fire. Records spun endlessly on the player, filling his senses with memories of love's first dance. And on the rotting wooden table, sat a scratched and inactive telephone, that had been turned off from the shame and regret of the world.
I entered the room with the cool winter air blowing in from behind me. I closed the door, and stared into the old shop. Dust covering most of the objects, except this humongous astrology text book. I slowly made my way to the counter, looking down at the oddly pawned objects. A sharks tooth set, and a few random rings. Then my eyes began to wander the store, in the corner sat a few boxes of vinyl records. "Hello is anyone here." I continued to wander the store looking at all the old things. Then something else caught my eye, a velvet coat of sorts, I wandered towards it. The tag read "Cary Grants velvet coat. Please see owner for a Document of Authenticity." I went to reach out for the coat just to feel it and from behind me someone yelled. "You no touch, unless you buy." I turn to see a short Chinese lady in Peanut motif slippers. I had to hold in my laughter she looked like she belonged in Mulan. He eyes closed in a squint behind her giant hairy potter specs. "You no touch if you no buy" "Madame I'm simply here to pick up a package." Pointing to my mailbag, and post officer uniform. "Oh you come to take book" "Uhm is that the package?" She hobbled her way around to the glass case that contained the astrology text book. When I got closer to the book I noticed that it was written in Greek. "Might I ask what book is that?" "This book is ancient training guide, for Hunters of Artemis." "Say what? Uhm Madame are you okay?" I was suddenly concerned that she was mentally unstable. I slowly reached for the book to put it in my bag, and her eyes shot open like I was trespassing. She then pushed the book towards me, I took that as a sign of take it. I put it in my bag, and left. Not thinking anything of it besides some crazy old Chinese lady, I chuckled to myself. After I put the book in my truck I looked back at the shop, and it was gone just like that it was gone. The only thing left was the crazy lady's Harry Potter glasses, and her Peanut motif slippers....
His little feet shuffled along in his little peanuts slippers, and astrology book in hand. He was making his way to grandpas office, repeating over and over in his head how he would beg for a bedtime story. But when he opened the door, his grandpa was dressed up, surely not for bed. His grandpas eyes, corduroy pants, and velvet coat stared down at him. "Reggie, what are you doing it's almost 10:30. You should be asleep by now! Got get some rest and then in the morning I'll make your favorite peanut butter pancakes...ahhh shhhh,...hello?... Yeah.... I'm on my way." And he left just like that, iPhone in hand. I hated peanut butter pancakes.
I appeared in a room. The stranger who lived here has passed away many years ago. She was an ancient widow with wrinkles deep as the Grand Canyon. She was not your traditional old woman. She had an open mind who always tried new things. I think that's why she lived for so long.
I walked over to her coffee table which still held her astrology book and iPhone on top. I fingered the items, and pressed the home button to see if it was dead. It was out of batteries just like her. As I was on my way to her bedroom I saw emerald velvet coat hanging by the front door. Limp and dusty. I passed through the kitchen lingering by the box of vinyl records that haven't been played for years. I thought about stealing them, but then it hit me that I couldn't. It would be wrong. I had to walk through the bathroom to get to the room where she died on her bed. Such a comfortable place to pass. That's when my face hit the front door to her deserted home, and realization hit me. She was never to envelop anybody with her love again. She was a pair of slippers with a Peanuts motif. She was eccentric and long gone. Soon to be forgotten.
I walk into my grandparents house with my new iPhone. My grandpa showed me his new velvet coat grandma got him for his birthday. I took a glance over at my grandma she was reading this astrology book she found up in her attic laying on the dusty floor. Grandpa. Came up from the basement with slippers on carrying vinyl records in his hands.
There is a nerdy boy sitting on a folding chair in a small college dorm in a big city, possibly New York or Pittsburgh. He is thin and wearing a soft red velvet coat. It is a suit coat or a blazer of some kind. The sleeves are to short for his arms because he has grown a little to big for it over the years. He is of average height and has short brown hair. His phone rings and he picks it up and answers it. It is an iPhone, an old one. He cannot afford and doesn't need an iPhone because of his expensive hobby which is record collecting. He has several vinyl records in a cardboard box next to his bed. Propped against the box was an astrology book, probably for classes the next morning. He now goes to get his friends notes from across the hall, and throws on his peanuts slippers to make sure his feet don't get to cold. He is tired upon return and falls asleep in his chair.
I walked into the dark room, lights off, nothing but silence. I shuffle my feet over too find the light switch. My hand prowling up and down the wall in effort to find the switch. I finally find it. I flick the switch the switch and the light turns on. It's almost blinding. There was a leather chair and next too it was a box of vinyl records. Standing in the door way looking at this chair all I could make of it was a black shadow. I didn't think anyone was in the room. I keep looking at the room, looking at all the nooks and crannies. I walk over to the table and see an astrology book. Next to the book is an iPhone. The iPhone led me to believe that the black figure wasn't just a shadow, but it was a man. I hear shuffling of feet coming from the hallway. I look into the doorway and there stands the black figurine. It was a man standing in a velvet coat with slippers. His slippers had a Peanuts motif; they were rather comical. The man walked closer and closer. I didn't want him to think I was an intruder. All I wanted was a quick interview for the Daily News.
There was a man with thick curly scarlet hair. He wore his blue square glasses like a Liberian and loved wearing his velvet coat, with his cargo pants. Jack had a old eye phone hanging out of his shirt pocket. He had a pair of mucked up slippers with the peanut motif on his wide feet. Jake also had a backpack on, it was such half open to see the continents. In the backpack were vinyl records and an astrometry book.
ReplyDeleteI shuddered as the cooling night air seeped its way into my Brooklyn studio apartment. I rose from my seat, closing my prized copy of Bonatti's Liber Astronomiae, perhaps my favorite of all my astrological texts, and retrieved my scarlet, velvet coat from the hook by the door.
ReplyDelete"I might finally have to get a new coat." I grumbled, as I continued to struggle with the coat's tarnished clasp. It was my favorite though. How could I possibly get rid of my birthday present from John Locke?
He was such a riot at parties. I miss him.
A loud buzzing noise pierced the twilight calm of the apartment. The screen of my iPhone illuminated on the kitchen table across the room and I hurried to retrieve it.
Just a text from those tumultuous warlocks in Manhattan wanting me to come down and wreak a little havoc with them.
Did they not understand subtlety?
I suppose not.
They were young, first generation warlocks and most of them from the projects with no magical parents to guide them.
If they wanted to life forever they were certainly going to have to learn.
They would though, magic tends to lose its charm after the first century or so. Then it just becomes a burden.
I ran a hand through my shaggy brown hair as I looked around my apartment, tokens and toys from almost every era of history littering the open space. I made my way towards a cardboard box of vinyl records which sat on the floor beneath my dusty stereo. I selected one from the stack, Pithecanthropus Erectus by Charles Mingus, and set it gently in the record player, placing the needle on the ridged, black surface of the spinning disc.
I returned back to my cushy arm chair to continue reading as the energetic, jazz music danced through the air, my slippers making a just audible thwack, thwack against the hardwood floor.
I sank back into my seat and extracted from the breast pocket of my coat a copper pocket watch.
8:46
Three hours and fourteen minutes until my birthday and all I was doing was rereading tattered copies of books that had been in my possession for centuries.
But then again, what's another birthday when you can live forever?
He slipped off the velvet coat, letting it fall to the floor with a dull thud. Yawning, he searched the fake desk for his iPhone but was unable to find it amongst the various papers and blank astrology book. "Sue!" He stormed off the set, knocking over a box of vinyl records in the process. "Sue!"
ReplyDelete"Yes, Mr. Whyl?"
"Where's my phone? Go find it. And once you've brought it to me clean up that stupid box of records."
"Yes, Mr. Whyl." He crossed the set, only stopping once he had slammed the door of his changing room shut. "What's taking the stupid girl so long, Sue!"
He slumped into a plastic chair and grabbed the closest drink to him, a half empty bottle of vodka. As he took a swig the door swung open once more. He threw the bottle and laughed as it shattered against the wall. Sue seemed unfazed as if she had almost expected it.
"Your phone, Mr. Whyl, and your Peanuts slippers. I thought you might..."
"Yeah whatever, get out of my room. And find out if that idiot of a director has rewritten my scene yet. A star like me cast as some lousy professor," he trailed off, mumbling darkly to himself as he grasped a whiskey bottle on a nearby shelf.
"Yes Mr. Whyl." She dropped his belongings onto the vanity cluttered with autographed pictures, cigarette stubs, and alcohol stained lines that he had yet to memorize. As she left the room she made a silent wish that when she came back at dinner time he would be dead from overconsumption.
Oooooo that was gooood :)
DeleteHe wouldn't let go. He couldn't let go. The mistakes he made were enough to keep him eternally tied up in this place - this cold, empty place. He knew it was his fault. His family now lived ashamed to admit that they had ever known him, and it was all his fault. But he couldn't let go. And so he held on. Stolen possessions were used to occupy the space in the deserted room. On the wall hung his wife's blood-red velvet jacket, nipped by the chilled breeze of Autumn on the very day they met. On the desk laid an aged and tattered book, belonging once to a boy with an unfathomable fascination for the stars. The musty slippers of a child rested at the foot of an aged rocking chair by the fire. Records spun endlessly on the player, filling his senses with memories of love's first dance. And on the rotting wooden table, sat a scratched and inactive telephone, that had been turned off from the shame and regret of the world.
ReplyDelete"Love's first dance"
DeleteOh my gosh that's perfect
*smiley face with hearts as eyes emoji*
DeleteHe sounds so obsessive and depressed! I love how you created the emotions by describing him and how he was acting.
DeleteI entered the room with the cool winter air blowing in from behind me. I closed the door, and stared into the old shop. Dust covering most of the objects, except this humongous astrology text book. I slowly made my way to the counter, looking down at the oddly pawned objects. A sharks tooth set, and a few random rings. Then my eyes began to wander the store, in the corner sat a few boxes of vinyl records. "Hello is anyone here." I continued to wander the store looking at all the old things. Then something else caught my eye, a velvet coat of sorts, I wandered towards it. The tag read "Cary Grants velvet coat. Please see owner for a Document of Authenticity." I went to reach out for the coat just to feel it and from behind me someone yelled.
ReplyDelete"You no touch, unless you buy."
I turn to see a short Chinese lady in Peanut motif slippers. I had to hold in my laughter she looked like she belonged in Mulan. He eyes closed in a squint behind her giant hairy potter specs.
"You no touch if you no buy"
"Madame I'm simply here to pick up a package." Pointing to my mailbag, and post officer uniform.
"Oh you come to take book"
"Uhm is that the package?"
She hobbled her way around to the glass case that contained the astrology text book. When I got closer to the book I noticed that it was written in Greek. "Might I ask what book is that?"
"This book is ancient training guide, for Hunters of Artemis."
"Say what? Uhm Madame are you okay?" I was suddenly concerned that she was mentally unstable. I slowly reached for the book to put it in my bag, and her eyes shot open like I was trespassing. She then pushed the book towards me, I took that as a sign of take it. I put it in my bag, and left. Not thinking anything of it besides some crazy old Chinese lady, I chuckled to myself. After I put the book in my truck I looked back at the shop, and it was gone just like that it was gone. The only thing left was the crazy lady's Harry Potter glasses, and her Peanut motif slippers....
His little feet shuffled along in his little peanuts slippers, and astrology book in hand. He was making his way to grandpas office, repeating over and over in his head how he would beg for a bedtime story. But when he opened the door, his grandpa was dressed up, surely not for bed. His grandpas eyes, corduroy pants, and velvet coat stared down at him.
ReplyDelete"Reggie, what are you doing it's almost 10:30. You should be asleep by now! Got get some rest and then in the morning I'll make your favorite peanut butter pancakes...ahhh shhhh,...hello?... Yeah.... I'm on my way."
And he left just like that, iPhone in hand. I hated peanut butter pancakes.
I appeared in a room. The stranger who lived here has passed away many years ago. She was an ancient widow with wrinkles deep as the Grand Canyon. She was not your traditional old woman. She had an open mind who always tried new things. I think that's why she lived for so long.
ReplyDeleteI walked over to her coffee table which still held her astrology book and iPhone on top. I fingered the items, and pressed the home button to see if it was dead. It was out of batteries just like her. As I was on my way to her bedroom I saw emerald velvet coat hanging by the front door. Limp and dusty. I passed through the kitchen lingering by the box of vinyl records that haven't been played for years. I thought about stealing them, but then it hit me that I couldn't. It would be wrong. I had to walk through the bathroom to get to the room where she died on her bed. Such a comfortable place to pass. That's when my face hit the front door to her deserted home, and realization hit me. She was never to envelop anybody with her love again. She was a pair of slippers with a Peanuts motif. She was eccentric and long gone. Soon to be forgotten.
I walk into my grandparents house with my new iPhone. My grandpa showed me his new velvet coat grandma got him for his birthday. I took a glance over at my grandma she was reading this astrology book she found up in her attic laying on the dusty floor. Grandpa. Came up from the basement with slippers on carrying vinyl records in his hands.
ReplyDeleteThere is a nerdy boy sitting on a folding chair in a small college dorm in a big city, possibly New York or Pittsburgh. He is thin and wearing a soft red velvet coat. It is a suit coat or a blazer of some kind. The sleeves are to short for his arms because he has grown a little to big for it over the years. He is of average height and has short brown hair. His phone rings and he picks it up and answers it. It is an iPhone, an old one. He cannot afford and doesn't need an iPhone because of his expensive hobby which is record collecting. He has several vinyl records in a cardboard box next to his bed. Propped against the box was an astrology book, probably for classes the next morning. He now goes to get his friends notes from across the hall, and throws on his peanuts slippers to make sure his feet don't get to cold. He is tired upon return and falls asleep in his chair.
ReplyDeleteI meant to say: he cannot afford and doesn't need a new iPhone because of his expensive hobby, which is record collecting.
DeleteI walked into the dark room, lights off, nothing but silence. I shuffle my feet over too find the light switch. My hand prowling up and down the wall in effort to find the switch. I finally find it. I flick the switch the switch and the light turns on. It's almost blinding. There was a leather chair and next too it was a box of vinyl records. Standing in the door way looking at this chair all I could make of it was a black shadow. I didn't think anyone was in the room. I keep looking at the room, looking at all the nooks and crannies. I walk over to the table and see an astrology book. Next to the book is an iPhone. The iPhone led me to believe that the black figure wasn't just a shadow, but it was a man. I hear shuffling of feet coming from the hallway. I look into the doorway and there stands the black figurine. It was a man standing in a velvet coat with slippers. His slippers had a Peanuts motif; they were rather comical. The man walked closer and closer. I didn't want him to think I was an intruder. All I wanted was a quick interview for the Daily News.
ReplyDelete