Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Halloween Treat!

Tonight I offer a special Halloween Treat: a story written especially for you and by you.

Here's the blueprint.

I'll start off with a few lines to set the stage. Then you add to the story in the Comments Section. Later, I'll collect the whole thing and post it in one piece.

So, let's get started! Join in the fun and make your mark in blog history!

A Halloween Story


It was a dark and stormy night. The moon played hide-and-seek behind a veil of dark clouds. A wolf howled a mournful lament in the distance.

The Major entered the study. It was dark. The storm has interrupted the power and all the lights in the mansion were off. The Major stuck a match and lit a hurricane lamp he kept in his sea chest for just such emergencies. As the light grew beyond a flicker the Major looked down and gasped!

"The bastards! They've killed Kenny!"

And there in a slowly spreading pool of tapioca pudding lay Kenny. Face down and quite dead.


Your turn.

8 comments:

Bret said...

Years of military service had taught the Major one thing above all else: CYA -- and that didn't stand for Crying Young A**hole. He looked around quickly to see if anyone else was in the vicinity, but saw nothing but the emotionless -- and motionless -- dark.

Donning a pair of driving gloves stowed years ago in a pocket of his tweed jacket, the Major poked a tentative finger into the tapioca pudding, no longer spreading as much as absorbing into the weathered hardwood floor. There seemed to be a bit of extra give in the boards, even accounting for the weight of a tapioca-laden corpse on top. He wedged his thumb into a worn gap and wrenched upward. With a creak and a rending report that was startling against the stillness of the room, the board came out of the floor completely, revealing the corner of a corroded metal container.

"If I didn't know better, I'd swear that was Spam," mused the Major. He didn't know better. It was Spam.

Anonymous said...

No, wait! It was a Spam container hidden deep in the floorboards. Buried in dirt and dust by someone who didn't want it discovered.

But the Major was too intrigued not to open it.

Slowly he cracked open the rotted plastic lid and he couldn't believe what he found -- sapphires. Two perfect sapphires.

Anonymous said...

No wait! Not TWO, BUT MORE! LOTS MORE! The Major had found a can of the fabled SAPPHIRE SPAM, traditional creamy spam loaded with Minnesota Sapphire Baby Blues...I thought that flavor had been discontinued in the last century.

Anonymous said...

"Sapphires in Spam", mused the Major. He knew that Kenny had worked in the import business for many years and could always be relied upon to produce a perfect stone. But why had he secreted them away in the spam, and from whom? The Major heard a faint creaking and turned around. The door behind him was slowly closing.

Anonymous said...

"Aha!" said the Major. He knew the door led to the Library, and the culprit would be somewhere in the next room. The Major slowly pushed open the heavy mahogany door and entered the dimly lit room. He saw a movement in the corner and pointed his lamp towards the west end of the room. No one was there, in fact it looked like the room hadn't been touched in a century. And then the Major spotted something peculiar. A single red feather lay on the floor by the fireplace. "A feather.." he pondered. There was only one person he knew who could have left this feather. He started to sweat as he thought about the visit he was about to make.

Bret said...

Heather "The Feather" Scarlett. Skinnier than Kate Moss after a few dozen Ex-Lax martinis. More annoying than Tokyo Rose. More dangerous than standing between Kirstie Alley and dessert.

It had been awhile since the Major's last confrontation with The Feather, but he recalled with a wince that precious stones had been involved that time as well.

"Memo to self," he muttered. "Turn away from the kick this time."

The Major retraced his steps to the discarded metal lid and picked it up. As he inserted it strategically into his trousers, faint footsteps in front of him announced the arrival of The Feather.

"Is that tapioca or are you just glad to see me?"

sy said...

"Would you like something to drink?"
For weeks before discovering the body, the major had been trying to combat his alcoholism with chocolate ice cream and cinnamon hearts. Now back in an extreme situation for the first time in the months since his "retirement," hands shaking, thighs jiggling the SPAM can uncomfortably against his thigh, he forgot his usual wariness and agreed.
He did not see her empty the X-Lax into his drink.
A wolf howled in the distance.

Anonymous said...

The Feather turned to note the howling and said, "Pardon dearest, but my chariot awaits. And though they are wolves, they can just be jackals in regard to the fare."
As the Major felt a deep, unhealthy grumbling, she took her upchucked feather and gave the Major a pointed stare, "We can do this the easy and quick way, or it can be most gruesome."