It feels slightly wrong to be the only one posting on Empires, but I have time this morning and will have less time for the rest of the week (summer party and salary reviews -- I'm doing a lot this time round) so I guess it'll be like a double post. With a gap between them almost as long as the ones we used to have on How the best was won ;-)
Empires "Stop-" "-her!" The Marias fumbled with the door on their side of the car but the central locking system suddenly engaged and the door-release handle flapped uselessly back and forth. "Sorry," said David, his voice tired and drawling. He fiddled with the controls on the central column. "Damn it, one of these switches has to do it. Where's the light?" Ana relaxed, pushing the fuss and noise away and concentrated on being in the back of Stacey's mind.
"Who are you?" The mayor turned, his hand on the gate to Dr. McDonald's house. A long, pink-paved path led through a garden that had clearly been landscaped once. Grass was now practically hay, waist-height and fighting with bushes and shrubs for overall dominance. The gate itself was cast-iron and had an electronic lock; little red leds winked at Stacey. The walls were only waist height but covered with vicious-looking spikes of varying heights: decorative, but definitely not something you'd try and climb over. "Stacey," said Stacey. She held her hand out, and, predictably, the Mayor reached to shake it. "You're the mayor." He's vain as a budgie, whispered Ana's voice in the back of head, tickling her brain like a feather inside her ear. Tell him he looks young. "You're younger than I expected," said Stacey. She turned her head slightly and looked at him out of the corner of her eyes. "Well, they say the job ages you, but I'm trying to prove them wrong," said the Mayor. He produced a wide smile. "What are you doing here though? At this time of night?" "I was hoping to get your autograph," said Stacey, ignoring Ana's fluttery laughter like a moth caught behind her eyes. He's not that stupid! "But mostly I want to know what's going on here. You were at the hospital just now, and you were looking for something. I think I've been looking for the same thing." The Mayor stepped backwards, and discovered that he was pressed against the gate. "I was visiting my sick aunt," he said. "And I remembered that she likes Ayn Rand novels, so I came here to retrieve the one she lent to Dr. McDonald when he was treating her. The Magic Mountain, I think."
Mariah succeeded in getting the car door open and the two older women half-fell from the car. David opened his door just in time to catch Maria on the hip, and staccato swearing ensued.
"Your sick aunt is in the closed-down hospital? Where is tax payer's money going?" said Stacey. The Magic Mountain is by Thomas Mann whispered Ana. Good book, unlike Rand's The Fountainhead. "Oh, that one," said the Mayor. The gate clicked and opened and Stacey realised he must have a key-card or electronic fob of some kind. He stepped back again and she moved forward, catching the gate before it could close so that they both ended up inside the garden. The gate clicked shut behind them.
I guess I'm skipping July, then. I thought about doing an entry from the Mayor's perspective but it seemed not especially worthwhile.
Anyway, glad you've posted, as I wasn't sure how to follow last month's entry. So here we go!
Mine:
The mayor looked alarmed by the intrusion, but only momentarily. He recovered quickly, his smile returning in full force as he swung his arm in welcome.
"Well, since you've come this far already, perhaps you'd be so kind as to join me in my search for the misplaced book?"
Stall him, Ana told her. Do not go in there without us.
"I'd be happy to help!" Stacey told him instead. "I couldn't possibly pass up the opportunity to see how the ingenuous Dr. McDonald lived!"
"You knew him?" the mayor asked, suspicion flickering across his face as they walked side by side along the path.
"Oh, he treated a family friend. Helped her immensely, I was told. Don't think she would have made it without his expertise."
"Ah, of course," the mayor said, visibly relaxing. "He did do that sort of thing often." He led them through the garden, overgrown grass and bushes scratching against and tugging at their clothing. Stacey could feel anxiety growing the farther they moved from the gate, but she wasn't sure how much of it was her own and how much belonged to Ana.
Dr. McDonald's home appeared as they rounded a final bend in the garden path. Two stories, a long porch with enough seating for an intimate group at the front. A wide balcony running the length of the second story. There seemed to be more windows that what Stacey would have thought strictly necessary on both floors, considering the better view would be to the north, at the back of the house. Maybe the doctor really enjoyed looking out over his garden, she thought.
Or he wanted to see any visitors coming from a long way off, Ana suggested. We're at the gate, by the way. Get back here and let us in.
But Stacey was too distracted to even acknowledge the request/instruction.
"Is someone home?" she asked, pointing her chin at a lit lamp glowing in a first floor room.
"Oh, that?" The mayor seemed uncomfortable again. Stacey was beginning to wonder if that was his most natural state. "I must have left it on. After my last visit."
"You come here often?"
Why? Ana demanded.
"So many questions!" the mayor said with a forced laugh, as though he'd heard Ana's as well. "Come, come this way. Through this door at the side of the house here. It will take us directly into the library. Come, come!"
I don't like this, Ana said. Get back here. Now. Do not go in there al-
But then Stacey was through the thick metal door and into the house, the mayor following close behind. And the moment he shut the door she lost all contact with Ana.
Ana flung herself out of the car, shoving Maria and Mariah out of the way. She raced up to the gate, which did not yield to her frantic button pushing, and in fact began making an ominous beeping noise. She backed off, took a running start at the fence, grasped two of the posts near the top, and vaulted over the fence, landing in a crouch in a leafy bush that crunched under her feet.
She ran up to the porch, heading for the front door, ignoring the side door the mayor had taken Stacey through. She whipped out a set of lock picks and began picking the lock on the door, an old-fashioned knob, not a fancy keypad. Soon it yielded to Ana's picks, and she disappeared into the house, ignoring the noisy distress of the others still watching from the street.
3 comments:
It feels slightly wrong to be the only one posting on Empires, but I have time this morning and will have less time for the rest of the week (summer party and salary reviews -- I'm doing a lot this time round) so I guess it'll be like a double post. With a gap between them almost as long as the ones we used to have on How the best was won ;-)
Empires
"Stop-"
"-her!" The Marias fumbled with the door on their side of the car but the central locking system suddenly engaged and the door-release handle flapped uselessly back and forth.
"Sorry," said David, his voice tired and drawling. He fiddled with the controls on the central column. "Damn it, one of these switches has to do it. Where's the light?"
Ana relaxed, pushing the fuss and noise away and concentrated on being in the back of Stacey's mind.
"Who are you?" The mayor turned, his hand on the gate to Dr. McDonald's house. A long, pink-paved path led through a garden that had clearly been landscaped once. Grass was now practically hay, waist-height and fighting with bushes and shrubs for overall dominance. The gate itself was cast-iron and had an electronic lock; little red leds winked at Stacey. The walls were only waist height but covered with vicious-looking spikes of varying heights: decorative, but definitely not something you'd try and climb over.
"Stacey," said Stacey. She held her hand out, and, predictably, the Mayor reached to shake it. "You're the mayor."
He's vain as a budgie, whispered Ana's voice in the back of head, tickling her brain like a feather inside her ear. Tell him he looks young.
"You're younger than I expected," said Stacey. She turned her head slightly and looked at him out of the corner of her eyes.
"Well, they say the job ages you, but I'm trying to prove them wrong," said the Mayor. He produced a wide smile. "What are you doing here though? At this time of night?"
"I was hoping to get your autograph," said Stacey, ignoring Ana's fluttery laughter like a moth caught behind her eyes.
He's not that stupid!
"But mostly I want to know what's going on here. You were at the hospital just now, and you were looking for something. I think I've been looking for the same thing."
The Mayor stepped backwards, and discovered that he was pressed against the gate.
"I was visiting my sick aunt," he said. "And I remembered that she likes Ayn Rand novels, so I came here to retrieve the one she lent to Dr. McDonald when he was treating her. The Magic Mountain, I think."
Mariah succeeded in getting the car door open and the two older women half-fell from the car. David opened his door just in time to catch Maria on the hip, and staccato swearing ensued.
"Your sick aunt is in the closed-down hospital? Where is tax payer's money going?" said Stacey.
The Magic Mountain is by Thomas Mann whispered Ana. Good book, unlike Rand's The Fountainhead.
"Oh, that one," said the Mayor. The gate clicked and opened and Stacey realised he must have a key-card or electronic fob of some kind. He stepped back again and she moved forward, catching the gate before it could close so that they both ended up inside the garden. The gate clicked shut behind them.
I guess I'm skipping July, then. I thought about doing an entry from the Mayor's perspective but it seemed not especially worthwhile.
Anyway, glad you've posted, as I wasn't sure how to follow last month's entry. So here we go!
Mine:
The mayor looked alarmed by the intrusion, but only momentarily. He recovered quickly, his smile returning in full force as he swung his arm in welcome.
"Well, since you've come this far already, perhaps you'd be so kind as to join me in my search for the misplaced book?"
Stall him, Ana told her. Do not go in there without us.
"I'd be happy to help!" Stacey told him instead. "I couldn't possibly pass up the opportunity to see how the ingenuous Dr. McDonald lived!"
"You knew him?" the mayor asked, suspicion flickering across his face as they walked side by side along the path.
"Oh, he treated a family friend. Helped her immensely, I was told. Don't think she would have made it without his expertise."
"Ah, of course," the mayor said, visibly relaxing. "He did do that sort of thing often." He led them through the garden, overgrown grass and bushes scratching against and tugging at their clothing. Stacey could feel anxiety growing the farther they moved from the gate, but she wasn't sure how much of it was her own and how much belonged to Ana.
Dr. McDonald's home appeared as they rounded a final bend in the garden path. Two stories, a long porch with enough seating for an intimate group at the front. A wide balcony running the length of the second story. There seemed to be more windows that what Stacey would have thought strictly necessary on both floors, considering the better view would be to the north, at the back of the house. Maybe the doctor really enjoyed looking out over his garden, she thought.
Or he wanted to see any visitors coming from a long way off, Ana suggested. We're at the gate, by the way. Get back here and let us in.
But Stacey was too distracted to even acknowledge the request/instruction.
"Is someone home?" she asked, pointing her chin at a lit lamp glowing in a first floor room.
"Oh, that?" The mayor seemed uncomfortable again. Stacey was beginning to wonder if that was his most natural state. "I must have left it on. After my last visit."
"You come here often?"
Why? Ana demanded.
"So many questions!" the mayor said with a forced laugh, as though he'd heard Ana's as well. "Come, come this way. Through this door at the side of the house here. It will take us directly into the library. Come, come!"
I don't like this, Ana said. Get back here. Now. Do not go in there al-
But then Stacey was through the thick metal door and into the house, the mayor following close behind. And the moment he shut the door she lost all contact with Ana.
Ana flung herself out of the car, shoving Maria and Mariah out of the way. She raced up to the gate, which did not yield to her frantic button pushing, and in fact began making an ominous beeping noise. She backed off, took a running start at the fence, grasped two of the posts near the top, and vaulted over the fence, landing in a crouch in a leafy bush that crunched under her feet.
She ran up to the porch, heading for the front door, ignoring the side door the mayor had taken Stacey through. She whipped out a set of lock picks and began picking the lock on the door, an old-fashioned knob, not a fancy keypad. Soon it yielded to Ana's picks, and she disappeared into the house, ignoring the noisy distress of the others still watching from the street.
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