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  Kenneth Lawson
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June 27th, 2021

6/27/2021

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 I knew which path would take me home, but did I want to go back? 

The sound of movement in the underbrush near me decided for me. Pulling up on the reins of my horse, I steered him towards the path as his ears pricked and twitched. He heard the same sound as I had. Patting his mane, I settled him down and reached for my shotgun. Sliding the double-barrel gun from its scabbard, I lay it across my lap and eased the hammers back on both barrels. The old side-by-side shotgun had gotten me out of many scrapes over the years.

Branches broke again—only closer now. I felt her tense up at the approaching sounds. “Easy girl,” I whispered.

Red Bell appeared from the shadows along the path. He was just as ugly as I remembered him. Sitting atop a blue Roan, he wore a worn hat pulled down low over his eyes. His jacket was torn and frayed at the edges. 

“Evening, Red.” I  greeted him quietly. 

Startled, he turned to look over his shoulder. Spotting me, he spun the horse in the path to face me.

“I swore I’d kill you if I ever saw you again.” 

He swallowed hard, looking at my shotgun. At this range, both barrels would take him off his horse and probably hit the horse too. Red backed his horse up a pace or two.

 I shifted in my saddle, my shotgun never moving.

“Yeah, you could.”  A toothy yellow grin appeared under his bushy black mustache. Red continued, “But then you’d never find her.” Red relaxed. He knew how his words affected me.

 “Laura?”

Red nodded yes as his old hat flopped with the sudden movement. “And Ray.” 

“Rita said they were on the coast in  San Jose.” 

“You believed her?”

“Not entirely, but on this, I think she’s telling the truth.”

 “So?” Red drew out the question.

 “You know where Ray and Laura are?”

His head bobbed up and down again. “And you want to come with me.”

“I don’t think so.”

“You don’t? Without me, Carlos will shoot you on sight.”

“Carlos knows better than to try. He’d be dead before he cleared leather. You, on the other hand, are under arrest for murder and the robbery of the bank in San Jose.” I showed my badge with my free hand.

“You’re legal, eh?” 

 My turn to nod yes. 

“What If I don’t come quietly?” His horse shifted around on the path. My shotgun followed him.

 The sound of my shotgun echoed through the woods. Red fell from his horse,  gun in his hand. He knew better than to try to beat a leveled gun, but he tried anyway. 

I settled my horse down and headed down the path that led to the coast. Going home wasn’t an option now.
 
 



 


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June 20th, 2021

6/20/2021

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I returned to Trinity College to correct a wrong from thirty years before. The head of the Alumni Association, Lauren Myers, had signed the invitation to the reunion. Figures. She believed the best revenge was succeeding epically and then rubbing everyone’s face in it. I reread the letter, tempted to throw it into the trash, but I decided to go. It was the perfect time. 

Lauren Myers stood at the reception desk when I signed in. I forced a smile and shook her hand as I pinned my name badge on my sports coat. “I wasn’t sure you’d come, Wayne.” She exclaimed too politely.

“I wouldn’t miss this for all the world.’ I lied. 

I signed in and picked up my small leather carry bag. I hadn’t planned on staying the entire three-day weekend.

 In my room, I pulled out the file tucked into my case. I had spent the past thirty years wondering what to do with them. Although my instinct was to throw it away when I received the invitation, I realized this was my opportunity to do what I had to do.

The invitation said the opening reception would be at six o’clock. I had time to take a nap and lay on the hotel bed. Sleep came quickly, but not sound sleep. The young, beautiful, ambitious version of Lauren that I knew in college appeared in my dreams. The version I’d met a few minutes ago remained quite beautiful. Our last meeting together had haunted my dreams for the past thirty years.

“Lauren, You can’t do that.”

“Who’s going to stop me? You?”   We had snuck into the university president’s office, and she had several grade documents she’d doctored, replacing the grade sheets in their files. 

“Don’t do this. They won’t graduate this year if you change their last semester grades.”

“So, they have to take classes over. They ruined my life. Besides, these three are borderline failing anyway.”

“Come On. They only teased you a little.” I told her.

 “A Little?”  She retorted, “They made me the campus joke—no one would give me the time of day. Professors wouldn’t even help me after class, and no one would date me or talk to me. They made my life hell!! Now I’m making their life hell.”  She went through the files and replaced the folders with hers, keeping the originals. I stood by and watched her helplessly. 

At six o’clock I entered the reception. The three men in question were there because I made certain they came. I took a breath and got the crowd’s attention.

“I am Wayne Carmichael, as you know, but what you don’t know is why Roberts, Lee, and Crandell failed and had to repeat the semester when they were supposed to  graduate.”

“President Long, here are the original grade sheets for these three.” I looked at Lauren, who was white as a ghost. “Lauren Myers made fake grade sheets and slipped them into their files, removing the correct grade sheet. I was there when she planted them. I tried to stop her at the time. I should have stopped her or told them, but I was too scared. Now I can set the record straight.”  

I handed the grade sheets to President Long and walked out of the room. Right is better than wrong.
 
 


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June 13th, 2021

6/13/2021

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Thunder rumbled as we approached the ruins. Standing just down the path, I sighed as I looked around. The spring rains had been generous this year. The sun glaring off the green grass almost blinded me. 

 The distant thunder grew louder, and the ground shook under my feet, wind from behind driving the clouds in our direction. “Looks like another Thunder-banger,” I spoke aloud, not caring if my two companions responded and pushed through the weeds surrounding the old castle. They followed me without speaking, as neither had much to say on the best of days. We reached the outer walls of the ruins just as the cold light rain began to fall. 

We ducked inside a crevice between abutments and caught our breath as the winds shifted, pushing the hard rain deeper into the crannies surrounding the walls. Spotting a low round window nearby, we dashed for just as thunder clapped, shaking the ground under us. As I leaped through the window, lightning flashed over the horizon. We moved farther into the room to escape the winds and rain blowing into the old ruins.

Lew and Dan weren’t originally part of the deal. The original plan had been for me to slip in and out alone and find the artifact. The surrounding kingdoms were at war over control of the regions and valuable resources. 

My king sent me on a covert mission, but when word leaked out about the prophecy,  various factions sent mercenaries to follow me and steal the artifact from me if I had found it. That made bodyguards necessary.

The castle’s location was never precise, and I pulled the old map from my pouch, carefully unfolding the fragile paper to check the landmarks. I had to be in the right place—the castle of King Wilfred. Though now in ruins, it had the unusual spherical towers and odd-shaped outer walls described in the ancient texts. Locating the map in an abandoned library was pure luck, but that luck may have paid off. 

While Lew and Dan watched for mercenaries, I carefully searched the walls of the storm-darkened room, looking for the secret opening. I was nearly back to where I started when I felt the edge of a doorway. Pressing along the seam, a portion of the wall opened, revealing a narrow passageway with stairs leading down into darkness. Telling my guards to keep an eye out, I took Lew’s torch and disappeared into the depths of the castle. 

It took a while, wandering the labyrinth of passageways, but I found the object of my quest. A rumored jewel-encrusted gold bird statue that legend told gave ultimate power to the ruler who possessed it. I reached for my pouch. I had work to do. 

When I returned, Lew and Dan looked wide-eyed at the statue I carried. Lew sputtered. “What is that?”

“This will give our King his power.”

As we slipped out of the castle, I tucked my pouch inside my shirt. It held the real jewels taken from the stature. I replace the real ones with colored glass, and the king would never know. 

I should have answered Lew with the truth. “The stuff that dreams are made of.”

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June 06th, 2021

6/6/2021

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​They were strangers, drawn together on the shore by a force they didn’t understand. Jason Rogers searched the faces of the dozen or so other people with him but knew none of them, and they didn’t recognize each other. A woman standing next to him asked him where they were. He didn’t have a clue. All he knew was that the early morning sun broke on the horizon as they stood in knee-deep waves on a beach. 

A beach that wasn’t acting like any beach he’d ever visited. The sand was rolling under their feet as if it were alive. A man a few feet from him yelped as he stumbled on the moving stand. Panic set in, and the entire group rushed out of the surf only to find the sand, warm even in the weak dawn light, was moving as well.

“Hurry.” A woman waved frantically to them. “There’s a solid ground up here. Looks like a parking lot or something.” 

Jason hurried to join them, noticing the seagrass on the dune looked blue, not green as it should. What the hell, where were they? 

Once on what looked and felt like asphalt but was squishing, the group began talking. Jason was shocked, they were from various places in the United States, and the last thing any of them remembered was going to bed. No one remembered how they got to the beach. 

A man named Arlo from Brooklyn pointed to the sky, “Oh my god, there’s another sun coming up.” 

Jason’s heart began to race. He was supposed to be in class this morning, not here. His parents would be frantic. He searched the area around them, but there was nothing but flat land and strange vegetation. There was nowhere to go for help.

The strangers stood huddled together, frightened, for about twenty minutes, watching the twin suns rise in the sky. Jason was about to look for help when the ground beneath them began to vibrate. They ran in unison back onto the beach as a whining sound of a revved engine blasted their ears.

A large silver object, Jason thought the metal tube looked like a train car, winked into sight. No one moved, transfixed on the tube. When a door slid open, revealing a brightly lit chamber, they moved further away. 

A man with thick white hair and a huge forehead stepped onto the solid ground. “Greetings, my fellow travelers. I trust you have enjoyed the twin sunrise here on the most beautiful beach in the universe. It’s time to embark on the next segment of your adventure. Our next port of call is the planet Lorea where you will have breakfast under the planet’s glittery diamond rings. You will find a wide variety of delights to keep you amused, and this will be your first chance to shop. Please have your credentials ready as you board the transport.” 

Credentials? They looked at each other, stunned. Jason felt something in his jeans pocket and pulled out a crystal disk that flashed ‘admit one.’ Not knowing what else to do, he got on the transport, and the others followed him.

As the beach winked out, stars replaced the view from the transport window. Jason scoffed. This was either one hell of a dream or one hell of an adventure.

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    500 Words
      The idea is to write a short story  about 500 max short based on a picture and an opening line.  
    ​From there one can go ANYWHERE..
    ​
    Please note: the images used are free-use images and do not require attribution.

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