Plastic Lions & Fantastic Phantoms

Wake from Silence

The silence in the hours before dawn was absolute. There were no birds heralding the arrival of light into the world and no sign of the familiar dirigibles or bi-planes flying overhead as Felix strode across the wet grass to the stables.
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The word count goal is 10,000 words spread over however many stories written from the 25 prompts. There are bonus points for writing one 10,000 word story so I'm giving that a go as well as any shorter pieces inspired by the prompts.

BETA
( List Beta Prompts )

I've had a good day. I went across to the doctor's at 10 to book an appointment, primarily for my bruised elbow and back combo from tumbling down the stone steps in the woods whilst carrying a box of books, but also the doc I'm seeing is the one who referred me to therapy/counselling/whatever you call it for depression. He had asked me to book an appointment for after I started my counselling but between searching for jobs, searching for somewhere to live, moving my copious amounts of stuff and being a bit useless at making appointments, this was my first proper chance to actually do that. Well, I tried yesterday and the lady on reception said that they were only booking urgent appointments. It was a different lady today and she did what you're actually meant to do when booking an appointment and look for the next available time, which is next Monday evening. This actually works well for me because the elbow and back will have either healed or not but on the counselling front I've got an appointment for that earlier on the same day, so it'll be on the surface of my mind when I update my doc about life, the universe and counselling.

After I'd sorted that out, getting rid of a huge weight of worry while I was at it, I wandered down to the canal (taking care on the evil steps!) and up to Milnsbridge to have a gander at the charity shops. I bought a few books from the second of the two I found. When they're going at 30p each, I'm not going to argue. One of them was actually 50p but another one was knocked down to 10p because it's short and looks a bit scruffy, apparently. They've put a Star Trek DS9 episode guide/companion book (along the same lines as the Buffy Watcher's Guides) to one side for Friday because I didn't have enough money in change to buy it then and the one cash machine in Milnsbridge was broken. It really is a teeny tiny place.

When I got home I spent a couple of hours finishing off "I Capture the Castle". I fell absolutely in love with the book while I was reading it and I'm lending it to one of my friends next week. I need to stick the first three pages back in first since they randomly fluttered out when I was about halfway through.

I waited until I'd finished reading it before going outside. We share the same communal back yard area as my old place, just further down and with a picnic bench in the bit outside ours which earns this house definite brownie points. One of my housemates has the back door in her room. It'd be lovely to be able to step from my room to the garden but the room I'm really coveting is the one in the house next door, slap bang in the middle of the old house and new house. It has a double garden door set in an archway and the little stretch of garden outside is shaded by tall bushes and it has an overall feeling of a fairytale grotto. I know my housemate has her eye on it so I might see what happens with that and ask about going in it whenever she's ready to move on, which would certainly be at least as far into the future as my current lease running out and hopefully give me time to get a job that would cover the higher rent for a larger room with a back door. It's worth asking the landlord when I get him round to move one of the bookcases up from the empty room downstairs (the one without a back door). I want to be able to dream and plan and save up for my little fairytale grotto.

I started reading one of my new books outside in the glorious sunshine. This one is called "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" and it is not one of the books I'd decided I was definitely going to read next. It's told through letters and one of the letter writers shares tales of German occupied Guernsey, so it should be both quick going and relevant to my alleged novel.

I did get some writing done, somewhere between it going cold and the sun setting and the stars coming out, and writing by lamplight and starlight until it was too cold to stay outside even with coffee and a blanket. I've definitely been influenced by my reading today because my first bit of writing had Erica writing a letter to Hauptmann Haber that she knows she has no way of delivering before she sees him again in person. In my second piece Erica's writing had a bit of a feel of Cassandra from "I Capture the Castle" but, from what I've read of my November writing, she's always been a bit like that anyway.

I'm typing those up tonight after I've taken a long enough break from looking at my notebook. Hence the journal update. The second piece, which is for the "bus stop", "traditional values" and "shout" random prompts and is due to be submitted before five in the morning, definitely needs to go up before I go to sleep and I might as well do the letter at the same time and work out if I've unconsciously fulfilled the requirements for another challenge. I'll share the part of my nano writing I've been reading as well, but that can't count towards any of the challenges as I'm only making tiny edits where it desperately needs it.

"He's a strange little fellow."

"Strange? How so?"

"He's spent half the time he's been here refusing to answer any questions but suddenly he just opened up. The problem is he keeps lapsing into German whenever he gets too excited and I have to keep asking him to slow down and repeat himself in English. I can't help feeling a bit sorry for him to tell you the truth. He gets this desperate look in his eyes sometimes, like he knows exactly where he's going after we get through with him."

"Why do you want me to see him, Peter?"

"Officially because you're a convenient and trustworthy interpretor. He can rabbit away all he likes in German and you can tell me what the blazes he's saying."

"And unofficially?" Erica prompted.

"He asked for you. Someone delivered your message the other day while I was in with him and he got excited and a little agitated. He seemed to be convinced your name was Haber. That's his name, by the way, Haber. We got some of them on their way back from Sheffield and he was one of the better flyers among them. Executed a perfect landing with smoke pouring out of his engine and handed himself in as quiet and calmly as you please."

"You said he thought my name was Haber."

"Yes and he was really rather insistent. I told him in no uncertain terms that I wouldn't let him see you if he kept up with that nonsense. Now if tell me you're secretly married to a German flyer who was barely out of short trousers when you were learning to fly, I'm going to look a real fool."

"No, no I'm not married to him. I'm his stepmother."

"Stepmother? Then what happened to your young doctor? I knew you'd taken his name but I had no idea if he didn't make it out with you or he didn't want to leave when you did... but you're implying now that you married a Jerry while you were stuck out there. I'm not sure if... Well, I think, my dear, you owe me an explanation and perhaps a stiff drink if that will make the whole thing easier to swallow."

----

I started this for the prompt "I will always find you." at stayintheroom but what I've got so far doesn't really fit. I'm pretty much just toying with an idea for how to start off a short story version of the novel that I began in November now I have my main strand of plot more or less worked out.