A ghost story...
Larry
I've been listening to him filling your head with lies. Lies. And I can't take it anymore. You've got to listen to me. This is the truth.
One day my husband comes home from work and tells me, "I've lost my job and we're moving." Just like that. Boom. Boom. Like two beats on a drum.
I sat there numb. It was a lot to take in. Too much.
"Colleen, did you hear me? I said we're moving."
I looked around at the life we're built together for thirty plus years--our nice house, on a nice street, surrounded by all the other nice houses. Friends I knew I could depend on. I was forced to say good-bye.
We moved to the middle of nowhere. He told me he was going to farm but all he grew was weeds. And all he did morning after morning was load stuff into that Ford truck he'd bought and drive to... He never told me where.
That wasn't the only secret he kept. There was this shed that was always locked. One day, I just had enough. I broke down the door. Yeah, me. I may look small but I'm determined. Inside it was like a warehouse--all this stuff--but I dug through and found... I found... Well, it looked like a mummy. You know like in Egypt. Had my Larry killed someone? I needed to know. I unwrapped the body. And it was--. It was my Larry. But that just didn't make sense. I'd just seen him drive away that morning. And the body was stiff. That takes twenty-four hours. Doesn't it? And who wrapped him? We're alone on this isolated farm. I tried to reason it all out. And slowly, very slowly all the pieces started to fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. I'd been living with an imposter.
Why did he keep me alive?
Maybe because I'd helped him. Not on purpose. I had no idea what I was doing. Your voice is too nasally are you coming down with a cold? Since when do you drink coffee? Do you remember our first date? We went to the movies. We saw... Comment after question, I was helping him build his new identity.
I know what he has been feeding you--unhappy wife, takes new lover, kills her husband, steals from her wealthy neighbours, gets greedy, tries to kill her lover but the lover kills her in self-defense. But that's all lies.
La--. That man who calls himself Larry came home and found me in the shed with my dead husband. I'd discovered his secret and he couldn't let me live.
I didn't get greedy. I didn't want it all for myself. I didn't try to kill...kill...that, that man.
I'm innocent. Do you hear me? Innocent. Of course, you don't hear me. No one listens to the dead. Except maybe the coroner.
Virtual Reading...
Wednesday, October 7
I will record--for this blog--Lasting Love
This short story is a tribute to my parents
Next Sunday...
Leanne Dyck, Blogger (3-minute memoir)
To celebrate this blog's tenth anniversary, I tell you about my first blog. How I reported on the dinosaur that roamed free.
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Sharing my Author Journey...
I'm very excited to say that I have started writing a middle grade
novel. My goal is 40,000 words--more would be great too. With pen and ink, I've written five pages. I'm also doing a lot of research. So far, I'm loving it. I see a lot of middle grade novel reading in my future.
