There were three elevators in the Montgomery building. You could get into the elevator on the left and when you got to your floor, you were coming out of the elevator doors on the right. Terry tried this a few times and sure enough the strange phenomenon transported her to a different elevator door. It was always the right floor. Just a different set of doors on that floor. She asked others and they said yeah, it’s a little weird, but the stairs are a lot weirder. We lost people that way. It was… bad. Terry kept to the elevators.
Category: My stories
Eldest
Bonnie came from a big family out on the farm four brothers and four sisters. She was the oldest, and when her mother died of tuberculosis, she became the glue that held the family together. Getting all the kids out into the fields, and then out to school. She was the one who milked the cows. Her father never said thank you. She couldn’t do everything though so every kid had a household chore from laundry to sweeping to cooking. Some fought back, draining her energy. She lit the fire that burned the place down, everybody tied into their beds.
Bookworm queen
Nancy Whitcombe was the prom queen by default. Everyone else had dropped out or was too sick to go, or worse. There’d been a horrible bus accident after the football game where most of the senior class ended up dying in a flaming wreck. The ones who had been too sick from food poisoning in the cafeteria to go to the game, consider themselves lucky. And Nancy had been a total bookworm. She never went to games or parties ended up as prom queen. She also graduated at the top of her class. It looks good on her college applications.
Sea of grass
The neighborhood was a nice wooded place with houses and driveways and all that. You got lots of shade in the summer from the tall trees. Every now and then you’d have to cut back a branch or take out and hold dead tree, but for the most part, it felt like living in forest. Then people moved away or died, and we were the only original family left, and people started coming in, knocking down all houses, cutting down the trees and putting up their little mini mansions and we’re the last tiny forest and a sea of grass.
Lich mayor
Gartham the Witch King has been a really good mayor these past 300 years. Our little town is quite self-sustaining. And when we need occasional injections of goods and cash, we just put out the call for heroes to come save us from the lich that lives in the caves with his undead army. Nobody comes close to defeating him, and the more fresh souls we provide, the fewer towns people he needs to harvest. It’s a pretty good arrangement, and every year we hold a festival in his honor, and he waves his bony hand to the adoring crowd.
Lert
In my family, whenever we saw a sign that said be alert, we’d ask what is a lert. So, that Halloween, I wanted to dress up as one. We fashioned a rubber suit with masses of writhing tentacles and blinking rolling eyeballs. And a huge gaping maw of dripping fangs. Which doubled as my candy bag. They sprayed me down with slime and then we went out. From house to house, spreading horror and fright. It was when we got back home, and I looked in the bag to find a trove of chocolate bars and a severed human hand.
Helen
Helen of Troy‘s sister Bertha also had a face that launch 1000 ships. However, it wasn’t her beauty that urged 1000 ships of warriors to come fight to capture her, because Bertha was really ugly. Despite Royal decrees ordering man after man to marry her, her unwilling suitors fled by the boatload. Eventually, the kingdom was empty of marriage material. Even the blind would flee her presence. That’s how ugly she was. She ended up marrying a wooden mannequin. But in the middle of the night, it threw itself into the fireplace. Archimedes invented the paper bag for her head.
The crown
I can’t remember the word for it, but sometimes a word represents a greater concept. Like saying, the crown rules, a kingdom. In the kingdom of the Westlands, the Crown literally rules the kingdom. It is a sentient powerful artifact that takes over the mind of whomever wears it. It has passed down through the royal family. With some rulers, is satisfies it’s lust for blood, engaging in wars and purges. With others, it’s satisfies it’s colonel lust with orgies and banquets. As the body succumbs to excess, a coronation is planned, and the crown prepares to rule once again.
Parade
Zippidee Doodah was dressed in diamond encrusted golden robes. He waved his glittering staff at the crowd. Dancing and singing along, the wave of bodies flowed down the avenue. A sea of debauched blissful revelry. Mugs of various drinks were passed around, emptied, and thrown to the ground to make room for more that the barkeepers gladly provided. The parade left a trail of coins and wallets that more than made up for the cost of drinks and damage. when the parade reached the end of town, the king waved his staff and disappeared. The crowd no longer spellbound, dispersed.
Tevye
After the Jewish expulsion from Anatevka, Tevye was approached by Hollywood agents. We would love to turn your story into a musical. Tevye being illiterate had to perform all the songs for the composers to transcribe. He was all put off by zero Mostel and Maximilian Shell being cast as him, considering he was a skinny bald guy, and those two were giant hairy dudes. The play was a smash hit, Tevye produced a sequel where the featured song was. I am a rich man. That play bombed. He lost everything. Even the house with the longer stairway coming down.