The Safe Zone

She’d finally escaped to the safe zone. Now she could have a respite from his impulsive behavior. She didn’t even want to imagine what crazy thing he was doing while she was gone. It was so nice just to relax, even if the air was a bit gelid in here. Next time she would bring a sweater.

Ugh! She heard him outside the door. Dammit, he’d found her… and she had been so careful too. Suddenly, it was quiet again. Too quiet. Cautiously, she opened the door and peeked out.

“MROW!” her kitty dashed into the storage room and began biting her feet.

Dang. Her respite was over. “Luckily, you’re cute, Rambo,” she said to the mischievous furball. 🐱

~*~

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Image credited to Bitmoji.

Inheritance, Part 4

[Earlier episode here.]

Deep within the castle’s empty halls and silent rooms, its furnishings long ago sold for coin, was a solid oak door, locked from the inside. At the bottom of a rickety staircase was a second door, also locked, but without an obvious place for a key. Simon chanted the arcane words he had learned long ago from his grandmother, and the door slid open into the wall.

“Welcome to my shop!” Simon said to Mandy, the reporter who was blackmailing him. She had threatened to expose his past, linking him to a recent murder, unless he gave her a chunk of his inheritance.

Mandy’s eyes grew wide at the vista spread before her. This was a home within a home, complete with bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and what appeared to be a chem lab. “Wow! What’s going on in here?”

“I’m searching for the formula to remove the curse from the treasure,” Simon said. “Without it, the gems are useless except for perpetuating evil, as Belinda was doing.”

Mandy nodded. “The police were closing in on her for the killings of those children. I received a tip about it, but then she was found in the river.”

“I couldn’t convince Grandmama to give me the counterspell, so I stopped Belinda another way.” Simon’s mouth twisted at the memory of dumping her body. “It had to be done. She was too far down the devil’s path to change. I didn’t know the police were onto her.”

Mandy rolled her eyes. “That’s the problem with vigilantism. What’s that smell though?”

“Cookies!” he announced. “You mentioned you love peanut butter, so I baked some.”

Mandy reached for a thick, golden brown cookie from the plethora on the plate Simon presented. She bit into the sweet and salty treat with pleasure. After her second one, she said, “You didn’t put anything weird in these, did you?”

“Who, me?” Simon smiled.

~*~

Written for Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge 72.

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Inheritance, Part 3

[Please read Part 1 and Part 2]

Simon was awakened by a loud pounding. Then the bell’s sonorous chimes vibrated through the room. Blasted thing! Should be abolished. He struggled to become fully alert through his hangover. Good thing he had fallen asleep in his clothes! Whoever was out there seemed to be breaking down the door of Gloomhaven.

He stomped through the castle and flung open the front door, glaring at the woman standing outside. “What is it?” he snapped succinctly, not bothering with the usual politeness.

“Good morning!” she said brightly. “Are you Simon Shadows?”

She was pretty, thought Simon, but he didn’t want to encourage her. He had a long day of important tasks ahead. “What of it?”

Undeterred by his rudeness, she smiled sweetly and said, “Nice to meet you! I’m Mandy Mirth, a reporter for the Daily Crier.”

Gah, a reporter was the last thing Simon wanted to deal with. “I’m not giving any interviews,” he told her. “I’m in mourning for my grandmother.”

“I’m so sorry about her passing,” Mandy said. “She was an unusual person and so very interesting.”

Simon nodded once. “All right then. If there’s nothing else?” He began to close the door.

“What do you think about the dead body found in the river?” Mandy said.

“What?” Simon tried to process this. He hadn’t checked the news all weekend due to sorting through ancient books trying to find the formula to lift the curse from the stones. It was imperative that he find it before–

“Oh! You didn’t know,” Mandy said. “Sorry to startle you with bad news. But one of Dr. Dopple’s rescue dogs found it. He trains them you know, as a hobby.”

“What… what kind of body?” Simon definitely needed to hurry up and find the counterspell, but he also had to know if anyone suspected him.

Mandy continued cheerfully, “A human one! A woman. And my contact at the lab says that she may have been poisoned first because she didn’t drown, nor did she have bruising or wounds.”

“Well, that’s terribly disturbing,” Simon said truthfully. “I am aghast that there may be criminal activity in our village. You may quote me, Mandy.”

“I don’t want to quote you, Simon.” Mandy stepped forward, her tone now serious, her green eyes narrowed. “I want a share of the inheritance.”

~*~

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Images from Pixabay.

Unpredictable

He had a history of being unpredictable, but she thought she could be the one to tame his wild streak. When he was happy, she encouraged him, and when he was cranky, she tried to soothe him. She built her world around his moods, devoting all her energy to an attempt to understand him. But it was never enough, for he was an endless abyss of needs he could not even articulate. She listened in vain for clues, but there was nothing, just naked silence, echoing back from infinity. Finally, she gave up and locked her heart away. And then one day, he announced he was leaving, in the softest whisper, but it did not go unheard. Ghosts climbed out of the darkness and packed his suitcase.

~*~

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Image found at Pixabay.

Inheritance [flash 147]

The quilt of night hung heavily upon her as she trudged toward the designated spot. Cold, damp air crept around the edges of her clothing and slithered against her skin. But nothing was worse than the crawling shame she felt day in and out. She said a whispered thank you when the lantern’s glow appeared ahead. A small disruption rustled nearby bushes, but she barely registered the sound. She had found the right place. Quickly, she put the bag next to the spindly tree where the lantern hung and walked away. What a relief to be free of that tainted inheritance! The relentless guilt dissolved and her steps grew light as she navigated back to the main road. She did feel a twinge of sadness for the poor soul who would now have to deal with the cursed relics, but really that wasn’t her problem any longer.

~*~

Image from Pexels/Pixabay.

Written for Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge 71.

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Soar

As they worship the sun,

She prays for rain.

When the dark clouds come,

Her heart soars with power

For this grace she created.

Hour after hour, day after day,

The storm washes away

Everything that was,

Including her pain.

Her tormentors pass on,

Drowned in the night;

Four birds cut through the sky,

As dawn starts to break.

~*~

Image from Sue Vincent.

Written for the Daily Echo.

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

To My Dearest Darling…

I heard from a mutual friend that you changed your phone number and email address after you moved because of a stalker. That must have been such a terrifying ordeal and you have my utmost sympathies. I know what a sensitive person you are and can only imagine the stress that put you through. I hope you’ve rallied now and regained your playful smile, which is one of my favorite things about you. I still gaze at that photo of us together… do you remember the sunny day at the fair? The fortune teller said our destinies were intertwined, remember? I hope you have forgiven me for tricking you into riding the monster coaster, but I think you enjoyed it after you stopped screaming. Anyway, with all the tasks that occupied your mind while moving, you seem to have forgotten to give me your forwarding info, but I found you nevertheless! It took quite a bit of determination, but I’m not one to let a connection slide. No, not me, and here’s a secret… I feel more for you than mere friendship. It’s time to acknowledge the truth, darling! I finally located your cute cabin deep in the woods with your signature blue door and was so pleased that my efforts had paid off. So I will just push this letter under your door and wait for you to come out and greet me. I don’t mind sitting here against the belly of this shady tree for however long it takes. I brought camping supplies. I really miss you, dearest…

~*~

Written for Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge #69 and Mindlovemisery’s Sunday Writing Prompt “Secret Admirer.”

Image credited to Zane Lee at Unsplash.

~*~

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

The Last Kiss [flash 113]

He folded her dress over the chair, his hand lingering an extra second on the silken fabric. Mm, nice. But it was all for the best, this ending, and he’d already shoved it out of his mind. He had a busy day ahead. A big meeting and then the flight. No time to waste on what-ifs.

Even so, he walked back to the bed for one lingering glance. Grasping the quilt, he pulled it up to cover her breasts. She wasn’t cold yet. He leaned down and kissed her lips. He smelled a faint nuance of her perfume from last night, the final notes of lavender drifting away.

She tasted like memory.

~*~

Written for Go Dog Go Cafe.

Image credited to Pexels.

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Love Comes Home

They told me not to wait for you,

But their obnoxious pity did not compute.

I kept to my usual mundane routines,

Received cryptic signals in a dream.

One day the seas turned to fire;

I saw sails a-flutter in the flames.

My dream was true–you had returned!

I ran to the dock as the sun sank low…

Your ship floated in, black and burned,

And everyone on board was now a ghost.

~*~

Written for Sadje’s What Do You See?

Image originally from Pixabay-Thommas.

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.

Make Me A Sandwich

This is the yummy veggie sandwich I used to get at our office building café BC. How I miss it… and my office! I’m one of those odd people who like working in an office every day. And I liked going to school way back when too. 📚

At first, I was gonna riff on the whole “sand witch” thing, but a billion people got there first. I hate when that happens. Which it always does. Instead, I will reminisce about the time that I actually got out of bed to make a guy a sandwich and he complained later that I hadn’t baked him a lasagna. True story for the #paulacanpickem file.

Anyway. The veggie sandwich isn’t my very favorite sandwich; it’s just my favorite that I used to get while working. My favorite is probably a grilled cheese and tomato. I’ve experimented with various breads and different cheeses, and I have to say that I always return to rye bread and American cheese. I also like my grilled cheese very well done, almost burnt, not golden like they serve it in restaurants.

Another favorite sandwich is loxonabagel. Yes, all one word like that. Most of the time, I have this deliciousness open-faced, but it still counts as a sandwich.

Please note how it’s perfectly fine and even recommended (by yours truly) to dot the cream cheese with capers, but I’d rather not have onions on my loxonabagel sandwich. And please no tomato! Save that for grilled cheese. Keep your sandwich fixings in their lanes.

Yes, I know there is tomato in this photo. I am just saying. The only way to know your loxonabagel is better sans tomato is to have one with tomato, amirite? 🤣

Moving on. Some people call a hamburger a sandwich… are you one of them?

I think it’s acceptable! The point is to have a thing between two other separate things. I’m defining it that way to eliminate stuff like pie, which is #notasandwich, but to include sandwich cookies, which we will discuss in depth soon. You didn’t think I was going to end this post without talking about cookies, did you? 😱😱😱

Anyway. Here we have a bun (hun), which is two separate bread pieces, and it creates a convenient way to hold the things inside, which we then can nom while continuing to lose at cards, just as the Earl of Sandwich envisioned. Of course, we must not nom on the pictured cheezberder because it is a CD holder and that would be gross.

Five years ago, when we were living like normal humans, relatively speaking, my eldest took me to a wonderful high tea in Northern California. We had the most scrumptious little cucumber sandwiches and other delights and pastries, and of course many pots of lovely tea. 💖

Before I bring the dessert cart, please allow me to pay tribute to one of the best combos ever invented: the peanut butter and jelly sandwich!

My favorite combo is Jif smooth PB with blackberry or strawberry jam (not jelly) on whole wheat. What’s yours?

Okay, onto the sandwich cookie! Oreo has a baZillion flavors out now, some totes ridonkulous, but I must admit that besides the Double Stuf original flavor, I thought the cookie dough was pretty tasty.

Up in Northern California (again ~ they have yummo food!), my daughter treated me to this divine hazelnut pastry at an Italian bakery.

So so good!

In my fantasy of living a normal life again, whenever that may happen, if it even ever does… I’ll walk into a restaurant without worrying about the last time everything was soaked in bleach, order a sandwich at the counter without fretting over how close people are standing to me, and calmly eat my lunch in a booth with my mind on my blog or a book or work or family or friends or whatever thing other than the you know what!

~*~

Images all mine.

©️2020 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon.