Monday, October 12, 2009

Bits N Pieces - A Disjointed Bahamian Novel - D20

(2:34 pm Thu Nov 20, 2008)

I used to think a lot of you
Before you sold your soul
Exchanging your most precious art
For that pauper's gold

***

Some where in Alabama
There's a girl who knows my name
Though she's never met me
She don't like me
And that's a doggone shame

Cause she looks so good in sunshine
And she looks so good in rain
And though we've never met
You know I bet
She'd love me if she came

To know how much I'd love her
I'd cross mountains
And the rolling endless plains
I'd cross the widest oceans
And break the strongest chains

***

Some how baby I adore you
Give the word and I'll explore you
I'll excite and never bore you
So give the word I implore you now

***

(2:43 pm Thu Nov 20, 2008)

(4:38 pm Thu Nov 20, 2008)

Not again. That is no way to get a head start on the writing day.

***

I've got major blockage here and a major bad attitude to writing today. I just don't want to do it. I have a great desire to go for a walk or to veg. No desire to write. An even greater desire to go and spendsome time with my son or play a little game with him. I think I will take a shor break soon and do that at least and then complain some more when I get back to writing after the little break.

So bear with me gentle reader or skip ahead and try to miss the mush, I will not even think of holding it against you or being upset in any way, shape, or form. I will totally understand.

That being said, I would prefer you hang out with me as the company would be nice. One thing you could do that might amuse you some it to try and watch for my inner editor and if you see him getting restless, just sort of wrestle him down and tie him up for me. Or at least shout out a warning so I can take some evasive action before things get totally our of hand.

***

(4:45 pm Thu Nov 20, 2008)

(5:11 pm Thu Nov 20, 2008)

***

Well I tried playing a game of backgammon with my son but it got a bit out of hand and had to be abandoned. Such is life in the tropics even when we are only in the semis.

***

Fulcrum thought seriously about following the green eyes but decided not to get side tracked from his current mission. He wanted to have a go at finding some coins after dark. He just had a feeling that following green eyes could get him seriously side tracked and he could easily miss his chance to dig in peace.

***

Further up the beach, Sarah noticed a group of young women in bikinis and T-Shirts hanging around while one of their number flew a kite. She had always loved kits when she was growing up. Loved the way they rode up there in the open.

(6:06 pm Thu Nov 20, 2008)

***

And this is crazy. How did I get off track like that?

***

This kite was a good size box kite and they were flying it fairly high. As she walked up to introduce herself and strike up a conversation, she noticed that one of the girls was hooking up a device to the line to send a camera aloft. She had always wanted to do that!

(6:18 pm Thu Nov 20, 2008)

(6:40 pm Thu Nov 20, 2008)

The device had two wheels on it something like the rollers on the bottom of the screen doors that went in sliding glass doors. The grooves in the wheels fit on the kite line. There was also a sail of sorts designed to catch the wind and propel the cart up the line.

"Hey, that looks cool! How exactly does it work?"

The girl holding the kite answered as the girl hooking up the device kept working, "Well, the cart rides the line using the sail there."

"Cool, I think that part is fairly clear, it is the rest of it that I don't remember."

"Well, that wire like part in the front will hit a cork we have on the line up near the kite. When it does a couple of things will happen. The big one is that it will let the wings fold and the cart will ride the line back down to us."

"OK, that makes sense, what else?"

"Well, you see how we have the camera hung there? Well, we also hook up a plunger to snap a picture just before the sails fold up."

"Ah, I get it," said Sarah. Do you get any good pics like that?"

"Well, this is our first time trying it with a camera. Yesterday we were using the cart to drop paper sacks of flour. That was a blast."

"Have you thought of using a remote control instead of that one time trigger so that you could take more than one photo while the camera is aloft?"

"Yeah, we figure on trying that next week."

***

(6:57 pm Thu Nov 20, 2008)

(7:17 pm Thu Nov 20, 2008)

Well, there you go, another temporal gap. Time passed but no words were written, the block is trying to win again today. But will I give in. I am sorely empted that is for sure.

I think I am going to be luck again today if this is a two thousand word day and I will try and push on to get as close to three thousand as possible. Once again I think we better just forget about four thousand from the break. Pretty much no way no how on that front again.

Gentle reader, I find myself hanging my head in despair, not wanting to write. Anything. Forget about anything along the lines of a story line. I don't even want to gut it out and write junk. And I am getting sick of this "novel" - Ha! What a sorry excuse for a novel!

Should I pull a "Henry The Eighth?" and do a second "verse" exactly like the first? I mean I did just pass by one thousand and doing that would put me over two thousand in a magical bit of Tom foolery. No, not Tom Doolery, Tom foolery. I will try to resist as long as possible and see if I can resist completely for the day.

(7:29 pm Thu Nov 20, 2008)

***

(8:37 pm Thu Nov 20, 2008)

Now I come back to try and write some more and here I have the no net blues. My ISP is acting up again, I see lights blinking. The wrong lights blinking. And the pain is that I have something mis-configured oh this box such that when there is no net connection that everything becomes very sluggish for some reason. I really need to track this down and see if I can fix this problem. It may not be worth the effort though. I need to get a new main box anyway so I may just wait and see if the new install still has the same issue rather than taking up precious hours trying to run this down now.

***

(8:45 pm Thu Nov 20, 2008)

It is dark, Fulcrum is hidden in the bushes behind the dune down from the house with the deck. This is the second night he has been here trying to have a little unobserved dig.

Last night was frustrating. It would have been interesting if he hadn't had other things on his mind. There was a party going on. And on and on. And on.

Not that it wasn't an interesting party. Lots of good looking women and handsome men. They all seemed to be having a fine time. Chatter. Laughter. Dancing to a small band set up in a corner. Food being cooked on fires in barrels. And consumed. In quantity. Animated conversation. Some interesting side trips into shadowy places.

It was amazing what you could learn by sitting quietly in the shadows near a party.

Tonight was different. The people in the house had eaten dinner on the deck again and it had looked for a while that another party might be getting underway again as people began to arrive at the house just after dinner finished.

But luck was with Fulcrum tonight. Sure a few drinks were poured and passed around and taken in. Sure there was more laughter, some light dancing, some serious talk. Then, raised voices and it seemed for a while that a fight might break out but after some tense moments, when it looked like tempers were high enough that blood might soon be shed, someone snickered and laughter broke out all around. Tension eased and soon after that, the guests left.

***

(9:28 pm Thu Nov 20, 2008)

Soon after, the people of the house went inside and closed the french doors. And soon after that the lights went out in the house.

That was two hours ago now and Fulcrum moved down out of the bushes on to the beach, doing his best to stay close to the base of the dune to lessen his chances of being seen by anyone in the house.

(9:46 pm Thu Nov 20, 2008)

He made it to the foot of the dune in front of the house without being seen by anyone as far as he could tell.

He searched for and found a way on to the dune under the deck through the vegetation fronting the deck.

He took the spade from his back and made his best guess as to where to start digging.

It was fairly easy going at first but as the hole got deeper it got more difficult. The hole kept collapsing in on itself and he soon broke out into a sweat in the stillness under the deck.

***

(10:07 pm Thu Nov 20, 2008)

Sarah was driving south on A1A with her top down. It was chilly, but she was dressed for the cold and enjoyed her scarf flowing in the wind behind her like some old time movie star.

She was restless tonight. She had thought she could run away from the hole of Fuller's departure but she could not maintain her anger. Now, she just felt cold inside. What was wrong with her? Her husband had just disappeared out of her life and she should be frantic still. She should be looking for him. She should be doing everything she could to find him. But instead she had left her home, flown to another country and was now driving around alone at night with the top down going nowhere. Fast.

Too fast in fact. She took her foot off of the gas and let the car resume a more reasonable speed. It would not do to wreck or to get stopped.

She thought of going back to Nassau to resume her search for Fuller but shoved that thought aside. There was something about the last days before Fuller's departure that short circuited her natural response somehow. She could not put her finger on the particulars but she knew there was something there.

***

Fulcrum was on his third hole now with nothing found so far. The first two holes had been carefully filled back in so as not to leave any hint that digging had been going on. It would not do to be discovered if he had to come back another night to continue his search.

It was hard going digging in the darness under the deck but he could not risk using a light and being seen so he dug in darkness, feeling for anything of interest in each spadefull of sand he dug out. Hoping that it would be obvious to him if he hit his cache.

He was just about to dig out another spade full of sand when light began filtering through the cracks between the deck planking overhead and he head footsteps above him.

Someone walked to the railing at the edge of the deck and stopped. Fulcrum froze and tried to control his breathing so that he would not be heard.

What was that person doing up there?

He heard another set of foot steps come out of the door and walk to the edge of the deck.

"Honey, come back to bed, you are going to catch a cold. You shouldn't be out here in your thin night clothes in this chill damp air." A man's voice.

"I'm OK. I was having trouble sleeping and I thought I heard someone out here so I came out to look around," replied a woman.

Fulcrum heard gentle laughter from above.

"Honey, you are acting like some scary movie starlet. If someone was out here you should not have come out here in the dark all alone," said the man above.

Fulcrum almost burst out laughing.

The woman did, "You got me there sweet heart."

"Look honey, I haven't heard anything since we have been out here, let's go back to bed and get some sleep OK? We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow."

Fulcrum heard one set of footsteps cross the deck and enter the house. What now?

There was silence for a while, broken only by the sound of the wind in the trees and the waves breaking on the beach.

"Is there anyone body out here?" came the man's voice from above? Fulcrum was feeling a strong urge to sneeze. Some thing was tickling his nose. He had to hold it in.

After a while, the man's foot steps crossed the deck and Fulcrum heard the french doors close. He sneezed but muffled it with his coat sleeve. That was close.

Enough for one night. He carefully filled in the hole and snuck back out on to the beach in the open air. The wind off the ocean chilled him as it dried his sweat. He headed down the beach to a path he had found in the day and made his way back to the porch he had slept on the night before.

***

(10:48 pm Thu Nov 20, 2008)

Well, gentle reader, I am no where near where I want to be word count wise today, but at least my spreadsheet has just turned from red to green for the day with the last word count update so I may end this day's writing soon ta reckly.

I would like to at least reach two thousand five hundred words though and that is not way too far out of sight so let me see what happens if we listen to one of the songs from the beginning of the day again. I think it is one that I may grow to like with some time and some polish. Which reminds me, I would like to thank you for keeping my inner editor away from me today. Even with all my struggles to write, at least I never felt the urge to edit.

***

Some where in Alabama
There's a girl who knows my name
Though she's never met me
She don't like me
And that's a doggone shame

Cause she looks so good in sunshine
And she looks so good in rain
And though we've never met
You know I bet
She'd love me if she came

To know how much I'd love her
I'd cross mountains
And the rolling endless plains
I'd cross the widest oceans
And break the strongest chains

***

Do you like that at all gentle reader?

(10:54 pm Thu Nov 20, 2008)

Sweet! Passed two thousand five hundred and I will bid you good night now. Pleasant dreams.

***

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